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Aliens.

Since his arrival, the Wings are 17-33 when he plays. 10-5 when he sits. The best GM in the league gave up a 1st rounder for him.

Ya, he was responsible for the other Wings in the slot not challenging Malkin, and for Osgood completely blowing his angle on the Talbot goal. Believe it or not, hockey is a team game.

We don't play any of them, so who cares?

It was cool cause the wings never went looking for trouble. They just ended all the trouble.

Let's Go Shar - arks! esteef

I spent all my $$ on Tickets and was rockin a motorola flip phone which predated the cAmera phone era. Plus i was 27 and she was 17 so I felt a little greasy about the thoughts I was having in general. Actually did small talk to her and her friend and they were drinking Daquries....at 17 in the joe:)

Interesting game last night. Couple of things I noticed; -Filppula was god awful - I usually have a lot of faith in him but he was actually getting in the way of his line mates last night. Might have been the worst game I've ever seen him play. For the first time, I think the Wings might be better off letting him walk next year in favour of keeping one of these kids in the lineup. -DeKeyser continues to impress me. No doubt in my mind he will be our top shutdown defenseman in the near future. -Nyquist, Andersson and Emmerton all played really well. Looks like Emmerton is finally making strides toward being a useful everyday player -I love our defense WITHOUT White and Colaiacovo Additionally, the CBC broadcasters really put this season into perspective. I've been pissing and moaning about the Wings' "fall from grace" all season but in reality, its amazing what they've been able to accomplish given their lineup and the tight Western Conference. After last night's game, I am actually kind of excited to see these younger guys progress over the next couple of seasons. I also still think the Wings will make the playoffs.

Cause emmerton and Ericsson are actually good.

Why just mention Z and not Datsyuk? 4 goals or 3 points overall is the difference between severely underachieving and acceptable production? And as someone pointed out in another thread compared to last season statistically they aren't really underachieving. Z's goalscoring average is down a bit but his overall production is slightly better. Cleary's goal scoring is up too relative to last season. And both those guys are always banged up and a year older. I wouldn't say Brunner is underachieving either. It's his first season in the NHL and they're playing games at a brutal schedule. 11 goals and 22 points is great considering. Flip's production is obviously way down, but it's looking like last season was an anomaly and not some breakthrough. I agree with what Babcock said recently. Guys may have a an exceptional year or two but generally you know about where they're going to produce. And with this Wings lineup they just don't have a lot of scoring. That lack of scoring also gets compounded because without many offensive threats, defenses can key into the few ones that they have. Z, Dats, and Franzen. Sammy and Bert being injured so long certainly didn't help. But if the team's success is tied that strongly to either one of those guys, it's a pretty good indication of the lack of scoring talent.

I agree totally. I also think that the wings now are built for playing in the eastern conference. While we are competative in the west we are not a Big physical crash and bang team like most teams in the west. We fit in the east because of our style of play. Skilled puck possesion. There are not too many teams in the east that would scare me(NYR maybe. Nobody better say the penguins .....) but I generally feel with our current roster, if we were in the east would be a 4th or 5th seed at worst IF we had bert and helm back healthy, this team wouldnt be struggling to get the 8th seed in the west

I agree to the post above as well. about the skill thing. I find our bottom six thinking too much that they are top six. there is not enough of a grinding aspect to their game. they're too soft right now thinking they can out skill when they cannot. get back to your game bottom six....hit, grind, dump and chase. this team lacks an identity.

Very good point I fully agree just wanted to add something: The Detroit Red Wings used to outskill almost every other team, these guys aren't prepared to work hard and grind it out nor does Babcock haas the roster to do it. I always thought, that Holmer was extremely underrated, he was one of the best ever to position himself in front of the net and screen the goalie, we have no one even close to that category now. Going forward this team needs to become a hardnosed defense first team, because sadly they aren't going to outskill anyone for quite some time, they are getting outskill and outworked (which does bother me way more) ,because a bubble playoffteam should work their hardest at this time of the year.

I truly believe that Homer's retirement has gone massively, massively under-recognized. The coaching staff still appear to be implementing an offensive system that saw Lidstrom launch slap-passes at the net and try for a Homer tip or rebound. The only problem with this is that they are missing two key parts to it; namely, Lidstrom and Homer.

Pretty nuts to think that the biggest game of the season for Detroit is aginst the Coyotes at home, but it is what it is. No one is going to feel sorry for this team if they don't come out and show they want to be in the playoffs. Tonight went fairly well for Detroit, but this all means nothing if they don't take advantage of the 2 games in hand on Columbus.

i thought he was dumping that into a corner?

Well, that was disappointing. Go Kings.

You have no idea if DeKeyser, Hank, Pavel, and Howard respond to one style of coaching. You also don't know if Kronner and Franzen need another. So no, you weren't saying what I was trying to say. I was correcting your statement, as it seems to be more aimed towards the person's current play rather than personality.

I miss owners not being able to spend what they want to in order to build their team & not having to hand over money to other owners who can't run their businesses successfully. Edit: Makes more sense that I miss Mr I not being able to spend how much he wants

Having 6 or 7 players put up 300 PIM in a season Goalies who don't play the butterfly style Gary Thorne and Bill Clement No shootouts Steve Yzerman

I agree, especially last night they played a great game. Everyone was hustling and the defense was solid. Loving the Dekeyser-Kindl pairing. Suck that we've had so many games lately where we play good enough to win but we can't get it done though. 3 shootout losses that could have been wins, that would have been 3 points more in the standings and we'd be looking much better in the standings. And a fluke loss against Calgary, 2 points gone there. There is some truth to the old saying that you make your own luck, but I wonder if there's enough time left for the luck to actually turn in the Wings favor?

Wings played good enough to win, they didn't . Hopefully we can turn it around and go on a streak to close out the season.

Yeah, where the he'll is Turco when we need him? He was brutal against the Wings!

I understand your frustration in the Wings decline, but the fact remains that the Detroit Red Wings are the LAST of an extinct breed called a 'dynasty' in any sport, nevermind just the NHL. Decades of winning hockey have greatly skewed all of our expectations for this team. I'm not going to sit here and say you're wrong in your opinion or that trades couldn't have been made. What I am saying, is that as terribly perceived as things are at the moment, there are much MUCH worse scenarios and teams than the Wings right now. You lament a season that occurred 4 years ago, while a franchise like Toronto is just getting into the playoffs for the first time in a decade. I think some perspective is required with the situation in Detroit. This 'class of the league' you speak of changes from month to month in the NHL now. The Red Wings dynasty of old is dead, and the longer that you try and hold onto that and believe that it can be recaptured, the longer you're going to be unhappy. What I am ultimately getting at here, is that there is/was no other team like the Detroit Red Wings in the NHL, so any rebuilding/re-tooling that this team does has ZERO blueprint. We've retired more Hall of Famer's in the past 3 years than some teams have retired in their entire existence in the NHL. Replacing them isn't a 1-for-1 deal and no matter who you bring in, they'll always pale in comparison to the Lidstroms/Rafalskis/Drapers/etc. These losses are meteoric for any team, let alone one with the history and pedigree of Detroit. The fact that the Wings are even in the playoff conversation is astonishing yet nobody wants to give the management credit for that, they'd rather see trades and action in an attempt to keep an already ridiculous playoff streak alive. This cheque has been in the mail for a season like this ever since the Cup win, and now that the bill is here, not a lot of the fans seem to want to pay it.

I'm not naive enough to think that I know better than Babs. The man can coach...if I don't agree with his decisions it is far more likely that I'M wrong...not the coach sitting in the triple gold club.