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I thought the Wings played well considering what they had. Conklin played very well.

Then Piss off and stop watching.

and here come the trolls lol

It looks like Datsyuk was brought back too soon. They better rest him if it means getting him healthier for the playoff round.

We are an injury depleted team with a 2nd/3rd string goalie and we played a heck of a game against the best in the East. I'm happy and proud of our guys!

People here trash Franzen, then suggest Alexander freaking Semin? Really? Semin is softer, has fewer points, and makes way more money. I'll pass. Suter would be great. As would Parise. It should be easy to make one work, but would be hard to make both work. However, as has been mentioned, there's a fair amount of uncertainty with regards to the CBA, so who knows.

Cleary is so freakin useless it makes me sick.

Yes please. I'm tired of Babs putting the laziest players with Dats in the hopes that he will magically turn it into a good line, which often he does. Z and Flip and Nyquist look really good though. Nyquist needs to keep playing.

What about now? Any positive feelings? Hey, just asking since so many people, including the OP, were so down about the game.

I disagree, this is the time he should be up. You have no idea if Lidstrom is returning. This time I don't feel a player should rot in the AHL.

Just can't agree. Homer gives to this team what he is asked. Terrible skater? Not in his role. Clutch and grab? Not in his role (anymore). Penalties (In everyone's role, but way down this year as to previous seasons - 60, 62, 32 so far this year). Provides the distraction in front of the net that Detroit needs. Like it or not, he's not a sniper, grinder, hitter, fighter, etc... he's a wall meant to be in front of the goalie and tip shots. That is Tomas Holmstom's role.

With injuries players usually come back and have a pretty good first game just because of momentum but then usually have slow games for 2 to 3 games after that... so no surprise that Pasha seemed a bit slow tonight. It did not help that Babcock has put CLEARY or HUDLER with him though as they are both slow and cant follow a play up if they wanted to. Hudler had a terrible game tonight and had no reason to do so whereas Pavs can because he is still getting into game form. Having said that, this was a fantastic game to watch from a fan of hockey standpoint... 2 great teams battling it out, both goalies making timely saves, strong defense and the refs let both teams play. I am very confident to say that this was the last game we will havta watch without Nick and I will be extremely surprised if he does not play Saturday night at home. We played very well tonight, for the most part, considering our lineup and I am willing to bet they start a nice winning streak beginning Saturday with the return of the Great Number 5.

Despite the loss I thought this was a pretty good game for us. Ty looked solid tonight, makes me wonder where that was a couple of months ago. I'm becoming more impressed with Smith by the game.

I'm sick and tired of watching this team

Dan Clearly has to go... I'm sorry but everyone is skating laps around him. He just doesn't have it anymore, healthy knee or not.

I love how no one, not even our goalie, even tried to stop Richards there...

We saw Conklin play here in Austin about a week ago, and he looked great. Saved the Griffins' butts. Here's hoping he AND the Wings have a great game!!

He's also the only NHL-calibre forward to spend 4 years of his prime in the KHL.

He's got a LONG way to go, but I'm certainly impressed with his skill set and his poise. I think I'm most impressed with his skating.

And he has a connection with Holland.

Had a little play on Capgeek.com and the situation I see it is this. Assuming: Cap stays roughly the same. Hudler, Holmstrom and Stuart are not re-signed. Lidstrom, Abdelkader and Helm are re-signed for ~ $9M total, leaves us with ~ $7-8M in cap space to try and sign 1 big UFA (Weber or Parise). If we want to sign Nash or Suter (RFA) we're going to need to clear another $7-8M in cap space, the easiest way being to trade Franzen and Ericson for one of them as part of package. so... FORWARDS Todd Bertuzzi ($2.075m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Rick Nash ($7.800m) Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Gustav Nyquist ($0.875m) Drew Miller ($0.838m) / Darren Helm ($1.500m) / Justin Abdelkader ($1.500m) Daniel Cleary ($2.800m) / Jan Mursak ($0.550m) / Patrick Eaves ($1.200m) Cory Emmerton ($0.533m) / DEFENSEMEN Nicklas Lidstrom ($6.000m) / Shea Weber ($7.300m) Ian White ($2.875m) / Niklas Kronwall ($4.750m) Brendan Smith ($0.875m) / Kyle Quincey ($3.350m) Jakub Kindl ($0.883m) / GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($2.250m) Joey MacDonald ($0.550m) ------ CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) (these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion) SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $64,287,500; BONUSES: $37,500 CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $12,500 Pav needs a bona-fide sniper alongside him, whether it be Parise or Nash. Hossa and Shanahan had 40 goal seasons being fed by Pav, Hull had 30 and 37. 'nuff said.

Strike me down for thinking positive in here, but I'm gonna say that Conks will be stellar in net. Reaffirm his place as a solid back-up. Roll into the post-season with confidence at the goaltender position to take some heat off the defencemen, who can then maybe relax a bit and not try to push it too hard thus reducing the amount of mistakes. That in turn will sort the PK out whilst at the same time reducing the amount of goals against. We get at least one more than they do. Happy days And now, since I've said it, it HAS to happen. Please let it happen! Still, I feel quietly confident that tonight sees it start to get better.

Semin is one of the last players I would want on this team, his work ethic sucks and he's not a player that we need or want. We need more answers not more problems. Parise i'd love to see, but i'm not sure how realistic it is that he leaves the Devils, especially during this upcoming offseason. I've heard a ton of rumors about it but nothing concrete to give it credibility that Parise to the Wings is a real possibility. Primarily, I think it will rely heavily on Lidstrom's decision on retirement. If he does, our chances of a huge addition like this are more likely.

I was thinking more like:

Combined weight of current Wings roster excluding goalies, 4778 lbs. Combined weight of current Sharks roster excluding goalies, 4780 lbs.