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PUCK DROP: 7:38 PM EST VS THE 23RD RANKED TEAM IN THE NHL WHO SOMEHOW ONLY HAVE 6 FEWER WINS THAN WE DO. START TIME: (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH PUCK DROP) -8:46 PM BECAUSE GOD KNOWS WE'LL BE DOWN 3-0 AFTER THE 1ST. DET LINE COMBOS -DATSYUK, ZETTERBERG AND (10) OTHER FORWARDS WHO CAN SKATE LIKE HELL, CREATE VERY FEW SCORING CHANCES, SUSTAIN LITTLE TO NO OFFENSIVE ZONE TIME, AND SPEND MOST SHIFTS RETRIEVING PUCKS OUT OF THEIR OWN ZONE. -KRONWALL, DEKEYSER AND (4) OTHER DEFENCEMEN WHO CANT RETRIEVE, OR MOVE THE PUCK OUT OF THEIR OWN ZONE. ALTHOUGH (1) DISPLAYS A NIFTY T-DRAG FROM TIME TO TIME (BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT 6,000,000 PER WILL GET YA!). -1 GOALIE WHO CAN ACTUALLY HANDLE THE PUCK BETTER THAN MOST OF OUR DEFENCEMEN, BUT ISN'T STARTING TONIGHT BECAUSE HE'S BEEN HANDLING TOO MANY PUCKS INTO HIS OWN NET LATELY. DET INJURIES: (THE MOST DEPRESSING LIST OF ALL) -DREW MILLER THAT IS CORRECT. WE LITERALLY HAVE (1) 4TH LINE LEFT WINGER INJURED - AND WE STILL CANT SCORE. TEAM SCOPE: DET - THERE IS LITERALLY NO WAY TO PREDICT HOW THIS TEAM WILL PLAY TONIGHT. BUF - THERE IS LITERALLY NO WAY TO PREDICT HOW THIS TEAM WILL PLAY TONIGHT. PREDICTION: AUSTON MATTHEWS WILL BE SELECTED 1ST OVERALL IN THE 2016 NHL ENTRY DRAFT.

I've been waiting my whole life for this.

What's to stop Chris Chelios from replacing him?

I think Holland will try his best to sign Stamkos but it will be a nightmare around here... Much like the Suter and Parise situation

Agreed. Nyquist has 28 EVP his season. Last season? 30. The power play has hurt him, big time. As far as Tatar is concerned, his shot totals from 2014-15 to 2015-16 are down from 211 to 152. I'd wager that having your playing time trimmed down by nearly two minutes might have that effect, though. Not making excuses for either guy, but it's not really fair to place the blame on them as individuals.

I was at Puck Talks Live http://www.homestandsports.com/homestandlive/2016/3/23/puck-talks-toronto in Toronto last week. They were talking about Stamkos. Chris Johnson from Sportsnet thinks Stamkos is going to sign with the Wings. It was funny, about a 1/3 or the room when he said it, myself included, cheered

True. Inter division always costs more. But beggers can't be choosers either. Yes we are entering the beggers area..... Yikes......

I'm not entirely sure how to fix the mess, but I do know a few things: 1. The powerplay is an atrocious mess that should have been fixed awhile back. They've done next-to-nothing to change it up all season long. A number of the players have similar EV point totals compared to last season's, but they PP has really hurt the offensive totals for most on the team. 2. There's no way they should be leaning on Datsyuk and Zetterberg as heavily as they have. Through February, both guys (along with Abdelkader) were playing 20+ minutes a night. They were 4th and 5th in the league in time on ice. It's gone down this month, but only because Blash separated them. When your primary, go-to offense guys aren't getting it done, try leaning on some of the younger guys. 3. As critical as I've been of Smith in the past, there's no way he should be sitting. He drives possession on this team. Blashill's system is suited for players with wheels. When I look at this defensive corps, I don't see many players well-suited for Blash's system. If you're not going to change it up, make better use of the players who CAN play within your system.

Speaking of Edmonton....at what point in Hall's career did he play well enough to warrant $6M per year? Same with Eberle? Maybe Nyquist's contract is not so bad afterall!

