dat's sick

Z's been battling through something for sure. Probably back pain. Hope it's not so bad that he has to sit for very long. This makes me lose most of the excitement I had for this game. Bleh.

Going to have a lot of Red Wings matchups in the Olympics. Interesting that Z sounds so keen on beating Babcock haha. A Sweden-Canada final would be amazing.

It's....beautiful.

I don't think that's confirmed yet, that's just how it looked like from practice yesterday. Still with Franzen returning someone has to sit, and the fact they waived Sammy instead of sending down Jurco/Sheahan point towards scratching Cleary.

If anyone else on this broadcast says "this is awesome" or some variation on it I'm going to puke. I'm going to be shocked if the ice isn't crap during the game.

While the Abby-Z-Nyquist line has been good lately, I'd still like to see Franzen take Abby's spot there. Abby-Helm-Alfredsson was an amazing line earlier in the year, as was Mule-Z-Gus.

Things are starting to look up again. We may just be able to win some games before the Olympic break. Franzen is underrated, he's going to help a lot.

This is 100% the right decision, so happy it's finally happening. I would have been disgusted if he played 1 more game for the Wings. Sorry Sammy. I actually liked you way back in your first time here, but this 2nd time around was just a huge failure.

Zetterberg called Nyquist a 'chihahua' and Abdelkader a 'pitbull'. LOL.

I would freak out if we ice that lineup tomorrow.

I noticed and I think it was just Babcock protecting the lead. For all the good Jurco does, he's not great defensively.

Sheahan and Glendening should absolutely be here full time. Anything else would be ridiculous given the situation we're in. Gotta ice the best team possible. I can live with Jurco going down, he's gonna be a good one but still needs some time. Holland/Babcock can't justify playing Bert and Cleary much the rest of the season. Unless we get hit hard by injuries again. If Pav returns on tuesday that should be Cleary out of the lineup.

Monster looked so much better tonight. Very calm and in control. Sheahan... what a guy. Z and Nyquist, what chemistry. Gus is really back on track after that slump he went through. He's stopped forcing plays and is making smarter decisions. Loved winning an 'easy' one, we need these games where it's not a nail-biting grind until the final whistle. Now they have to take care of business against Florida and things will be looking a bit more up than they were at the start of the week.

I'd really like to see us roll a Z-D-Mule line for an extended time. But it's hard to do that unless Weiss steps up as 2nd line C when he returns. Lots of interesting ways to put this team together though. For example: Franzen-Z-Nyquist Jurco-Dats-Alfie Abdelkader-Helm-Tatar Miller-Sheahan-Glendening That would be a very deep lineup with 3 lines that could really do some damage, and a 4th line that would be defensively responsible as well as potentially good at grinding out some goals. What's really promising about our lineup going forward is that we several good 'blocks' to build with. Jurco-Shehan-Tatar? Chemistry. Nyquist-Tatar? Chemistry. Franzen and Nyquist. Dats and Z. Alfie and Helm. Possibly even Miller+Eaves+Glendening if last night is anything to go by. The only odd man out is Weiss. Ideally he and Franzen or Nyquist/Tatar would hit it off.

It might be a turning point in that if Babs/Holland don't realize that Bert and Cleary are done NOW.... they never will. I wouldn't hold them personally responsible for all goals, but it was fairly obvious tonight which line was causing bad things to happen. And with Tatar-Sheahan-Jurco dominating supposedly the best team in the league...how do you send any of them down?

Absolutely! But this game was FUN! I bet most of us wouldn't be feeling so bad about this season if we had more games like this. Kids playing big roles, offensive hockey, fun times. It's amazing what a difference it makes when Bert, Cleary and Sammy aren't dragging 3 out of 4 lines down. Now they dragged 1 way down into -3 territory, but in a way that's almost better because it frees the other ones up to do offense. Montreal is struggling and we're just plain better than Florida. No excuses. One thing though: we need better goaltending.

Didn't we lose something like 9 out of the last 10 meetings before moving East? Other than the playoff series they've kinda had our number, though I agree Wings always play with effort against them. As for Jurco he was terrific. Really physical. Great bounce-back game after what I thought was maybe his weakest game as a Wings against the Blues. Tatar-Shehan-Jurco had some simply amazing shifts.

