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Babcock should have won it several times now. Bowman should have won virtually every year. It almost always goes to a coach who gets his team to the playoffs with a bunch of injuries or a coach who has a young team that plays better than expected. By those criteria Babcock deserves it. No team has lost better players for as long, and the Wings lead the league in cap hit lost to injury by a long way last I checked. A good chunk of the Pens man games list are their backup goalie.

Ya a whole 8 games nhl experience. Watch out here comes the next yzerman Also legwand has 17 games and 10 points. Well see how many points jarnkrok gets in a full season before we decide we lost the next gretzky

Detroit Projected Lines Abdelkader - Datsyuk - Franzen Nyquist - Sheahan - Tatar Helm - Legwand - Alfredsson Miller - Glendening - Jurco Kronwall - Smith Quincey - DeKeyser Kindl - Lashoff Jimmy Howard Buffalo Projected Lines Hodgson - Girgensons - D'Agostini Conacher - Ennis - Leino Foligno - Larsson - Deslauriers Scott - Flynn - Ellis Ehrhoff - Ristolainen Ruhwedel - McCabe McBain - Weber Matthew Hackett Apologies for the condensed GDT, it's late, i'm strapped for time and I have a busy day tomorrow. From my understanding, 3 points in our remaining 4 games is what we need to secure a playoff spot, there is no reason why we shouldn't secure two points in this game with Buffalo in their current state. Red Wings unleash the force, Glendening and Nyquist with a pair each, Datsyuk with a goal and a helper. Wings win 5-1. Tonight's game mascots, the honorary Jedi wings.

Successfully help build your organization to the very pinnacle of your industry and then keep it there for 22 years and you might.

Well, it's not the automatic way it's done. More often than not the really good players do earn roster spots before they run out of waiver exemptions. Usually because they're good enough to earn an injury call-up prior to that, and perform well when they do. Occasionally it's just because we have an opening. Fischer, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, Filppula, Helm, Smith, Brunner, Dekeyser... all of them did it. Possibly Hudler and Kronwall as well. Maybe even Abby (I think 07-08 counted as his first year, but maybe not). Tatar and Nyquist are more exception than rule. The guys that normally get left down until they're out of options are the guys like Kindl, Emmerton, Andersson, Kopecky, Ritola, Mursak... Free agency is a narrow window, and once you let that opportunity go you can't go back. Sign a proven player and leave a kid you think is ready in the minors: It doesn't work out, or you have injuries, you have the option of using that kid. Pick the kid instead of a proven player what happens if it doesn't work? Fall back on another kid you didn't think was as good as the first one? And now we're getting to a point where kids are competing against other kids. Emmerton lost his spot to Andersson. Andy may be headed the same way, or if not then there's less opportunity for Glendening, Ferraro, and Callahan. Could be hard to find spots in the lineup for all of Tatar, Nyquist, Jurco, and Pulkkinen, even if we leave one or both of Jurco and Pulu in GR next year and that's not even considering Mantha possibly jumping one (or both) of them. In short, nothing about how we handle young players needs to change. Mostly because we already handle them the way you're all suggesting anyway. The way we handled Nyquist this year should have been different, which is to say it should have been the way we handled other good kids in the past. But that's in the past, it worked out pretty well regardless, and there's no good reason to think it's a pattern or particularly likely to happen again.

bottom line....we needed Legwand, we didn't need Jarnkrok. Congrats Steve.

Not sure as to why Jurco's been sent down to the 4th line, especially when I read a quote yesterday I think it was from babs who said he's been extremely happy with the Kid line offensively and defensively. Maybe just time for a shake up which is always good. Hoping for 2 points tonight!

Roy and Cooper did admirable jobs but also walked into underachieving teams loaded with talent. Babcock taking the Griffins to the playoffs is miraculous and he is long overdue for this.

Personally I think in a few years when Nyquist and Tatar are carrying the team offensively, with a couple of Dekeyser, Smith, Sproul, Ouellet, Marchenko or Backman carrying the defensive load. We'll be looking at these last few years in a much more positive light than we are right now. Teams like Edmonton are insanely jealous of how we've managed to rebuild on the fly. He's made some bad signings and a couple of questionable trades, but what GM hasn't? What he'll be evaluated on is how well the organization transitions from the Euro Twins era into whatever the next generation of our team is.

Devellano essentially did that and already occupies that position. He is around 70 though and I could see Holland eventually take his position.

That was big for us. Playoff odds just went up 6.5% because of that result.

HAPPY HUDLER! haha

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/04/06/charity-brawl-nypd-fdny-engage-in-wild-fisticuffs-at-nassau-coliseum/ Good ol' hockey! Even in a charity game the fighting spirit of hockey lives on. Too funny.

I think Bylsma should get consideration, though I wouldn't say they've had more injuries to important players. It's fairly even, with the Wings being worse at forward and the Pens worse on defense. I think it comes down to what value you want to assume for Weiss and Vokoun.

For a GM that just lost two franchise players in a very short period of time (through no fault of his own), Yzerman is doing pretty great. I know what you're saying, but I think why people here like him so much is that he has the balls to make big moves and shake things up to improve the team. And those moves are working. And the staff responsible for our incredible drafting goes way way deeper than just Ken Holland.

I'm sorry but how can you sit here and complain about what Legwand has brought to this team over the last month, when considering, we're now sitting firmly in a wild card spot, on the cusp of hopefully making the postseason, the fact that he's a minus is irrelevant, as we all know +/- is flawed, and stats are not and never will be truly indicative of defensive ability, nor intangibles and veteran knowhow from someone who's played nearly 1000 games now and been a very productive 2 way forward. As for Jarnkrok, anyone would have thought we'd given up the world to get Legwand judging by the response on here. If we miss the playoffs, then maybe the 'Holland made a bad deal' argument has some leverage. You and everyone else are entitled to there opinions, but really do we have to keep bringing this up in every thread? The trade happened, Jarnkrok's not coming back, so let's move on and get behind the team that we have so they can make it into the playoffs.

