xtrememachine1

We have been playing really well this week. Even games we're losing, we're competitive. I can live with that right now. This is just a lot of hard work paying off. Looks like Blash is keeping his job for another week. lol

Yeah, I'm thinking its all BS. I think if there was any truth to it at all, it would be because Tampa would like to free up cap space and Yzerman would acquire someone that could be flipped for high draft picks or an NHL ready high end prospect. However, Tampa doesn't really to free up cap space just yet and I'm not seeing this anywhere else.

Out of all of the forwards available, Raymond was the one I was highest on, he has the most upside. I was really hoping for a second 1st rounder considering all the cap space we have now, but maybe we'll flip it into first rounders for next season.

Stevie made some really great picks late in the first or in the 2nd round in TB. Vasilevskiy is a late first rounder. Kucherov is a 2nd rounder. Point is a 3rd rounder. He can find the diamonds, so I'm optimistic about what he can do here. Having said that, it'd be really nice to have one of the top 3 drop to us. We deserve to catch a break for once.

I don't really understand how getting blown out every night and going on multiple 10 game losing streaks makes him a good coach for young players. Like if we were losing 3-1 or 4-2 and we saw improvement from younger players, I would be defending him. Honestly, for me, its not the losing, its HOW we're losing. So many games were pretty much over after the first period because we're down 3-0 or 4-0. At what point is getting blown out detrimental to the morale of young players learning to play at the NHL level? In regards to the topic, I think if we win the lottery, 5 years from now, Blashill will be gone and we'll be a playoff team. Heck, I'm thinking 2-3 years from now we'll be back in the playoffs if we win the lottery.

No, he's not and I wouldn't expect him to do that. However, he could say nothing or if asked he could say something like "Its been a tough year for everyone. He's doing the the best he can do" etc. Saying a lot of great things about him and he's a "good coach", will make him look a hipocrite when (fingers crossed) he gets fired.

I really can't see Blashill staying. I might take a year off watching the NHL if he's still our coach. I can't suffer through another year of him. "The team has played hard" under him? Really? Not sure what he's seeing that would indicate that. Getting blown out by 3+ goals every night doesn't show that they're "working hard". They look disorganized as hell and aside from a few players, I really don't see anyone out there working hard and its been that way for years. This team has the potential to be the worst in the history of the franchise. Praising Blashill is mind boggling, for sure.

VERY different situation. Yzerman played on bad teams but he also won some games, played with talented players, made the playoffs. Lidstrom and Zetterberg never knew bad teams or faced the kind of adversity Larkin is facing right now. Larkin is on an island and the players that can help him are either injured, in the minors or not yet drafted.

Larkin has talent and the potential to be better. I'd be more optimistic about our chances of turning things around quickly in this rebuild if we saw more players like him. He, obviously, hasn't been great this year, but he is the player other teams focus on and doesn't really have a lot of talent around him to push through. You also have to consider if his spirit is breaking a little bit. Since his rookie year the team has been dreadful. I can recall many times over the past few years, seeing him flying around while everyone else on his line looks like pylons and he made positive things happen all by himself. Now today, this team could be the worst in the history of the franchise. I mean, he's human, its tough to go out there and bust your ass only to have things be worse than they were before. Its tough to keep up that enthusiasm. Having said that, once we start acquiring talent, build some wins, he'll be back to the way he was, probably even better. Trading Larkin should only be considered if 5 years down the line, we're still collecting lottery picks.

He's not going to be like "Blashill? Man, that dude is so fired at the end of the year. Hell, I might fire him in the 3rd period of our last game." He'll say nice things, maybe he'll move him to another spot in the franchise or just let him go. Either way I can't imagine, regardless of the talent on the team, a coach with a record this bad staying. That really sends the wrong message.

Again, its an evaluation year. What would firing Blashill in the middle of the year accomplish? Maybe they win a few more games. Bylsma would probably be the interim head coach and you probably wouldn't want him going forward, so you bring in another coach in the offseason. You really think giving a young team 3 different coaches in the span of a year is a good idea? Let him ride it out, see if he can work through it and if he can't (and I don't think he will), move on. People complained about Yzerman getting robbed by trading AA for 2 second rounders. Teams aren't going to give up much for what would be their backup goalie. If Bernier gets traded for a 6th round pick, people would be complaining "Yzerman got fleeced!". But since he didn't trade him, now its "What an idiot! Winning doesn't matter anymore" Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Holland's trades, signings and draft picks is why we're in this situation in the first place. Over the past ten years, Holland has slowly destroyed the Wings. Over the past ten years, Yzerman took a franchise that was in a rebuild and made them one of the top teams in the league. When you're one of the best GMs in hockey over the past 10 years, yes you get free passes. Not forever, but at this point, less than one year into his job as Wings GM, yes he does. Not excuses. Just talking crazy people off the ledge. Yes I am. Holland did make a mistake signing Abby to that deal and it IS his job to know better than us. He didn't do his job well and hadn't been doing his job well for sometime. As I mentioned earlier, if Stevie makes these bad signings/trades/draft picks for a few years, then yes, he deserves any and all heat. Until then, like Yzerman said, be patient. Based on what criteria? They have the worst record in the NHL, so are we supposed to give them an F? We knew they were not going to be good this year before the season even started, so maybe we give them a C? We're in a rebuilding year, evaluating what we have from players to coaches and I'm sure the front office has learned a lot, which is what their goal was from the start. So do we give them an A? Their really isn't way to "grade the season" seeing as how different people within the franchise had different goals.

Maybe he put AA with grinders all the time because he was that bad defensively and needed to compensate.

No doubt, he'll be gone after this year. He's not special, but I'd bet we don't win another game this year, if he's gone. I like AA, but he's been injured, hasn't produced when he is in the lineup and is currently a -45. You're not getting a first for that. They might not be worth anything. If they end up decent players, then yeah, they were bad moves, but we don't know anything at this time. The rebuild isn't exactly getting set back any length of time because of these moves. This is an evaluation year. He wants to know what he has and what he doesn't. Cholo is either going to sink or swim and Stevie wants to know now. Not sure why he likes Flip or Nemeth, but its his job to know them better than us. He said from day one to be patient. He's not going to Ken Holland this, he wants to rebuild from the ground up, through the draft. That's going to take time. He could have changed the coach, called some people up, benched under performing vets, made trades throughout the season to replace the lost offensive production of Mantha and AA and they could have finished with the 5th or 6th worst record in hockey. Its been a tough year to be sure, but they can only get better from this point forward and they'll get better by doing the right things.

That's not true. Maybe they gave us McDavid

LOL I was wondering if anyone else remembered him. He actually made me hate the Wild.