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Pretty much. The Abdelkader contract is bad. It's one of several bad contracts on the books. I don't think these contracts have directly contributed to our downfall and I don't think they're really holding us back in any meaningful way right now, but I get why people hate on them. At the end of the day, it all comes down to drafting. We haven't been able to find another Datsyuk or Zetterberg in the later rounds and we went 500 years without picking in the top ten, so it's no surprise that we've become a basement team. I think it's fair to give the organization some grief for not finding, say, a John Klingberg (5th round), but that's in the past now. What matters now is the 2019 draft.

Gonna be honest, Mantha looked fairly good tonight! Need that every night.

They won!! Bernier just lowered his GAA to 4.21!!

Big win. Not for the standings, of course, but for morale and positivity and all that. Mantha and Bertuzzi break their scoring slumps. Mantha was our best player tonight, IMO. He looked really good. Rare Riggy goal, always welcome. Abby finally gets one and I doubt he cares that it was an empty-netter. Bernier was solid. Not spectacular, but he didn't really have to be -- which is itself a good thing. The most important thing: We won a game against a team that had Ben Bishop in net. Holy crap.

I'd do Vladdy with Lids. Like it was meant to be.

As I mentioned a while back in the Water Cooler thread I'm moving back to Michigan. My new place (Oscoda) will have a nice basement and I want a couple video games like at arcades, and a classic pinball machine. I'm also getting a top of the line bubble hockey game where you can personalize who plays for your team. I'm planning on an all-time skirmish between Red Wing greats vs Canadiens greats. For the Red Wings I'm going L to R Lindsay -- Yzerman -- Howe and on defense Lidstrom but that's one thing I want opinions on, who should I pick for my second defenseman? Sawchuk in net. For Montreal Patrick Roy will be in goal so I can feel extra good when I score on him. Larry Robinson at one D, Rocket Richard on wing. Taking suggestions on one defense and two forward spots for the Habs.

YAY we won! So happy to see Bernier get the win. I couldn't watch. Did they do well or was this just a fluke?

Wait. A win? In regulation? Stop it.

Nice to see as get a win Them backseats aren't helping much in my opinion.

You can't spell "Abdelkader" without "leader." Srsly tho. With 2 assists tonight, the REAL future captain (Larkin) has put up 4 goals and 9 points thru 11 games. That is one of the few positives we can take from these first 11 games.

Do you like my horse?

Look at this HYPE!:

I can only watch the Stars feed...I always forget how awful their color commentary guy is..always trying to come up with unique descriptions of plays ...just terrible. Give me Ken and Mickey

Mantha (2) from Nyquist (7) and Green (1)

I actually think he was merely correlating Abby's salary to his level of suck. He's right about that too, but at this point its beating a dead horse as no one was happy with that contract when he got it. However Abby isn't why the wings suck, he is a good example as to how our GM and upper management put this team into the situation we are in but he's not why we suck. Our roster has many players- Larkin, AA, Nyquist, Nielsen, Mantha, Vanek & Bertuzzi that could put up a lot of points IF we had a superstar or heck even two. Our management dropped the ball very heavily on that and we are seeing the consequences of it, now we are left looking for a white horse in a field of donkeys.

DID! (Yes, I have a YouTube video for everything.)

...and the hockey world has never been the same! Super Hype!

Win it for Apu.

For Red Wings D I'd personally go with either Konstantinov, or Pronovost.

I just had a brilliant idea. I'm going to print out then copy and cut out The Hudlers faces and put a few where they'd be sitting on the Wings bench

Kelly or Cheli on D for the Wings. Tatar, Ouellet for the Habs I did Red jersey Wings and White jersey Wings on mine. Z - Dats - Hull - Murphy - Lids vs. Feds - Y - Shanny - Coffey- Chelios. Hasek and Cujo in goal. I didn't do any old school guys.

I mean, there's an element of semantics here, so "your mileage may vary." But, yeah. We don't have a single player we can point to and say, "This guy is one of the best in the business, for sure, no question. He'd be a core player on any team." Seems like "superstar" is the descriptor that the Wings' PR people have settled on... https://www.nhl.com/news/detroit-red-wings-wont-sit-back-in-attempt-to-rebuild/c-301284676 "We're superstar driven, and it pains me, it pains Ken, that we are bereft of a superstar," Devellano said. "Superstars win games. Superstars sell tickets. Superstars drive TV ratings. And to sit here and not have that kind of player, or preferably players, is painful. But that's as candid as I can be with you. We do have a plan." https://www.nhl.com/redwings/news/notes-wings-working-hard-to-break-out-of-offensive-funk/c-301343202 "I don't think we have any 40-goal scorers in here but we got guys that score," Frans Nielsen said after Saturday's practice at the BELFOR Training Center. "(Thomas Vanek) can score, we know that. Some players we know can. But we're a team that lack superstars. It has to come from everyone." * * * The good news is we could very easily finish dead last this season and possibly next season as well, so we're probably getting an infusion of elite talent pretty soon.

Welcome aboard! Lifeboats are located over there, under there, up there, down there -- pretty much everywhere.