xtrememachine1

I'm way more excited about this than most people, but I'm really glad he'll get to play a year for the Wings. He really worked hard for this spot and showed during camp and preseason that he really wants to be with Detroit. Congrats David!

Well Holland was after Suter and Stamkos in their primes when they became available. He managed to sign Hossa in his prime. So he has gone after big names in free agency. As for mismanaged, the Wings missed the playoffs for the first time in 26 years last season. The Isles haven't been past the 2nd round of the playoffs for 24 years and have been a joke of a franchise for decades. Not saying Tavares is interested in the Wings, but we're not worse than the Isles in any way.

We're over the cap as it is, how in the world would we land Tavares? And why would he want to come to Detroit? I feel like he's making this up.

3 on 3 was implemented last year? Hmm. Maybe I did know that, but I must have forgot. Whoops! Hey, if the playoff streak can end, this losing streak when going to games can end too. Just hope it doesn't take 26 years. lol

So I was at the game last night. It was a fun game to watch. The good guys didn't win, but fun nevertheless. - Nyquist looked like guy we saw in his rookie year. Fast, shifty, bullet shot. By far the best player on the ice last night. - Howard looked unbeatable in the first period, but collapsed in the 2nd. The defense didn't really help him out much though. I know we had a lot of GR players out there, but when two no name Penguins scored in less than a minute, DK and Daley were the pairing for those goals. - Sticking with the defense, our coverage overall on defense was ridiculous. If there's a shot on net and its not immediately pushed into the corner, its most likely going in. Nobody could clear the puck if it was loose around our net. It won't matter if its Howard, Mrazek or a young Dominik Hasek clone, defense needs to be better especially around our own net. - David Booth is a guy I'm really rooting for this preseason. Born in Detroit, grew up as a Wings fan, is a long shot to make the team, but watching him in warm ups and then during the game he REALLY wants to be here. He was the last one to leave during warm ups and didn't leave until they finally kicked him off the ice. During the game, he hustled his butt off and worked really hard every shift. He looked like a guy that knows he won't be there for long, so he's going to soak up every second of this opportunity to be a Red Wing. I'm not saying I'd rather have him over AA, but Booth clearly wants to be here and AA is sitting at home thinking about signing a piece of paper instead of playing hockey. - This new standard for calling slashing penalties is really absurd. Basically, if your stick touches the puck carriers hands or arms, you get called for slashing. It doesn't even have to be a hard whack. It can be a tap and its getting called. Also, "Faceoff Violation"... I swear the NHL tries to think of ways to ruin the game. Apparently, its an old rule that is getting enforced now and it couldn't be more lame. So you're sitting there waiting for a faceoff, when all of a sudden the ref leaves the faceoff circle, there's more waiting around as a two minute minor gets put on the board for a faceoff violation. Talk about slowing the game down. Its absurd that you can whack a guy in the face with your stick, cross check the heck out of someone, swing your stick like a baseball bat and hit someone, blast a guy from behind near the boards, leave your feet and hit a guy in the head and get the same penalty as a violating the rules of a proper faceoff. This enforcement has to die in the preseason. If not, imagine the chaos that will ensue if its called at a critical point of a playoff game. - Love the new 3 vs 3 OT though. The NHL got that one right. It didn't work out for us last night, but its damn exciting and we'll probably never see a shootout again because of it. There's no way NHL caliber players won't score a goal 3 on 3 for 5 minutes. - I won't stress over the outcome too much, it was the first preseason game for all these players. Even Matt Murray didn't look that great last night. Having said that, we put more talent on the ice than the Pens did, so rusty or not, we should have won. Hopefully as a complete team, we'll gel better, but I didn't like seeing these Pens players that are no where near as talented as some of their big name stars on their team, out perform players that we'll be depending on this season. Seeing the Wings in person is always great, but it'd be even better if they won. The Wings are now 0-5 in games I go to see them in person and give up 5+ goals in each of those games. I'm starting to think I'm bad luck. lol

I'll be at the game tonight vs the Pens. My stepson got us some great tickets near the ice on the end where the Wings shoot twice. If you guys find a stream, look for me in the upper left hand corner of the arena. I'll be the guy wearing red in a sea of black and yellow lol

