themcityblues

He sure "showed up" tonight.

Pulkkinen looked good. Big hit, great one-timer. Upper management will put him back to play on the PP again, me thinks.

It was around 11:30 in the 3rd period when Detroit was up 1-0 and I thought about how Detroit collapses in this position virtually every time this season. I thought about how bad Quincey and Smith choke up goal-ridden pucks in these game dynamics. Then I thought about when Mike Babcock told Smith on 24/7 "When we're in the third period and we're tied and you have the puck in the offensive zone, I'm feeling pretty good. But when we're in the same position and you're in the defensive zone, I'm nervous. What is it going to take on a daily level for you to cut that s*** out of your game?" Literally 30 seconds after I recalled this moment, Smith makes a bizarre choke pass to the slot and we have a tied game. Quincey and Smith have choked up pucks like this many times and caused the Wings to lose handfuls of points. On that end, Q and S may very well be the reason Detroit misses the playoffs. In the overtime powerplay, again I noticed how terrible this team is coordinated offensively. They hardly move the puck. They barely skate and rarely cycle. Their 1-2 combination is incredibly obvious, elementary and transparent: "Pass to Alfie... Pass to Kronner for a one timer" or "Pass to Kronner... pass to Alfie for a one timer." It's dumb how obvious it is. If they aren't doing the incredibly transparent approach, they are doing nothing but demonstrating how unsure of themselves they are. Making soft passes into the slot which are easily intercepted and cleared. Miscommunicating. Never challenging men individually. It's a 4 on the 3 and the Wings look afraid to even get close to the slot. They look afraid to challenge individually and press their position in front of the net. Why? Compare this to the Blackhawks PP which challenges, gains real estate in the front, and scores. This power play is absolutely awful. I think a big piece that's missing is any sense of chemistry, puck movement, or holistic offensive strategy. For the past 3-4 years I've wondered why Detroit has looked so bad on the PP. I think there is somebody missing in the organization who used to be responsible for those beautiful offensive plays we'd see in the old days. I don't think the individual talent is lacking because we've seen these kids have hands. But indeed, what is missing is a sense of smart offensive strategy that we so sorely need. Then, in the shoot-out I wondered who should go out there. I came up with Tatar, Sheahan and Nyquist. Maybe Franzen for Nyquist since he looked relaxed today with soft hands. I picked the kids because they had great games. Then I wondered who Babcock would pick. Bertuzzi had a terrible game. And he's a vet. So even though Bert was cold as ice and showed no propensity to be a game changer, Babs throws him up there #1 to claim a victory for Hockeytown. Retarded. Then I figured Babs would pick another vet just because... well... I imagined him saying something dumb later like "The vets have to teach you how to win in these situations". So I thought he'd pick Alfredsson. Who also had a pretty mediocre game and did not show much propensity for scoring. He also has no moves, cannot trick goalies in shootouts, and does nothing but shoot the puck forthcomingly. And of course Alfie shoots it into the goalies chest. Babs' third pick was Tatar, and that's when I said, "We're in the third round and this is the first guy who actually has a chance to score." You're not going to win shootouts when your #1/#2 picks have little hope to come through. Still lots of pieces missing from Hockeytown. All I really felt this game was, "Just get the 2 points, idiots." Not happy with this team... and in fact, sorely disappointed, even though they won. Strange.

I've been positive for the entire season and... Playoff run is over.

He's regressed, but I haven't given up on Kindl yet.

That's true. He's getting under their skin. I didn't think about that. Kind of remembering the old Franzen I guess.

I think Brunner had a chance to be a good player, if he could adapt to "the system" and grow into the role. Sort of like his attitude towards resigning (or his agent's), Brunner had no attutide for the team. That's why he's worthless. It's not that he doesn't have skill (remember the SO goal?) Franzen may score goals but he seems easy to play against. Lazy, floats. Compare that to Fillipula who makes your team difficult to play against. For every goal Fil scored to every goal Franzen scored should be calculated 1.2:1.0

Solidly agree with this.

Has Mike Babcock or Kenny commented on Q's play this season?

He can score in the AHL... means nothing.

I meant to ask this four weeks ago, but how in the hell was St. Louis not picked for team Canada? He's the elite of the elite.

I think it's pretty reasonable to assume Bert will be back with a paycut, say 1.25m or something -- similar to Cleary. He's not as bad as Cleary and seems like he won't just hang them up without a fight. That being said I don't think he's been good. I liked him last year. This year is clearly his worst.

Anyone else think it's kind of crazy that tsn started off the season ranking the Wings around 12 and now they have them at 24th? Seriously? We're only better than 6 teams?

Franzen still looks lazy to me, but more confident

Quincey is a -7.

Bertuzzi (2.075) (39) DELETE Cleary (1.75) (35) DELETE Quincey (3.775) (28) DELETE Legwand (4.0) (33) KEEP Alfredsson (4.0) (41) KEEP Sheahan (500) (22) KEEP Tatar (925) (23) KEEP Glendening (450) (24) KEEP DeKeyser (925) (24) KEEP Gustavsson (2.5) (29) KEEP Why should Sheahan get more than Tatar? Just pulled these numbers out of my

This team could plausibly be #2 in the division and #3 in the conference come playoff time.

Really liking Gus' position tonight.

Probably because he reminds us of Samuelsson. Injured most of the time, and when he's not injured, he's terrible out there.

The discussion about trading Howard a few months ago seems pretty good now in hindsight. Back then I said trade, because he was highly valued, I sensed him going downhill and we had Mrazek and Gustavsson. Thankfully we have Monster in net.

They never cover that wing in the 3rd period or OT. We've seen it all year long.

Lol Franzen looked pee-wee there.

I know that was bad.

Wah-roy is n ervous, somebody get him a wife to beat.

There's like nobody in the seats.