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Just gonna try being extremely negative and maybe it will bring us some luck. Wings lose 7-1. Z is abducted by aliens midway through the 2nd, and the crowd litters the ice with bad pizza after the 7th goal creating bad ice conditions due to hot tomato sauce and cheese and the game has to be forfeited. Howard starting LW C RW GUSTAV NYQUIST HENRIK ZETTERBERG JUSTIN ABDELKADER TOMAS TATAR DYLAN LARKIN ANTHONY MANTHA DARREN HELM FRANS NIELSEN LUKE GLENDENING DAVID BOOTH ANDREAS ATHANASIOU MARTIN FRK DEFENSIVE PAIRINGS DAN DEKEYSER MIKE GREEN JONATHAN ERICSSON TREVOR DALEY NIKLAS KRONWALL NICK JENSEN Now go out there and play like you just don't care boys!

It's a TWO goal lead. What could go wrong?

I knew the Wings would come out guns blazing due to Mabus' GDT. Keep at it Boyz. LGRW!

They must’ve known this would be for the best for all of us...

Finally here at the start tonight, we are bound to win again at some point, right? Why not tonight.

I don't think the questions about Mrazek's potential are as cut and dried as his critics are making out. Yes the last 20 months he's been far too aggressive, and his positioning has been off at times. But he was playing at an almost elite level before that, and has still posted very impressive shut-outs intermittently since then despite being awful in other games. I know we've seen many backup goalies fall off a cliff after an impressive run, but Mrazek played his best as a starter. Also worth remembering that by the age Mrazek is now Jimmy had won a grand total of 3 NHL games. Mrazek has won 66 with 11 shutouts. By the same age in the NHL: Ed Belfour - 4 wins 0 shutouts Lundqvist - 67 wins 7 shutouts Kiprusoff - 8 wins 2 shutouts Hasek 3 wins 0 shutouts Cory Schneider 18 wins 1 shutout. Bobrovsky 43 wins 4 shutouts Rask 47 wins 11 shutouts Rinne 1 win 0 shutouts Ryan Miller 36 wins 3 shutouts. This isn't to say that Mrazek will ever be as good as any of the above. But writing off a 25 year old goaltender who has had 2 stretches of being statistically great because he's had 18 months of poor play on a low end team with awful defense seems a little premature. At least we need to give him chance this year to see if he can rebound. No great shock that his stats have fallen off a cliff under Blash...just like half the team....

Need to go back out there and play two more full periods of hockey, can't hang back and try to protect the lead with this defense. Keep it up, we are looking like we belong in the NHL so far.

End of 1st. Wings lead 2-0. Outstanding start. Keep it up.

Goose!

NYQUIST! 2-0!

Well there's one! And we scored it!

Fortunately, I have...an alternative feed. But, still. NHL.tv, get your s*** together.

Well we lost badly to a poor Habs team that couldn't score.... twice! So that means we beat the high scoring 1st place Jets? Ok.... Lets go with that!

Fair enough - apologies for misunderstanding you - In which case Mrazek compares really well! I mean researching what I wrote I was genuinely surprised by how many excellent goaltenders he outperformed in his first 3 seasons, including his crappy last year. I guess normally inconsistent young goalies aren't on teams that don't score any goals, so their play isn't as damaging. As you say, if Mrazek returns to his former level, the starter position is there for the taking. I'm just frustrated that Blash isn't using him either in the best way to rebuild his confidence, or indeed the best way to use any vaguely competent back up, and has seemingly flamed out Howard in the process. What's the point of saying you'll let performances determine ice time and then reward Mrazek's shutout by following up him letting in 2 softies against a rampant Calgary (with an awful defensive effort) with a fortnight of splinters on the bench. But then since our winning run, Blashill's coaching has been in insane panic mode...

No I meant their overall performance cumulative of their first three seasons not their third season specifically. Either way if what you say is true then Mrazek should win the job back this year if given the opportunity. It’s his 4th season.

No. But how many goaltenders that aren't in or potentially in the all time great category can you think of that never had a bad season? Nabakov had an .885 Turco had several below .900 Kipper had a few about .900 Khabibulin had a few below and around .900 Osgood had 3 cups and 4 complete seasons below .904 Miller had several between .900 and .910 So far Price is onto his third .905 season Bobrovski had a .898 and .908 and he's elite Dubnyk has lost his starters job twice with sub .900 seasons John Quick has a .902 & a .907 since being the starter Rinne has had 3 sub .910 seasons as starter including a .902 Fleury early had a .896 full season, a .905 season and a .906 (with the latter two being on stacked teams) Tim Thomas had 3 sub .910 seasons in his 9 year NHL career where he won Vezinas and Harts Hell even Patrick Roy & Brodeur had the odd bad season (worse than Mrazek to date) This is are guys listed in either the top 10 of the last decade or the top 40 all time, and I left out the guys from the 60s, 70s & 80s for fairness vs a high scoring league. Also bar Khabibulin and Dubnyk all those guys had much much better defencemen in front of them than Mrazek has had. My point is that most goalies not in the super elite category (and even some that are), have had bad seasons until they hit their peaks. Maybe Mrazek has peaked? Maybe the last 18 months are the blip? We just don't know. All we are certain about is that he had a brilliant year and a half and a crappy year and a half. Surely it would be sensible, seeing as we aren't going to be competing for anything, to try to find out which one is who he is, once it fairly soon becomes clear we aren't a playoff team.,

That's an oddly specific story. Still bitter about the divorce are we?

What about the 50 games he played last season? Do you think he was distributed games unfairly even then?

Should’ve learned their lesson in 1991 tbh. Losers will always be losers. The only one I geniounly feel bad for is Datsyuk. He’s stuck with idiots making idiotic decisions and screwing their national team over.

Maybe they allow the Russian Hockey Team and ban everyone else

hahahhahahahahahahah Typical Russia, what else is new with them. That basically seals the deal for Datsyuk ever winning an Olympic gold for Russia. Come back Pav.

12 v 9 in favor of Howard. 2 years ago we would have all voted for Mraz (except number9)