Malkin is a superstar and if they trade him it's going to be for a 1 defenseman something the Wings don't have. Wings would have to start with Larkin, Mantha and still go heavy from there just to get the conversation even started.Malkin is at least 1 level above all if the mentioned players, also where is the source for claiming Malkin is available ?

Malkin for Nyquist, Smith gets Holland blacklisted in the Pens office that's such an insulting offer wow. Adding guys like Jurco makes it even worse nobody is dumb enough to accept quantity for high quality if the Pens are trading Malkin it would be for a guy like Shea Weber or someone of that calibre. Also Malkin doesn't do anything to fix the defense the Wings can't outscore their problems ... teams are built from the backend not vise versa.

It's not about quantity it's about quality. If someone is going to deal a star player like Malkin, their going to insist on getting a very good piece back. Not a bunch of mid to lower level pieces.

You think that's fair value for Malkin plus they're going to retain salary? lol

For all the people constantly b****ing about Sheahan, Nyquist, Tatar, Jurco, Pulkkinen, etc. (aka secondary scoring / depth players), they are not the issue. These players are not hurting our team, like some like to suggest, and Nyquist and Tatar do not "suck", like has been the narrative around here for the past couple months... Both are very good secondary scorers and while their production has dipped a little, they're both still making things happen offensively. Both are in the top 4 on the team in Pts/60, Corsi% and Fenwick%. Again, secondary scoring is far from the issue with this team, our issue like others have stated is primary scoring. Zetterberg and Datsyuk have clearly lost a step or two and Larkin, Mantha and Athanasiou are all too young and inexperienced to carry the load. They will get there in a couple years, and when they do, our depth should be very good and we'll be back to contenders. Our biggest need is clearly on the back end, and I'd be willing to trade some of our depth for help back there. Of course teams are going to ask for Larkin and Mantha, but they know damn well they're not going anywhere, and I don't think we would need to trade one of them to upgrade the defense. A package including one of Nyquist or Tatar and prospect(s), pick(s) should be enough to get it done.

Yeah, I wasn't all that clear. Not having top performing players is a problem. What I mean is that having below average top players wouldn't be much better, and potentially worse if we lose too much depth. Relying on depth, "myth" or not, is simply reality. There are very few true impact players in the league, and they are almost never available. Stamkos may become available, and if he does I'm sure we'll make a pitch like we did with Suter. But odds are it's not going to happen. Odds are there will be no one available through trade that is so much better than Nyquist, Tatar, or Abby to justify trading two of them. Nyquist has 43 goals the last two years, Tatar has 49. There are 22 and 11 forwards (respectively) who have scored 10 or more above that. That's only 5 more per year, hardly a big difference even if someone steps up to equal the production of the 2nd player. 6 and 9 respectively that have averaged 10 more per year. Most likely none of them are available through trade. Fortunately, that also means that no one available would actually cost Nyquist + Tatar either, so this is kind of a moot point. Point is, despite all the contempt familiarity has bred for our roster, there are just not that many players in the league that are that much better than the secondary players we already have. The few that are we aren't going to get. The best thing we can do then is add without subtracting. While we may have some kids who could step up, it's not an unlimited supply and it's not a sure thing. Worth the risk to trade one, I'd say, but not two. And better to use the one for a defense upgrade IMO. And goals are more important than points. Even more so if we're giving up any of our better goal scorers. Someone has to finish, and actually put pucks in the net, or no one gets points.

Yeah I got the DLC but haven't played too far into it yet, just a couple missions. The ability to create your own robot companion is a really cool feature. I'm about a level 10 in The Division so far as well, i've been working so much that I haven't played as much as i'd like to but still really dig the game for sure.

And Green had produced at a slightly better rate the year before. 10g, 45p in 71 games to 5g, 44p in 75 games so far this year for Yandle. Green also signed a 3 year deal. I'd assume Yandle will be looking for more. He's the same age Green was when we signed him last year. I like Trouba and I'm sure that would be a very good pair. I'm just saying he's over-valued by some people around here. Yes, and if we don't figure out why they're down this year, the same thing likely turns your 35 goal scorer into a 25 goal scorer. And making others around them better means nothing if there's no one around them that's good in the first place. Bottom line is this. We are not going to trade/replace half the team. It's not possible. (At least not replace with something better.) No matter what we do, no matter who we add, any significant improvement has to come from players that are already here. With what we added this year, we should already be better. Instead we're just as bad 5v5, and our PP is much worse. We have added a ton to the team in the last few years, but we're losing just as much. We need to stop taking steps back. That means trying to make additions while subtracting as little as possible. That means not trading two of our best young players.

