StormJH1

This is a GREAT post. The only possible downside I've heard to the mandatory shields (grandfathering in is fine with me) is the "player safety" issue - some players claiming they don't have as much of a feel for their surroundings while using one. I don't buy it, since over 60% of the league already uses them, including highly skilled players. But you're trying to tell me that that a HANS device in a racing car, which RESTRICTS HEAD MOVEMENT, is more of a nuisance than a visor in hockey? Face protection is mandatory in basically every level of hockey BUT the NHL, it makes no sense.

I hate that line for so many reasons. It's a total waste of Datsyuk (and his production HAS dipped since they put the line together). I don't think it necessarily has to be Tatar with him just because might be the two best "danglers" on the team, but given that the 93-40-24 "Swedish/Zug connection" line seems to have some chemistry going on, pairing 21 with 13 seems to make sense. I just hate it gives Cleary and Abdelkader Top 6 minutes (well, at least on even strength), especially Abdelkader. Heck, Tatar and Andersson with Datsyuk would even be a better idea than having a "Griffins line", and one that may pay dividends years down the line from the mentoring effect of playing at such a high level.

No. I won't waste the 1,000 word essay to explain why I feel this way.

Great story. Shows how hockey, as much as any other sport, really celebrates old school machismo, and is slow to adapt to modern realities. I remember a similar story about Tony Granato in the 90's after he had some concussion problems, and players made fun of him for wearing a thicker helmet. Guys like Gretzky wore those Jofa helmets that were basically a thin piece of plastic with only enough padding to make it comfortable. They weren't even HECC certified. A lot of players they asked about it basically said that "vanity" and not wanting to get made fun of were the primary reasons they didn't wear more equipment. Occasionally, you'd hear a guy say that they couldn't see as well through them, but given that 61% of the league now wears some type of shield (including Crosby and some of the highest skill players), that's obviously mind over matter. I would mandate it to "save players from themselves", the same way helmets needed to be mandated, and even then, Craig MacTavish was still allowed to risk cracking his head open into the mid-90's. People say it's overreaction to a freak accident, but that's absurd. There's been SO many close calls. Brendan Shanahan almost lost an eye when he was with the Devils. Yzerman had the orbital bone fracture and started wearing one full-time afterwards. And the Hossa/Berard incident wasn't a "near miss", that really did wreck Berard's career. Will it prevent eye injuries from ever happening? Probably not. But I see no that it would harm the game in any other way, and I think it could only help. Henrik Sedin got absolutely rocked in the face by a shot late last night, from almost the same angle as the M. Staal shot. It stunned him and knocked him on his feet, but he got up and was perfectly fine afterwards, and I think the only difference was the visor.

I think Tatar has taken a step forward this year. Granted, as I look at his numbers, they aren't exactly spectacular. But he's been paired with on the "Griffins" line for most of the year, and he's getting like 11 or 12 minutes a game. Dude's got some serious skill and an absurdly fast release in traffic. Joakim Andersson is a little on the slow side, but if he learns to protect the puck as a big man like Hossa does, there's a willingness to go to net that I really like. Nyquist looked okay at times last year, but it's clear that the organization doesn't view him as quite ready yet. I can't say with confidence that any of these guys will be 30-goal scorers, but part of the reason I was disappointed by the Tootoo and Sammy signings was knowing that they would bump one of these guys out of the lineup. Fortunately (and unfortunately), injuries to some of the forwards have prevented that from happening. Wings are building a pretty good corps of solid young players, but it shouldn't be surprising that they haven't yet hit on a superstar - such is life when you pick 17th or lower for the last 20 years (or trade your pick for Kyle Quincey). The optimistic way of looking at it is that we're in a pretty attractive position cap-wise, we have a solid mentoring program with aging, yet still very productive stars to bring these guys along, and we seem to be in great shape at goaltender for years to come. The pessimistic side would say that when you have a bunch of decent players, but not stars, you'll invariably overpay one or several of them, and you'll become the Calgary Flames - enough firepower to stay in the Playoffs, but not enough to do much, and you also never bottom out and get an elite-level pick.

