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Not directed at your comment specifically, but I hear this thrown around a lot. I agree, but realistically how do you prepare your team to lose one of (if not the best) defensemen to ever play the game? Yes, you can go out and sign a Shea Weber, but that's still going to fall short, especially when OTHER players on your team that you thought were pretty decent are exposed as mediocre in his absence. We didn't just lose Lids, we "lost" everyone on the team that he elevated.

Everybody should chill a bit. A week ago we played super well against two of the very best teams in the league. This week we had a couple stinkers. Oh well. It happens. We aren't a perfect team, but we are competitive with the best teams in the league. Playing two bad games in a row (we got a point in one) is not a sign that we need some dramatic change in our roster or approach. I've said all along, and still maintain, we will be a MUCH better team in the second half of the season than the first. Growing pains happen. We will continue to improve, make some tweaks at the deadline, and be in prime territory come playoffs. Mark it.

It doesn't seem like they want to call mantha up though, they want him to keep his confidence and he's just getting adjusted to grand rapids, no reason to mess with that. http://www.freep.com/story/sports/nhl/red-wings/2015/12/17/detroit-red-wings-prospects/77488140/ "I thought Anthony played well," Blashill said. "I liked the fact I thought he did a good job skating away from the puck, to get the puck or track back, and I thought he won battles. If Anthony Mantha does those things, he is going to be a real good NHL player in time. He looks an NHL guy with his size and skill set, he just has to continue to grow as a hockey player. I think he is gaining confidence, we have to be very careful to make sure he stays in a position where he can continue to gain confidence."

Quincey, sheahan, and pulkinnen for Johansen.

Just to add to what BoS and kliq said, there was always going to be a dip after Lidstrom retired, but on top of that, we had a number of other unexpected hits to the D corps. Rafalski retired out of the blue, Stuart asked for a trade for family reasons. That's 3 of our top 4 at the time gone in a couple of years. I think Kenny has done a good job rebuilding with these hits to the roster. And he did prepare for Lidstrom's retirement. People forget that we had Jiri FIscher. Fischer would still be playing (he's 35) and would have been in the top 4 for this adjustment period after Lidstrom. Just imagine the past few years with that 6' 5", first round defensive stalwart in the mix. I don't think Holland can be blamed for not accounting for a heart problem. On top of him, we used other 1st round draft picks for Dmen that just didn't develop to their high potential (Kindl, Smith).

Losing Lidstrom definitely hurt this team, and it might have been the cause of the slide since then, but I don't think we use it as an excuse for why the team is struggling in the third period. There are 29 teams that never had a Lidstrom to begin with, and now 30 teams that don't. Most of them have no issue closing out games, and certainly not to the degree that the Wings do. So there's definitely a way to do it without requiring a Lidstrom-level skillset on the defensive roster. Some team's have players of Weber' caliber, or Suter's caliber, but there's also many teams out there with defensman that aren't any better than the what the Wings have who can maintain a lead throughout the third period.

Excellent post! Its frustrating when people say Holland didn't prepare for the loss off Lidstrom, because you just cant. His best replacement at the time was Kronwall. With that being said, if I remember correctly he did try making a play for Weber, but either Weber or Nashville were not interested (around the time Weber signed the offer sheet with Philly), and we all know how hard he tried with Suter, Elite d-men are elite for a reason, they are not easy to find. In the days of the cap and long term contracts with top players usually resigning with their existing teams, its even harder.

Watched the whole game , Mantha was f***en awesome Anyone who thinks he won't have a good future in Detroit hasn't been watching him play

Make it 12 straight! Franchise record. Mantha with another very good game.

Mraz: "Okay, Jimmy I'll take care of handling the puck. It's your job to face wash Crosby whenever he's around..."

These have basically been my thoughts as well. I've said it a few times now, but I believe the team is trending upwards, despite these last two losses.

Was he crying? He crossed cp3 the other day vs the clippers, not bad for a hairless sasquatch.

I'm not saying we should make no changes. I'm saying we should not make knee jerk changes based on games like the last two while forgetting about how good we have looked against teams like Los Angeles, Washington, St. Louis, and Montreal. Also, I disagree that we are the same team as the last three years. Aside from the internal growth of guys like Tatar, Nyquist, and Dekeyser, we also added Green, Richards, and Larkin. We are a MUCH better team than we were a year go. And we will continue to play better as we work out the growing pains (I.e. the power play, defense scoring, usage issues, etc.)

I have it on good authority that... *spoiler alert* Vader is Luke's father, Han Solo is really Indiana Jones, and Jabba is secretly a woman (although let's be honest--who didn't see that coming given his voluptuous pear shape?). What a wild ride!

I agree chaps. From what I've seen from the Griffins over the past few seasons, it never seemed like it was in their game plan to sit back and try to protect leads, they always seemed to want to go out and get the next one whether it was a 2-1 game or 5-1 game. I'm sure Blashill is well aware that changes need to be made and is working diligently to implement that same mentality of his Griffins teams into the Wings system. It takes time, especially like you mentioned, the majority of the team has been coached by the same guy virtually their entire NHL career, be it two years or ten years. It's very easy to learn and understand new systems, it's a lot harder to execute these new systems without ever reverting back to the old system... There have been way too many blown leads of late and that last game really got under my skin, but this team is definitely trending in the right direction, and I have faith in Blashill and the players that they'll get it figured out sooner than later. I believe we're definitely in the mix this year, but still feel that we're either one or two moves or one or two years away from being a legit threat. At this point I'm not sure which I'd prefer, actually go out and get one or two big pieces that would help us now (and in the future - enough with the rentals), giving up some assets (players, prospects, picks). Or continue to develop the youth and wait another year or two and hope to have an extremely potent home grown team in a couple years time. Their are obvious pros and cons to both strategies but I'm thinking Holland will elect to continue to play it safe and go with the latter, which me personally, I'm fine with...

They are 12-3-1 since Dan Cleary joined the team.

...they all were pretty bad imo.