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HYPE! LGRW!

We're due for a blowout loss win, methinks.

As a pessimist to me there's no 'sure things'...I'd just assume stockpile our picks, and pick the best guy available.

We probably should have seen this one coming. After playing four really good teams and more than holding our own we come up against we should beat and come up flat. It happens. Ask the fans of those four teams how they felt about those games ( even Colorado ) and they likely werent thrilled. We lost. Learn and move on. We’ve played close to 30 games and only been blown out twice. Overall it’s been a good year

Has anyone watched the UMass Lowell team play. Seems like he is having a pretty good freshman season. 16 games, 1 goal, 5 assists, 19 PIMs, and is plus 2. Between him and Regula maybe we have a couple more defensive prospects.

That was the point of my original post. First, that trading from say 12 to 8 is probably much more doable than trading from 15 to 5 (for instance). And secondly, that you should only do so if your scouts think there's a game changer (like Petterson) who's still available. Of course their are no guarantees. But just because you're not guaranteed doesn't mean you shouldn't increase your odds. Normally I'd advocate for picking as often as possible too. I guess my point is that if we all agree that you need game breaking talent to win a Cup and not just a bunch of mid first rounders, then it might be worth moving up because most of the game breaking talent in the league today comes in the top part of the first round.

LGRW!!

Antti Raanta's out indefinitely, probably for the rest of the season. *cough*

Don't get me wrong, I know where you're coming from and I agree that this is something the Wings should take a hard look at if our first pick falls outside of the top 10. But it's one thing to say, "OK, we trade some stuff for a shot at drafting a guy who looks like he's going to be a legit gamechanger," and it's another thing entirely to 1) pull off that trade and 2) really hit a true home run with that pick (such that three years later you have zero regrets about trading what you had to trade in order to get your man). Once you get outside the top three, it's pretty much a crapshoot. The older I get, the less certain I am that the 6th overall pick in any given draft is infinitely more valuable than the 12th overall pick in that same draft. We can talk about "gamebreaking ability" and whatnot, but there's always going to be multiple players that appear to have that kind of upside and most of them will ultimately fail to deliver on that promise. And every night Ken Daniels is going to tell us about some stud on the opposing team who we now know should've been taken much earlier than he was. Trading into or within the top 10 pretty much doesn't happen these days and I wouldn't expect the Wings to do it in the upcoming draft. There was talk of the Wings seriously considering trading up in the 2018 draft in order to secure Zadina, but, as we know, Holland didn't go through with it. And it's a good thing he didn't, as we ended up getting both Zadina and Veleno "for free." Maybe trading up into prime draft real estate is one of the things Jimmy D has in mind when he talks about outside-the-box moves. It's certainly possible. But, again, talking about it and doing it -- and knocking it out of the park -- are two different things. Everyone talks about it, almost no one does it.

Outside of the top guys, I'm liking Caufield. I don't know about 10th overall, but I'd at least have him in the conversation there.

Note: When I say there doesn't appear to be any real separation, I'm talking about the pool of players who fall outside the current consensus top names (those top names being Hughes, Kakko, Dach, Cozens, Byram, maybe a couple others). Note #2: This is a deep draft class, that much is clear.

If all those players are available at 10, I trade back. No, but srsly. I still don't know a whole lot about these players, but my rough impression is that there isn't any real separation between them right now. Seems like it's Hughes > Kakko > Dach, Cozens > [everyone else]. And, as always, selecting from the [everyone else] pool is gonna be a crapshoot. That being said...I'm currently liking Krebs, Newhook, and Lavoie. If you put a gun to my head right now, I probably go with Krebs. Seems like Broberg is throwing up red flags, mainly a lack of puck skill and limited scoring upside. Defensemen are such voodoo that I'm not taking one with our first pick unless I'm really sold on him. From what I've gathered thus far, I'm not going to be sold on Broberg. Not at 10th overall.

He's nursing a minor injury is what I heard during one of the Griffins games. They thought he may play last game but I guess he didn't. As far as I know, he's not attending the Czech training camp.

Velano, McIassac, Bergrenn, and Hronek among others will change some of those close games into bigger victories. Life will be good again soon

Was thinking about this last night. In victory and defeat, the games are always close. I guess it's been that way for the past few years, but it's unmistakably a thing this season. On the one hand it's troubling, because virtually all of our wins are unconvincing one-goal squeakers. On the other hand it's encouraging, because we're not an easy two points for anyone, and that's all you can really ask of a team like ours.

