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Pretty stupid comments by him no matter his intentions. There are much better ways to motivate a player than by completely dismissing him after one half of one pro season.

Orr - McDavid - Mcgrattan McLaren - Eichel - Gadzic How would that not be the best two forward lines ever???

This franchise never calls out players publicly for playing like garbage, and they pick on this kid? How about calling out Smith or Nyquist the last few playoffs? How about calling out Weiss or Kindl?

Does anyone really care what Devellano thinks?

Okay, so all he has to do is acquire young high level players on the cusp of greatness, pay them what they're worth, fit them all in under the salary cap and give them all the ice time they want. SMH, why didn't Kenny Holland think of this first!?!?! I mean, get real. Every team just can't wait to trade blossoming stars to the Red Wings. No doubt, too, that they'd take Cleary, Zid or a 5th round pick for said players. Not sure how he could have stuck with Cole and Zidlicky too long as he just acquired them at the trade deadline and Cole only played 7 games before being injured. Weiss has had injury problems since he was signed as the #1 free agent available that year and hasn't been given ample opportunity by Babs to right the ship. So I'm sure other teams are lining up and will give the Wings all those up and coming hungry young stars for him. Cleary was kept around too long, but he rarely cracked the line up this year, and wasn't a horrible liability when he was in. When the Wings won the Cup in 2002, they weren't old, they were experienced, savvy veterans who knew how to win.

How do you define "competitive"? Winning the Stanley Cup every year? Holland's Wings are competitive. They win more than they lose. They go to the playoffs, EVERY YEAR. They're just a couple players away from a championship team. There are 30 teams. 30 GMs. 53% chance of making the playoffs 27% chance of making it to the second round 13% chance of making it to the conference finals 7% chance of making it to the cup finals 3% chance of winning the cup Under Holland since '97, this is how we've done: 100% - Made Playoffs 64% - made it to second round 31% - made it to conference finals 25% - made it to Stanley Cup finals 19% - won Stanley Cup It's time for people to chill. You can't always win, but damn, we sure do win more than we don't.

Wow, so our cup back in 08 and cup finals appearance in 09 was a "long time ago"? Man, I wonder how Toronto feels with their last cup win. Or Edmonton for that matter. Heck, lets ask the Rangers how they feel since their last cup. This really does show the level of entitlement that Wings fans have grown accustomed to over the course of the last 25 years. Most teams have bandwagon fans. The Wings have achieved a level of greatness where the bandwagon effect hasn't been measured because we have been good for so freaking long. Now we are looking at Holland deserving blame for making the playoffs and not getting past the 2nd round since making it to the finals in 09. When I see this attitude, I just shake my head in disbelief. Is this really what some Wings fans have deteriorated to? The salary cap era has made the playing field level. No team is a slam dunk for a championship anymore. I will say this much. Any new GM that comes in may have successes in some areas, but failures in others. No GM is going to hit it out of the park on everything they do. So while a new GM may have landed Parise and Suter for Detroit, he may have not gotten Dekeyser and wouldn't have gotten Hossa either because he wouldn't have had the money to get them all. I get it, Wings fans want a championship. Its championship or bust mentality that really has to change though. Only 1 team gets to win the Stanley Cup every year, and the favorite doesn't win it much of the time. The sooner that we all realize that the Wings are just one of 16 teams in the playoffs and things have to go right for the team that wins it, the better off we will be.

New to this board but been following it for awhile now. I just can't understand the amount of hyperbole from some people regarding Holland. We are in an age of absolute parity in the NHL, this isn't the 50's and 60's when Montreal won 5 straight Cups. Making the playoffs is the goal now, because as we have seen anything can happen once the playoffs start (just look at the Kings last year). The days of winning the president's trophy and rolling through the playoffs year after year are over. Holland has made mistakes but he has still done a remarkable job with what he has been given. Go ahead and tell that to the 22 teams that didn't make the playoffs this year. I am thankful for our playoff streak, it gives me more Wings hockey into the spring/early summer while other fans are watching....baseball.

So you think Holland should trade away all of our vets, and a ton our our young guys, just for a CHANCE to land one of those top picks? Look at last season, even with half our team hurt we still got in the playoffs. You cant guarantee yourself a top pick unless you just unload everyone. Plus, one player does not make or break a team. Look at Dallas with Seguin, or Edmonton with what seems to be all the top picks of the 2000's, you can have a top player and still suck. Tanking it is stupid because it guarantees nothing.

A Kronwall - DeKeyser second line pairing and Quincey - Marchenko/Ouellet third line pairing is what this team should have in order to be a contender. That means signing a #1 and #2 d-man because not one of our guys is top line calibre (if we are to be considered elite again). But that's not very likely so we are probably going to be stuck with mediocrity for a bit longer.

