wings_fanatic

I too find these posts ridiculous! Guys, we are 7 games into the season! To top that, we are 5-2, which is a pretty fair start to the season. Keep in mind, we have had 2 LONG layoffs, which makes it difficult for some players to get into a rhythm of things, so now that the schedule is picking up, and the top line is being called out by Babs to do better. I am excited for when the top line gets going (Hopefully Dats and Z with Homer cuz Cleary stinks on that line)and everyone on here will be talking about how great zetterberg is. Chill out guys and watch, because Pavs and Z never fail us in the grand scheme of things, and turning against them 7 games into the season is not what Red Wings fans should be about.

Sorry but Hank was pretty darn good last year. He got 80 points, and he did a heck of a job leading the Wings when Pavs got injured last year. Also, in the playoffs against the Sharks, lets not forget that Pavs, Hank and Nick were the only consistent players every game- - if it were not for them, there would never have been the chance of making history. Hank will get his game going, and Pavs traditionally starts the season at an average rate and then picks things up near the end of October. Fact is we are 5-1, have tremendous depth, and this is going to be a real fun season to watch imo. IMO, this is the first time since 2007-08 that we are winning games like we did that year. We are way tighter Defensively, outshooting opponents, getting good offense. Lets wait a while before we call Hank out.

No, if it was anything injury related, the Wings would have him sit because they would not be risking injuries like the last 2 years where they have been dealing with so many injuries. With that said, Pavs and Hank both seem to be slightly off so far. I thought, even though we lost 7-1, Pavs and Hank had a lot more energy and generated a ton of scoring chances last night. My only problem is Cleary playing with them; He slows them down, gives the puck away all the time by trying to make a dumb play and constantly falls down. IMO Homer should be placed on the top line because he simply wins battles along the boards and then gives the puck to one of Pavs or Hank, and then goes to the net front area. Basically, Homer keeps things simple so Pavs and Hank can work their magic. Besides that, I think the other reason they look a little off at times is because we have basically had these massive breaks in the schedule so they have not been able to get into a rythem yet. I do not worry one bit; Pavs and Hank will get going now that the schedule is picking up.

Conks was obviously not good tonight, and he would be the first to admit it- - he probably will. This was one of those frustrating games to watch, we get some every year. The good thing out of this is that it will motivate the boys to tighten up and come out full force against the BJ's. But seriously, Cleary NEEDS to be taken off that line... Dats and Z by themselves would be better than with Cleary there. I think the lines for next game should be: Zetterberg- Datsyuk- Homer Hudler- Filpulla- Franzen Bert- Helm- Abdelkator Cleary- Emmerton- Miller - - another note, why is babcock not using White on the 5 on 3's with Lidstrom? That gives them more options. Other than that, the Wings are 5-1, so losing like this will do good on the long run.

The more games I watch the more I HATE cleary playing with Pavs and Z. He gives the puck up SO MANY TIMES and falls down every 2 seconds. Starting next game, I say put Homer back up with them.

I cant believe how many ppl are whining about Pavs. First of all, on the 2nd wild goal, Pavs had two guys covering him so he lost the puck and it went to the point... where was the forward coverage there? THat was the problem. Obviously Pavs did not have his BEST game, but by no means was he "bad". Honestly, I get extremely bored watching the Wild try to play hockey, so I am sure Pavs must get a hell of a lot more bored playing against them... he honestly just didn't compete like he does any other game... I am sure he will come out flying next week. ANd Babs better take Cleary off that top line I want ZDH. 4-0 and another stinking week off. Go Wings!

Yah it is just I find Cleary tries to play the puck too much with Pavs and Hank, and that means Pavs and Hank have less time with the puck- - which is not a good idea. With Homer, he stays in front of the net and retrievs pucks and quickly gives the puck to Pavs or Hank and goes back to the front of the net. I think this makes Pavs and Hank possess the puck more, which makes our offense more dangerous and will score more goals.

I want cleary off the top line with Pavs and Hank... he just does not work well with them imo... he tries to make dumb plays and gives the puck away too much in the offensive zone. I think Homer needs to be put back with the Eurotwins because he works well with them and is useless on any other line. Homer keeps things simple for Pavs and Hank and simple is what they need.

I think the Wings PP started to look better and better as the game went on, and I thought the 2nd powerplay unit started to generate some good chances and had really good movement as well. We are 3-0, and our powerplay will get itself going... people honestly need to relax. The biggest problem I had yesterday was Babs using Franzen as the faceoff guy for the 2nd line 5 on 5 and on the powerplay! He is not a centerman, and lost almost every draw! Fil is usually good on faceoffs so imo that was the only mistake by Babs. Other than that, we are winning and there is no doubt in my mind that the powerplay will get going.

