wings_fanatic

That was one of the dumbest comments I have ever heard about Rafi... he is CLEARLY a very important part of the Wings success the fact that you would even think that proves you are one of those bandwagon wings fans... I guess you think Nick and Pavs should retire too since they arent having their best night too eh?? Honeslty every team has these games where their minds just are not in the game and look lost; it happens. To be honest, this type of loss will help the Wings in the long run because they have been sloppy defensively for a few games now but have used their talent to win the games barely... but for you to just turn on Rafi like that is retarded. The Wings are by far the best team in the league and this game means nothing. They will practice and come out stronger next game; thats Red Wings hockey

I dont know about you guys but Howard just does not seem to have his head in the game the past few games. Granted the goals tonight were not his fault, however he seems to be falling all over and doing a bad job controlling some rebounds. Every time the puck goes his way i get worried which is a sign he needs to rest a few games... cant wait for ozzie to be back

How about trying these lines? : (with Cleary being injured) Hank- Pavs- Bert Franzen- Fil- Abdelkator Eaves- Modano- Hudler Miller- Helm- Homer Lidstrom- Rafalski Kronners- Stu Ericsson- Salai - I love the way Bert is playing and I think he would add a nice spark to the Pavs/ Z line plus a net front (I think Homer is slowing them down right now for a bit this is a good move) - FSN confirmed cleary is out - I think these D lines are best because the D pariings are not moving the puck fast enough

So far this is what I think: - These new top 2 lines are retarded... why would Babs put Fil with Pavs both of whom do not shoot?! - Howard still looks a bit shakey controlling the puck - Wings need to practice their damn faceoffs I swear they lose every single faceoff on the powerplay - id like to see Homer-Pavs- Hudler (if Hudler has any chance of doing anything it will be with Pavs... if he still cant after a few games with pavs then he should be the wings player to sit) - Fraznen needs to quit making retarded passes on the PP

I think Howard had a bad game and it costed the Wings; simple as that. All goalies, Hasek, Brodeur, Roy, etc ALL had games like that so I am sure Howard will rebound just fine come Sunday. But the biggest thing that has been bugging me lately is Stuart playing with Lidstrom! Stu is an awsome Dman but damn he is slowing down the puck moving process of that unit (there are sooooo many times where pavs is skating fast up the left side waiting for the pass from Stu from the right side and Stu just puts it off the boards)! IMO Nick and Rafi should be playing together because they move the puck the best and I think that will get Pavs and Hank going too. Lidstrom- Rafalski Kronners- Stu ( I have always liked this pairing) Ericson- Selai (Solid 3rd pairing the way these 2 are playing) There should be no real difference in minutes played, I just think these pairings will get the wings rolling at a much quicker rate through the neutral zone and create better offense.

I like the idea of Andre Markov... Now before I go any further, let me just say that there is NO REPLACING Nick Lidstrom. Markov, IMO is the best way for the Wings to fill the void as best as possible, as he would not demand 7 mil and is very good offensively. Now everyone is preparing for a year without Nick next year, but at this rate and watching Nick play, he looks like he is having lots of fun out there so I think he will keep playing. With that said, I want to suggest something no one has thought of: What if Nick comes back again next year AND the Wings sign Markov! I know a lot of people think there is no chance of that, but I have read a few times that the Cap could go up as much as 4 million dollars this offseason coming up. Nick will probably demand a little less cash, plus a couple other little moves, and Markov could easily be signed by the Wings. Imagine that... Lidstrom- Rafalski Markov- Kronwall Stuart- Ericson That would be amazing, and even though itd be a long shot, it could defs happen

I am getting tired of seeing these stupid defensive pairings; no one knows how to anticipate how their partner will play, which is making the entire team look lost. Babcock, who is the best coach in the world by a long shot, needs to quit switching pairings every game and stick with it. I would like to see Lidstrom- Rafi (this is the best pairing and has been soooo successful so stick with it), Kronners- Stu (same thing as the first unit except not AS GOOD) then the bottom pairing. IMO if he sticks with these pairings then it will also enable the forward lines to anticipte plays and passes and allow a quicker transition game. Also I would like to see Babs switch up the lines a bit for the rest of the game. Zetterberg- Datsyuk- Franzen (Homer has been slowing them down tonight and Mule needs to get going this will solve it) Bertuzzi- Fils- Hudler (Hudler plays well with Fil and could get him going in the 3rd with a chance) Cleary- Modanno- Abdalkator (nothing wrong with this line) Eaves- Helm- Homer (4th line to just get energy shouldnt play too much in the 3rd)

