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Zetterberg is gonna be a game time decision so Detroit's lineups may change

An uncreative answer isn't necessarily an incorrect one, but I can certainly flair it up for you if that's what you want (and excuse my wall of text because its coming!) Here's Sheahan's career stats (taken from hockeydb) 2013-14 Detroit Red Wings NHL 42 9 15 24 6 8 5 0 0 0 0 2014-15 Detroit Red Wings NHL 79 13 23 36 16 -3 7 2 1 3 2 2015-16 Detroit Red Wings NHL 81 14 11 25 12 -8 5 0 1 1 4 2016-17 Detroit Red Wings NHL 29 0 5 5 12 -11 points per game ordered by season: 0.57 0.46 0.31 (Blashill yr 1) 0.17 (Blashill yr 2) That first year was the best, and he had a bit of a sophomore slump (not uncommon, mind you) the following year, but still respectable for his role and experience. Then Blash takes over and instead of the numbers recovering or even plateauing, they drop even more, and at a steeper rate. And then they drop some more, and again at an alarming rate the following year. A little unusual, especially for someone who initially showed so much potential, but maybe that's just Sheahan. Except it isn't. Here's Tatar's stats: 2012-13 Detroit Red Wings NHL 18 4 3 7 4 2 -- -- -- -- -- 2013-14 Detroit Red Wings NHL 73 19 20 39 30 12 5 0 0 0 8 2014-15 Detroit Red Wings NHL 82 29 27 56 28 6 7 3 1 4 2 2015-16 Detroit Red Wings NHL 81 21 24 45 24 4 5 0 3 3 2 2016-17 Detroit Red Wings NHL 29 4 7 11 12 -9 Again looking at points per game but omg at that goal drop off. .39 .53 .68 .56 (Blashill yr 1) .38 (Blashill yr 2) Again we see a noticeable dropoff when Blashill takes over, and again instead of it recovering or plateauing we see the numbers drop even more (and even steeper) in Blashill's second year as coach. Here's Nyquist: 2012-13 Detroit Red Wings NHL 22 3 3 6 6 0 14 2 3 5 2 2013-14 Detroit Red Wings NHL 57 28 20 48 10 16 5 0 0 0 0 2013-14 Grand Rapids Griffins AHL 15 7 14 21 6 6 -- -- -- -- -- 2014-15 Detroit Red Wings NHL 82 27 27 54 26 -11 7 1 1 2 2 2015-16 Detroit Red Wings NHL 82 17 26 43 34 -2 5 1 0 1 6 2016-17 Detroit Red Wings NHL 29 4 11 15 4 -1 again p/g. aaaannnddd again omg goal drop off. .27 .84* .66 .52 (Blashill yr 1) .51 (Blashill yr 2) * note: to be fair that second year was a bit of an anomaly. That was the year Nyquist scored like 25 goals in 30 games or something ridiculous, and had a shooting percentage of a million. I don't blame Blashill one bit for failing to get Nyquist back to that point. Its an unrealistic expectation. The numbers from the following year, however, are more reasonable. Recurring theme: All three players are currently playing statistically the worst hockey of their careers as established NHL players, and all three players are approaching what should be their prime ages for production (meaning not only should they not be getting worse OR plateauing, we expect they should be improving). And these three players are not isolated cases. I could have put up Abdelkader's numbers, or Dekeyser's. Across the board just about every Red Wing has played worse than compared to when before Blashill took over. (Quick and dirty evaluation of goal scoring as a loose supportive data set: Red Wings ranking in goals/game the last few years: 16th, 10th, 23rd, 26th. Guess when Blashill took over.) And as I mentioned in another thread, the roster has arguably been improved bit by bit from year to year, so at least on paper there's more support for our guys to continue to produce, or at the very least earn points for the team (which have also incidentally plummeted since Blashill took over). Considering how just about everything across the board has suffered since he took over, and considering that just about everything has gotten worse and not better in his following year, I have a hard time looking at anything else beside Blashill at this point. He is the most glaring and obvious problem, and the one with the most repercussions throughout the makeup of this team. I struggle to properly evaluate other aspects of this team because I have such strong conviction that The Blashill Effect is already negatively muddling the results, and I wouldn't trust making adjustments or tweaks elsewhere because elsewhere might not even be broken and we could be potentially doing more harm by trying to find fixes where none may even be necessary. To take that a step farther and to underline a more ominous problem that's impending: do we trade away Sheahan at the deadline for a 5th round pick because he's dead weight and we're clearly missing the playoffs, only to see him immediately rebound under another coach? To be fair that's just speculation, but its also a real possibility that I want to convey, and one that leaves us trading down in value. As we approach this upcoming deadline likely to be sellers, right now the organization and potential trade partners are at high risk of under-appraising our goods and selling them off for less than they're actually worth (unless of course Sheahan and Tatar and etc and etc and etc actually are playing at their true levels and all the data before Blashill took over was just anomalies across the board). Holland is on his way to a terrible position because when the phones are ringing in February and Chicago wants Tatar (or just about anybody on the roster), Holland is either selling low based on the last two years of performance and continuously diminishing trends, or not selling at all (and then the fan base calls for his head for "kicking tires at the deadline"). I don't mean to derail this thread and I have no problem with people analyzing the actual on ice product that has been Sheahan to see if he's working the corners enough or skating with confidence or whatever, but I think its worth at least partially derailing to discuss exactly the magnitude that a poor coach has on this organization, both now and for the future, and that if Holland wants to maximize his chances at turning this team around, right now is probably the time to fire Blashill, if not to make a playoff comeback, but to reclaim some value on potential trade pieces by February. Anyway, sorry to totally go off on a tangent and do so in an endless wall of text.