Why are we losing so many faceoffs? One of the reasons is Franzen is taking them over Fil. What is Babs thinking there... not a wise choice... Pavs, Kronners, Nick and Jimmy are the only wings that look solid tonight

I would be very careful about what you say about Homer. Homer has done an excellent job the past few years playing with Pavs and Hank on the top line. HE was part of the big reason they were the best line in hockey the year they won the cup in 2008. Cleary is not as good as screening the goalie, or tippong pucks, and cleary tends to not score on good chances. Don't get me wrong, Cleary is a great player, but I don't think he will do Homer's job as good as Homer did it a couple years ago.

This is a good move by Babs... the team needed a change to spark things in the right direction. Sometimes the only way to do that is by changing things up a bit, and it worked because we are ahead 1-0. I am willing to bet Babs goes back to the regular lines after today and they have until Thursday to practice and get things together (I think its retarded that so many teams open the year playing 2 games in a row). They really got to work on their passing, their PK and their PP especially.

Howard has been terrible all pre-season... he better pick up his game or Conks will be getting more starts.

Guys, Pavs is the top line guy, not Hank. Here are the lines that I would like to see Babs start the season with. Brunnstrom- Datsyuk- Hudler Filpulla- Zetterberg- Franzen Cleary- Abdelkator- Bertuzzi Homer- Helm- Eaves/ Miller Lidstrom- White Kronners- Stu Kindl- Commie Howard Conks I think these lines would give the Wings a tremendous amount of depth, and the top 2 lines would be very good imo. Pavs is obvs the best player in the world, Fabian has been excellent at playing a 2 way game thus far, and has lots of offense potential, and Hudler always plays good with Pavs. The second line has been very good in pre-season, so I would like that line to stay together for the time being. The 3rd line was an awesome line in the playoffs for us, so might as well keep that going. With Defense, I think Lidstrom and White have been excellent together, and Kronners and Stu will gel eventually. I think this could be a great year for the Wings with this roster.

I never said he could be a first line sniper. I said a line with him, Fabian and Pavs could turn out to be a really good line. From what I have seen so far, Hudler and Fabian have played really really well together on the same line. Hudler seems much better along the boards this year and is making smarter plays, Fabian has been impressive at all ends of the rink, and Pavs is the best player in the world. Don't tell me that line would not have the potential to dazzle and be a very effective top line for us. I am not saying Hudler is going to score 40 goals; more like around 25. I think Fabian could have the potential to score 30 goals playing with Pavs and Pavs would score 30-35 goals if he stays healthy all year (which the hockey gods owe the Wings an injury free season). A top line, combining for around 90- 95 goals is a pretty damn good top line. Then you have to take into account the 2nd line and 3rd line... the Wings team would be very deep with goal production using these lines.

I was at the game last night, and other than Lidstrom, I thought Fabian was the best player on the ice. He might not have scored, but he was flying out there, making good and smart plays, providing scoring chances, excellent back checking and so on. There was not 1 shift where he was bad. I think he is playing the perfect game right now to get on the Wings and be a part of Babcock's system because he has been really good in every pre-season game he has played so far and I think has earned a spot on the actual Wings roster. If Babs is intent on playing Pavs and Hank on separate lines, I think Fabian becoming a Wing would provide us with a very good set of lines: Hudler- Datsyuk- Brunnstrom Franzen- Zetterberg- Filpula Cleary- Abdelkator- Bertuzzi Homer- Helm- Eaves Fabian and Hudler have been really good together thus far and have good chemestry, and I think both of them could have great years playing with Pavs; that could turn into a really solid line for the Wings.