How did Pavs not get a star in that game? Pavs was once again the best player on the ice; the man is magic. IMO I think the 3 stars were Bulin, Pavs and Nick ... Nick showed tonight why he is the best dman in the nhl this year again with his play in that 3rd period saving arguably 2 goals off horrible rebounds by Howard. My overall thoughts: - It was a really fun, fast paace game for the most part - Bulin was spectacular!; Howie was solid, howevver gave off a few too many terrible reboundsd in the 3rd where Nick bailed him out - Like I said, Pavs was the best player on the ice all game everywhere on the ice (it was nice to see him extend his point streak because he deserved it!) - Hank looked much more into the game tonight then in the Flames game, nice to see - 3rd line was solid again - 2nd line was solid again also, though Mule has to get going a bit more offensively - 4th line wasn't their usual dominant self (I wonder why ??- - Hudler!) - Hudler needs to get his game rolling or Babs will bench him more and more because he isn't shooting, gives away the puck too much and doesn't come back well enough - The Wings D, all of them, looked extremely solid tonight FINAL NOTE: THe Wings are winning all these games, looking quite well I might add, without Brian Rafalski so one can only imagine how much better their game will be with him back (POWERPLAY!!!) - GO WINGS

To be fair, I went to the game last night, and I thought Modanno was actually pretty good. That guy can sure skate, and his back- checking was very good (he saved what would have been some scary scoring chances) so I think he needs to stay in the line-up. Some other notes are: - Datsyuk was by far the best player on the ice; the guy put on a show and the crowd loved every second he was on the ice. After the refs gave Pavs that lame penalty in the 2nd, I noticed Pavs somehow lifted his game to another level from being ticked off. - Lidstrom was very solid also; sure does not look 40 out there - Ozzzy looked really good in net and loved hearing the chants; great to see. - Homer was Homer which is what we need - I love the 4th line; best in the nhl imo - 2nd line was solid - the first period was still kind of slow for the wings so they have to work on their starts still - the refs were TERRIBLE

The Wings seem to be lacking energy again too much so far. - I think Stuart needs to not be paired with Lidstrom anymore because Stuart is just slowing the flow of passes down too much. IMO Kronners needs to be put back with Nick, then have Stu/ Kindle and Salei/ Janick - Babcock seriusly has to have this team work on their damn faceoffs... they lose WAY TOO MANY and it seems to be getting worse - Datsyuk and Howard looked good - Their Powerplay seems to be moving better but I would like to see them try to set up Hank more to get him going Hopefully the boys come out flying from this point on

I cannot believe anyone is blaming Ozzy- - most of these goals were not his fault at all they have just been really bad bounces against the Wings all night. Simply put, they look lost, even NICK is not having a good game... the only 2 wings who look energized out there is Pavs and Fil which is not acceptable. - 4 games into the season Hank has got to get going with some goals (no I am not panicking but he seems to have lost some of the speed he had in pre-season so he needs to get going) - our goalies will be fine (both of them) and ozzy is NOT to blame tonight - Babcock NEEDS to fix their powerplay its HORRIBLE and has looked horrible every game thus far. Other than that, lets hope Mule just took the rest of this game off for safety measures and will be ready for Saturday. This is not panick mode as the Wings will still have 5 out of 8 points which is not bad at all. Babs will get the troops ready for Phoenix on Saturday so lets stop turning on our team everytime things don't go right.

Here are my thoughts on this game which I was quite dissappoined to watch, however not surprised. - Howard looked pretty good, having some difficult saves, however he let in 3 brutal goals that NEEDED to be stopped - Howard was not the reason the wings lost but he was a larger part of it - The Wings were slow all night; they seemed to lose most puck battles and be too slow to receive passes - Lidstrom, Datsyuk, Hank, Mule, Bert and Fil all looked good tonight - PK was great - Our 3rd line needs to work on their defensive play they were running around too much in our end - the refs were very lame with their calls and missed calls - Pavel made the pass of the year in OT to Nick too bad he hit the post - faceoffs were simply not good enough tonight as in the last 2 games; historically the wings are ALWAYS very good at faceoffs so Babs needs to fix this What I would like to see next game: - I would like to see babs put Kronners back with Lidstrom because I think we need the best possible first d-man pairing to get play going - Ozzie needs to be in net simply because he was a large factor for the Wings beating the Hawks while Howie was a factor for the loss tonight - Personally I would like babs to rotate the 2 goalies every game for a while then start giving more starts to whomever is playing best (will motivate them) - Z needs a bit more shots taken imo - better outlet passing and puckpossession; more pucks on net

hey guys does anyone know the name of the background song that begins to play as the players are introduced ? Much appreciated lol its awsome; I was there live 10 rows from glass center ice but never record stuff lol.