Born and raised in Metro Detroit (and went to several JLA games), but moved away at age 22. Since then, the live NHL games I've gone to are at the XCel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN, which truly is a top-notch venue. Around the league, JLA is getting an increasingly poor reputation. Fans and beat writers from other cities complain about the smell and the "oldness" of it. I went back to game at JLA in 2009 (which, unfortunately, was a 3-0 loss to Chicago), and it was still an overall good experience. Then again, I'm not really an "out-of-towner" - I grew up there and am accustomed to a lot of the structural degradation and general dysfunction. Also, I was just excited to see MY team in their building, which has about as much history as you could possibly cram into anything built in 1979. But when people say "Oh, food/concessions/parking/surrounding aesthetics doesn't matter"....guys, it matters. It matters a heck of a lot, and it matters more when the prices for (most of) those tickets are as high as they are. Live hockey has the advantage over live football/basketball/etc of still being a much better experience in person than on HDTV (though the gap closed a little). If you're an out-of-towner, or even an outer-ring suburbanite, the stuff regular JLA visitors just "accept" (crappy parking arrangement, bullet holes in the Cobo/JLA tunnel, horrible public transit system) outside the building do keep people away. Then again, you can see in the Comerica/Ford Field part of downtown how some "corridor development" and a couple of nice venues can create a little bit of buzz. I don't know if "need" is ever going to be the right word, but I think the Joe is becoming more and more of a problem. When I think about the experience of parking my car a few blocks away in a $10 or $15 lot and walking into XCel Center, it isn't even fathomable what's involved to go to a game at JLA. And remember, the people on this board are largely the people "in the know" - casual fans don't know all the tricks or what to avoid, so they probably end up facing a wall stuck on the Cobo roof for an hour at 11pm on a school night, like I used to do with my dad in the 90's. Haha.

Yeah, that was the same argument against signing Weber to an offer sheet - the difference is that Weber was going to sign somewhere whether he was "prodded" to or not. Calgary's offer sheet only had two reasonable outcomes, one of them neutral/marginally bad (Colorado matches and O'Reilly is back with them earlier than he would have been otherwise), one of them horribly bad (Calgary surrenders a 1st and a 3rd for a player they would certainly lose on waivers). “Prior to tendering the offer sheet for Ryan O’Reilly we, as a hockey operations department, examined whether there were any impediments to our successfully securing the services of the player including, but not limited to, his having played in the KHL after the start of the current NHL season. Our interpretation of the Article 13 transition rules governing restricted free agents (“RFA”), and the applicability of Article 13.23 under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement to such RFA’s was, and continues to be, different than the NHL’s current interpretation as articulated to us this morning. Moreover, throughout our discussions, the player’s representative shared our interpretation and position with respect to the non-applicability of Article 13.23. While we were prepared to advance our position with the NHL, in light of Colorado’s having matched the offer sheet it is now an academic point. As such, we will have no further comment on the matter, the player, or the offer sheet process.” Jay Feaster General Manager

It has certainly been called fairly routinely around the league. I don't remember the team and player involved in the first one, but I believe it cost that team the game as well. I don't like the rule, but I can't say it's the "dumbest" 2-minute penalty in the game - that honor would probably go to the shoot out of play in the defensive zone penalty, or the trapezoid rule. (Question here: Has any goalie actually ever been called for the trapezoid rule? I've never seen one since they put the rule in after the 05' lockout, but it's pretty ridiculous watching goalies try to dodge it with nobody around). You can see arguments for this one. It could be a safety thing for hands and wrists (much like the no kicking rule in the goal crease). But it's probably more to avoid faceoffs becoming a rugby match where you have centers that aren't even trying to win a draw with skill.

So Calgary would have lost the 1st and 3rd round picks to "sign" a player they then would have lost on waivers anyway? Yikes.

The fact that Filppula is turning 29 next month makes me feel really old, and also makes me realize how much this team is aging. Flip's a UFA after the season, and his salary is actually $3.5 million. Still, based on his 2011-12 numbers (and throwing out this year's #'s as a statistical aberration), he probably is going to want a raise in the $4 or $5 million range. My feelings on Filppula are much more positive than those towards Jiri Hudler, but both of them are decent players who just always felt out of place on this team. Part of that might be just because he's a Finn on a team with a ton of Swedes. He unquestionably has value as a puck carrier, but for a guy that racks up a fair amount of assists, it's not like I can picture him latching onto a Cleary, Franzen, or Bertuzzi and just setting up plays for them with any regularity. I don't think he'll be traded because we'll be in the playoff hunt and it's not worth moving him for "rental" value. But I also don't know for sure that we resign him.