I am not liking Mike Babcock's lines he is putting Pavs with. Datsyuk with Homer and Cleary makes zero sense because Cleary and Homer pretty much play the same game. I want to see Brunnstrom with Pavs and homer... or even a line of Brunnstrom- Pavs- Hudler would be pretty cool to see because Hudler and Brunnstrom seem to have chemestry and are playing really well together and playing with Pavs could make a really dominant line.

lmao yah that gets asked every year!My little brother was watching the game with me and just HAD to ask why the names looked different. At least he is only 10 though; usually its like 20 year olds or plus asking.

malkin has always been very bad at faceoffs and playing against Pavs does not help his cause. It's the first pre-season game so I am not going to take anyone's head off but here is what I think: - Howard has to be better than his performance tonight... he probably should have had all 3 goals; for sure the first and third ones - Pavs has looked good as usual - However, the experiment with Eaves on his line needs to end ASAP... Eaves just cannot compete with Pavs on his line...I want to see Hudler up there with Pavs... and I would also like to see Babs try Brunnstrom with Pavs - Kronners and Stu look like they gotta get their chemestry back together... may take a couple games - Most noticeably, I Dont like watching wings games without number 5

Say what you want about Toews and Kane, but I think Sharp is the most consistent player on the Hawks time and time again, and especially in clutch situations. This is a great signing for the Hawks imo. Their problem still is, however, their lack of depth, and that will cost them again this season.

Great interview, personally almost cried when he said he thinks Nick and Homer are retiring after this year. I've known it has been coming, but even when the actual day comes, I will be speechless. I truly wish we could develop some sort of ageless magic power so Nick, Pavs and Homer could stay young forever...

Howard was pulled MANY times last year... way more than most starting goalies are pulled. In fact, from the beginning of December to about Februrary, Howard was terrible- letting in usually 3 or 4 goals a game, and a lot of those goals being bad ones to give up. One could argue that if it were not for this couple months of bad play by Howard, that the Wings would not have lost their point cushion during the season to the Sharks, which would have given the Wings home ice advantage in the 2nd round, and then we would very likely have won the 2nd round. With that said, Howard turned it on after he signed the new contract and he played great all playoffs, but the fact remains that it was largely he who caused the wings to lose the point race to the Sharks. But, half of us, myself included, hated Howard in the regular season when he gave up weak goals and costed us games. We were all calling for Nabovok, Ozzie to play when healthy and so on. But the second Howard actually started to play good, there was not one person, myself included, who said anything bad about Howard. Goalie is a difficult position to play because if you let in bad goals, or even sometimes if you just lose the game, fans jump all over you- - people did it to Ozzie his entire career. On the other hand, if you win the game everyone loves you. Goalies get love, and they get hate- - that is simply something that will never change.

I think this is a great signing for a few reasons. First of all, Conklin has proven to be a reliable back-up goalie for us in the past. Sure, he had two mediocre seasons but that was playing for the BLUES! Now he is back in Hockeytown where I think he will be able to perform just as good as he did in 2009. He is a great back-up goalie who I think should play about 30-35 games this season and will give us a good chance to win all of those games when Howie rests. Another good thing is that Conks is a lot like Ozzie... he is calm and does not let things bother him. So, again, just like Ozzie, I think Conks will be able to develop a good relationship with Howie which will help him mature. The last thing I life is that it is a million bucks, which still leaves us 6 million to play with. I do not know if Kenny will make a move now or wait until the trade deadline, but I know he will not let that 6 million go to waste. I really like the offseason moves so far, and I think we will have a good team on the ice this year.

I think in order for the Wings to get Semin, they will have to ship Filpulla the other way... Quite frankly, I would be all for it because Filpulla has been given many chances to play the 2nd line role and he has not been able to. I would give Filps+ Kindl and a pick for Semin... or something along those lines. Semin- Datsyuk- Homer Bertuzzi- Zetterberg- Franzen Cleary- Helm- Hudler Eaves- Abdelkator- Miller Lidstrom- Kronwall White- Stuart Ericson- Commridore That is a Stanley Cup winning team...

No Hudler was not brought back to be the team sniper... he was brought back to add to our depth. If he was brought back to be the team "sniper" I am pretty sure he would have been playing with Pavs. For the most part, successful Wings teams do not usually have 40 goal scorers every single season, but rather a lot of depth guys that help the Wings be amongst the best offensively, which the Wings were again last season. Also, take into account that the last 2 seassons have been a fluke with injuries... I have never seen a team get hit with such odd and fluky injuries like the Wings have the past 2 seasons... The Wings would have been closer to the Canucks in term of total points had we not lost Pavel for the near 2 months that we did... along with all the other injuries. MY point is, the WIngs team we have RIGHT NOW, will be amongst the best all around teams in the league... all we need to do now is pray the hockeygods leave our boys the hell alone for once... after battling a retarded amt of injuries the past 2 seasons, they owe us that, and when healthy, this team can beat any other team in the league, especailly with guys like Hudler and FRanzen contributing effectively and CONSISTANTLY, which I think will happen this season because Nick wants another Cup.