Pitt scored 7, we are half as good as the Pens so we should win 3.5 - 0 They have been working on this contraption for him that forces him to play with 2 hands on his stick. It's a mix or super glue and industrial grade rope.

Chapters 1-5: Its Blashill Chapter 6: Surprise twist! Its Stan Bowman Chapter 7: Bowman was a red herring its actually blashill. Chapter 8: To be continued? Chapter 9: No. its def blash.

Im not reading all that. Someone give me the Tl;dr Is it Blashill?

How long does Sheahan get a free pass for ? The guy doesn't have a goal in 29 games and only 5 points. To go along with that he's -11. Coming off a 14 goal year last year and some solid play at both ends of the ice he has to be one of the biggest disappointments. I personally thought with his skill set a 20 goal season wouldn't have been too much to ask for. Oh and for those who don't get the Teletubby reference I have posted the link below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9oVbV41JKg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjN6xh8nsf4

in Ot Penguins won 7-0, damn...

It seems to me Blashills philosophy is having the forwards collapse in the D-zone to assist our overall weak Dmen. I'd like to see the opposite. Despite lacking top end talent we are pretty deep at forward. And plenty of our forwards have the wheels to be effective in a swarm style defense like Pittsburgh played on their road to the cup last year. Tatar, Nyquist, Larkin, Helm, Glendening, and Athanasiou are all very quick, and the rest of our forwards aren't exactly slow either. They should be using their speed to pressure the puck carrier and overwhelm them. Don't let them setup. I think this would end up helping our Dmen more than collapsing in the zone simply because it plays to our natural strengths. If we were a bigger slower team I would disagree, but we are not a big slow team not counting Ericsson. It seems like the rest of the league took a page out of Pittsburghs book, and the only who didn't notice was Blash.

Howard's like Ozzy. You wanna hate on him but he's just too reliable. He's our rock.

Howard confirmed to start tonight again, assuming after his excellent outing against Philly and Mrazek having a rough time last game he started.

HE'S A SENSITIVE MAN, OK?? HE LIKES PUPPIES.

I'm okay with Larkin and Athanasiou playing center, but I'm not okay with them being our top two centers. As of today both Zetterberg and Nielsen are better slotted as our one / two in my opinion. You really think Svechnikov has earned a spot on this team with his 8 points in 24 AHL game? He's not close to being ready. We don't need to mismanage another highly touted prospect, the same way we did with Jurco. Tatar hasn't been great so far this season, and I get frustrated with him as much as anyone. I'd move him off that top line for sure, but no way would I scratch him... 14 - 40 - 39 72 - 51 - 62 21 - 71 - 26 8 - 43 - 15 / 41

Being stuck in Notre Dames system stunted his offensive growth unfortunately.

The Columbus Blue Jackets are 5th in the Eastern Conference, and having played only 26 games have the best win percentage in the league right now. Given that this is true, I have a pretty hard time believing that the Wings are as bad as they are because of a mediocre roster. We also trail Ottawa and New Jersey as well. We may not be a Cup contender, but this roster is capable of more than it's giving right now. You cannot convince me that Columbus, New Jersey, and Ottawa have much (if at all) better rosters than we do.

He wont miss any time, and didn't during Sunday's game, but his throw was clearly affected. Two interceptions and his completed passes was lower than it should have been too.

