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I don't think Defense will be our issue this year... You can't make season altering decisions based on a 6 game conclusion. But - if you were to do that, you may consider the following: #1 - Pavel Datsyuk (a top 3 defensive center in the world) has yet to play. #2 - Dan Dekeyser (our best defensive defenceman imo) has played 1/5 games. Which creates imbalanced pairings. #3 - 2/5 games played so far, were the second game of a back to back. In those 2 games, we have allowed 7 goals.

That first part isn't actually true. 2.6 GA is not good. 17th in the league, and compared with recent seasons would also be in the middle of the pack. Our team save% is 12th at 5v5, 10th or 11th all situations (war-on-ice and hockeyanalysis differ slightly). Relative to recent seasons, it's high. In the past three years, only 9 teams have finished with a higher overall save%, and none by much (Wings 92.22 .vs highest 93.34). 5v5, our current 93.7 has been bettered only once: 94.04 by Boston. Shots against are high relative to recent averages (likely inflating the save% some), and shots for is abysmal. I don't really want to get into the numbers, only 5 games in they're far too easily skewed. Fact is, pretty much every facet of the game has been bad. Our goalies have been excellent and our GF is good thanks to an unsustainably high shooting%. Everything else has been bad, and almost every player has been bad in at least some respects. The fortunate, or maybe unfortunate, thing is that's it's all related. We have been a terrible possession team thus far. Every issue we have is the result of that. It's far too early to determine if it's a systemic problem, or just a bad stretch. If that gets better, and at least close to what we've done in the recent past, everything else should improve. Save% and GF might drop, but should at least stay pretty good. Individually, Larkin, Pulkkinen, Nyquist, Quincey, and Zetterberg have been our best possession players. The only ones over 46% 5v5. Kindl, Sheahan and Abby not much below. Not coincidentally I think, those players have accounted for all of our 5v5 scoring. Pretty much the same for all situations. Quincey drops a bit, Richards and Green move up. Pulkkinen, Nyquist, and Sheahan, despite decent percentages, aren't creating many opportunities. They aren't giving up many either, but just not doing quite enough to break through the defense. Larkin has been our best at generating offense, with Z and Abby a bit behind him. Tatar has been the biggest problem so far, though Richards, Green, and Kronwall all need to improve. I think it's more an issue of just playing better rather than line combos, but I think we need a shakeup. I can't really come up with a set of lines that looks good to me without Datsyuk. I'd like to see Larkin or Helm with Pulk and Sheahan. Put Nyquist with Z and Abby, but that leaves Tatar and Richards together. Maybe Larkin or Helm could get them going, but that combo has been terrible so far. I don't know. Get well soon, Pavel.

And you were there to explain how the offense wasn't good, after even fewer games. We are all here to talk about the team, and throwing our hands up and citing small sample size is true of every single objective measure we would use to judge the performance of this team. At least up to this point. But I don't think we all want to wait for 20 games before posting again. I get your point. Its a small sample, but what else should we use to judge the defense? Turnovers? We are middle of the league in those. Scoring chances against? Middle of the league in those. Goals against? Middle of the league in those. In fact the only thing that's downright terrible is our shots against. And given that such a small sample size can dramatically skew stats, couldn't we actually be quite a lot better than even I'm suggesting? Nothing other than shots against suggests our defense is terrible. Mediocre? Sure. And that's what I was refuting...over 5 games. But the narrative seems to be "our defense sucks" regardless of how they play. Likely because its fun to point fingers at Ericsson, Quincey, Kind, and Smith.