Yeah, I probably agree. He feels like 4th rounder in trade value to me, but that's just a shoot from the hip guess based on very little. Of course, Kindl is a RFA after the season, so a deal before the trade deadline is kind of like a rental player situation. I'm not sure what his value is in that situation, but I'm sure there is some value. In other words, he's not Mike Commodore I'm not even convinced Kindl can't be a decent NHL defenseman - there IS skill there. It's just every time I think he's turning the corner, he takes 3 minors, or makes a dumb turnover, or gets lost on defense....

I haven't forgotten Chicago's history (routinely bottom 10 in attendance pre-lockout), but that's an oversimplification. They routinely have some of the best attendance in the league now. Their old ownership was so bad people couldn't even get the games on TV (and the team sucked). TV viewership and fan interest is one thing, but when it comes to putting butts in the seats and the prohibitive costs of ticket sales, I really don't blame "casual" fans for staying home when the product is terrible. Also, I wonder how Detroit would rank if you measured ACTUAL attendance as a percentage of tickets sold. JLA is embarrassing at times on TV, especially in the lower bowl - it looks like 15,000 to 17,000 out of 20k capacity actually show up for games. Of course, those are terribly expensive tickets you see, but even they're corporate, somebody has that ticket and is sitting on it.

I want realignment badly, but (a) I'm not getting too excited about any one plan, given what happened to the 2011 plan; and (b) I'm not sure I like a lot of the proposals that put us in with a bunch of "Eastern" teams. The argument that the Red Wings shouldn't be in the "West" has merit, but if you look at a map of the franchises, so do the arguments that would keep us there. I'm also privy to another angle on this debate, living in Minnesota. Wild fans here are convinced that they have it the worst in the league right now (well, except for Winnipeg's temporary arrangement) because they are a Central timezone team that exclusively plays teams in Pacific/Mountain timezones. They also rack up a ton of travel heading out to Vancouver, and 3 of their 4 division opponents are Canadian, which probably causes more issues with customs, etc. On the other hand, look at a map of the U.S., and Minnesota is basically dead in the middle of it. Detroit, meanwhile has a ton of in-conference games with a three-hour time difference, and a large amount of travel. Those games are as late as 10:30pm starts in the D, whereas the latest a Wild game can start is 9:30pm. I liked the original realignment proposal because kept us in with Midwest teams like Chicago and Minnesota, and would prevent us from ending up on the West Coast for the first two rounds of the playoffs. Anybody over the age of 25 probably recalls all those playoff series against San Jose, Anaheim, and Los Angeles in the 90's/early 2000's, those late starts were pretty brutal (and they frequently went to overtime). But as much tradition as Montreal, Toronto, and Boston have, I just don't feel a strong connection to playing those teams as a Wings fan. Granted, nobody really wants to have a "rivalry" with towns like Columbus or Nashville, but that argument would apply to any team equally. Long story short, I'm not so sure that I do want to trade CHI, MIN, and STL for BOS, TOR, and MTL

Since this thread got bumped, how have you guys felt about GameCenter Live? This is my first time with the service, and I've been generally pretty pleased. I'm an out-of-market fan, and have been able to see at least part of every game so far, which is awesome. I've tried it on a variety of different mobile devices and set-top boxes. AppleTV is an easy-to-use interface, but is a little barebones. Surprisingly, the Roku version gives you far more features, including highlights/condensed game packages and access to NHL Vault (Classic Games). The picture quality is generally pretty good, and the stream doesn't shut down for re-buffering, though every once in awhile you'll get a studdering feed that can be a big annoying. On iPad and iPhone, the GCL app works great so long as you're on WiFi. If the Wings aren't on, I like to set the iPad up to some other game and then hop around from game to game during intermissions. The blackouts are obnoxious, but that's the way it is for MLB At-Bat and other services too. What makes no sense to me is that GCL feeds show the local commercials, as well, so why does it matter if you're watching through Comcast or through an app that distributes the same advertising content? There are times I'd like to watch the Red Wings (or even the Wild) when I can't be near a TV, but the blackouts prevent that from happening, which is just stupid.

