dat's sick

Haven't watched the guy play myself but from eliteprospects: I'd also like to mention that Kronwall's stats are way more impressive than both AA's and Backman's. The SHL was a much better league back then. That said hopefully one of these guys turn out good. Got more hope in AA at the moment as I've seen him more and think his brief NHL stint showed that he's got talent that stands out even there, Backman meanwhile has to come over and adjust to small ice and we'll see how that goes.

Yeah there's a reason they've barely lost a game they score first in. That is where Hitchcock is the best coach in the league and the Blues are perfectly built for that kind of game. We played a good game up until the 5-on-3 imo. Had we scored there, we could have had a chance. But the team seemed completely deflated after that in was in effect game over. I don't feel very down actually. We've had a rough schedule and we've managed to hang with all these teams. Not as many points acquired as we would like but I see good things. Ericsson is back soon and that's a sorely needed upgrade on defense. Franzen and Alfie are really missed up front as we just don't have enough guys that can put the puck in the net.

Damn, we're getting dominated. I actually thought this game was going pretty well, but those 2 goals and the complete failure on the 5-on-3 was all it took for the team to give up. Just get out of this one without any more injuries.

That was quite simply terrible coaching by Babcock.

Great coaching by Babcock to throw out Eaves and Bert on that 5-on-3. That Sheahan-Z-Tatar-Gus-Kronner unit that scored on a PP earlier in the game wasn't good enough, huh? Special teams battle is not the way for this team to win right now. Blues PP is amazing, ours is a tragedy.

Nyquist needs to get some confidence from that goal, man has he been gripping his stick too tight lately. Sheahan continues to be very good. Glad Babcock put him out there on the 1st PP unit, I've got a feeling he can do as good a job as Bert in front of the net while also being useful in other areas of the ice. I don't know about completely overmatched. He had a few rookie-mistakes in positioning, stuff that a smart kid like him would probably iron out eventually. I wouldn't say Kindl is a beast defensively either and he's got nothing going for him offensively.

From what I gather their fans are desperate for a coaching change. They have talent but I don't see them as a very strong team over 7 games.

It could lead to tactics like 'dump the puck into the zone off the netting' to make it harder for the defending team to pick up the puck. The nets are out of bounds, it's just a safety measure. If you make it fair play you may as well encase the whole rink in glass and make everything fair play. Though this goal was definitely legal by the rule book. If the refs don't blow the play dead then play goes as usual. Lucky break, which we needed.

I'm becoming a huge Sheahan fan. This guy is good. Wins faceoffs, hard on the forecheck, and seems to have better offensive instincts than someone I expected to be nothing more than a 4th liner. As for the goal, we deserved a break. A 2-1 loss would have been heartbreaking and frankly undeserved given the effort this team has given without results lately. Make it reviewable for sure, but for now I have no problems with enjoying these 2 points. Howard has been a boss in his last 3 starts too. Good sign.

Can't keep losing. Our home record, Howard's record, these things have to turn around. Huh?

Goalies: 1 Jhonas Enroth, 25, Buffalo, 1. 30 Henrik Lundqvist, 31, New York Rangers, 3. 50 Jonas Gustavsson, 29, Detroit, 2. Defensemen: 3 Oliver Ekman-Larsson, 22, Phoenix, 1. 4 Niklas Hjalmarsson, 26, Chicago, 1. 7 Henrik Tallinder, 34, Buffalo, 2. 23 Alexander Edler, 27, Vancouver, 1. 27 Johnny Oduya, 32, Chicago, 2. 52 Jonathan Ericsson, 29, Detroit, 1. 55 Niklas Kronwall, 32, Detroit, 3. 65 Erik Karlsson, 23, Ottawa, 1. Forwards: 11 Daniel Alfredsson, 41, Detroit 14 Patrik Berglund, 25, St Louis 16 Marcus Krüger, 23, Chicago 18 Jakob Silfverberg, 23, Anaheim 19 Nicklas Bäckström, 26, Washington 20 Alexander Steen, 29, St Louis 21 Loui Eriksson, 28, Boston 22 Daniel Sedin, 33, Vancouver 33 Henrik Sedin, 33, Vancouver 40 Henrik Zetterberg, 33, Detroit 42 Jimmie Ericsson, 33, Skellefteå 62 Carl Hagelin, 25, New York Rangers 92 Gabriel Landeskog, 21, Colorado 93 Johan Franzén, 34, Detroit http://www.nhl.com/ice/blogpost.htm?id=24781&navid=nhl:topheads

