dat's sick

Wishing injuries upon 3 of our players, 2 of whom have been very solid ? Nice.

Damn it hurts to lose another vital point in a SO. Just doesn't feel like a fair way to decide games at this stage. But I also wish our players could atleast score on breakaways/SO-attempts. This scoring drought is getting ridiculous. We are creating enough chances lately, and I don't buy into this "we have no finishers". We have a bunch of guys that should be good for 10-30 goals per season, but literally no one is scoring. The point atleast puts us ahead of Dallas again, so as long as we play even with them the rest of the way and even with Columbus, we're in. Good game overall, keep that kind of play up and start finding the back of the net. Liking our team defense and effort lately, bring up Tatar and bench Cleary to get the O going.

I agree that both Pav and Z (and Howard) get way too much crap around here. If we had a couple more players in the lineup that brough the consistant effort that those guys do we'd not be watching other teams' games to find out if we're gonna make the playoffs, but to find out who we were going to face.

What 6 games are those? He's been great for the better part of the season. He had a slump recently for 10-15 games where he looked sluggish. Last couple of games he looks better. Good things usually happen when he has the puck in the offensive zone. Sadly both him and the rest of our team is unable to score.

Kinda wished Hank had just rested through the lockout. Even if he built some chemistry with Brunner that lead to their great start, I think Hank is the kind of player who could be top 10 in scoring in a shortened season. But when he has to play 82 games he seems to go through long slumps where he's probably battling groin/back pains. We need both him and Pav to bring it in the last 5 games. I haven't been disappointed by either one of them in make-or-break moments of the past so I hope they can muster up everything they have now and push this team over the edge and into the playoffs.

Let's be honest, out of the 5 games left, we're looking at probably 4 MUST wins. I guess we could manage with 3 wins if one of them is against Dallas and they/Columbus lose some of their other games. We have 2 games in hand on CBJ so I still see Dallas as our main competition for 8th, but I'd really like it if that last game of the season wasn't completely decisive for who makes the playoffs. We need to just win the next 4 games and solidify ourselves in the playoffs so the last game doesn't matter. Just been watching the Champions DVD documentaries on our 97/98 Cup wins and they definitely make one nostalgic about the Red Wings...

I'm really scared Cleary will actually be re-signed. But even if he isn't, that still leaves Samuelsson taking up what should be Tatar's roster spot. Not much hope for Holland buying out Sammy and thus not much hope for Tatar being a full-time Red Wing next season. Can understand he's upset, as is every sane Red Wings fan. I am 100% convinced we'd be in better shape in the standings right now if Tatar was never sent down and got to play over Cleary/Eaves/Miller. Honestly if I was Tatar I'd have a hard time holding in a "f*** you" when Holland comes and says he's getting sent down despite being one of the Wings best players for the 18 game stretch he was up. Imagine after that watching the games and seeing Cleary and Abdelkader in the top 6.

Every game lately has been important. And he's been great in all of them. Allowing 3 goals is hardly s***ting on your team. Sooner or later this offense will have to bail Howie out in a game. That's happened like once this season that I can recall. Scoring 1-2 goals per game isn't good enough.

What a complete lie. He's one of the most consistant goalies around. Maybe if your definition of 'doing good' is having a <95 sv% he only does it once in a while. No goalie is perfect, Rangers fans complain about Lundqvist allowing 1 softie every game, but Howard is one of few reasons we still have a chance to make the playoffs. He hasn't buckled under the pressure of playing behind a team that can't score more than 2 goals per game.

What happened??? Could only watch the first 2 periods and we looked pretty good..

Zetterberg should be on the point and Brunner in the slot/circles/half-boards. That has worked much better.

Really an awful feeling that we've played 2 games in a row where we've actually been good enough to be able to win, but we've found a way to lose. A point is a point is a point, but we kind of needed atleast 3 out of the 4 points against SJ and CHI to stay in the driver's seat. Now 8th place is anyone's game really. I don't see this team finding another gear and 'turning it on', I think this is it. What we see is what we get. Maybe they'll find a way to squeeze into the playoffs by some miracle, but right now it's looking more likely they don't. What's great to see is Howard. What a champion. You can tell how much he wants to win. I'm not seeing that fire in many other guys, sadly. I don't think Zetts and Dats are playing healthy. Still hoping they can carry us to a win or two in the near future. Cleary is the most useless player I've ever seen on a hockey rink, and I'm not exaggerating. Bench him NOW and I think we'll increase our chances of making the playoffs by about 100%. It went in, didn't see a really good replay but from behind the net you could see the net moving as the puck went in.

Datsyuk with a blind behind the back pass, then Zetterberg with the high-risk saucer pass to the blue line, all with about 1 minute left of a MUST WIN game. Dudes. Can't believe we got out of those last 5 minutes with a tie game. I have very little hope we can get the 2nd point. Hawks have the momentum and 4-on-4 favors them. God knows shootouts aren't our thing either.

We were looking so good up until pretty much the shift after the PK. Shame. If we don't get a point we'll be in deep trouble. If we only get one point we're in some trouble.

Nyquist-Andersson-Brunner is a really good looking line, but I can't help but think how amazing it would be if we had Helm there instead of Joakim.

Dekeyser seems to be playing a lot now. I like it.

His play this year has to be a combination of injuries, pressure of living up to last year's breakout performance, and pressure of it being a contract year. He's not doing anything right out there.

They might be, just because he's had very good seasons otherwise. But let's not forget he carried our offense (together with Filppula) for the better part of last year, mainly the last 40-50 games. He was fantastic and over a PPG in that time, making up for his piss-poor first 20 games. This year he started off awesome, but has slowed down considerable. Probably he's been paying hurt for a while now. If he could find a way to get back to being a 30+ goalscorer that would be great, but it's not like he's become a bad player.

According to Eddie, Pavel "lost an edge"... LOL.

We all want Tatar in the lineup. But it doesn't seem like he's anywhere close to being called up (considering Sheahan got the call last time), and I'm not sure we're a better team if you take out Z, even at 70-80% and insert Tatar. Instead of Cleary, Eaves or Miller? Hell yeah.

People complain when someone sits out, saying "blah blah blah Yzerman played on one leg", but then when a guy like Z is a warrior and plays despite not being 100% everyone complains? I'd rather have this Zetterberg playing than whatever scrub would be in the lineup instead.

Eh, we're looking okay imo. Good effort. But as per usual we have no clue what to do around the net. Can't hit the net, can't get shots past blocking d-men, one pass too much, one pass too few..

Dallas up 3-1 on Nashville.. makes it even more important to win this one.

People don't give him credit for the moves he HASN'T done. There are a lot of GMs who would have done things like trade Datsyuk, give up on Jimmy Howard, overpaid for free agents and gotten into cap trouble etc. I don't agree with everything he's done lately, and this offseason will be maybe his biggest test yet, but if he decided to leave the Red Wings he'd have 20+ owners throwing money at him.

Hate losing in a SO when points are this important. Both Brunner and Nyquist had nice moves but they are too low % moves. Sharks players had the right idea, simple moves, things they're comfortable with. Well we could use a win tomorrow. Good thing it's only Chicago we're facing. ...what a season... sigh.