Since I'm an avowed Tootoo hater, I do feel obligated to check in and give him credit for the last few games. For what Tootoo "is", he's been extremely effective the past few games. I actually found myself wanting him more on the ice, though I'm not sure that's a testament to him or just how irrelevant guys like Abdelkader and Miller have been. Still, given that we did LOSE the game, and have lost several where Tootoo has been "active" in this manner, I do think you have to put that in the context of the "end result" and ask if you like watching Tootoo because it makes you feel good, or if you truly believe he's making us a more effective team. Tootoo stepped in to a fight between Dorsett and Ericsson, which was (a) kinda embarrassing to Ericsson given his size, and (b) borderline worthy of an additional penalty or suspension for 3rd man in (Ericsson hadn't really engaged yet, so it wasn't that bad). Oh, and by the way, the Blue Jackets scored right after we fired up their whole bench, and held the momentum for much of the rest of the game. Similar thing late in the game where Tootoo pretty blatantly dove and took that minor in the 3rd that put us on the power play. Yes, it worked, so Tootoo deserves credit for that. But he was also warned by the referee, and that very easily could have been called a dive, which might have been disastrous. The reason I dislike Tootoo so much isn't really about me disliking him as a person or even his game (though both of those are occasionally true). I just fundamentally don't believe that crap "fits" on a team like this because in a 2-2 or 2-1 hockey game, I believe the Red Wings are better at actually playing hockey than the Columbus Blue Jackets. Players like Tootoo have a target on their back with both opposing goons and referees. Simply by putting him on the ice, the game becomes about Tootoo running around. The game devolves into chaos, and in a chaotic game, the skill advantage of the Red Wings is dissipated. Fans are stuck in the "Cold War" mentality of the Wings getting pulverized by the Devils and beat around the rink by the Avalanche before we won our Cups. That's not what I see happening now (and it's also a different game than 15 years ago). Tootoo isn't the "reason" the Wings are struggling - he doesn't play enough for that to be true. But throwing him on the ice is always going to him, and that's not going to benefit the team long-term.

This is an interesting topic, and I actually agree with much of GoWings1905's take on it. My first impulse is not to blame the injuries for how we are playing. There are several reasons for this: Everybody knew injuries were going to happen in the shortened season/no real preseason The injuries, by and large, have not been happening to key players like #13, #40, #55, and #35 While the Wings lead in "man games lost", that statistic is a little deceiving when much of it is a backup goaltender and other bit players who are frequently injured This team had anticipated shortcomings on the blueline even if we didn't have a single injury A few people up above said "Helm was the biggest injury" and then got jumped on. I actually agree with that. I'm not saying we have a significantly better record with him in the lineup, necessarily, but you can't name a single other guy whose prolonged absence has had more of an effect on this team. Our penalty kill has been terrible, and until recently, any line that didn't have Datsyuk or Zetterberg on it couldn't create anything. Still, even if I'm not stunned at where we are now, I WILL be stunned and devastated if this team does not make the Playoffs. It's one thing for spoiled Wings fans to expect Kenny to deliver them a Cup every year - but it's a whole other thing to ask if a team with this level of talent should be among the 16 best teams in a 30-team league. The answer is yes. Datsyuk and Zetterberg are aging, but they are not playing "old". You could argue they're both as good as they've ever been. The difference is the number of games we're dropping to teams like Columbus and Calgary that we used to win 80% of the time.