I think I could watch that whole game again RIGHT NOW. Incredible hockey. Not the best defense or goaltending by any means, but fast paced, lots of chances, speed, skill, you name it. Even the shootout was entertaining. Part of me thinks it's a shame we're not going to face the Hawks more, but part of me knows they'd win 4 out 5. Still, fun games against them most of the time. Tatar was sick, Ericsson was a beast, Z and Nyquist had a good game, but the stars were Miller, Glendening and Eaves. What work they did for 65 minutes, and then that SO goal by Eaves. This is what I'm talking about when it comes to this team's potential when healthy. Remove Cleary and Bert, or at least one of them, and insert Franzen/Datsyuk/Alfredsson and those are some good looking lines.

In a game like this we wouldn't need a goalie that steals game. Hell Gus is looking awful and we're still in it. An average performance by Howard would have us in a 4-2 or 4-1 lead right now.

Such a fun 2nd period. Jurco-Sheahan-Tatar playing so well. Z and Gus finding eachother. 4th line tearing it up. Helm having a great game despite carrying our two worst players around. And Ericsson is amazing to have back. He makes a big difference. Have no idea what will happen in the 3rd. I can easily see us losing. But at least it's an entertaining game and we're not getting embarressed. It's easier when you don't have an anchor on your line. With Bert and Cleary on one line, that leaves 3 lines free from the weight of them. And Helm is kind of a 1-man forecheck. Only problem is Bert and Cleary together are a huge liability defensively.

Kronwall always seems to be looking for a big hit against the Hawks. I like it. That would have been a beauty. We played well enough, but wow, that Cleary-Helm-Bertuzzi line.... whatever plan Babs had with that, it's not working. 2 goals against already and I think there could be more. At least we got rewarded with some goals of our own. Tatar-Sheahan-Jurco is a good line, and the 4th line is the best we've had in a while.

Rangers wanted a right-handed d-man. And Klein's value is a quite a bit higher than Kindl's. I actually think Smith would have been the d-man that Nashville would have been more interested in.

It's finally healthy, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks now that Smith has shown improvement and even Quincey has reduced the number of boneheaded plays he makes per game. And I agree on the lines. We've got very little offense from the 'first line', and yet Babcock insists on having Abby there. Helm and Abby have great chemistry, as do Hank and Nyquist. That should be the foundation for 2 lines. Zetterberg needs help from someone else, I think I'd even try Bertuzzi on that line just to get a different look and see if we can start scoring some goals.

I disagree with the notion that we're not a cup contender when healthy. Maybe your idea of a contender is only the teams in the top tier (Chi, Pit, Bos, Stl, SJ, Ana), but I see us as being one of few teams that can actually pull an upset against any of the top teams. We have a core of experienced guys that can still go head-to-head with the league's best and match or outmatch them, and we have a support crew of good playoff guys like Franzen and Alfie and young and hungry guys like Tatar, Nyquist, Dekeyser, Smith. Don't give up on the season before we see what this team can actually do when healthy or close to it. Tonight, we're going to have a healthy defensive lineup for what, the 5th time this season? It's a good test against the Hawks, even if our depleted forwards and lack of #1 goalie will make it more difficult. As for moves, if we do so badly up until the trade deadline that we're basically out of it then I'd be 100% for moving Quincey/Kindl/Bert/Sammy/Cleary/Andersson/Eaves/Tootoo, basically any of the guys that are expendable. A 7th round pick, a conditional 6th, maybe a 2nd or 3rd, I'd take any return we could get. Though I doubt many would be interested. Alfie would have the most value, and sure, if he's not going to have the chance for a playoff run here I hope he gets traded so he gets a shot. Maybe he can still return for next season if he wants 1 more year and doesn't want to move his family anymore. Btw, as I understand it Franzen's contract is basically unmovable under the new CBA. If he retires we'd get a cap penalty for the remaining years. He would easily have a ton of value though contrary to what this board thinks. Big goalscorer with a reputation of being huge in the playoffs? Nah, who wants that...

Toronto is proof of how fast things can turn around. They were doing worse than us. Now they have 6 straight and are comfortably sitting in a playoff spot. Now the GOOD thing here is that we have 3 games in hand on them. We really can't afford to lose more than 1 of those 3 in order to not fall too far behind. If we win tonight we keep ahead of Ottawa and New Jersey, and move up to be tied with Columbus for the 2nd Wild Card. The unfortunate reality however is that there is no logical reason to think we'll win tonight. Gustavsson playing his first game in a long time, still a depleted forward lineup, we suck at home, and oh yeah that Chicago team is pretty good. We need a miracle.