We haven't been very good in 3 years... when everyone except him is healthy we're a good team. With him, we're a great team. That's my opinion at least, I hope he moves past these injuries and stays healthy. Olympic break might be good for him.

An awesome desperation save. Love the reaction on the Preds bench. He got a bit lucky the Flyers player whiffed on the shot a bit but it's gonna be in SOTY contention for sure.

I would assume he means claiming injury during the offseason so the Wings couldn't buy him out. But I don't have all the details on that situation. Seems a silly rule anyway to not be able to buy someone out because they're injured.

There has to be some way to get rid of this guy. With all our injuries haven't we freed up enough cap space to be able to just buy him out and use the roster spot for someone else? Time is running out and Kenny is sitting on his hands. Then we'll get healthy and Jurco, Sheahan, Glendening and Eaves will be sent down while Sammy remains.

It's a ridiculous season. Almost 50 games in and we haven't dressed a 'healthy' team even once. But a lot of that comes down to mismanagement by Holland/Babcock. Really these injuries highlight what a terrible job Kenny has done. Bertuzzi, Cleary and Samuelsson are supposed to be seasoned NHL veterans that know how to succeed in this league. This is the exact situation where they should step up and score some goals and get us points. Yet they are night after night outplayed by everyone who is called up from Grand Rapids. It's also a mistake to only look at the forwards and say "of course we can't score with these lines!". Our defense is close to healthy and produces nothing offensively. Now, we don't need Erik Karlsson back there. But maybe Almqvist could help us, even if only on the PP? Maybe Marchenko would contribute more than Kindl? Bottom line is it's not only injuries that cause one to look through the lineup and see 90% players that it would be a shock to see on the scoresheet. Kenny has handcuffed the team to some very poor players and he refuses to do anything to solve it.

What's unfortunate is that we didn't manage to hold on for a point in this and the last game. Seems like all the teams around us lose in OT/SO when they don't win, and those extra points make a huge difference. But it's no use to be upset right now. One can only hope these injuries turn around. It's gotten to the breaking point, we're simply not going to win many/any games with this lineup. Literally anyone that's out injured right now would be a huge reinforement. Strength down the middle is a key to success in this league and we have a clearly less than 100% Zetterberg, followed by 3 AHL players. It's ridiculous. Just insane. But it has to turn around, just has to. And hopefully it won't be too late.

Two shutout losses in a row really sucks. But we're playing pretty solid in these games. If Howard keeps this up and someone ever gets healthy things should look up.

Yeah it's hard to point at anyone on this team and say "he needs to be better". We quite simply need Howard to play out of his mind and to get some luck offensively to have a chance at winning a game with this lineup. We've been getting the former lately, but we need the latter as well.

Jurco is an NHL player. Holland, do your job. Gonna be hard to score on Lundqvist, looks like another low scoring game.

We must win. I have yet to figure out how we're going to do it, but something something shoot the puck in the net!

He's still young and he could easily put these injuries behind him and get back to playing regularly. Before his back issue he wasn't known as an injury-prone player. Also his 2 million is NOT hurting us or keeping us from success if he's injured. How about looking at Samuelsson's 3 million, Weiss 5 million, Cleary, Bertuzzi, Quincey, Kindl's etc. X millions. Give the guy a break, his injuries aren't something he can control.

To think the Wings could have had 3 Team Captains in the Olympics if only Cleary had made the Canadian roster.

edit: beaten Good news. Assuming he'll just take Tatar's spot if none of the injured guys come back.

He was on a huge coldstreak even by his streaky standards to start the season. He's still one of our more skilled and productive players. And most players will be a year older a year from now.