You listed a lot there, and some of them go further back and are good examples. I think the Krupp situation is a good example of a "mistake", at least in retrospect. Of course, poaching a 6'6" right-handed defenseman from your bitter rival probably seemed like a great idea at the time. He had missed a good amount of time previously due to injury, but predicting the whole thing with the dog sledding while he was supposed to be rehabbing (and the grievance) would have been hard to foresee. http://blog.mlive.com/its-just-sports/2009/07/best_of_the_worst_red_wings_no_9.html But the "failing to have a Lidstrom succession plan" one, which you are far from the only person to suggest, just makes me chuckle because you CAN'T find another Lidstrom, and it's not like having 2 "good" defenseman is the same as having 1 "elite" one that logs 25 minutes a game and virtually never screws up (not to mention quarterbacking the power play). Plus, unless you're talking about Chris Pronger, Scott Niedermayer, or Zdeno Chara, it's really pretty hard to find examples of defenseman that are so impactful you could basically plug them into any team and have an instant defensive powerhouse. No better example of that right now than what is happening with Ryan Suter in Minnesota. I was among the people who really wanted him here, but it turns out that when your partner is Tom Gilbert instead of Shea Weber, suddenly your defense doesn't look as stellar. The problem the Wings had with replacing the defensive corps is the same they have all over the team. Other than Suter, there really was no "free agency" fix for a top-tier defenseman in the offseason. You could argue that Holland should have traded for one, but since the Red Wings rarely have draft picks above the 20th pick, it's not like the Red Wings have elite caliber prospects like a Hodgson or Kassian that you see swapped around for considerable value before their careers have taken off (in that case, they were swapped for each other). If the Wings are lucky enough to develop the next Datsyuk or Zetterberg, that won't be apparent to the league until they're already proven pros, at which point we'd probably want to keep that player. And even though the Wings seem to trade their 1st rounder basically every other year, it's almost a guaranteed low first rounder, so the returns are more like Kyle Quincey than Jonas Brodin or Victor Hedman. Nobody doubts that the defense is a problem, but to call it a "mistake" seems a bit unfair, or unrealistic.

I'm not going to keep going point-for-point with you on an argument that is subjective and cannot be won. Clutterbuck is as good as Tootoo (probably better), and that Wild team has been borderline terrible for his entire career. Of course momentum matters, and yes, a well-time hit, or a non-scripted fight can be a source of momentum. But they are not the ONLY sources of momentum. Some of the worst teams in hockey employ the best hitters and leaders in PIM/fighting majors, and it's been that way for years. The fighting thing is a side show. You saw it again with Ken and Mickey last night. Ken (who I like as an announcer) saw Nik Kronwall get boarded and stagger off the ice with what looked like a possible concussion (turned out later he was okay, and Howard is apparently the one that is hurt). Ken seemed almost borderline excited that now Tootoo would have a reason to fight Rich Clune! As if a 45-second face smashing contest is a good trade-off for losing your best defenseman for a few games or weeks. If you don't agree with me on the fighting thing, you probably won't agree with me on Tootoo either. But it's clear that: (a) The presence of Tootoo didn't prevent Kronwall from being cheap-shotted in the first place, nor did it prevent Setoguchi from busting open Quincey's chin on Sunday (Setoguchi doesn't fight anyway), nor did Brad May (an actual heavyweight) prevent the rash of cheapshots and injuries that besieged the Wings after he was acquired in 2010. (b) You can't spark anything from the bench, which is where Tootoo is for 52 out of 60 minutes every game © Fighting as a reactive, symbolic gesture after somebody has already cheap-shotted your team feels good, but really doesn't impact short-term or long-term success of the team. Tootoo played well yesterday, I'll give him that. The goal was lucky, but he had a great opportunity earlier where Rinne robbed him. He is on this team, and the Wings might as well play him if they're paying him. But he is a defensive liability, and I don't trust him long-term to avoid dumb penalties, which is what happened at the end of his Nashville run. He's also blocking the roster spot of a Griffins player that could potentially become a role player or Top 6 forward, which we're going to need a lot of in a big hurry with Cleary, Bertuzzi, Sammy, etc. aging fast.

When they show the highlight package for Datsyuk's career, I have to think that goal will be included in there...right after his patented shootout move on Turco, kicking the puck the Z for the empty netter, and any number of other blind passes, take aways or other exceptional plays you could choose from. I really think that his offense from game-to-game this year has been better at age 34 than it ever has been. I'm not saying he'll be on a record goals/assist pace (the lockout ruined the significance of those numbers anyway), but he just seems involved in setting up and finishing more consistently than I can ever remember. The brilliant thing about him is that he doesn't do it with superhuman speed or a 100 mph slapshot. In Datsyuk and Larionov, the Wings have had two of the most cerebral tacticians the game has ever seen, which is why this generation of fans is truly spoiled, even if we don't win a Cup every 5 years. Unless he re-signs, which I don't expect him to do in advance, 2014 really could be his last year in the NHL. I sure hope it's not, but I certainly wouldn't fault him for whatever he wants to do. Just make sure you appreciate what you're seeing, because we'll be trying to explain to our kids in 10 or 20 years how this guy who never had a 100-pt season or scored more than 32 goals in a year was maybe the most special player we ever watched.

