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I can't speak for anybody else, but here's the problem I have with your thought. Of course Athansiou is better than Miller. But he's not better for the role. By which I mean that to be a good fourth liner you need to play defense, kill penalties, block shots, agitate, hit, etc. Athansiou is our future second line center. I don't want him blocking shots in the NHL. I want him learning how to take over a game offensively in the AHL. I don't care if he ever blocks a shot, or kills a penalty. In fact I hope he doesn't. I don't want him to get hurt. His potential is too good, and his future too bright, to have him toiling away on the fourth line just to say "well he is in the NHL at least... Nobody would argue that he isn't better than Miller. He is. But you don't need a thoroughbred to do donkey's work. You need a donkey. And Miller is a cheap, effective, donkey

I think that outside of the first 2 periods in Carolina, the Wings are playing great. Sure the top line has most of the points, but its not like the 4th line isn't doing their job and the middle two are flying around generating some chances. Pulk and Nyquist are both on the board, Tatar is getting chances, but he is also getting more coverage. I think Richards is doing what he needs to do and that is be a very solid center and create some chances. The PP is doing fine, as is the PK. The D is better than last season's D at moving the puck out of the zone and staring the play. Goalies have been on fire. I really don't think there is much to complain about. Teams have games like the one in Carolina, and goalies sometimes steal those games like Petr did. They dominated TO, stole a game in Carolina and skated all around Tampa. I watched most of it and they seemed a lot faster than Tampa for most the game. At least in my opinion. Put it this way, they didn't get outplayed by Tampa like they did by Carolina. I know he didn't score, but Jurco had some flashes of speed and a couple of nice shots on goal. Not everyone scores every game, not all lines dominate. Soon enough Richards line is going to start putting some in and Z's is going to cool down. Z is not going to get 91 points, Abby isn't going to score 109 goals and Larkin isn't getting 100 points. They will slow down and another trio will take over. Gus and Tat will get their 25-30 goals (more hopefully) and our D will start tallying points as well. I don't expect them to go undefeated obviously, but I can see them being #2-#3 in the East if not challenging for #1. They already cooled down a hot Tampa team, we'll see how they match up against MTL and NYR when the time comes. Got to watch out for CBJ and NYI as well! FLA looks good plus they had our number last season. It's going to be tough, but from what I have seen thus far, they look great and no other team has really looked too much better. I've even watch some western teams, nobody really worries me. Anaheim looks good, can't wait to see how we match up against them!

I do. Through Justin Abdelkader first 126 NHL games he had 10 goals. Now he's playing a top line power forward role. Jurco is learning how to be that and I don't think he's doing a terrible job, especially considering before he got to the NHL he never had to be a power forward. It's a process. He's learning. He'll be fine. When he gets to be Abdelkaders age he will be better than Abdelkader is right now. Bank on it.

There's no conspiracy. He should have been suspended for that hit, period.

No one gets fired for being late once. Maybe if you're just starting at a job. Hell, I've been late so often that my 11am shift now officially starts at around 1-ish.

I really think we're THE dark horse this year. No one gave us much respect, but I think we're going to seriously peak this year. Z and Dats are still young enough to contribute a lot. The kids are becoming prime as I type this. Plus Larkin is popping off, and Green was the PERFECT edition to the blue line. Couple that with a DEEP netminding and forward core. My one negative opinion so far: Pulkkinen is not nearly as good most people seem to think.

Meh, I've actually done this before and have had other things go awry with alarms. I understand there's no excuse, especially for a captain, but these things do happen. He might get fired for this in the non-sports world if he was at a replaceable position, like something blue-collar, entry-level, or minimum wage. But when you're important enough/high enough in your company that is certainly not the case. And Ovie has a lot of importance within his organization. Replace "Best Player On Team" with "Top Broker In Firm". Neither is going to fired for being late. They are the face of their business.

The thing about Jurco is he's struggled to fit in offensively. Hasn't shown us those hands or his offensive side yet. However I think he's a lot better without the puck than people realize. Much like Abdelkader he may grow slowly into his offensive role with this team. People like to think of him as this slick euro Datsyukesque sniper cause of his hands, but I think he's more of a heavy forward. Built solid and likes to dish the body.

I don't disagree about Larkin having his own line, or playing around with Richards on the wing. We obviously need to have three lines going offensively. It's only going to make us that much more offensively potent. But I'm not sure that I agree our goals haven't come on high quality scoring chances. Both of Zetterberg's goals have been finesse plays. Larkin's was a pure snipe. Abby's one timer was off an awfully creative play from Zetterberg. It's definitely too early to tell how things will end up, but if we're scoring at a high percentage now, I can't imagine how it will change much when Tatar, Richards, Green, Nyquist, Franzen, etc. start contributing regularly. We're only going to get MORE offensive and we're currently top ten in goals per game (not that it matters much given how few games we've played).

Speed is not that important on the PK. Good first-step acceleration is, and most fast guys have that, but I'd say even that ranks behind good instincts, awareness, tenaciousness, good stick work, and bravery. AA from all I've heard is just decent defensively, improving but not what he's known for. I might be wrong but I don't think he's even a primary PKer in GR. He'll probably have to start out on the wing, especially if he's up next year which seems rather likely. Probably moves back to center after a couple years if Datsyuk is gone and Zetterberg has declined further. His upside seems to be higher than Sheahan, though I could see Sheahan at #2 with AA #3 at first. Helm has already been switched to wing and probably isn't going back except for injuries. Svech is a winger, might be converted to center but we'll see. Nosek is below AA, probably won't be room for him in Detroit. He's supposedly a good defensive center, more notably two-way than AA from what I've read at least. Could make a good 4th-liner, but more likely I think is he'll be the guy nyquististhefuture will be bitching about us losing in a couple years.

