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Can he leave right now?

My sister (who is going through chemo) and my nephew flew to Detroit yesterday for the game. I'm hoping the Wings play their hearts out so that everyone wearing the winged-wheel can leave The Joe smiling, high-fiving, and feeling great! Go Wings!!!

How is Anderson still in the lineup my god

If that's the case then I quit being a fan of this team.

This is Our House! Time to take the series back, I hope Petr comes out a beast and gives them nothing, an assist would be the cherry on top. I want the Wings to go out and take care of business! LGRW!

Those players wouldn't produce much offense anyway. Their top line is the difference in this series. Take them out of the equation and who we have left outscores who they have left. I understand the frustration with the strategy - it would be great if we had a top line with grit and scoring ability - but Game Two showed us that we do not and that we have to try something new.

I guess you missed my point... This team is in transition and people shouldn't be looking for major changes or a quick fix. We need to continue to build from within and just make a couple minor tweaks along the way... We probably should be looking to trade a player like Ericsson, but with his no trade clause and not quite playing at the level of his contact, that isn't likely to happen. Smith should not be traded, he should be in the lineup. But if Blashill continues to refuse playing him, despite him being a much better option than some others that are immune to being scratched, then I'll agree, we should trade him. I just know if a team traded for him, a different coach would be able to get the most out of him and he'd be a very solid top 4 defenseman. Jurco and Pulkkinen should not be traded for the simple fact that their value is at an all time low right now. Jurco will be a very good top 9 forward (possibly even top 6), Pulkkinen I'm not so sure about. I'd throw Howard's name out there to see if there's any interest, but if we have to retain a significant amount of his cap, I don't do it. Also I'd consider holding onto Howard for another year, if it means getting Mrazek significantly cheaper. We should re-sign Helm, and he will not get anything close to Abdelkader money. I don't see us re-signing Quincey, but if we did, it wouldn't be the worst move we could make, and if we did it would likely mean that one of the other defensemen is gone. DeKeyser won't get $6M and Mrazek won't get $5M. I still think there's a strong possibility that Datsyuk plays out his contract, but even if he doesn't, I don't see us re-signing Richards.

I really can't understand the hate some of the so called fans on here vent towards a player of their team. He was a 4 th liner that did what he was asked to do. But for a couple of inches he'd have had an early goal in game 1 and who knows what may have happened. Still I wish him the best of luck in whatever he does next and thanks for his time here in Detroit. To all the badmouthing "fans" he can say something none of you can , he played over 200 games in the show and wore the Winged wheel to boot.

I don't blame him. At least Holland won't re-sign him to a loyalty contract. ...hey Joakim, can you take a couple more Swedes with you? Ericsson and Nyquist to be exact...

What is their to understand? That line has killed us. Create a line to stop them, any scoring from our guys on that line is a bonus. That line has some speed and some grit, I like the move a lot. Someone has to be in Johnson's mug all night. I have a feeling it may be Glendening's turn to take that role.

I would agree with you about some of the s*** talk on just about any other player. People that constantly b**** about Nyquist or Tatar or Ericsson or Smith, etc, etc, drives me nuts, but I do believe the s*** talking on Andersson is at least somewhat warranted... I just don't believe he is / was ever an NHL quality player. I'd bet if he were with just about any other organization, he wouldn't have gotten close to 200 games played, and would never have even made it at all with some teams. There's a reason not a single team wanted him for free in January, and there's a reason he's leaving for Sweden. There isn't however, a single logical reason based on all of this as to why he is still playing for us in the Stanley Cup Playoffs over MUCH better players... Nonetheless, I don't hate Andersson, I just don't think he's an NHL calibre player. I'm happy to see him go, but I'll wish him nothing but the best of luck in Sweden...

No size in the top six for a game in which retaliation should be expected. Sounds smart.

If Pulks is playing but not Mantha, they might as well trade Mantha in the offseason.