Wow. So much to take in there. If you really think Tootoo is the "hardest hitting forward in the league", or "one of the top middleweight" fighters, I need you to take an elementary physics class and then maybe we can talk. I suppose you also think that Cal Clutterbuck is an "elite power forward" because he leads the league in "hits" every year. A "hit" is supposed to be scored as initiating physical contact that dislodges the puck from the puck carrier. Guys like Tootoo and Clutterbuck throw themselves around and look good on TV to fans raised on "Slap Shot", but running guys behind the play is gratuitous and really pretty irrelevant to the scoreboard. Yes, it makes the fans in the arena go "ooh" and "ahh", the same way people gasp when a runaway car drives through a farmer's market. Tootoo had 6 goals in 77 games last year and was a HEALTHY SCRATCH in the Playoffs. Prior to last season, he never had more than TWELVE assists in an NHL season. Go look at the list of guys that had more goals than him from the 2011-12, and that $1.9 million AAC starts to make you feel sick a little. We didn't need THIS guy to have a tough hockey team. Pre-staged fights by a guy who was brought in to be a circus act to improve team morale, and he isn't even in the right "weight class" to fight anyone of significance. I can't argue with people about "my hockey knowledge" when the person telling me I'm an idiot would rather watch fighting and general douchebaggery than the actual sport of hockey.

It's funny how Tatar has kind of positioned himself for the "Top 6" forward role a lot of people thought Nyquist would end up with. As I find myself increasingly disgruntled with the role players on this team (Abdelkader, Miller, etc.), a guy like Tatar who is actually showing real offensive ability NEEDS to play. We know what Sammy is, and we know what Cleary is. This is not going to end any better than a round or two past the playoffs. But what can Tatar playing next to Datsyuk? What might Emmerton, Nyquist, or Kindl turn into if we just keep playing them? Those are more intriguing questions to me than just rolling out there with tired veterans towards predictable results. Also, if there was any doubt about Helm's value (never was on my end), I think we're seeing it now. Opposing PP's are something like 27% against us and the 3rd & 4th lines generate nothing unless Tatar or Andersson is involved.

First, it's nice to at least find a Wings fan to acknowledge that Hossa is, in fact, a very good hockey player. Many Wings fans I encounter go with the "Hossa sucks" angle due to sour grapes over '09 and a mercenary situation we all knew was likely to be a one-year deal going in. That being said, I'm not sure anyone can say with full credibility that the Wings "chose" Franzen in lieu of Hossa. Franzen's knee problems and other nagging issues really didn't surface until after the contract was signed. And Hossa was seriously damaged goods during after the '09 Playoffs. Franzen's deal, even in retrospect, is very cap friendly for a player of his ability. Comparable players on the open market routinely get cap hits for $5-$7 million. And that cap room may still yet pay off. It didn't lead to Parise and Suter, but we were at least in a situation where money didn't prevent us from that type of move. The "biggest mistake" question is harder with Detroit that most teams because we virtually never are in a draft position where you "expect" success from that pick. The Ericsson deal looked dumb when it was signed, but he's been much better this year, and we'd be completely screwed without him. I think dumping a late 1st rounder for Quincey (even if the 1st rounder had a 50/50 chance of ever being an NHL player) is the worst I can think of, given that he's been literally worse than replacement value since coming over last year.

