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So the Griffins had themselves a game tonight. https://theahl.com/stats/game-center/1020189 Cholowski goal. Seider goal. Two Rasmussen goals. I love the Seider goal for multiple reasons, the biggest one being that Seider would even be the F1 in the first place... Dude is pure concentrated DGAF and I love him for it.

Yeah, I think so for sure. Assuming Ras stays healthy, continues at the pace he's been playing at, has a good summer / training camp, I think he will start next season as our 3C. (More reason we should be trying to get rid of Nielsen...). I still think Veleno has a higher ceiling, but Rasmussen appears to be further along in his development (being a year older). I've watched most of the games Ras has played this season, and I've been really impressed. Still not sure if he'll be better suited at center or on the wing at the NHL level, but I have more confidence in his ability to play center than I did prior to this season.

Yeah, I watched. Was a pretty good game. All of the players we need to get going had good showings tonight. Svechnikov didn't get a point, but played well, and would have been the 3rd assist on the Cholowski goal. Great setup by Veleno by the way. Ras had a good game, with two goals. Tap in on a beautiful play by Terry and a beautiful tip on a shot from Hicketts. There were a couple times we had all five 1st round picks (Rasmussen, Veleno, Svechnikov, Seider and Cholowski) on the power-play. Hopefully they can build off this game, stay healthy, and go on a bit of a run here. They're currently outside of a playoff spot...

HYPE! LGRW!

Pickard called up on emergency basis.

nice to see some wins recently, hopefully Wings can continue the trend.

You know, we’ve been losing so much I haven’t even bothered thinking about the tank, it’s just sorta a given. But then when we win a little, I get worried.

No we don't have Pickard and Nagle in GR. Nagle is in Toledo where he belong. He's 32 years old and has played 99% of his pro career in the ECHL. He's awful. Kevin Poulin is in Grand Rapids with Pickard, who is also awful. Comrie is arguably better than all three of those guys, but yeah, it was totally a smart move to let him go... Why would we need another minor league tendy? Because outside of Pickard, the rest of them suck, and if we have one injury to Bernier, Howard or Pickard, the Griffins are screwed. Larkin "sucks" but Bertuzzi and Fabbri are having "great" years? Bertuzzi has 5 more points than Larkin. Based on Fabbri's point pace, he would have 3 more points than Larkin with the same number of games played. Neither have the defensive responsibility that Larkin has. Larkin deserves the scrutiny, but no one really deserves much praise. Hence why so many felt we didn't deserve an All-Star selection this season. So Larkin DID have a great season last year? Did you considered him a 1C last year? Of course you did. Because he was. One bad season doesn't change that. It just changes some irrational fans opinion that flip-flop at a moments notice. The only games Howard should be playing next season are in a beer league. Guy needs to retire. He'll be 36 years old, coming off his worst statistical season ever, and you think he should sign another NHL contract? I hope for Howard's sake, he hangs them up. I've been a big fan over his career, but another season could really sour a lot of fans. No, if Zadina had a great year next year, I would expect you to come around on him, just like you did with Mantha. That's completely fair and rational. What isn't fair and rational is calling Zadina a "bust" at the age of 18/19, before ever giving him an opportunity to prove himself, or saying Mantha is "lazy" at the age of 21/22, or saying Larkin sucks because he's having a down season, just coming off a near point per game season. You can be hard on a player for having a bad season, or sceptical of a young player, but to say they suck, or they're a bust, is dumb in my opinion. Ok, Zadina doesn't have enough talent. Got it... Zadina is on a very similar trajectory and plays a similar style game as Filip Forsberg. If he becomes a similar player to him, I'm sure we'll all be very happy.

Great minds.....

Larkin put up 32 goals and 73 points last season. He did that in 76 games. Mantha put up 36 points in 60 games in 2016-17. He put up 24 goals and 48 points in 80 games in 2017-18. He put up 25 goals and 48 points in 67 games last season. He's put up 12 goals and 24 points in 29 games this season. Athanasiou put up 30 goals and 54 points in 76 games last season. Bertuzzi put up 21 goals and 47 points in 73 games last season. He's put up 16 goals and 34 points in 45 games this season. Hronek put up 23 points in 46 games last season, as a 20-21-year-old rookie. He's put up 8 goals and 25 points in 43 games this season. He plays hard minutes, all situations. I'm not saying any of these players is the second coming of Datsyuk or Zetterberg or Lidstrom, but let's give credit where it's due. If you put these players on a mid-'90s Wings team, they're probably monsters. If you put these players on a mid-2000s Wings team, they're probably monsters. Give this team a Nick Lidstrom and we probably make the playoffs this season. Put young Datsyuk and young Zetterberg on this team and we might not have very nice things to say about those two. If we're gonna talk about what past leaders were doing in their early 20s... Datsyuk was 23 years old for his his whole rookie season. He put up 35 points in 70 games. The next season, he put up 51 points in 64 games, as a 24-year-old. Season after that, he put up 68 points in 75 games, as a 25-year-old. Season after that, he exploded: 87 points in 75 games, as a 26-year-old. Zetterberg was 22 for his whole rookie season. He put up 44 points in 79 games. The next season, he put up 43 points in 61 games, as a 23-year-old. Season after that, he exploded: 85 points in 77 games, as a 24-year-old. Franzen turned 27 halfway through his rookie season. He never put up superstar numbers in the regular season. Kronwall hit the scene at 22 or 23 years old. He put up 5 points in 20 games. The next season, he put up 9 points in 27 games, as a 23-24-year-old. Season after that, he put up 22 points in 68 games, as a 24-25-year-old. Season after that, he hit what would ultimately be his career high in points: 51 points in 80 games, as a 25-26-year-old. So, I mean, yeah, Datsyuk and Zetterberg were really good in their early 20s, but maybe not quite as good as we remember them being.

