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Fisher, Lids, Koslov, Larionov, Shanny, Brown, Maltby, LaPointe, Mickey, DINO!!, Chellie, DMac, Kocur, Ozzie, Hodson, Drapes, Legace, Murph, Coffey!!, and last but not least, HOMER!! I always cringe when Cujo plays against us. We treated him very badly. Other than that, Leafs have a nice lineup as well, but no Sundin. Sittler is the captain.

I've been dreaming since the day he retired, but now I'm contemplating a shrine and a sacrifice.

Was at the game. Early on before it started, Babcock walked right by my row. Begged him to come back. He waved and laughed. I made Babcock laugh. What is life.

That might have been the most Drapes fought in his career!

Its amazing seeing someone in a Wings jersey able to shoot!

Currently out running errands with my wife but I hope to get home for at least part of the game. Hopefully our alums kick the crap out of the Leats alums. it is kind of ironic that Shanny is playing considering his current position. I don't think an own goal on his part would be accidental (as he rips off his jersey to reveal a Toronto jersey NwO style), but I don't see it happening. Let's Go Wings!

A new coach fixes a lot if issues Sent from my LGLS676 using Tapatalk

Probably yes unless they get lucky in the FA market or someone develops out of nowhere. This team just doesn't have the assets to acquire a true #1 dman without hindering itself further. To get a true #1 dman you are losing either Larkin or Mantha for sure no doubts and probably a high draft pick. You trade one of them but guess what you dont have another Larkin or Mantha in the system at all right now so you will be waiting 7 years and hoping someone develops anyways to fill that spot. What really hurts this team is Tatar and Nyquist going into the crapper. If they were still scoring 25-30 goals they would be the assets used to bring in a dman and it wouldn't hurt as much in the long run. What this team needs is for Howard to come back strong and Vanek to start scoring goals again. Those are the key chips come trade deadline to prevent this from being a wasted season. To put it bluntly this team is not going to be even a outside contender for 5+ years. You might as well stockpile young talent in that time. Overpaying with youth to get a #1 dman for 5-6 years is nothing but a bandaid. We have had 4+ years of Holland trying to put bandages on this team to keep them in the playoffs but not really building anything for the long term (other than bad contracts ). Its time to take the bandages off and let this team bleed out. Just think if he would have started planning for the future a couple years ago instead of hindering this team for the sake of the streak things wouldn't look so bleak right now. I think the problem is Ken Holland just doesnt seem to know how to build a team from scratch. Hes never had to. He seems to be real good at guiding a front running team but in terms of building one not so much. Teams likes Toronto and Buffalo also have something else in common. They have a brighter future than the Wings right now because they embraced the suck and started buidling through the draft. We can barely get a good game from Dekeyser nowadays let alone 6-7 years of good D

Acquiring a young #1 defensmen will go a long way in this team finally discovering their identity Fowler - Green Dekesyer - ? close to a respectable top four Are we really going to wait 7 years and hope Cholowiski, Saarijarvi or 2017 draft pick turn into a top pairing defensmen? We get 6-7 years of good D from Dekeseyer and Fowler, Green will be gone, prospects will be up and our high end forwards should be impact players. Could have a good team in 2-3 years if we make a nice FA signing plus some guys develop nicely on D. We won't be good if we plan on drafting and developing our #1 for 7-8 years. Mantha and AA will be 30 and played their entire careers without a defense. The core of the defense has to be in place as soon as possible Teams like Colorado,Toronto and Buffalo all have one thing in common. Bad defense. Wasted a lot of their prospects potential because a team can't function and grow without a decent defense group. That's why the wings look like they are seemingly bad at everything

The only way Detroit gets any D-man worth a damn is if Mantha or Larkin are sent the other way. They truly are the only real top notch assets this team has. Dont make a move. Just blow it up already and go full youth movement. If 1 dman could right the ship I would say go for it but this team needs atleast 3 dmen and a couple forwards. The thing that worries me is that Larkin started his "sophomore slump" midway through his rookie year and is yet to break out of it.

AA looks to have been benched after that last goal he was on the ice for where technically he didn't pick up his man. Who didn't get benched though? The guy who singlehandedly caused that goal and put AA in a scramble situation with the most pathetic clearing attempt right to an opposing player that I've ever seen, Danny "dumpster fire" DeKeyser. If AA is benched, Danny D should be sitting for Sproul. No real accountability, just nit picking a specific player for some reason by Blashill. Unfortunately it's one of the only game changing players we have right now who can create offense on his own. Not like we need more of that.

Meh, I'm just going off the responses I got when I said that in the summer. People started posting his TOI and claiming he's number one because he plays the minutes etc. So then for those that want him, if Fowler is indeed a #2 or #3 what good is it getting him.

I still maintain my stance that Fowler is no true #1 (contrary to almost everyone on this website). Would not give up Mantha for him. If Fowler came to Detroit $200 says he would get exposed on a bad team. Besides as I've already said, Fowler's price would probably be high. Would Mantha even be enough? Danny D just got a $30 million deal and he ain't even a true #2 let alone a #1. It's a sellers market.

Anyone else having Déjà vu lol? Kidding aside, agreed. I dont like AA being on the 4th line with Miller & Ott, its almost as bad as Larkin playing with Glendening and Sheahan.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying. The loss of Lidstrom has been brutal to the D core, and the loss of Datsyuk with a declining Zetterberg is equally detrimental. I am just of the opinion when you have a top line power forward you shouldn't trade him for a 2nd tier defenseman. I feel like you would be robbing Peter to pay Paul. Plus, I don't trust Holland to make the right move given the opportunity. The majority of his decisions stemming back to 2009/2010 have been brutal.

But I'm not looking at just the first half of his career. I'm looking at all of it. His entire career, including playoffs...all the good, all the bad, all the ugly. 125 games, 111 starts, 6828 minutes, 3271 shots against. Over that period he has a .917 sv%, .577 QS%, 2.39 GAA. Respectable numbers. The sample may be small, but it's everything there is. In regards to the recent stats, Howards numbers from 2014 through today: .912 sv%, .52 QS%, 2.52 GAA. Even going back to 2012: .914 sv%, .583 QS%, 2.47 GAA. You're basically saying there is a high chance that a 100+ game sample might be anomalous, while also saying there's a high chance that a 17 or 21 game sample isn't. You can't have it both ways.

Mantha is one of the best players on this team. There i said it.

The real issue is Holland gave him a fat contract based on a small sample size. He needed a bridge deal not what he got. Sent from my LGLS676 using Tapatalk

This is the perfect example to me of how fans will twist anything against Holland. Any other GM makes a UFA signing that contributes to a cup and they are given credit, Holland does it and you say "he used Illitch's cash". Holland is not perfect by any means, but its crazy how fans will stretch reality to put him down.