wings_fanatic

These lines have become stale imo. It seems that after about 10 games, the lines become stale for Babcock. I would go back to Pavs and Hank together to try to get some momentum and see where that takes us next game. If it works, great, if not then go back to these lines. But I think the Wings need a slight change like that to freshen things up.

That was a dumbass coaching decision by Babcock to start the 2nd powerplay unit on the powerplay over the Pavs unit. The 2nd unit has been below average all night, and Kronners had just delivered a huge hit, so Babs should have been smart enough to start the powerplay with the 1st unit which has actualy been good tonight. If he had done that, we wouldn't be down by 2 again.

The only line that looks consistent out there is Pavs, Bert and Mule. Fil looks alive out there generating plays also, but other then that the team looks asleep. Also, I really do not like Stuart and Kronners playing together... they just have no chemestry for some reason. Kronners should be with Kindl and Stu with Ericsson.

The Wings seem to be lacking energy tonight. Something about playing in this building is just so damn boring... playing Edmonton lately reminds me of what it is like to play Minnesota. Despite that, I think that was a really lousy penalty call on Ericsson that led to the tying goal, and I think the refs have let the Oilers get away with quite a bit of things, so I expect make-up calls in the 3rd. Hopefully the Wings can muster some energy and skate away with a good third period and more importantly a win.

Good period in that the Wings were oustanding during that 5 on 3 kill and once again Watson is missing calls against the opposing team. The oilers were getting away with a LOT of interference that period. However, Babs has to get the Wings to control the play more next period so that Edmonton is not able to use their speed as effectively because without their speed, they got nothing on us.

I am not worried at this point. 9 of their next 11 are on the road, so I am willing to bet that Mike Babcock will have them ready to win at least 7 or 8 of the next 11, which will help to improve their road record. Keep in mind, they have not played THAT bad on the road... they have shown signs of Red Wings hockey such as the Boston game (best game of the year imo), the Pens game, game in LA a while back. To top that, they dominated both games they played in Minnesota at the beginning of the year, but were just going through that slump of not scoring. When it is all said and done, it will be during this next 11 games that we will see the Red Wings erase any concerns of playing on the road because it is just a few minor adjustments to make that will make all of the difference imo. Lets start strong tonight.

Haha absolutely. I truly feel comfortable enough, for the first time since 2009, to say that this team has all the tools in the shed for a strong run at the Cup, Babcock just needs to look at what we say to fix the little problems from last night. Nashville always seems to get lucky bounces in their barn against us but "we make our own luck" and nashville did exactly what they had to do to win the game, so cudos to them. This may be breaking news to some posters in this forum, but no team wins every single game and losing the way we did last night is nothing to be ashamed of. The Wings will learn from it next game and if they win that I am sure all of these jabs at Howard and such will be long forgotten by some of you.

Some of you guys are overreacting here big time. The Wings played a perfect road game for the most part. Yah, there were some mistakes made by Howard, but he has played lights out all season so he is entitled to a bad game every now and then. The thing that stuck out to me is that there were times tonight where Kronners and Stu looked lost in our end. They just kind of scramble around the zone when they play together for some reason, so look for Babs to split them up. - Lidstrom and White were fantastic tonight. Weber had a good night, but I think Nick's all around play showed why he is still the best defenseman in the game - Pavel had another great game. Sure he missed the open net, but that happens and he has been our best player for the last long while and is slowly getting close to 1st place in points in the league. That entire first line has been outstanding. Highlight of my night was Pavs knocking Weber down... I laughed so hard - Zetterberg is really coming to form with shooting the puck and controlling play... it is really nice to see - Ericsson has got to go. I am so tired of his lame play. He simply has no potential imo. If we can somehow create a package deal for Semin that invovles Ericsson going the other way, please pull the trigger Kenny. Bottom line is that we saw many good things from the Wings tonight, and I am not worried one bit about this team

The Red Wings were a long shot better than the Preds all night long. Our top 2 lines were outstanding. I thought the 4th line SUCKED though and they missed coverage too many times in our own end. Also, as I said earlier, the bottom 4 dmen had a pretty bad night, and Howard was not as good as we are used to seeing. Nashville got very lucky to win this game, but by no means should we start turning on the Wings players and say this is 2010 all over again. I think Barry Trotz said it best earlier today... this season the Wings are playing like the 2008 Cup winning team for the first time since they won the cup and this loss tonight was pretty much the only way that team lost games in 2008 (losing games even though they were clearly the better team). I expect the Wings will come out strong at the Joe saturday.

Just a note, Bert should not have credit with the 2nd assist on Nick's goal... Pavel passed it to White who passed it to Nick, therefore Pavs has 2 points again tonight so they better fix that! Also, the 2nd and 3rd D pairings have not been very good tn... I feel that they play stronger when Kronners and Stu are not together. For some reason they just are not good together anymore. Other than the 2 terrible coverage plays on the goals against, the Wings are playing an outstanding game.