He did not. Mrazek gave up two of them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pSjEDNbOiM&feature=youtu.be

Apparently Boston will be streaming the game:

Yeah, I don't care how much Russia is offering, if I'm AA, I take whatever I can to stay in the US. If its a deal I don't like, I sign it, ask to be traded or play it out until I'm a UFA and then leave. We'll be hurt by AA leaving, but his career will be hurt more if he goes to the KHL. Not for anything, I love AA and think he'll make a huge impact on our long term plans to be successful again, however, I find it interesting that other teams aren't trying to sign him away with an offer sheet. A team like the Penguins could afford him and could afford to lose the draft picks too and he would fit in really well with the rest of the makeup of that team.

This kid just turned 21. A lot of players are not even in the NHL yet at 21. Meanwhile, he has a couple seasons and an all star appearance under his belt already. Elite has different meanings here. Some people are looking at his stats and saying he's not going to be elite because they're not like McDavid or Matthews numbers. However, Datsyuk and Zetterberg were never league leaders in scoring numbers, yet were considered to be elite in their prime because of how effectively they played both ends of the ice. Take a look at Datsyuk and Zetterberg's first couple years in the league. They were a little older and had much more talent around them than Larkin and his numbers are pretty similar to theirs. I'm optimistic that he'll become a solid two way player that can rack up an unusually high number of points for this type of player and will be very similar to Z and D. Whether that makes him elite or not is a matter of opinion.

Maybe I'm looking at this group of forwards with rose covered glasses, but this is an impressive lineup especially considering most of them are young guys on the upswing. Fix that D and we're in the playoffs. Easier said than done, I know.

You're right, we don't have very much cap space, so I'm not sure financially how he would do this either, but the fact that we're talking to him means that Holland has to have some kind of plan.

Looks like we're still in the running for Vanek. I'd love to have him back. He played really well with us and if our season goes south again, we can always trade him again. http://www.freep.com/story/sports/nhl/red-wings/2017/07/12/detroit-red-wings-thomas-vanek/471942001/

Of those teams, I picked 99. That was the year we got Chelios and we were already back to back champs and our roster was loaded for the next year. If Osgood doesn't get injured, we probably would have three-peated. However, overall, I think 95 was the most shocking. The Wings steamrolled everyone through the regular season, dominated every team they faced in the playoffs, then crashed into a brick wall in the Finals. I feel like if they had played anyone else, Wings would've won. I still look on that season fondly as if they had won the Cup though. That was a fun team and great era of hockey. The fact that the Presidents trophy winning Stars got bounced in the next round in 5 games helped take away the sting. That whole playoff situation with Giguere's pads, what a travesty. Minnesota got swept and almost didn't score a single goal in that entire series.

This is a bit much. The streak being over doesn't mean its time for a fire sale. Also, the value of these players you listed is pretty low right now and selling low and buying FAs while their value is high is a sure way to continue to have cap problems. The truth is I bet we'd get much better performances out of guys like Helm, Nyquist and Abdelkader if they weren't playing in their own end most of the game because the defensemen can't get the puck out of the zone. This team, for as long as I can remember, have lived and died by its defensemen. We don't have good defensemen right now and its affecting the team as a whole. Its like the Wings forwards are this fancy Corvette, but its missing a steering wheel. You wouldn't scrap the whole car because of that. Just get what you need to make it complete.

This is why this conversation keeps going around in circles.

Absolutely. People will always find a reason to be unhappy. Some people just WANT to be unhappy, thus are pessimistic about everything and dislike it when people are optimistic about the team being successful. Not enough toughness has been a drum people have been banging on in this forum for years. Now he's getting toughness in the lineup and people are complaining. Its a no win situation for Holland.

The SJ Sharks opened the 2015-2016 season as 80-1 odds too and then finished two wins away from a Stanley Cup. The 16th seeded Preds just made it to the Finals themselves. Just saying. Get into the playoffs and anything can happen. I know its cliche, but it kind of happened these past couple seasons. You're against tanking, but you're all for a proper rebuild which includes giving out opportunities to defensemen that have shown little to no promise to this point and basically give your team next to no shot of winning anything. I mean, I'm not trying to put words in your mouth here, but you don't want to tank, yet you want to put out players that increase your chances of not winning. We are continuing with a youth movement, which is why we didn't get Vanek back. The young forwards have shown potential and have won their roster spots. DK is a defenseman that showed potential and is rightfully being given a chance. The others have not, which is why we need a Trevor Daley right now. He's not the answer, but he gives our club a better chance of succeeding. I mean, think about this, what if Larkin, AA and Mantha are ready to light the world on fire this season, but they don't get that chance to shine because we've decided that we need to look at all these young unproven defensemen, so instead of filling their opponents net with pucks, those three are fishing pucks out of our own instead.