There were 3 players who scored 40 goals last year. Probably around the same this year, give or take. For the most part, those guys just aren't available. Stamkos may be (though he'll cost more than $9M I'd bet). With the young guys we have, it's worth looking into trading one of Nyquist and Tatar, but not both. At least until more of the kids actually prove something.

I agree that Yandle may get over-valued by some around here (though the Trouba hype from some is far worse), but I doubt he will get $8M. I would guess around $6M depending on the cap and term. We don't need 3 defensemen either. Might seem that way because we lack a real top defenseman, so we judge everyone as being not good enough. We may want to replace some for cap reasons, but I think we'd be alright without doing so. We may not even want to add more than one this summer, with expansion looming. As far as trade targets, Vatanen or Lindholm are the most realistic options. Could be the perfect storm there, as I think they are also two of the best options rumored to be available. I think that's a bit too simplistic. First, the goal is to be a good team, so we want our 1st-liners to be above average. If you have 3 guys ranked in the 50s or 60s for your 1st line, odds are you aren't going to be very good unless your depth is exceptional. That isn't likely to be true if we trade too much of what we have. Finding top talent is difficult, and expensive. Most likely, there just isn't a deal out there. We probably need to rely on depth more than power at the top, as well as the kids taking a step forward. That means trying to figure out why most of our team took a step back this year. Secondly, we need to concentrate on goal-scoring rather than just points. One major problem this year is that in terms of goal-scoring, Datsyuk and Zetterberg are very poor relative to the top forwards on other teams. The rest of the team, even having a poor year, is average or slightly above.

Mabus, I picked up The Division and I'm liking it. I'm at level 13 in the story soloing all the way, and did ok soloing in the dark zone for a bit, though I did run into a couple guys and we started working together for a bit. Has anyone played the Fallout 4 DLC yet? I have it but didn't fire it up yet. I'm level 85 in Fallout 4 and think I'm going to max my robotics perk before I run through it.

7 games to go for us, not 6. For the Bruins it's 6, and that's the team to catch. Comparing the schedules, it really comes down to winning in Boston to get in, if you calculate the likely results for the other games: Boston: @Devils @Blues @Blackhawks vs Canes vs Wings vs Sens If you go with W-L-L-W-L-W, it's 6 more points for a final 94. Detroit: vs Sabres @ Habs vs Wild @Leafs vs Flyers @Bruins @Rangers Winning against the 3 lottery teams and the Bruins gives us 8 points, so it would be one more win (or two OT losses.. ) out of the three games against Wild, Flyers and Rangers to get to 95. Which isn't all that unrealistic by numbers and records...but right now, I wouldn't bet against us losing vs Buffalo, either. .... EDIT: Oh, I thought Philly had 87 points, but it's 85. Their schedule: vs Jets vs Caps vs Sens @Pens @Wings vs Leafs vs Pens vs Islanders 6 expectable points vs lottery teams, but then again..a win for us could get us in, because they could easily lose three of their other four games. ... "Coulda, woulda, shoulda", yeah, I know...we would prefer to have 95 right now, not 85, that's for sure. On the other hand, without Petr's outstanding play for the majority of the season, we would sit at 75 points right now, at best.

Sure. Never said that the changes produced more goals. One doesn't exclude the other. Two examples that stood out to me this season : Our defenseman are allowed to pinch more often. And our center often goes deeper into the zone instead of securing high against breakouts. Smith. By a mile.

I'd rather give Larkin, Matha and AA some playoff experience than drafting 1 or 2 positions earlier.

As bad as todays game was I think Blashill is the right coach for this team. He openend the Wings up for a more attractive, offensive style. It might fall flat this year but I take Blashills approach over Babcocks defensive first style any time. And by the way : It's not over yet. We still have all the chances to make the playoffs.