I did not plan on reading too much into this game simply because the Wings have historically not performed well in back to back games, and like I predicted, they look like they are playing tired; namely they are having trouble setting up the good outlet passes, and establishing a presence in the offensive zone. However I am not too worried about this game because like I said they are playing tired. The good news is that Ozzy has looked pretty dang good this game so lets hope he keeps it up. A couple things that are beginning to annoy me is how Babcock keeps changing the D pairings; they need a dman partner so they can know how one another plays because there are too many instances where their coverage is messed up. The good thing after this game is that the Wings will have a couple days to work on their PP (they have not had a chance to get it good yet so practice will perfect it). All in all, the Wings are tired but are hanging in there hopefully they can find some more energy in the 3rd and get a W.

I agree with the poster above who said that if Ozzy was in net everyone would be all over him. It's true too because I was reading the boards (like I often do during intermissions of games) and during that Pens game all I read was Ozzy bashing despite the fact that there was 20 shots against him in period 1. I know everyone loves Howard from last year, but to be honest there has not been one game so far that Howard has impressed me this pre season and he has been playing in the games with Nick, Pavs and Hank. IMO Howard has looked shakey, giving off really bad rebounds, and out of position a lot. Ozzy has looked very good this pre- season idc what anyone says he faced tons of hard shots against the Hawks and looked really good... but I guess we will see how it pans out, but at this rate Ozzy will be re- taking the number 1 job soon. I know its only pre- season but Howard should look a bit better than he does tonight... the first 2 shots he should have had I don't care if it was Gaborick or not there was no screen and the 2nd goal to me looked like it did not even deflect... but the 3rd goal was not his fault at all. Essentially, if I am Babs I would just rotate them like he is right now and play whoever looks better more, and at this rate Ozzy is the one who I think will be getting more games, pre- season or not.

I cannot believe I am reading people complaining about OZZY out of all people tonight.. If it wasn't for him we would be down 3 or 4 to zip... he was by far the best wings player on the ice. Sure his rebounds were not perfect but how about we give him a few games to get rebounds together, meanwhile he stood on his head period 1... Ericson is to blame on the goal, not ozzy

Hey guys I don't often post on here (just like to read what you all have to say). Anyways I had the honor of re-meeting Nick Lidstrom today (i met him in Novemeber at the Joe also) but this time I actually talked to him for like 5 minutes. I live in LaSalle (across the border from Detroit) and he was watching his son play at the Volmer hockey arena. So me and a few friends went and sat behind him during the 2nd period and I shook his hand and said hello then did not say another word until the period ended. After that he turned around and said hi to all of us and signed our hats, jerseys and papers or w.e and we were able to talk to him for about 5 minutes and at the end I threw in that he should keep playing hockey and he just laughed and said we will see. Anyways I just want to say what a class act he is; he signed whatever we wanted and talked to us so politely and is just a great human being and its a huge honor to meet him again. For what its worth, there is no more competative hockey going on for kids his sons' age anymore so it was very likely some sort of try-out for a AAA team which is good news for us because that would mean he is planning on staying in the Michigan area for at least another year. So, I thought I would say that and how awsome he is and I hope he comes back again for another run...

In regards to where you can meet players at the Joe, usually season ticket holders have a chooice of 2 nights during the season (they put these nights aside for the ticket holders to meet the players) so you get to meet them and get autographs. That is how I originally met Captain Nick back in November, but the only downside is that there are so many people so the players really cannot talk to each person. But, yes, I feel like a truly spoiled fan being able to actually be able to have a lengthy conversation with Nick; and it was so normal too (you would never know he was the best d-man of all time and Captain of the Red Wings because no one was around him). The key thing I kept in mind is that he is a person just like any of us so when we approached him I shook his hand then we all just sat down behind him and let him watch his son play ( I felt no desire to bug him until the period was over). However, he did turn around quickly to say what he was doing and pointed out who his son was to us and, wouldnt you know, his son wears number 5. I think he laughed after I suggested to play another year because it was a group of kids who he could tell were honoured to be in his presence, try to kindly convince him to keep playing; most people would find that funny. As he said "We will see " after he laughed I shook his hand again before we left and said thank you very very much and he giggled again. The funniest thing though IMO was when we asked him who he thinks will win the Cup... the way he said the Hawks, but then proceeded to say "but I don't really want them to.." All in all, I would rather re-meet Nick over and over than meet any other player becuase he is not only a great hockey player, but a great human being also. I hope any of you guys get an honor to meet Nick because he truly is nothing short of perfection