I'm pretty pleased with this deal. Daley's made a difference on the Pens blueline the last couple seasons and he'll make a difference on ours. Will it get us back into the playoffs? Who knows? I wish we had more cap space to solidify this defense a little more. I understand it the popular belief that we should be "rebuilding" and "give the young guys a shot", but I don't think these are the right circumstances to do that. Its not like we have defensive prospects that we're just chomping at the bit to get onto the big club and signing Daley screws that up. We don't have the defenseman equivalent of Larkin, AA or Mantha just waiting in the wings, looking for a shot. XO, Jensen, Sproul, don't show that same kind of potential. Just throwing them out there to "see what they can do" is risky and a good way to ensure we're lottery picking again next June. The AHL is where we should "see what they can do". If their AHL numbers don't impress, why in the world would their NHL performance be any better? I don't know, I feel like some people are just looking around for a place to lay down and die when things really are not THAT bad. Give our young forwards a chance to carry this team. If we have 6 train wrecks sitting on our blueline, how is that going to be helpful to them or our goaltending? Veteran defensemen give you stability in a position that NEEDS stability. They're a good bridge so when you do eventually sign or draft a really good defensemen they won't be walking into a disaster.

The Penguins were serious under achievers (at least in the playoffs anyways) before lower cap hit players like the ones I mentioned joined their team. They are successful because they're getting good production from players that have small cap hits and its off setting the massive cap hits from players like Crosby, Malkin and Letang. If Edmonton is going to have success as a team while paying McDavid $13 mil a year, they'll need to find similar players to off set that cap hit, which isn't easy. Take Tampa Bay for example. Going into the cap era, they were paying three players a ton of money and the rest of the team suffered.

They should be going after, but would Yakupov WANT to play here? That's the other side people are forgetting. He was a bust on the Oilers, plays just one year in St Louis and is a free agent now. Whatever team he signs with now will make or break him as an NHL player. He needs to sign with contender that will give him other good linemates to help boost his stats and get his game on track. A Chicago or Pittsburgh type of team could do that. Maybe even Toronto. I don't think Detroit is the ideal fit for him, as much as I'd love to have him here. Not when it cripples your team cap wise. It crippled the Pens with Crosby and Malkin until guys like Murray, Haglin, Bonino, Schultz and other low cap hit players joined the team. Paying a guy that much in a team sport like hockey isn't really a good idea when you're going for a championship.

Holland likes to know what he's getting into. When he signs a player like Vanek, he knows what type of player he's getting. When you draft guys out of juniors, regardless of how well they play there, you don't really know what they're going to do until they get into the NHL. Considering his track record with drafting defensemen over the past 10 years, I can see why he would feel this way.

Well then we can agree to disagree on that. lol I think vets like Daley or Girardi would be an upgrade over guys like Sproul or XO. They are not just as talented. Sure Sproul and XO may end up being solid NHL defensemen someday and might be better someday, but while they're learning to play the position at the NHL level, our young forwards are going to waste. The way I see it, our forwards are in a good spot right now. They show promise, flashes of being really good. Unfortunately, our defensemen do not. I don't see why the team, as a whole, has to suffer. A lot of people want a full blown rebuild, but I don't think that's necessary right now. Veteran defensemen would give us more consistency/reliability from a position that needs those qualities.

Yes. We've been pulling up these young defensemen for years and none of them have really worked out for us. I don't know if we're pulling them up too early or if they don't fit our system or if they're simply just not good enough. Suffering through these growing pains for defensemen that may not end up working out anyways is especially bad considering how many good young talented forwards we have. They're good but it doesn't matter because the defense isn't, our goaltenders get shelled and we're a below average hockey team. Veteran defensemen are a good way to bridge the gap until we can develop better defensemen.