Team ain't even all that young tho. (The D corps is almost entirely grizzled veterans.) And blowing leads has been a thing for a while now. In this area, I do think the blame falls mostly on the coaching. The opposition kicks into a higher gear, we facilitate their resurgence by giving them lots of time and space in our end, we panic, we start running around -- the collapse/comeback is basically a self-fulfilling prophecy. We tempt fate by doubling down on the way we play instead of adjusting the way we play to suit the given circumstances, and we do this because it's all we know how to do, apparently. It seems there's no real Plan B when Plan A ("box them out") isn't cutting it. "I like Glenny because Glenny's a stopper; he's real good defensively and he's an elite, elite shot-blocker" is not good enough. Leaning on "stoppers" is basically taking the L before the game's even over. I like Blashill. I think he's mostly good for this team. I think he doesn't have much to work with and he's done a pretty good job of squeezing blood from a stone. All of which just makes these collapses and assorted fixable problems that much tougher to swallow. So close, yet so far...

You're not wrong. Exactly the kind of thing I expect to see with young teams. This is where coaching needs to come in. This team is able to come back from deficits (younger players, more stamina/speed, gassed opponents), but can't hold leads (poor execution, poor coverage, poor decision making). They play better when in "run and gun" mode (when caution is trumped by desperation), but poorly when structure and discipline come in play to finish a game out. I expect we will be seeing a lot of this unfortunately. Young team, poor coaching.

OK, I vented. I feel a little better. Points update: Larkin (2A) - 11 goals and 28 points thru 30 games Nyquist (1A) - 7 goals and 27 points thru 30 games

Maybe it's just that I'm sour (probably), but I'm gonna rag on Blashill a bit. Things that stood out to me: Seemingly no one was being held accountable for anything tonight There's no excuse for blowing leads like we've been blowing them The power play is broken We spent at least half of that 3rd period trying the same east-west passing on our zone entries and every time it was an exercise in futility Re: 1 a -- Ericsson was bad tonight. Lazy mistakes. On the ice for the first Isles goal, and Blashill keeps him -- and everyone else who just got beat -- on the ice. What happens? Ericsson takes a penalty. Not long after, it's a 5-on-3 kill and a tie game. Re: 1 b -- Tell AA to control the puck or he's not going to play. If a light breeze is enough to strip him of the puck, he shouldn't be playing. Re: 1 c -- Vanek was bad tonight. That botched pass with the goalie pulled that led to an easy clear should've been the last straw. But no, he stays on the ice for the faceoff, because no one's accountable for anything. Re: 2 -- Blowing multi-goal leads has become routine for us. That's unacceptable. What can be done about it? I'd start by demanding more aggressive pressure in the D-zone when we have a multi-goal lead. Sitting back in a tight shell and letting the opposition fire away is an ok strategy if it's a tie game or you're up/down by a goal, but when you're up a couple goals with a ton of time left and you know the other team is going to be pressing hard, I think you need to try to counter that push with, well, some pushback. Instead of doubling down on the normal strategy (sink back, box out, sticks in lanes, stand around, pray), focus on disruption. Don't let them get comforable with the puck. Don't let them establish ownership of the puck. Otherwise, you're just indulging and enabling their comeback effort.

Welp, 1st period: FUN! Rest of game: Not so much.

Not to get too salty here, but...you'd think our ensemble cast of veteran leaders would maybe help prevent these massive collapses. Like, if this were truly a really, really young team with only a few vets, I'd understand. But we're veteran-heavy (though we are getting younger) and we blow leads on the regular.

No! F*** the rules! F*** logic! I want him up NOW!!!

Veleno with another huge game tonight. 2 goals, 3 assists, 10 shots on goal in a 6-3, come from behind win. He's closing in on that 2 points per game pace, with 51 points (22 goals, 29 assists) in 27 games, 1.89 PTS/G. He's now 4 points behind the league lead, with 3 less games played. Kid is an absolute beast. Looking forward to see him turn pro next season (hopefully with the Red Wings).

Nobody is saying elite players don't occasionally come from outside the top part of the draft. What I'm saying is, elite players are typically at the top part of the first round and if you want to increase the odds that you'll find and elite player, moving into the top part of the draft is probably your best bet.

Sell everyone you can sell and package those pics to get as high up in the draft as you can get. We need top end talent and we're not going to get it outside the top 5-10.