Of course Sutter's being hyperbolic. So am I, to an extent. I'm not really sure what "defensive hockey" is. I guess, to me, it implies a disproportionately large emphasis on defending. But if we're just talking about fundamentally good, structurally sound team defense, then, sure, teams today are playing "defensive hockey." Good team defense remains the engine of success. Good team defense drives possession and offense. Good team defense wins Cups. ...and I don't think the Wings are playing good team defense. We spend too much time in our end and lean far too heavily on our goaltending. Sure, it's largely a talent issue. And, sure, there are two teams on the ice and each has a say in how the game is going to do down. And, sure, Wings fans have been spoiled by powerhouse Wings teams that made everything look so easy. But I maintain that this team is playing bad hockey. I think it's poor execution of flawed strategy (the former following from the latter). Maybe the strategy itself isn't inherently flawed, but, to me, it isn't working for this team. (Obviously I have a long list of gripes that goes beyond just the team and the coaching staff, but I guess that's sort of outside the scope of the discussion. Still, it felt good to rant in my previous post.) The ceiling for the 2016(-17) Wings is set at well below Serious Cup Contender status, but I firmly believe this team can and should be better than it's been thus far. I think we're seeing, among other things, a disproportionately large emphasis on defending, to the detriment of our overall ("200-foot") game. Like I've said, I'd point to our form of collapse defense as one of the big reasons why we're struggling as much as we are. It's hurting our transition game and our ability to generate offense.

Guys, anything can happen in the playoffs...

Because Tatar is having a worse season than Nyuist is and Tatar is on the first line while Nyquist is on the third.

I called it years ago and people gave me s***. He's never been good and he was over hyped. So much that I myself actually got convinced by otheres that he would become a 2nd line center one day. Now I feel stupid. He's a 4th liner at best imo. He'd be a good 4th liner with Glendog and Bertuzzi. He makes only like $2 million so it's fine. Could just be a bad year for him but 5 points in 28 games is really REALLY bad.

Personally, I don't think goals are down because the whole league is now playing decidedly "defensive hockey." I think goals are down because 1) NHL goaltending is, on the whole, probably better than it's ever been, and 2) we're living in The Age of Parity. Now, don't get me wrong -- I do think points are so valuable today that coaches are indeed stressing the importance of being responsible on the defensive side of the puck, maybe more than they were a few years ago (before The Parity Plan had really started to bear fruit). But I wouldn't describe today's game as defensive hockey. Are teams generally playing well defensively? I guess you could make that argument. But I'm with Darryl Sutter -- today's game isn't about defending. It isn't about trapping. It isn't about clutching and grabbing. It isn't about how well you play without the puck. Today's game, when you get right down to it, is about having the puck and doing good things with the puck. Unless you have lights-out goaltending that can compensate for fundamental shortcomings, you have to play a strong two-way possession game if you're going to have any real success. If we're talking defense, you need a defense that defends well and, just as importantly, drives possession well and generates offense well. The Wings...man, they're just playing bad hockey, period. Everything they're doing, in all three zones, is bad. I think you're right in suggesting "we're not doing defensive hockey as well as everybody else" in the sense that our collapse/box-out scheme is an awful, ultra-defensive version of what other teams are employing. And losing Lidstrom and Rafalski and ending up with the current D group definitely has and continues to hurt us (in all three zones). But then, it's not just how we're defending in our end, and it's not just how our defense is(n't) driving possession and isn't generating offense, and it's not just the actual quality of our D group. I believe our struggles go beyond just those things. Hell, I believe our struggles go beyond the team itself. It's bigger. It's bad decisions made by management. It's Ken Holland's hubris. It's the organization's misguided, outdated ideological convictions. It's an organization-wide lack of accountability. It's an institutionalized complacency. It's fetishizing things that don't necessarily contribute to winning (e.g. being from Michigan, being "good in the locker room"). And, yes, it's also Blashill and the self-evident problems with the brand of hockey he's having this team play and the long list of questionable decisions he's made regarding personnel and usage. And, yes, it's also the players, who simply aren't playing well enough. I think the Wings are living in a fantasy. I think teams are getting smarter, more calculated, more ruthless...while the Wings are getting dumber and more self-righteous. LOL, probably!

The defense can't shoot and the PP looks like it will end worst in the league. That will do it The wings try and play down low and score ugly but the forwards are too weak and frail to crash and bang. It would be a huge help if the defense could get pucks on net. It's like playing 3 on 5 in the offensive zone. The defensemen are just there

It's an Eminem reference. Why are you being so rude?