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i think its funny how fan opinion of howard has spiraled out of control. if you look at goalies with more than 10 games, howard is 28 out of 45 in save percentage. so even though he is having a bad season, thats still middle of the road. now, with a contract like his, expectations are higher than middle of the road. i get that. but people act as if he has been atrocious or something. gustavsson has been great and i am glad he has gotten a good number of starts. but the best goaltender in our organization is still jimmy howard. and if we want any legitimate playoff aspirations in the next few seasons, it means howard in goal. let me throw out a little stat here: the highest save percentage gustavsson has ever had in a season: 90.2 the lowest save percentage howard has ever had in a season: 90.8 (excluding his seasons with 4 or less games played) gustavsson is playing great right now. but its a hot streak, nothing more. i for one am still behind howard. i feel the majority of his goals are due to poor defense not poor goaltending.

Weiss' injury made me lol. Clever and awesome. I love it.

Z-Dats-Franzen Nyquist - Helm - Alfredsson Abby - Weiss - Tatar Miller - Andersson - Old useless guy (take your pick) Edit: those two bolded lines are 2a and 2b. Whatever line is playing well on ant given night, gets the most icetime.

This is great! Don't forget to put Jimmy Howard: Goaltending Skill Amnesia for injuries. I seriously hope we don't allow Filppula to look like Stamkos tonight. I wish we weren't so injured considering we got three tough games in a row after the home and home sweep by the mighty Florida Panthers. Now would be a nice time to play consistent 60 minute hockey. Go Wings!!!

Weiss got injured? Call up Toots.

Second the LOL at the Weiss injury. Let's Go Wings!

Just great stuff.

i wonder if this is the photo of the bobblehead that pav is referring to

There are many many reasons for this. The main thing being that almost every game, there are guys moving in and out of the lineup because of injuries. This is ridiculous how much it happens to us, and I am not just talking this year. Ever since the start of the year where we didn't have Helmer, then we lost Ericsson, Smith, Franzen, Weiss, Alfie, got Franzen and Weiss back, got Ericsson back, lost Danny Dekeyser, lost Pavel Datsyuk but Alfie came back, lost Hank Zetterberg. IT is extremely hard to maintain consistency when you have so many moving parts in and out of the lineup and almost every game, guys are having to adjust to new lines. The fact is that this is a team of professionals and they do rise to the occasion when they play the league's best. But over the long haul of an NHL season, when you are constantly having to juggle everything, you will not be able to maintain that consistency. The fact of the matter is that had last night not been Pavel's first game back, he doesn't lose the battle that led to the tying goal and we likely go on to win the game. Given the amount of injuries that the Wings have sustained, and the time that it took the brass to start playing Nyquist and Tatar, I am pleased with where the Wings are in the standings. Howard has not been playing great, and we have had a ton of injuries, but yet we are just a few points back from 1st place in this division. I find it hard to be upset over that. Eventually, Howard is going to find his game, and when this team is finally fully healthy, I truly believe that other teams will have a hard time keeping up, especially with what we have seen from what Nyquist and Tatar add to this team.

hope he plays some games i personally think hes our future #1 and gonna be an elite nhl goaltender ,lets hope we get to see him play some games http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2013/12/red_wings_goalie_jimmy_howard_14.html

Abby - Weiss - Tatar

The mentioning of Stammer in this post really rustled my jimmies. As in hes the best. Can you imagine pasha hank stamkos? Cup please.

As others have pointed out, this team suffers from an identity crisis. They don't do puck possession well anymore and they don't have the physicality or size to play a dump and chase, grind it out style. When you have that lack of identity, you'll have some games where the team just looks lost.

I think by injured they mean injured.

I just want to see Jurco already. Any chance we can make room for him given all the new cap and roster space?

Went for the head the whole way. Somebody needs to kick his ass. esteef

Does anyone stay healthy on this team?

The conspiracy theorist in me thinks this is a cover for a healthy scratching.

Someone asked me today: What number is Stevie going to wear since his number's retired? And then my brain exploded.

If Thornton gets more than 5 games, it just once again proves what a complete joke the NHL is, and how hypocritcal they are. Lets be real here, Thornton didn't even drop the gloves, he just caught Orpik just right with a gloved hit and briefly KO'd him. The only reason everyone is making a big deal out of it is because the brought in the stretcher. Players throw punches to each others face with gloves on literally every single game at some point. Neal should have had the book thrown at him. That knee was such a digusting and dirty play. Thornton was out of line too, but Neals hit was WAY worse, IMO. The intent from Neal was nothing other than to seriously injure. Lets also not forget that the reason Thornton went after Orpik was because Neal immediately after kneeing Marchand in the head, ran to the bench like a gutless coward so he wouldn't have to go with any of the Bruins. If Neal stays on the ice to face the music, Thornton goes after him instead.

Robitaille is molesting the hell out of Bowman.

Dude's only 24! And this is only his second go-around as a regular! He drives me crazy most nights, but that's to be expected with a young offensive defenseman. Quincey, on the other hand....

Do my eyes deceive me or is that Jiri Fisher?

Smith needs more time to develop, he's still young and green. Look at Adam Larsson in New Jersey, pretty much the same scenario. He's a very young top Defensive prospect that has been pretty awful for the Devils so far. It's nothing a few healthy scratches and a few years of development won't fix over time. Young prospects aren't always going to join this team and be amazing from the start, it's a major transition to adjust to the NHL level from where they came from. Smith will be around for a while, and down the road we'll be happy he's here i'm sure. I don't think Quincey has been as terrible as most think he has but it wouldn't hurt my feelings much if he moved on or was replaced.