Get over it. They're not even close to the same players. Legwand is a three zone centerman with tons of experience. Jarnkrok is an unproven, but promising playmaker. I'm not qualifying either, but to list that single stat as a means of justifying one's worth over the other is absolutely ridiculous. In 1990 Paul Cavalinni was +38. Yzerman was -6. Again, I'm not comparing either player today to Yzerman or Cavalinni, but you can't judge a book based on the opening sentence.

If only they had a sponsor to donate for penalty minutes

My biggest issue is that this is the automatic way it's done. The roster is always full of veterans so there's little room for any of the prospects to even get a chance until someone gets hurt or until they've run out of waiver options. I'm sure it's because Babcock and Holland don't generally trust rookies/young players until they prove their worthiness, but maybe that's changed this year. I think it has with Babcock, and I hope it has with Holland. Not completely, I don't think they should abandon the process and rush Mantha, Pulkkinen, Athanasiou, Mrazek, and some of the young defensemen all up here next year, but start leaving room for some of them to get a decent taste of NHL action and go from there.

I believe it works in some cases and not as well in others. Of course, pretty much everyone but the high-end draft picks will spend time in the minors, that's the way player development works. Exceptions like DeKeyser, Justin Schultz, and a few other college free agents have spent 3-4 extra developmental years in college. The key is calling them up at the right time... not rushing them and putting them in situations where they can't succeed, but not leaving them in the AHL for too long and stunting their development. I agree on Sheahan and Jurco, neither were ready last year and probably weren't this September. Also agree on Callahan and Ferraro, who I think will be either marginal 4th-liners or AHL journeymen. But if Tatar and Nyquist were ready last year, why not have them up full-time? (It has worked out for the best, as they're the top 2 forwards playing right now, but that could have still happened had they been full-timers last year.) My biggest case against "overripening" is Brendan Smith. Babcock declared him NHL-ready 2 years before he cracked the Wings' lineup full-time, but by leaving him in Grand Rapids, they not only allowed him to stay at a level where he was able to cover up for his mistakes because the game is slower, but they also missed out on a chance for him to watch and learn from one of the best defensemen to ever play the game, if not THE best. I wonder out loud if staying in Grand Rapids for so long actually stunted his development, and if that's why we watch him mix flashes of brilliance in with consistent mistakes. Maybe some of those mistakes became habits in Grand Rapids because they didn't hurt him or the team. Next year, the Wings have absolutely no reason to send Sheahan down. Jurco, IMO, should stay in Detroit too. His offensive numbers don't quite indicate how well he has been playing, but that will come with a little more time and patience. Glendening can go either way, he's a nice defensive 4th-line center and pest, but doesn't provide anything offensively. Callahan only got one game to prove he's worth re-signing before he runs out of waiver exemptions, and that is not enough of a chance. If he's re-signed, they'll risk losing him on waivers if he doesn't make the roster. Same with Ferraro, who I think has less of a chance of returning. Pulkkinen looked alright in his time up here, but should start the year in GR and be the first callup for a top-9 replacement role. It's been said Mantha will have a chance to compete for a spot... let's hope there is one available for him to possibly fill. Back to the original topic though, right now Kindl and Lashoff are pretty much the best option available for the third pairing. I think Kindl's been a disappointment, given his apparent jump forward last year and the shiny new 4-year contract it earned him. Lashoff doesn't provide much offensively, but is generally dependable defensively for a bottom-pairing guy and can play with a little edge. And yes, he's only 23, so he's still young.

Paetsch is not under contract to Detroit, he cannot simply be "recalled". Detroit would have to sign him first... which may be possible, I think they are sitting at 49 contracts right now. You are contradicting yourself all over this post. Are you saying that this year proves overripening is stupid, and you can't believe nobody has said you're wrong? Or the opposite? Because your first two sentences are total opposites. The Wings did not think they could count on Jurco or Sheahan this year. Instead, those two players are on what has been the Wings' best line many nights. They did not expect Nyquist and Tatar to be the major contributors they have become. Last year, they did not expect to have Andersson, Nyquist, Tatar, or Lashoff in the lineup, let alone contribute the way they did. Most of the other "cup of coffee" call-ups have played quite well, too. If someone that "none of us expected to be playing this soon" is getting regular icetime and contributing in the NHL, that player was NOT overripened. That would include Jurco and Sheahan this year, and others like Helm and Kronwall who were called up full-time before they ran out of waiver exemptions. If anything, the last two years have PROVEN that the Wings DO NOT NEED to leave prospects in the AHL as long as they do with little-to-no NHL playing time. Their AHL coaching staff is doing a phenomenal job of developing these players, and those players should be rewarded with opportunities to make the Wings' roster out of training camp and/or having chances to be called up and play regularly during the season without having to wait for the injury bug to strike.

Detroit is my second favorite team now that y'all aren't in the same division anymore welcome to the preds wing club

Yup. I never understood why people thought Tortorella was a good coach. The guy is like a two year old. I'll also never understand how there can be so many bad owners and GMs. I get that it's a hard job, but if people like us can see problem areas three years in advance, why can't they?

I was at the very first game at the Joe...Dec 27, 1979. A loss to the Blues. Truthfully...good riddance. They had to get a waiver on the safety inspection to open the building in the first place because the aisleways and entries were deemed to steep to be safe. I've seen some great college and professional hockey there, but it's a building...the memories aren't in the building they're in my head. Looking forward to seeing what the new place will look like,....even if they are building on my favorite lot for baseball parking