God Bless your sister to a speedy recovery! I hope she can get some enjoyment tonight! that being said, I certainly hope to see significant lineup and line changes tonight. I haven't seen anything of Mantha being called up, so there goes that but here are my changes: Smith in for Ericsson....Jurco in for Andersson...Mrazek in for Howard...Pulkkinen in for Nyquist. Tatar - Larkin - Athanasiou Helm - Richards - Jurco Zetterberg - Datsyuk - Abdelkader Pulkkinen - Sheahan - Glendening Dekeyser - Smith Kronwall - Green KFQ - Marchenko Those are my changes and lines to start the game. Wings win 4-2.....no changes, Wings lose 5-1...

Trade all 4 of Nyquist, Tatar, Pulkkinen and Smith in a package for a top pair defenseman? Trade Kronwall? Buy out Ericsson and Zetterberg? Yup, sure sounds like things the Red Wings should / would do... Also, like has already been mentioned, no way Lucic and Backes come here at any sort of discount... People that believe we're going to have this massive turnover, are going to be very upset / angry when we ice pretty much the exact same team again next season. People need to realize that we're having a few down years, not because we're simply getting worse but that we are in the process of a rebuild. We're transitioning from the vets to the youth, not quite as quick as some of us would like, myself included, but it is happening. We don't need to get rid of half of our team and bring in multiple players. We need one or two key trades that will give us a top pairing defenseman, either one that is now, or more likely one that will likely become one in a couple years from now. We're not packaging 4 roster players to get that defenseman either. Our roster is not that bad, and the Nyquists and Tatars (secondary scoring) are not the problem. It's our primary scoring that has taken a hit, and that will sort itself out once Larkin, Mantha and company develop into what we think / hope they will become. I'm not worried about our future up front, but without a big trade on the back end, our defense looks very bleak. Make a smart trade that doesn't mortgage the future up front, and we could potentially be a contender again within 3 years or so...

People have doubted Howard's ability to win in the playoffs for a reason. He's struggled with much better teams in front of him than he has now. There's no reason to expect him to change now so why lean on him without giving Mrazek a try?

I think people are reading too much into the comments on AA and Mantha. Taken at face value, the comments are saying nothing more than that expectations should be tempered. A lot of people have unrealistically optimistic ideas of what those guys are likely to do, whether they admit it or not. Of course, those same people would be the first to defend AA and Mantha if they were given a chance and didn't produce, most likely saying "expectations were too high". AA is exactly the kind of player that should be getting limited minutes. Most of the time he's on the ice, he's giving up more than he's getting. But every once in a while he'll pop off a great chance with his speed. Keep his minutes down and it's easier to shelter him. You increase the chance of getting the good stuff without the bad, and you have more premium minutes to give the guys who are more likely to produce a positive result. Mantha .vs Andersson is a different story, but I don't think Mantha should be in our top-9 right now anyway. I would rather see Jurco in for Andersson (or just about anyone really), but I also don't think anyone would make any meaningful difference from the 4th line either.

I actually thought the high level competition and constant battling in the West helped keep us competitive. It might be a coincidence but it seems like the team got lazier after the switch.

Little something I threw together real quick

Quincey better be injured ffs. Also, Andersson goes from not playing at all to centering the 3rd? Clearly that's the change we needed.

Hopefully not being benched for Pulkkinen...

If my math is correct and I can only use the info out there, is it possible to add backes, Lucic, Martin, and trouba in one off season? Yes it is. Try this lineup for the 2016 season with cap hits. Abby 4.25-Larkin .925-Backes 5.5 Lucic 5-AA .630-Mantha .865 Jurco .9-Z 6.1-Svechnikov-.925 Martin 2-Sheahan 2-Glendening .63 Miller 1 Dekeyser 5.5-Trouba 4 Kronwall 4.75-Marchenko 1 Ericsson 4.25-Green 6 Oullett .72-Sproul .75 Mrazek 3 Howard 5.3 Dead money for Datsyuk+Weiss 8.6 million. Cap is 74.97 million. We have a cap of: 74.60. We then have Nyquist, Tatar, Smith, and Pulk to put a package together to trade for Trouba. Summer of 2017 if we move Kronwall we would then have 15.75 to resign our guys and sign another big name to help the blueline and replace Kornwall.

No seriously. I think Mrazek should play. Our D is way too handicapped against Tampa. Question is how well Mrazek plays. No jk the question is will Blashill play him.

30 minutes into Playoff hockey and chill