I came out hard against Tootoo at several points during the offseason and lockout, and a lot of people disagreed with me. I don't think much has happened since the season started that could be used to justify his $1.9 million AAC. On the other hand, when he's actually been on the ice and playing hockey, it's not like his play has been terrible enough that I can point to that and go: "See!! I won the argument!". I still think his game is a joke. The Wings have acquired PLENTY of players that I hated as opponents, but quickly respected once they became Wings. Chelios, Brett Hull, and Bertuzzi come to mind. But there's the key difference there - those guys were all skilled hockey players, not one-dimensional cheap shot artists and agitators. I would argue that the Wings haven't employed trash like this since the days of Sean Avery. (A note on that: Avery in the early days was a total a-hole, but this was before "sloppy seconds", fashion internships, and waving the stick in front of goaltender's faces - he was actually a somewhat popular player at the time, but management saw what was coming with him and moved him before he ever had the chance to embarass us). The big picture here is that we gave a 3-year deal and borderline Top 6 forward money to a guy whose only marketable "skill appears" to be an odious reputation. In other words, any garbage AHL'er making $750,000 a year could just decide tomorrow that they wanted to act like Jordin Tootoo, and they'd have that same reputation within a year or two. He's lucky if he plays 8 minutes a game on the 4th line. And I'm sorry, but you can't be considered an "enforcer" when you're 5'9" and pretty much every known "enforcer" around the league is about two weight classes above you. He scares nobody, but annoys everyone, and therefore, does nothing to enhance the effectiveness of the team, while tarnishing the Red Wings brand. I've said this time and time again, but the idea that you can improve team toughness by throwing guys on the 4th line who do nothing but fight (or cheap shot) is absurd. "Toughness" is having power forwards like Shanahan, Holmstrom, or Franzen that do the dirty work to keep the puck. It's having skilled forwards like Zetterberg and Datsyuk are aren't huge players, but are willing to throw a shoulder into you in the corner. And it's about having defensemen who stick up for their goaltender and move guys physically when they have to, rather than running guys behind the play and getting caught out of position. I'm not going keep hating on Tootoo for the duration of his contract because Babcock's use of him shows that he already agrees with me. In terms of playing time and doing things that actually impact the scoreboard, he's already less important than guys like Tatar, Andersson, and Emmerton. He just happens to make more than those guys.

Amen. There's a lot of unfair criticisms of Detroit and Detroit fans, but the ones having to do with a spoiled sense of entitlement are spot on. This roster is not that special. It's certainly not "bad", given that we rarely have a Top 15 pick, let alone a Top 3 pick, and all the guys that we lost. But every Red Wings argument about coaching and GM starts with the premise "The Red Wings obviously should be in the Conference Finals this year and every years, so..." The young guys look kinda promising, but none of them are blue chippers. There was no training camp. Guys like Lashoff and Huskins that weren't even supposed to be involved have gotten key minutes on defense. And yet here we are, and the results have hardly been disastrous. Babcock may wear out his message someday, but anyone who things now is the time to dump him isn't thinking rationally. Not even close.

This is a great synopsis. I try to remind people of that when they get overly down on the organization every time we lose a free agent they assumed we would sign. They seem to forget that Original Six or not, we are still 1/30 of a league where you can't just buy your way out of problems with impunity. I have to say, though, that even though I'm still worried about the team as presently constituted for THIS year, some of these young players that I had basically written off are starting to make me wonder if they aren't legitimate long-term NHL'ers. Brunner is older, and his success isn't completely unexpected, but if he had been an established NHL'er signed as a UFA last year, what would his cap hit value be? $3.5 million? $5 million? It seems crazy until you look at what people making that amount actually produce - and we got this guy as a low-cost tryout for basically nothing. Crap, he's better than Semin right now, and Semin got $6 million (and is a team cancer). But Andersson looks like he could be a legit power forward in this league if he figured a few things out. Tatar isn't lighting the world on fire, but he has a much more balanced game than someone like Hudler ever did, and there are flashes of skill. Heck, even Cory Emmerton is suddenly making some things happen. And Jakub Kindl was getting ready for "bust" status if he didn't have it already, yet he's looked better to me in recent games. What people don't understand is that the league is organized to turn teams like the Red Wings into teams like the Calgary Flames, until they give in an agree to bottom out for a few years. And the Wings simply refuse to do it. It's not too far out of the realm of possibility that we could be seeing the makings of an assortment of role players and maybe a few Top 6 forwards here, which, combined with a lucky "Parise"-type impact signing, could take us to the next level even as the Euro Twins start to wind down.