I believe injuries have cost Mantha two 30-goal seasons. 25 goals and 48 points through 67 games last season. 12 goals and 24 points through 29 games this season. Dude is a solid producer. He just can't stay healthy. Which, admittedly, is beginning to concern me a bit. But not enough that I think Yzerman needs to be desperately looking to move him. I might move him for the right defenseman. I'm kinda over AA. Moving him is probably addition by subtraction. Bertuzzi's become a really good player. I've got zero beef with him.

Thanks, I appreciate it. I simply disagree with your main criticisms of Zadina, tbh. Or, at least, I think you're leaning too hard into them. For example, I don't think Zadina is always chasing the play. I think he had a tendency to be behind the play until fairly recently, but, I mean, we all knew he had to adjust to the pace of the North American pro game. Now that he's more comfortable, seems to me like he's chasing the play less. Holding up Bertuzzi as the model for a not-physically-gifted-but-extremely-smart player strikes me as kind of weak sauce, as it took Bertuzzi a pretty long time to become the player he's become. (Dude was drafted all the way back in 2013.) Was Bertuzzi a 0.76 PPG NHLer at 20 years old? Was he even a *0.55* PPG NHLer at 20 years old? Were we raving about his hockey IQ when he was 20 years old?

We have a team literally littered with losers. Some are worse than others but they all suck at the end of the day. They should all be in fear of being traded.

I don't wish to be that a-hole that says it, but in this case I feel if he hasn't hit the 30 plus goal mark by now at the age of 25 - will he ever? Mantha/AA/Bert - they're not 'kids' anymore still learning the game...Chances are is that what we're seeing is at their 'best' - sorta like Tatar/Nyquist (minus the fact that they had Dats/Hank doing all the work).

Why? We have Pickard and Nagle in GR. Why would we need ANOTHER minor league tendy? Mantha's not struggling, besides with his injury. Bertuzzi and Fabbri are having great years. What's Larkin's excuse? So how was Larkin able to have such a great season last year? There was no pastranak or marchand on that team Howard will play more NHL games than Comrie will next year. So wait if Zadina has a great year next year you want me to keep crapping on him? Because one should "take a stance and stick with it"? That's so hilariously clown world level lol. If Larkin has a bad season, or Mantha has a bad season, or anyone has a season below their capabilities I'm going to call them on it. If they have good seasons I'll compliment them on it. That's pretty rational and pretty fair I feel llike... No ur absolutely correct. Draft spot shouldn't matter. Talent matters. And Zadina doesn't have enough of it. But because of his draft pedigree I think we could sucker another team into overpaying for him while he's still young. I have written pages about his shortcomings. No one ever responds to them. That's what's frustrating. I'll try to dig my last one up momentarily here. EDIT: Here,

No doubt, but I think most still see him as a number 2/3 pick. I think most of the hype being cooled is people that were attempting to compare him to Lafreniere. They're not even close in my opinion, and that's taking age fully into account.

The Griffins are also currently without two key players, Hirose and Tangradi. I don't think either are expected to be out long-term. Getting those two back, we could (should) go on a serious run down the stretch.

Never say never we might... I concede it's not overly likely but its possible. I think taking bad contracts is a very viable option... that helped Toronto stock the cupboards. Their were a few people who were adamant adding Karlsson would put us in the playoff picture along with further development of our own guys and Taro Hirose looked like a 2nd liner etc.

I was being fair. You made some valid points. I was acknowledging it. No need for confused face. You've been going at it with Kip, CRL, and Mackel for too long. Lol.

Well it seems we were on the same page about Karlsson. Lol

https://thehockeywriters.com/nhl-rumors-january-11-2020/ AA to edm talk but i dont trust anything that guy says , he was also ranting on twitter last week how the oilers dont wanna move their 1st , id have zero interest in trading AA for say the 53rd pick and some middle prospect , if we cant land a 1st at least id say we hold on to him and try and deal him at the 2021 deadline

I personally don't have any interest in trading for a defenseman that is a "complete disaster defensively"... Similar reason I had no interest in signing Karlsson to that massive contract last offseason.

Gudas is actually a sneaky-good player. Much more than just a goon, way more capable than Witkowski.

"There's always next season" says LGWs about Mantha. Someday he'll score 30.

If he keeps playing this way, absolutely. We're winning lately (won 3 of our last 5, I believe) largely because we're getting pretty solid goaltending from him. IMO.