If my calculations are correct, Jimmy Howard has let in 33 goals in just 10 playoff games... that is unacceptable. I have never been a fan of Howard; yes he helped the Wings get into the post-season but I never found him to be consistant with his saves and I knew it would be a mistake to not play ozzy to get him ready for playoffs and start him in the playoffs. 33 goals in 10 games is terrible and Jimmy REALLY sent the Wings golfing with his performance in game 3... While the Wings can come back it is unlikely, and I think Babs is probably sitting right now thinking that he made a HUGE mistake by not playing Ozzy in the playoffs. At this point, the Wings are down 3-0 and have nothing to lose; I say start Ozzy in game 4. If the Wings are to win this series, they need a major shake-up like a goalie change anyways, so I say get Ozzy in there and aim for a comeback.

I don't know why there are so few people who want to see the line that the Wings play best with... IMO the top lines had NO chemestry yesterday at all during the game. To be honest, it was not just yesterday's game its been for the last few games of the season. I think Babs has to go to a format that won him the Cup 2 years ago... Zetterberg- Datsyuk- Homer: Pavel was amazing in game one and seemed to be the only forward, besides Homer, who possessed energy and a compete level, however Hank has not been himself. Filpulla is not good enough to feed Hank and Franzen is not cutting it with the feed Dats give him; Franzen is not finishing. So, why not play the best line together because, even on an off tonight, this line cannot be controlled by Phoenix. Bertuzzi- Filpulla- Franzen: Franzen and Filpulla seem to work well together on the second line and are able to pick up points together. I put Bert on this line over Cleary because he has a bit more offense to him and Cleary is more defensive responsible and is needed on the 3rd line. I think this would be a great 2nd line. Eaves-Helm- Cleary: This line has been great; nothing else to say other than it is a solid 3rd line. Abs- Draper- Miller: This will be a good energy line also and will be able to hit with the addition of Abs. I'd put draper at center because he can win faceoffs and clearly the Wings need that. This is a solid 4th line. Simply put, Williams better not play again. What does everyone think about these lines? Personally I think these are the lines Babs needs to go with down the stretch... Pavs and Z are magic together

I think Franzen is still fighting the puck too much... its taking away from what we need to get from Pavs... I still think we put Pavs and Z together in the 3rd because the Wings were dry in that 2nd period they need a spark... and Z and Pavs play at their best together

I think the top 8 scorers on the Wings team will be Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, Homer, Lidstrom, Kronwall, Rafi, and Filpulla. I know a lot of people do not think of Kronners as a point kind of guy, however in our run 2 years ago Kronners got 16 or 17 points and his production will be key for the Zetterberg line, so look for Kronners to get some key points and be in the top 8. The rest are rather obvious...

I know the Wings have been winning lately but lately is also showing that Babcock, despite being the best coach around, is very hard headed. Today, just like the past few games, the top lines have not looked very good- - Franzen has been a ghost and lost chemestry with Pavs, and Fil and Hank cannot seem to find each other anymore... I think Babs should look to the lines that won us the Cup a couple years ago: Zetterberg- Datsyuk-Homer Bert-Filps- Franzen Z will play at his best with Pavs as usual and the Wings NEED that... and Franzen plays great with Filps too... I think this change is essential to success for the wings...

I know there are several goalie threads on this board and I also know that this board is split between supporters of Ozzy and supporters of Howard. However, since the break has come back I feel NO confidence in Howard at all; everytime the other team shoots the puck I am worried about it going in. Howard was great this year for the wings but it is time Ozzy starts to play because we are simply NOT going to get into the playoffs with Howard in net. He looked TERRIBLE in the game today even though the wings won (his rebounds were hurrendous, and he got WAY too out of position which allowed Hossa to shoot at a wide open net with 2 minutes remaining, and his little dive that got a goal called off was risky because he literally fell back himself and got out of position). Also how many times do the Wings get 2 and 3 goal leads and we think the game is away and the Wings can start to rest guys but NO Howard has to start letting in goals... he is not good enough and cannot continue to play if the Wings want success... Ozzy needs to play end of story...

Ozzy stole us a game against the Hawks in October making over 30 saves, stole us the game agaisnt Boston, stole us a game against Nashville making over 30 saves... do not say Ozzy hasn't stolen games for us or played solid for us. Since that Nashville game where he made 32 saves he has not even been given a chance to get into the groove, but now Howard is not looking good at all (he almost single handidly allowed the Hawks to come back from down 3 goals!!!!) because the net was WIDE open for Hossa to score... Sorry but Howard needs to sit for Ozzy