Leaderboard

Why is witkowski on this team if he’s not going to punch guys like Dorset in the face?

The Wings will likely be in the basement in a few weeks. The defense, as everyone predicted, is terrible again. I never get tired of saying this, but this team has the highest payroll in the league.

Yeah it looks pretty vacant Reminds me of the GDT tonight

4 days i'm excited Maybe we should try Glendening at D, seems to play zone coverage pretty well and isn't afraid to throw down his body and block shots.

When you have a D that turns the puck over this much and can't get the forwards the puck it doesn't matter if you have a team of Ovechkins, Crosby's and McDavids. Green checks his stick when he goes off the ice. Always the sticks fault.

As per Khannnnnnnnnn Bye Mr. Teletubby

If you drop an octopus on Blash's stupid head i'll paypal you $3.50

For all the flack Dekeyser gets, he's pretty important to us and I think the D looks quite a bit worse without him. Or maybe it's just that the D is so weak that any hit by injury and it pushes us over the edge

Outcoached

Our top 6, unquestionably, needs to be Z, Mantha, Larkin, AA, Tatar, Frk when AA gets here. Nyquist can swap with Tatar on the 3rd line, Nielsen and Abdelkader need to permanently stay down there. Wilson, Glendening, Helm 4th line, barring injuries. Our D is just a train wreck overall, I don't think any combination will make them much better overall.

The wings are one boring ass, uninspired team to watch

Being outskated, outworked, outsmarted, outplayed. Unacceptable effort.

This game is boring

Is that a slight to us? haha

My first response was a reply to Kliq's post about the blind hatred for Holland that exists here (although it seems to have lessened lately) and other sites (Hockeybuzz is rife with it). That wasn't directed at you, but since Kliq quoted you I can see why you might think that. My apologies. I was however responding to the part about me thinking Holland's model was "flawless." I have never said that, nor does anything I have said in here reflect that. I would invite you to take your own advice and look at MY previous posts. I have more than once stated that Holland has made some bad deals. I hated the Helm and Abby deals. I will also say that I hate the Ericsson deal. I hate overpaying for UFAs and veterans just as you do. They make it harder to sign the kids. How is that flawless management on my part? Would it surprise you to know that I actually agree with you on Smith, Sheahan, Sproul, and Tatar. The only ones you posted that we disagree on are AA and Daley. Does my differing opinion on those 2 deals mean that I live in 2008? I also hate overpaying for RFAs, which I believe AA's asking price was. 500K may not seem like a lot of money now, but with all of the bad contracts on this team that will still be here for years to come (on Holland), that 500K could interfere with Holland's ability to resign guys like Mantha, Larkin, or Svech, who are all more important to the rebuild than AA, IMO. And if AA can't understand that this is a business and he lets it affect him personally, than maybe he's too emotionally/mentally weak to be here.

I had high hopes for Sproul, but he's almost the same player now as he was 4 years ago. Even at AHL level the guy hasn't really taken a step forward. Perhaps the change of scenery will do him good. As for Puempel, he's no great shakes, but he's probably better than Booth & Witkowski, and is as good at the AHL level as Sproul is. I'll be astounded if Sproul is ever as good as Daley. And Ericsson, for all his flaws is our only big d-man. You don;t want the puck on his stick, but he's still our best guy at moving bodies around the net, even if he isn't as physical as we'd like. Re your second point, either Wilson will do well and get re-signed for a low salary or traded for 3rd round ish pick come the playoffs, or he wont and will get traded for a 4th/5th round pick...the guy has a decent playoff record and has proven point scoring ability. Given that we needed to shed salary to get AA into the line-up, and Wilson will at worst generate another pick (and Sheahan started this season as well as he played last year), I can't see how the wings lose on this one. Likelihood is its a decent hockey trade which benefits both teams.

You know Sproul cleared waivers right? It's a AHL for AHL trade. If he was that good someone would have picked him up.

A lot of the "trades are hard" is just sarcasm. I know I've joked about it. High end trades like Shanny, Chelios, Hasek are a thing of the past. Wings were a contender then, picks and prospects were expendable. Now that a rebuild is on (hopefully) they just can't afford to make a lot of those kinds of deals anymore. I don't think those are the kinds of deals people are expecting (or at least they shouldn't be). That doesn't mean that they should hoard all of their picks/prospects either. Most of them won't pan out anyway. I do think they have the assets to acquire a young 2nd pairing defenseman with 1st pairing potential. That's the kind of trade l think most are looking for. Not easy, but I think there is the belief that Holland is too gunshy to pull the trigger on a deal like that even if one was on the table. Therefore...Trades are hard.

There wasn't. Kronwall did fairly well in that 2014 season. We got complacent imo.

I know it's been 5 years since Lidstrom, but in those initial years since he left we looked promising overall. D, Z and Howard seemed to be carrying. Which probably made the management complacent. I think the reality set in around the 2015-16 season when Tampa just outclassed the hell out of us and then it kept sinking in the following two seasons. Probably because the players I mentioned could no longer carry the team.

I've been seeing a lot of people post this lately. What does that even mean? Holland has done 6 trades in 2017 alone.

No, the pick didnt pan out. Sunk Cost. Mistake was made in 2010, not 2017. You can't hold on to a player because of what he used to be worth, you have to be able to make the tough decision and give him up when the time is right. And again, with your logic that means the Sproul trade was a huge win soley based on the fact that we traded a 2nd round pick for a 1st round pick. Again, where they were picked doesnt matter in 2017. You want to criticize Holland for taking Sheahan, go for it. You want to criticize the organization as a whole for not developing Sheahan better, go for it. But to criticize the Wings for trading him because he was a 1st rounder 7 years ago......not valid.

I’m sure he’ll continue to not score in Pittsburgh as well. Actually he’ll probably snipe.

Guy signs for less than he originally was offered. Played his hand really early. Kenny knew a young kid doesn't want to play in Russia. AA went to Switzerland to once again pretend he was interested in playing overseas. Once again his bluff was called. Holland got him signed for less money. Kenny won't get any credit for it. Pretty simple

Wait, never mind. I just watched some Rasmus Dahlin highlights. I want him instead.