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Also. I get that mantha looks lazy, but hes not a heart and soul guy, he gets himself into the soft areas of the ice to use his shot, because he has a ridiculous wrist shot. Brett hull did the same thing, he looked like he was floating, but he was setting himself up to be in a position to take a shot without people noticing him. But hull is like 5'6'' and manthas 6'5'', its impressive he can get into scoring position like he has this tourney, because how do you miss marfan syndrome "sneaking" into the slot. He's never used his size the way people would want him to, and I don't expect him to change that, that's just not who he is. And you shouldn't expect him to go all out in a prospect tourney either, especially with what happened to him last year. Let him get back in the sway of things, stay healthy, and rebound from his "very, Very, very, very, very disappointing" first pro season. Sure he looks like he's kind of floating around but he's Still in position, he's still covering his areas. And playing on a line with dylark/aa he doesn't have to chase down the play, because the other two take three strides and have already gotten in position. His defensive responsibility is to cover the guy coming in late sneaking into the slot on the back check. And even though he's not crashing the net like a madman(in a tournament which is basically a friendly match) trying to bang home rebounds, he looks more positionally sound defensively. Which is huge. And he was in position where he could have easily followed up his rebound, and yes covering the boards when it looks like the puck might come up that way. I wish he had Larkin's work ethic, but If that line stays together he won't have to, he'll have to keep floating into the soft areas unseen to get that mantha ray off.

If you're looking for highlights, I'd highly recommend checking out and / or subscribing to Slapshotgoal on YouTube. He/she does a great job of highlighting this tournament for us every year, as well as a ton of highlights from our prospects in various leagues throughout the season.

Oh my god Athanasiou does it again on a breakaway.. 5-4 with 2:21 left

Franson is a right-handed Kyle Quincey with a decent shot. I think Quincey is even more physical of the two. Green fills a much larger void on defense than Franson would have.

Thanks Jesusberg, good to know. I know who Michelle is, and I listen to / read her prospect reports on WIIM all the time. Never knew that was her though. Cool stuff.

Green can (and probably will) be a disaster defensively and I won't care. The Wings have enough d-men that are defensive minded and aren't particularly adept at moving the puck and adding offense from the back end. Plus, Green will have the most responsible d-man on the team as his partner. It's like Tatar and scoring goals. He's kinda careless with the puck and not great defensively, but he brings a skill to the ice that the Wings don't have in abundance otherwise. Green can do his thing and it will be a huge boost -- something severely lacking since Nick and Rafalski left.

But apparently he's "physical". That's hockey's equivalent of a Brazilian butt for Frank.

Red Wings advance to the finals!

This is why you build teams with a little thing called balance. Guess what happens if all your D is shutdown dmen? Your team doesn't score goals and end up on the wrong side of 1-2 and 2-1 games. Green is expected to play responsible hockey, he is not expected to come in and play shut down defense. That's why he is paired with DeKeyser.

"She" would be correct - her name is Michelle. She writes for the guys over at WiiM, too. Following her on Twitter pretty much gives up-to-date details on the tournament. Not to mention, she usually posts .gifs of the goals before the highlight packages come out. https://twitter.com/Slapshotg0al

Just curious. What kind of changes? W/o Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Richards are the top two centers, and Abdlekader, Nyquist, Franzen, and Tatar are the top four wingers. So there's your logical top six. I'm not thrilled to see Sheahan on a line with Glendenning and Helm though. That just seems like too much of what we didn't like about Babcock's approach.

Yep. Holland lost the Cole trade. Just think. In a year's time, Janmark could have still been here, carrying Larkin's gear to the bus. Seriously, get off that lap. The Wings have at least six forward prospects with more upside than that 23 year old. And probably only four of those players will make it. Know what I mean. Great win tonight. Bright, bright future. Fastest team in the NHL in two years.

Cody Franson is as reliable as a rusted out 86 Geo Metro

No worries I honestly thought Keith was getting robbed in terms of Norris this year. He does get a lot of credit finally and more people are mentioning him in the same sentence as Toews which is only fair because Keith is that good. Seabrook in my mind is very underrated although he allows Keith to do the things he does. Seabrook is a big body , can our up points and is very good in his own end. Those 2 are without a doubt the best pairing in the nhl right now.

Abby-Zet-Nyquist was one of out best lines so I can see that happening till Datsyuk returns. Franzen - Richards - Tatar line seems okay in theory but I worry about the defensive part of the game. They all aren't very good at it.

Wings win 5-4... Will play for the Ship tomorrow night at 7 vs. Columbus

AA does it again... 4-4! 4:33 left

make that 4-2 Right back in it.. Russo on the PP... 4-3 DAL with 12:19 left

Also found it interesting that Franzen, Richards and Tatar are on Delvecchio, and Abdelkader, Nyquist and Zetterberg are on Lindsay. Early indications were that Z would be on Richards' wing to start. Maybe not? Just speculation on my part, obviously. Sheahan-Glendening-Helm are on the same team, as are Miller-Andersson-Ferraro. Could be a glimpse a some line combinations.

Wings on the board 1st... PP Goal from Larkin with the assist to AA

I'll see what I can do.

Think we should start a thread and petition to start switching to symptoms such as example below Pavel # Hank % Howard @ Franzen ?

Tatar has to play that way because he's a smurf. Hummingbird vs bald Eagle. Boy that Eagle sure does float around a lot up there.

I don't think by an stretch that McCarty's number should be out of circulation, but to call him a "druggie idiot" is ignorant as f***... He was a fan favorite and a huge part of all those Cup wins. I personally love(d) McCarty, he was definitely one of my favorite Wings of the 90's. Drug addiction or not, he deserves the respect of the fans of Detroit.