VM1138

Yeah, I forgot DeKeyser. I'd like to see a defensive lineup of: Kronwall-Ericsson DeKeyser-New Guy Kindl-Almquist/Smith/Lashoff I don't care so Much about "getting younger.". Anyone between 27 and 32 is fine with me for an offensive defenseman. Prime years.

Bertuzzi is like Holmstrom, he's really only good when playing on the top line.

Get rid of the shootout altogether, no point for losing in overtime, problem solved. Not sure why they refuse to go that route. Teams will play to win if they don't get anything. There's no reason to treat a loss in overtime as a half win

Assuming we don't re-sign anyone but Ericsson, this team has some really good opportunities next year. We will have two top six spots open, unless Babcock puts Abdelkader back up there, and a top 4 defenseman slot. Perfect opportunity to address weaknesses.

Missed the game, but it sounds just like the others. Our biggest pproblems seem to be lack of defensive support for the offense and Babcock's last minute choices. I don't care if Lashoff and Oullet are rookies, they are more dependable than Quincey and Kindl. And how will players like Tatar and Lashoff and Oullet learn to play in clutch situations if they can't see the ice in crucial times in the regular season? I'm not a Babcock water, but he has really lacked his usual mojo this year and last.

Never understood the hostility towards him. He looked great for us while healthy. It's not his fault he got injured. I wouldn't have minded keeping him around, although we did have a glut on defense. But I'd rather have him out there than Smith or Quincey. EDIT: That being said, I understand why he was bought out. He's so injury prone it probably didn't make sense to gamble on him again.

"I thought I could tell you today." I give up. The puzzle pieces we have just don't make sense. He's just screwing with us now.

I didn't buy it this year. Because of the nature of each release (small updates), I don't generally buy every year. But it seems like this year NHL 14 really flew under the radar. No hype, I actually forgot about it until a week after it came out and someone mentioned it to me, and I haven't heard anything else about it since. Maybe I'll pick it up next year, but it takes me so very, very long to get through a season or two in NHL 13 (or whatever year I'm playing) that I hardly get my money out of it before a new one comes out.

This is already being discussed in the Lines thread.

Don't get your hopes up. Babcock is feeling pressure to bench Cleary. He'll sit one game, Babcock will decide he got the message and will plop him back in the top 6 to "wait and see" if his play improves.

What worries me is, if this is such a big problem and it is mental, he could very well retire early. And doesn't the team get shellacked if he retires?

If it's long term, it sums up the failed aspect of recent Red Wing philosophy. Take Player X, force him into a spot in the hopes he transforms into player Y.

Streaky, yes. But this team IS better than last season. The question is: are they improved enough? I think they can be, but boy, Babcock needs to stop blowing who is on the ice at crucial times, and we have to get the lineup in order. And still, we'll probably need an acquisition at the trade deadline on defense. Not that we'll get one, though, the trading season seems to have died the last few years.

And the puzzle pieces suddenly all fit!

Helm has hands of stone. He's not going to be up in the top six for very long. I love Helm almost as much as Datsyuk but we have to remain realistic. There was a brief era of time a few years ago where it looked like Helm might become a real top six guy if he could get his scoring touch together, but he didn't. We have to get out of this mentality that bottom sixers need to somehow elevate themselves. It's probably why Holland though signing a hodgepodge of chaff would work out. Helm is the best third line center in the league. I'm good with that. Keep Weiss up on the second and let Tatar and Alfredsson tear the ice up. Edit: But with Weiss and Franzen injured, I guess we don't have a choice, haha. At any rate the second line won't be a defensive disaster, and they'll have speed.

You're right. It does sort of tie everything together. But I still don't get why it'd hit him now and not during any of his other 8 years of performing in front of 20,000 people, plus national audiences, plus playoffs. But I don't really understand mental health issues in great detail. And the fact that it hit him so hard, I'm wondering if there's a great deal of depression or something with it it, too. Whatever it is, it must have been building up to this point and now it just burst. Can anyone remember what could have happened when he left in the second period of that game he left? Was he playing bad or anything?

But his butt-busting isn't helping us. He loses every race for the puck, turns over the puck all the time, makes poor decisions and is always behind the play. Right now the fact is Cleary isn't doing anything, and is more frequently hurting the team than Franzen. Franzen doesn't really hurt the team at all. He just doesn't help as much as he could.

Of course we'll see him again. He's our top prospect.

Where was this anxiety during the last 8 years of playing in front of 20,000? When he was scoring huge playoff goals and dominating Colorado all the time? If true, it does explain some of his comments and why Babcock never calls him out or draws attention to him directly.

You guys talk like we are in the cellar. We're competing for first in our division, and over a whole season we can still compete for first overall. Babcock's coaching continues to confuse me. He always puts the wrong guys out to finish periods and games, hence the plethora of last minute goals.

I can't trash Holland for signing Samuelsson. It made some degree of sense at the time. But multi-year and NTC did not.

This has "disaster" written all over it. First home game after a road trip, against a middling team with speed, and a homecoming of sorts for Nill. These are the games the Wings forget to show up for. If Dallas has a player playing their first ever NHL game, that seals the deal.

Yeah, it just means they will tear up the regular season but flop when they face real teams in the playoffs. Like they've done since 2009.

If he was benched Babcock would have said so. Sending a message. Either something is seriously wrong or Babcock and Holland are seriously considering getting rid of him. Who needs "practice time" after not being sure if you were injured or sick?

Maybe he has some respiratory infection? "Upper body" and all that. But then, why not say so? I wonder if he's pulling a Sammy and just rubbing the Wings face in his lack of desire.