62 of 82 is between 75 and 76%. He played 3/4ths of the season while trying to come back from a broken leg and adjust to pro level hockey. His stats (62gp,13g,18a,33pts) are actually really similar to Tatar's (58gp,16g,16a, 32pts) first year in GR. I'm not overly worried yet.

I think this is a good example of how just firing your GM/coach don't necessarily make things better.

Way to stick up for a great prospect after coming back from a broken leg...

Uh, The Bruins missed the playoffs. "Just making the playoffs" may have been enough for the GM to keep his job - we don't know. He traded away a young star who is now thriving with Seguin, and put the team in a cap situation where they had to trade away boychuck, and couldn't re-sign Iginla. This clear mismanagement put them in the position that they went from a top team to missing the playoffs Pens' GM got fired because they mortgaged the future on deadline acquisitions that failed and have failed supply complimentary players around a core that should be good enough to go far.

Yeah? Who did you wanna give up to get those players? A lot of assets went the other way in all those trades

Blame Holland? Absolutely. He deserves a ton of credit for supplying us with the deepest crop of prospects in the league and great cap position. Kudos Holland.

i dont know how i feel about this series, i'm still angry we lost to tampa, but ive always hated the habs with a passion

Well, the Wings played Datsyuk and Zetterberg from 2003 through 2007, didn't they? How'd that work for us? Oh yeah, they got experience, learned from losing and eventually lead the team to a Stanley Cup. Yzerman and Fedorov were both criticized early in their careers for not "showing up". It takes some players longer than others, especially Europeans due to longer season, smaller ice surface and more physical play. I'm not ready to discard Nyquist, Tatar or Pulkkinen. The team obviously doesn't have the depth that they once did because of the salary cap and lower draft picks. The league is set up for parity and not dynasties. Another thing that seems to be overlooked is that the Wings used to be able to get those late round finds in Europe because of Hakan Andersson. Unfortunately, his success also means he's not a secret anymore. He can't anonymously scout some of the diamonds in the rough like he used to. It's also a must in the salary cap era to bring in young talent. It's not possible to pay a team full of veterans. I find it ironic that two or three years ago, Holland and Babcock were highly criticized for bringing playing the old, slow, tired veterans. Now they're playing the young players and are getting criticized for that, too. With the "home team" having the advantage with UFAs and the restrictions in becoming a UFA, there just isn't much quality out there, but the prices are going higher. There's no way to know if the prospects are more than that unless they are in the lineup. I'd rather lose in the first round with Tatar, Nyquist and Marchenko and at least have them getting the experience than a bunch of old, slow washed up veterans. No team in any sport can compete for a championship every year in the modern era.

While I agree Howard should be traded eventually, I don;t think the Wings should just hand Mrazek the starting job based on a really good playoff. Howard is still a very good goalie, and his value can improve if he plays well in the regular season up to the trade deadline. Plus, where's the harm in having two really really good goalie's next year up to the deadline, and then trading Howie when his value could be at its highest and the return could be the greatest. Right now it's not, because he's been injured and he struggled. Also, Mrazek will need some tutoring and help getting through his first full NHL season playing 40/50 games. He really hasn't proven yet that he can handle the rigours of it and needs to work out his consistency issues. He's definitely our goalie of the future, but it'd be a bit short sighted to jettison Howard so quickly IMO

Gus wasn't a horrible signing. He did exactly what we all thought he would. He plays very well (when he plays) and gets injured a lot, giving Mrazek a chance to get some experience, which paid off. I don't think anyone can seriously say Gustavsson was a disappointment. We just all knew what to expect. And who cares how much he made? Cap hit doesn't matter much when you're not spending to the cap. It's not like we were paying Gus a fortune. We could afford it.

A Stanley Cup

I honestly had to check your profile to see if you were new here after reading these statements. When does Holland get blamed for his bad moves? The answer, around here anyway, is ALL THE TIME. Constantly. It inevitably leaks into 90% of our threads along with Jimmy sucking and Babs being an incompetent coach. He gets absolutely *dragged* if he so much as farts in the same room players are in because it negatively affects air quality and makes them play worse. Yours are not new sentiments, and frankly it is refreshing seeing the level-headed, rational responses. Bottom line: Holland, like all humans ever everywhere, has made some mistakes. Some absolute stinkers. Should we replace him with someone better? Sure, I'm all about improvement. Who should we court that is clearly a better GM than Holland? *crickets*

Only on LGW does a GM "deserve blame" for building an almost entirely homegrown roster, making the playoffs for the zillionth time in a row, and being poised to upset a better team in the first round. The only thing Ken Holland hasn't done is play/coach the actual game itself. Has he made some mistakes over the years? Sure. Have those mistakes seriously inhibited our chances of being competitive? The results certainly suggest otherwise. Or is he supposed to make no mistakes whatsoever?

What are you trying to start? What should Holland be blamed for exactly? The embarrassment of prospects the Wings have stock-piled despite a top 10 pick in 24 years?