Yeah I'm not sold yet either. The second game (out of a total of 3) the Wings had absolutely no business winning. They were outplayed handidly in just about every aspect. They looked well against Toronto (who has yet to win a game), and I'd say they looked good against Tampa after that first period. But by "they" I mostly mean the Abdelkader, Zetterberg, Larkin trio, because they seem to be the only ones who have looked good. Everyone else on the team has been underwhelming, and if it wasn't for those three players the Wings could easily be 0-3 right now. Now that isn't to say I don't think the Wings are going to be a good team. I'm excited about a few things Blashill has adjusted and I think with time as the team continues to get oriented to his play style, and Blash gets oriented to the league as a head coach, the Wings will look more in synch with one another and we'll see a better result on the ice. In particular I like that the defensemen are activated in the offensive zone, and that includes everyone. I've seen Ericsson below the hashmarks a couple times this season already. I've seen Smith pinch low. I've seen Kindl skate deep. And none of those players have the offensive minds that Kronwall and Green do. As long as the weak side defender and forward cycle as necessary to cover I'm fine with defenders going as deep as behind the net if it keeps the play alive, or at worst impedes the time and space of a breakout against us. The second thing I've noticed that I like is on defensive zone faceoff wins, the forwards seem instructed to sprint to the neutral zone, and don't seem to be responsible for helping carry the puck out of our end, unlike in year's past. This has backed the opposing defenders off the blue line and given our defenders a little more breathing room in that 10 feet on either end of our blueline to get the puck out. It also leads to odd-man rushes if the other team doesn't identify it in time. And because our team has such speedsters as Larkin, Nyquist, Pulkkinen, Helm, etc, the other team's defense needs to recognize this immediately or they're gonna get burned. In fact, this may have lead to a goal or a solid scoring chance involving Larkin in the first or second game this year if I'm recalling correctly. So I guess to summarize my views on them so far is that overall I think they've been pretty sloppy, and Zetterber, Larkin, and Abdelkader have been a buffer against that. I expect that sloppiness to get cleaned up as we progress through the season, and there are some strategic differences that Blashill has implemented that I think will do this team well, especially considering the speed that our guys have. Edit: I forgot to mention that goaltending has also been a big part in our 3 wins so far. They deserve credit also.

I'd prefer to see Kindl in over Smith, but I'm biased - I've never been a big fan of Smith. If I'm being as objective as I can, I don't think having one play over the other will make that big of a difference. I think Kindl's done a good job getting back to break up plays, and I think Smith's provided an edge that Kindl doesn't. Both of them still make bone-headed decisions with the puck/have a difficult time getting the puck out of the defensive zone. I'm just happy DeKeyser's coming back ahead of schedule.

Cleary's situation effects no one. He's just not playing. We don't even know if he'll get paid since he's not playing. I think it would have to be a guaranteed contract for that to be the case. Maybe this misunderstanding accounts for the hatred thrown at Cleary in the other thread. He's probably weighing options (KHL, retirement, office gig, etc) before he announces plans. Andy and Ferarro are the first men out with returning players. People are complaining about the forward logjam, but there were a number of uncertain things that make it make sense: The organization didn't know that Larkin would be on the team or that he would be able stay there (we still don't really, though it looks really good). Franzen's uncertain situation also means that we shouldn't count on him being there. Pulkkinen and Jurco were also sort of question marks about how much they would bring to the table. Also, it is just good depth and recent years have shown how important that is.

Big deal. The basketball-headed midget can skate by a 36 year old playing on one ankle. I hate Tyler Johnson.

I'm not skeptical of the fact that high profile players tend not to get disciplined. It happens. We've certainly been the beneficiary of it from time to time (Kronwall). I'm skeptical of this constant conspiratorial undercurrent among Red Wings fans. Not a season goes by in which there isn't some new league conspiracy to do some new nefarious thing...always to the exclusion of Detroit, of course. Look at last night's GDT. Peruse the comments and see how many are some variation of this general theme, "The refs are letting Tampa get away with something that they aren't letting Detroit get away with". It's bogus, and worse, intellectually lazy and boring. There are no conspiracies. The league lets some players get away with things, and not others, but it's the same for ALL teams' superstars. The refs make calls and miss calls all the time, but not in an effort to screw one team or another. I have no idea when, or why, Detroit fans became such babies. Our city is the most brutal, violent, roughneck, hardcore city in the country and ironically our fanbase seems to be the most whiny at times. It's gross. I vote we stop complaining about all the ref/league/Bettman conspiracies. But that's just me.

Never heard of this kid. Was he drafted the same year as Larkin?

Can only score one timers tho.

That was the most poetic form of bashing I've ever saw, props man!

Nyquist and Z goals were absolute snipes.

Especially if instead of hitting Oduya he hit the crease. And by hit I mean stand adjacent to.

he's young has hands an nhl size

Wow that was worse than I was expecting. I hope this kid turns out to be the next Alexandre Daigle

Lots of B vitamins, Vitamin E, Vitamin C, some caffeine, Quercetin, which is an antioxidant (a pretty heavy duty one) that also (off-label) has some anti-histamine properties. About 5-10 min after I drink it, I feel more alert and energized, but not with the typical "jolt" from a typical sports or energy drink. Also, no crash. If you try it, go with the orange flavor, as some of the other favors have artificial sweeteners (wild berry is tolerable) that I can't stand.

I thought it looked half full

I dont get why people even care about this. It doesn't effect the cap, and nobody on Detroit seems to care. Holland gave him a chance to make the team, he didnt. Whats the big deal???? Even if they pay him 950,000.....why do people care? If anything, this shows guy like Abby that if he is loyal to the Wings, they will be loyal back. Being loyal to a fault is not a bad reputation to have in today's NHL.