lets go pavel

Are you ignoring me? Show me a post in this thread where you expressed any doubts! This is pitiful ... it's bad enough that you want to dredge up a post from months ago so you could say "I told you so". Throw in the fact that you didn't actually say what you're claiming you told us, and you just look like an ass.

Have you read this thread? #1. Give you credit for what? You didn't say he wouldn't be good this year. You just asked a question. #2. Nobody blasted you. Go read the posts. Find one where someone replied to you in disgreement. There isn't one. You know why? Because you didn't say anything to disagree with in the first place, you just asked a question.

Ooooh, I want to try ... Lidstrom's +/- this year so far: +17 Lidstrom's +/- last year: +40 My dear lord! That's a difference of 23 goals! Change that +17 to a +40 and ... all of a sudden detroit becomes the the team with the second best goal differential next to boston. So, even though our goalie has taken a bit of a hit as of late, we are letting in a few more shots per game, most of the problem lies with Lidstrom. I'm getting sick of how so many coaches, players and even fans seem to shy away from laying part of the blame on the captain. We are always hearing how the captain "would have liked to have a couple back" or "wasn't getting any bounces", but rarely gets trashed even though it is fairly clear that he blew it. I think I almost threw up when mick was talking after tonight's game about Lidstrom in the first! What a joke. Something is definetly up with that guy, he just does not look confident at all, I want my Lidstrom of old Long story short, Lidstrom needs a few weeks off to get back to basics. Instead of progressing he has taken two steps back. With Stuart being hurt, use this opportunity to bring up Kindl or Ericcson and give them some starts. We may need one of them come playoff time. Hopefully we won't and Lidstrom will use the break to clear his head and get out of this terrible funk! That was fun! It's like Mad Libs ... who wants to go next?

Exactly what doubts are you talking about? This was your post: Just sounds like a question to me. It's great that you want to jump on the "I said Ozzie would suck first" bandwagon, but at least find a post that actually says that before you start/bump another "I told you so about Ozzie" thread ...

I'll do it.

Yes, his salary doesn't count against the cap while he's on LTIR, but we've used a little bit of that space on Helm/Leino/Abdelkader/Downey ... At this point it's just speculation. At one point or another I think they've speculated that we were interested in bringing back everyone who ever played for us and left ...

We would pay a pro-rated portion ... basically, we'd pay the part of the contract for when he's here. We could likely afford it at the deadline, but as others have posted, I'm not sure why we need him.

Actually, I think we're all getting it. I'm just not sure what you're looking for ... a pat on the back for figuring it out? We're all agreeing that the team isn't playing up to its potential. And? There are probably 20 threads going right now bemoaning different players, coaches, and anything else that crosses people's minds, along with a plethora of solutions, some plausible and some inane. What more could you ask for?

I assume you mean why didn't he sign long-term for less last summer? If so, my understanding is that Holland wasn't willing to do that without having Z locked up first. There was no way of knowing what Z was going to cost, and he wanted to make sure he'd have enough.

It's a nice idea, but I won't hold my breath. Also unless I'm mistaken, it's a matter of when Stuart comes back, not Homer ...

They can be, but they aren't always. We're #6 in the league right now in shots against per game, so by that statistic our defense is playing pretty well. All of the blown coverages, breakaways allowed, failed clearing attempts, errant transition passes, and turnovers in our zone haven't necessarily led to a huge increase in shots against, but I think they've led to a significant increase in quality scoring chances. To me, this is the measure of how a defense is playing, and it's not always reflected in shots allowed.

I firmly believe we have the best team in the league, and we should not only outshoot everyone every game, but we should win every game, have the #1 ranked PP, PK, offense, defense, etc. It bothers me every time we lose or play poorly or fail to execute on the PP or the PK. BUT ... I'm also well aware that these things happen, they happen every season, multiple times a season. We are not a perfect team, and we will never play perfectly. As far as these imperfections go, getting outshot a few times is pretty far down on my list of things to worry about. Frankly, it's the PK that concerns me most, then the defense, followed closely by the goaltending.

Yes. I don't think there's a clinical definition for the Cup hangover, but from my experience the symptoms often include a combination of a seeming lack of motivation, a decrease in energy, poor attention to detail, sluggishness of foot, an increase in mental lapses, and a general drop in level of performance. Sounds like my team! Like I said, hopefully they will sleep it off ...

Okay, several games. So what? I realize that we usually outshoot the opponents, but are we really to the point where we expect to outshoot them every game, and we are concerned if happens several times? It's not the end of the world, it happens, it just means we didn't have a good game. Several times. And we won anyway.

It's one game, dude. So we were outshot, and it was the Blues. Guess what? s*** happens. Again, the power plays had a lot to do with it. Did we play great? No. Have we been a little off all year? Yes. This is what they call the Cup hangover, and right now we're still sleeping it off. To my knowledge there is no magic cure for a hangover, but luckily we have a talented enough team that can win anyway. Hopefully they will have slept it off by the time the playoffs start ...

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane - Lenny Bruce is not afraid. Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn - world serves its own needs, regardless of your own needs. Feed it up a knock, speed, grunt no, strength no. Ladder structure clatter with fear of height, down height. Wire in a fire, represent the seven games in a government for hire and a combat site. Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry with the furies breathing down your neck. Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered crop. Look at that low plane! Fine then. Uh oh, overflow, population, common group, but it'll do. Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed. Tell me with the rapture and the reverent in the right - right. You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light, feeling pretty psyched. It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine. Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign tower. Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn. Lock him in uniform and book burning, blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle, light a motive. Step down, step down. Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh, this means no fear - cavalier. Renegade and steer clear! A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline. It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine. The other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide. Mount St. Edelite. Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs. Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! You symbiotic, patriotic, slam, but neck, right? Right. It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine...fine...

Actually I believe Backes signed a few autographs and shook some hands on the way back from the dressing room, proving he was in fact legitimately injured, and thus there was no need for him to sit. In all seriousness the replay VS showed was horrible, so I have no idea what Lilja actually did, but I do agree that th egame misconduct cannot be tied to the player injury ... if it were, we would see even more people faking injuries. Besides, the injury doesn't necessarily correllate to the intent. An accidental hit with no intent could result in serious injury, while a clearly malicious hit could do no harm. Which one deserves the misconduct?

I don't know ... the boards are full of gems these days ...

This may be the dumbest thing I have ever read. You want Maltby and Draper, out of loyalty to the Red Wings, to ASK to be traded to another team because they suck, and by leaving they would make the team that they're no longer on better??? No, definitely not too much to ask ... Just out of curiosity, what do expect the other team to give up for 2 players who acknowledge that their presence makes a team worse?

We're not talking about a player whose glory days were 3-4 years ago, Ozzie won the cup for us LAST YEAR. I'd say it's a little soon to declare him over the hill ...

Defense has much to do with the quality of shots allowed. The quality of shots allowed has much to do with how many shots go in. How many shots go in has much to do with save %. Defense has much to do with save %.

I agree with most of what you are saying about Ozzie, he has played badly and deserves criticism. I don't hear anyone on here saying he doesn't. But I take issue with singling out one person or area and saying that this is the reason for our woes. Right now we have threads blaming Ozzie, defense, the 4th line, and Brad McCrimmon, and probably a few others I've missed. Probably all of these things are contributing to our poor play of late, but none of them are solely responsible. The OP made the claim that our defense has been one of the best in the league and Ozzie is the problem, and this is what people are disagreeing with.

I must be missing something ... what is your point?

Because he's not available? Because we don't need him to win?