Over the last 3 years around 22% of all goals scored have been on the PP. 30% may look "terrible", and would be if it stayed that way for the whole year, but given it's so early in the year it's meaningless. It's one goal. If your stats can so easily be skewed by just one or two goals, you need to take them with a grain of salt. Shot attempts are a much better indicator at this point since they are much more frequent events. Even that, given how little time we've spent on special teams, isn't very good. I said in the other thread; pretty much everything has been bad this year. That includes the defense. Maybe not as inept statistically as the offense, but just as bad as special teams, and much worse than the goaltending. Furthermore, I think most people would include the PK in the broader "defense" category. Certainly possible to be good on one but poor on the other, but they're not exactly separate. Further-furthermore, there's "defense" in the sense of our ability to prevent goals, which is a product of both our defensemen and forwards (most people I think exclude the goalie from team defense). But I think when it was initially brought up, "defense" was meant in the sense of our group of defensemen, and includes both the defensive and offensive contributions. Bottom line is we can't hold on to the puck. When we lose it, we have trouble getting it back. We have the same problem at every strength. It means we generate few shots, allow a lot, and take more penalties.

It's quite an accomplishment. Many people didn't think you'd make it this far.

Same here! Why not, he currently sits #22 of of all skaters in yahoo.

Well with the unfortunate circumstance with Franzen and the slim chance that he will be back with the team permanently, I think IMO its a given, even when Datsyuk gets back that Larkin will stay and they will waive either Ferraro or Andersson. Even IF Franzen makes it back to this team, I believe the will still keep Larkin and then waive the other one of the two I mentioned. edit: In honor of 10,000! Franzen, Quincey, Howard, Helm, Hudler, Manny's Father-in-Law, Hossa, Kindl, Mrazek, Holland, Franson, Jensen, Ericsson, Fedorov, Cleary, He Who Shall Not Be Named, conspiracy, Bettman, Sammy, I was RIGHT, I was WRONG, I told you so, first I liked it, then I hated it, just retire already... ... ... ... ... ... ( I know you love the ...'s)Sheesh, that's THE JUCK ******* POTT right there! I love you all! Goodnight!

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think sending him to grand rapids would save a year of his ELC..? I'm pretty sure that's only if a player goes back to junior within nine games or whatever. Could be wrong but either way, I think Larkin is here to stay.

We need to give up a lot fewer odd man rushes, part of that is the defenses fault for pinching so much, part of it is on the forwards for not recognizing they're pinching and covering for them. So far this season, I've seen sheahan and Larkin skating backwards like defenseman multiple times while the other team has 3 forwards rushing. That needs to be fixed. I'm thinking its just growing pains, new coach, new systems, new players, etc.

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You're selling Kronwall short. Lots of people do. He consistently posts as good, or better, seasons than all the other 1A defenders. Yet he never gets any love. He plays in every situation. Is very good on both sides of the puck. Hell, he had more powerplay points than Duncan Keith AND Drew Doughty last season. And he's an excellent penalty killer. Yet for some reason people say he's not a top guy. I don't agree.

Look at shot differential. The shots will start to go in, trust me. It's been 5 games. You can also bank on our shooting percentage to go way down as well

I just hope Franzen is able to overcome the symptoms he is facing right now and is able to lead a healthy life with his family. While I think a healthy Franzen is a big asset for the Wings, if he hangs it up, I wish him the best and thank him for his efforts as a Wing. He was in beast mode in 08. I hope he LTIR's it for his long term health, but I don't have the right to tell him what to do.

No matter how forcefully you write it, it's just a guess or a preference. I think Helm is important to the team. I expect a 3 year deal - maybe I shouldn't written many years. We'll see. His only role is not 3C. He hasn't played there for while. He played the role of Dats winger for a while last year. Did play 3C some and winger on the 2nd and 3rd line. PKs, spent some time on the PP. He's a swiss army knife - That adaptability is main strong point. Anyway, I know you disagree so no need to respond - It's all beside the point that I think your Trade idea is way too risky and would likely end up in the regret pile.

Back-to-Back game against the hottest team in the NHL (who's rested) with a bad call that gave them a goal. I say meh to this one. Should have won yesterday, though. People s***ting on Ericsson but he stopped 2 goals in the 1st half.

so two games lost and we are a wc team at best? lol love lgw forum

does anyone still want jurco? he was playing on the 2nd line last game and was invisible. 100 games in the nhl now and isnt doing much only 11 goals. glendenning has more goals in id be really pissed if they decided to send larkin down to keep jurco.