dat's sick

The big question is, how does this team look when it's fully healthy? I don't think we have the 3rd best lineup in the league if we continue to find room for Cleary and Bertuzzi and Quincey and Kindl. Imagine: Franzen-Datsyuk-Jurco Zetterberg-Weiss-Nyquist Tatar-Helm-Alfredsson Miller-Sheahan-Abdelkader

Realistically, without big trades or FA signings, we are looking at a best case scenario of being a team in the mold of St Louis, but worse, in 4-5 years. Forward depth without superstars, defense depth with 1-2 great d-men, good goaltending. Holland should probably take a good long look at our prospects and see what's out there trade-wise. I'd consider putting together a package for a guy like Yakupov for example.

When I saw Samuelsson out there in the last minute I was laughing. Wow. That is some clueless coaching. Overall we played a good game though. Just too obvious we lacked firepower. When every line gets dragged down by an anchor or two it's going to be hard to score consistently. Right from the start it had 1-goal game written all over it. We had a couple of chances but in the 3rd we were too tired to make a real push. Shame for Mrazek, he played well and deserved some support. Powerplay was a joke. We need players to return. And when they do, the right guys should leave the lineup. Looking at you Sammy, Bertuzzi and Cleary.

Giveaway, giveaway, giveaway, giveaway, icing, giveaway, giveaway.... great stuff here.

We have Samuelsson and Bertuzzi on the first unit, Kindl and Cleary on the 2nd. I'm honestly not sure if we even have an advantage on the PP.

That's the 75th time he's failed on that zone entry this season. Yes, I've counted.

Pretty good period. As usual we have trouble converting on chances though. Man, Tatar is playing some amazing hockey lately. Everytime he touches the puck something happens.

Sheahan's doing good things out there.

You're missing Gustavsson on the depression chart. I would be happy with a point tonight. Ducks are almost unbeatable at home and our situation is as it is. Gonna be a tough one for Mraz, hope he does well and gets some decent support. It would be good if we can keep the shots in the 20s or 30s and not the 40s like yesterday.

Kinda doubt it. Would like to see Marchenko though. Quincey was just beyond terrible last night, and Kindl wasn't good either.

Babs is probably getting frustrated just like us fans. We can't get through a game without anyone being hurt so the knee-jerk reaction is always to assume an injury is bad. Sounds like Jimmy is pretty much fine. He'll backup tonight so can't be anything serious. We've got a couple days off after this one so he'll have time to rest.

Howard was so good tonight. I hope he can fix whatever's causing his inconsistant play, we need more games like this from him through this period of injuries. Is Tatar vs. Nyquist the new Datsyuk vs. Zetterberg?? They're both good. Tats is amazing lately while Nyquist has sort of been slumping. Generally I think Gus is a bit safer and I guess that's why he's getting top line minutes. But Tatar is just a man on a mission everytime he hits the ice. So fun to watch a guy that moves with purpose and has his eye on the net. We are in a good position if these two guys continue improving.

I hope more people start seeing reason when it comes to Bert. Cleary, Sammy and Quincey get all the crap but Bert is just as bad. He can be an average offensive zone player when he has Z and Dats on his line, but in any other scenario he's 100% useless.

Jurco scored tonight on a beautiful move. He's exactly the type of player we need right now with all these top 6 players injured.

Zetterberg and Nyquist's chemistry is off the charts, it's only too bad Nyquist can't finish on anything.

Quincey and Kindl are both disasters. I don't understand how long they're going to get a free pass from Babcock.

That was the best period Nyquist has played in a while. He hasn't been bad, but he's looked a little low on energy compared to how he usually is. When he's got the intensity that he has in this game he creates so much trouble for other teams. Also Tatar is playing fantastic hockey. He's creating something out of nothing all the time. We're going to need these guys to be at their best because we don't have a lot of skill in the lineup. I would also just love it if the defense could step up offensively. Feels like ages since Kronwall was involved in the offense other than on the PP.

Iffy call on Andersson when both guys were battling and Doughty's stick was up in Andy's face. Then a no-call on the goalie interference. Can something, anything, go our way this season? I've heard of adversity but this is something else.

Yes exactly. I always liked Fillpula a lot and this is also a case of 'you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone'. He was a very good fit in our system even if there was obviously something wrong with him last year. I will not give up on Weiss until we see if the surgery helped him get back to 100%, but it's certainly looking like Weiss isn't a good fit at all. Unlike a lot of other people I don't wish bad things on the players that leave the Wings, and certainly not great guys like Fil. I wish him continued success and will continue to miss him in a Wings uniform.

Apparently Tomas Tatar's father passed away today. Very sad news and I would be surprised if he plays tonight or tomorrow. I can't recall ever seeing that for the Red Wings.

Babs is definitely not a fan of Sammy, but I still think it will take a lot to get Bertuzzi and Cleary out of the lineup on any kind of regular basis.

It's not fundamentally different up front. A bit better this year due to Landeskog/Steen/Hagelin giving us better depth. Defense has Kronwall, Oduya and Tallinder returning. It's stronger this year with OEL, Karlsson, Hjalmarsson and Ericsson replacing Enstrom, Murray, Ohlund and Magnus Johansson. Obviously no Lidstrom and Forsberg, but they weren't in their prime 2010 anyway. Lundqvist and Gustavsson are returning. Biggest difference should be coaching. When we lost against Slovakia in the quarters 2010 every line played 10-15 minutes. This time we have a coach who understands the big guys need 20 minutes of icetime to be at their best.

Yeah let's ignore how great he played the 20 games before his injury.

We just had 4 days off...

Ericsson is a big loss. Injuries to Kindl and Quincey would actually help us as I think they may be the two worst d-men in the Wings system.