I want Babs to go back to Kronners with Ericsson and Stu with Kindl

Great road game by the Wings- - they really picked it up in the 3rd which was nice to see. Solid game by Howard again, Nick showed why he is still the best dman in the game with his outstanding work on Malkin, and Pavel was the best player on the ice. One thing that I really question is the fact that Pavs only played 16 minutes tonight!? Babs has got to play him more than that with him playing as good as he is. Otherwise, go Wings!!

I forgot how much the Pens get favored in hockey games... they have gotten away with at least 3 or 4 calls that were WAY BIGGER that that crap the refs called on Nick. That really irritates me, so I am looking for some make-up calls in the 3rd for the Wings. I am predicting Pavel to get the 2nd goal and then Fil to get the empty netter, Wings win 3-1.

The ice looks like it is crap because lots of players had difficulty controlling the puck that period. Also, the refs are a joke missing that original call on what should have been too many men... we would have otherwise had a legitimate 2 on 1. Overall, good period by the Wings and if they keep it up, they will beat the Pens. I would like to see Babs do his best to get pavs out there against malkin because I think pavs can really expose him and generate more chances for the Wings and then Hank and Fil can oppose stall.

I was at the game again tonight against the Jets and right at the start of the 3rd period when the wings came out, Pavs skated around testing different strides and such and when he went around the net I could see him kind of squinting, so I am pretty sure it is one of his legs or feet that are sore, but as we could tell by the game, it isn't anything too serious.

Mlive confirmed Babs said Pavel is playing tomorrow night. So it was just a precaution babs and pavs took last night since they had such a big lead. Great news of the Wings.

I think this is a pointless argument because in the end, no matter what team, we will see it as homers, just like fans of other teams will see it from their "homer" perspective. Take this for instance. We Wings fans always complain about when Homer gets cross-checked in front of the opponents net or when the goalie goes after him and such because OUR player is the victim in our eyes. Reverse the situation, like against the Blues, and their guy going to the net is to blame and our defenseman and goalie have the right to knock around, punch or cross check whoever on the other team. I understand where the Blues fan is coming from, I would not be too thrilled if Pavs came back from a lengthy injury and made a move to the net, pissed the goalie off and started getting punched in the head. We are all loyal fans of hockey and none of us want to admit when someone on our team did something wrong (unless they are amongst the unfortunate few who get hated on by everyone such as cleary or hudler).

After the game Babs said Pavs is fine, just sat to rest because he has been sore all week. Basically, if they did not have a huge lead going into the 3rd, Babs hinted that Pavs would have kept playing. He is gonna give Pavs the day off tomorrow and should be ready to go Saturday.

What it comes down to is this. Howard has played great all season, along with Nicklas Lidstrom, Filpulla and Kronners. Those are the only 4 that have been good ALL SEASON LONG. Now, Pavel has been MUCH more like himself ever since after that game against the Sharks, so he is on the list of players fulfilling their jobs. Franzen and Bert have both found a home with Pavel on the top line and are doing their part. Cleary has been picking things up since being on the 3rd line where he belongs. Now, I could go on and name certain players for doing their jobs, but Henrik Zetterberg is not one of the players that I can name. Is he playing BAD? No- - by no means is he playing bad. The problem is that he is not playing like what we expect of him, or what the team expects of him. We really need Hank to get going and start scoring goals for us and help carry some offense for our team when we need it. If Babs does not get Hank going, then I do not see a far look into the playoffs for the boys in Red this season. We all know Henrik Zetterberg is an outstanding hockey player, but he has yet to show that this season. Pavel called himself out and has since been playing much more like himself and has been putting up the necessary numbers that we, and he, expects of him. If we want to be as successful as we can, it is time for Zetterberg to do the same.

Our PK has never been the same as it was in 2008 ever since Babs stopped using Pavs and Z consistently on one of the PK units. He needs to have SET PK UNITS because right now it seems that he just throws random players out there and that there are no disignated units. PK1: Datsyuk- Zetterberg Lidstrom- White PK2: Helm- Filpulla Kronwall- Stuart I think these 2 penality killing units would CONSISTENTLY get the job done.

Babcock needs to do a better job with this team in regards to a loss. They should not be winning a bunch of games in a row and then losing a bunch in a row. They should be able to respond to losing with a win the next game because that is what the playoffs is all about. All in all, this is no big problem, we know what the Wings are capable of and I expect Fil will play Thurs and we will dominate once again. Wings regroup and lets play hockey on Thursday!

They won't know til tomorrow. He will play if they are able to make him a boot for his skate that does not bother his cut... imo they will be able to do that and he will be playing. But, we will not know for sure until tomorrow.

http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2011/12/red_wings_valtteri_filppula_av.html Great news for the Wings- - A loss of Fil would have been really difficult to deal with because he has been playing so well and has helped Zetterberg play better as well.

But the question is the severity of the cut. I'm sure they were just being safe, but you never know with how secretive teams are these days. If it is a deep cut he may be out for a bit. Hopefully it is just them being safe so he can be ready to go on Tuesday.

On another note, Babs just said it is a cut by Fil's foot so I don't think he will be out too long hopefully.