VM1138

If Franzen has finally gotten whatever monkey he had off his back, I'm excited. If he scores again in the next two games I think we can start to feel better about him again. Imagine how cool it would be if Franzen finally found confidence to score consistently?

On the other hand, imagine how terrified Washington is. Franzen can pretty much be penciled in for three more goals.

Haha, yeah, right. Tatar is solidifying himself as the extra forward and a fourth liner with his play. Cleary is the real deal, folks.

Tatar looks so good out there, even defensively. His hustle, his shot, he causes chaos like Helm does with his speed. And he has a fire in his eyes when he plays. Maybe I'm just looking for it, but Cleary, on the other hand, is losing every board battle, missing passes, making stupid passes, and losing foot races. He just looks TERRIBLE. Babcock said he wanted Tatar to take notes from Cleary essentially. I hope Babcock is taking notes.

Quincey racking up the minuses. Good times.

Yeah, now Holland needs only to actually spend the money.

The only players whose contracts expire next year are: Samuelsson, Bertuzzi, Cleary, Alfredsson, Quincey, Ericsson, Gustavsson and Eaves. The RFAs who will need to be locked up will be DeKeyser and Tatar. With our glut of forwards, the only one I think Holland will even offer to re-sign will be Alfredsson and Bertuzzi. Maybe not even Bertuzzi. Realistically, Alfredsson may not be back. On defense, only Ericsson has earned a new contract, Gustavsson may be brought back, but he won't get a raise, at least not substantial. Eaves will be gone as well. That's 16.8 million freed up (even considering Alfredsson's deferred bonus). 16.8 plus the cap going up to the high 60 million runs us around 22-23 million. We will need to sign or re-sign a backup goalie and Ericsson, but beyond that we don't NEED to fill any positions. I'd still like to upgrade a few, but we'll have enough to ice a team. Ericsson will take 5 million hopefully. Gustavsson, or whoever is our backup, will make between 1 and 2 million. That leaves us with 15 million to play with, give or take a few million. That's two really good players. If any such players will be entering the free agent market this summer.

I can't see Quincey coming back. Alfredsson is welcome back I'm sure. He's been doing well, if not tearing up the nets, and he adds even more leadership. Having half of your top six be Alfredsson, Zetterberg and Datsyuk is not a bad thing, especially come playoffs. Imagine someone like Tatar playing with and learning from Alfredsson, instead of Cleary (as Babcock implied in his comments earlier).

So Babcock wants Tatar to be more like Cleary. Oh God.

I don't think anyone called for Holland to be in on Versteeg. We are just wondering why Holland never swings these seemingly easy deals. Not just this week, but in general the past few years.

Someone else jokes about this, but I think it'll really happen. That third and Quincey will be on the ice for at least two goals against.

The key to the second line is Weiss. We can swap wingers (and have) but it will never succeed until he starts producing more. It may be time to split Datsyuk and Zetterberg up. Franzen-Datsyuk-Bertuzzi Zetterberg-Weiss-Alfredsson It might work. And Dabura, why slot Smith on the second line? I agree he might be more useful as a forward, but as a fourth liner.

Amazing. How do other teams get these steals? I get the impression nobody will trade with us, otherwise why do we keep missing out on things like this? If we don't get anyone from a team like Florida or Buffalo, who are pretty desperate, I'll be disappointed.

I'm starting to turn on Babcock. Holland obviously made bad moves but I'm beginning to see a pattern. Our decline seems to have an inverse relationship with Babcock's growing influence on shaping the franchise. Both are at fault, but this is Babcock's baby. hmHis first few years were led by Lidstrom and Yzerman. Since then, we keep trying to implement some system that none of our players can play, and he continuously rewards the wrong guys.

Hey at least these guys can benefit from a winning atmosphere...in Grand Rapids. Sigh.

Cleary is a great guy. There's no doubt about that. But Babcock can't be seeing anything we're not. He's so consistently bad and useless, and provides nothing we need now. Save his "grit" and heart for the playoffs. Right now we need to ice the best team so we make playoffs.

I forgot we were making room for Smith. I just sort of blocked him out of my memory already.

No logical argument? You made one argument against it, but it doesn't negate mine that a player still has to do everything the same as in a game. He has to beat the goalie, and the goalie has to stop it. Shootout attempts are earned in the sense that the coach thinks you have the skill to score. It's the same "earned" opportunity as when a coach gives a player ice time.

A team should pick up Eaves. The guy has shown flashes of scoring ability, he's young, and he's a hard worker and good PKer. And he's cheap. His injuries and sharing a squad with Miller is what did him in. Not sure if any team is missing a player like him, but he'd definitely help pretty much any bottom dweller team that needs support. EDIT: So wait...if Eaves is waived, and Tootoo can now be sent down with negative consequence, that's two spots cleared. Does this make room for Nyquist if Tootoo gets sent down?

I'll believe this is Cleary's "last chance" when I see it.

I give up. EDIT: You might want to look at this: Tatar: 11 GP, 2 G, 1 A +1, 10% shooting accuracy, generates scoring chances and provides speed. Cleary: 18 GP, 1 G, 2 A +1, 4% shooting accuracy, slow, falls down, loses the puck, never generates anything, usually breaks up his own offensive play. Which do you think addresses our needs more? Regardless of whether Tatar hasn't looked great, benching isn't going to help. We need to just ice a consistent team so they can generate chemistry. All players go through rough patches. Tatar's sub-par handful of games is better than Cleary's two years.

It worked for the Wings for 15 years. You don't trade the farm, but prospects, unless they are a sure fire superstar in the making, get traded so you can get that star score to win the Cup.It used to be every year Holland would look at the team and say "how can we win it all this year?" The last few years we've heard "how can we not miss playoffs?" Wait and see never works in pro sports. The problem is trading has all but dried up in the new NHL. Oh, and my argument has worked for Chicago, too. Edit: I'm a big fan of getting (good) veterans or prime players and sprinkling young kids around them. Not waiting year after year for a kid to explode and save your team.

I wouldn't give a point for a tie, either. This isn't a sport where you get trophies for participation. But I guess you'd have to keep the shootout to prevent endless OT games. But if shootout are kept, I think the stats should count. If you score a goal in a shootout, it should add to a player's stats. If a breakaway or a penalty shot counts, shootout should, too.

Bertuzzi is effective up there. That may defy logic to some people solve he's "old and slow" but it is what it is. Our top line is set.

Exactly Kipwinger, we have so many prospects, some will never see a spot on the Wings roster. Holland has to be certain about who is worth keeping, but that doesn't mean he should never trade someone. If you rely 90% on prospects it'll take you 10 to 15 years to have fully developed players and a competitive team. And that's only if they work out. A balance of trades, drafting and UFA signing are the way to a consistently winning team. Trades and signing ensure you can quickly address team weaknesses. Not wait for years for a solution to hopefully develop. You never know what will happen in the future. Play to win NOW.