dat's sick

You're all being way too harsh on Cleary. He's done a lot of good things this season, such as:

If we had Helm, Franzen, Coliacovo and Smith back in the lineup I think we would make the playoffs with 'relative' ease. So yes I think injuries are a big issue. The team hasn't been able to become a cohesive unit, with guys rotating in and out of the lineup every game. Of course if Sammy comes back and replaces Tatar that actually makes us worse, so the injuries haven't been all bad. And there are some things that can't be blamed on injuries however: Filppula stinking. I'm severely disappointed in him. Kronwall god awful defensively. Sooo disappointed. And Babcock's mental illness and manlove for Dan Cleary. So in the end what GMR said is probably about right. Unless we can start getting and staying healthy, real soon, we're a long shot to make the playoffs. Sucks that Helms seems to be far from ready. Definitely the most important player missing at the moment, he's a key player.

Good thing is we usually play better against the 'good teams'. So those games aren't automatic losses. But yes, it will be tough. We have trouble getting back into games we fall behind in. But we also can't keep or build on 2 goal leads. So I'm not sure how we're going to play. We can't call the season over or anything this early. A couple wins and we're very much back in the playoff picture. But we have so many adjustments to make it makes my head spin. I wonder what the coaches are saying. "If only everyone played with the heart of Cleary". "Why can't Datsyuk be as awesome as Abdelkader..". "Are we all in agreement that Howard will start the rest of the games this season? Good.". "Hell that Tatar kid looked pretty good.. should we send him down or just decrease his icetime? Less icetime? Okay." . That's what I'm imagining it sounds like. If this coaching staff is still around next season it will be interesting to see 24/7. There will probably be a lot of focus on the love-story between Babcock and Cleary (who will have just signed a 5 year deal with an NTC). Also Tom Renney running PP drills dressed as a clown.

Looked bad today. Babcock's decisions have been baffling this season. From the line combos to the goalies. Starting Howard the game after he leaves with blurry vision? Give him a rest.. Monster looked good when he came in. Right now Gustavsson needs to start atleast 2-3 games in a row imo. Regardless of what happens. Give Howard a real chance to re-focus and find his game again.

Couple of things: * Bad turnover Brunner. I like you, but with 30 seconds left in the game, keeping the puck deep is #1 priority. Live and learn kid. * Why is White and Lashoff our D-men on the ice in the last minute? Ericsson?? Bad coaching. * Timeout should have happened a long time ago. Bad coaching. * What is Howard doing on the goal? Tough side-to-side play but still. Rest the guy already. Monster looks ready to play. * Abdelkader and Cleary. Bad coaching. * Zetterberg's worst game of the season, easily. * Tatar was maybe the best player on the ice for us. Hello Babcock??? Awful, awful loss. Things are starting to look rough in the standings. Not even getting a point tonight.. wow. Injuries aren't an excuse unless Babcock's mind has been injured which I'm starting to think. Desperately, desperately need to the win the next game. And the one after that. And the one after that. Sigh.

Kronwall is so bad at it. "Kronwall SHOOTS...misses the net" "Kronwall SHOOTS...blocked"

Our powerplay is so un-clutch it's blowing my mind. Sooner or later you'd think just plain ol' puck-luck should give us a goal. Other teams 'just throw it at the net' and score all the time, we have to do crazy things to get a goal. Got a bad feeling this game won't go our way... Babcock needs to play Cleary and Abdelkader more.

Barring a shorthanded goal we'll atleast be 2 minutes closer to 1 point.

If the last game showed that Datsyuk can carry a line entirely by himself, this game shows that sometimes he needs some help as well. Just sucks seeing Pav with 2 guys that can't give him the puck, can't hold on to the puck, can't win the puck, can't shoot the puck, can't skate etc. Bottom 6 looks good though and 1st line is alright. Definitely needs to swap Cleary with someone else, either Tatar or Brunner imo..

Anyone arguing it was intentional is an idiot. Just a terrible accident and I sincerely hope they're simply taking every precaution and he'll be okay. Hate, hate, hate seeing stuff like this.

Great start, too bad we always start playing worse as soon as we get a lead. Bobrovsky looks shaky and their defense has trouble as soon as we put on some pressure. Foot needs to be on the gas pedal in the 2nd period, no sitting back. Yeah I was wondering what that was about too.

I want to print this post, frame it and put it up on my wall.

Haha very nice Looking forward to the game. I have a feeling the Wings will break out of the slump with a vengeance. 8-1 Detroit. Datsyuk with 7 unassisted goals and one assist from shooting the puck at Cleary in anger and it getting deflected into the net.

My god that is an amazing highlight reel. Maybe the best I've ever seen in competition with Peter Forsberg's. If he would have included some more of Pavel's physical play and offensive hits and such it would have been just perfect. Very cool that it has both stuff as recent as the last game and way back from his rookie season. Damn he's been a beast for a long time. I really think anyone who doesn't think he's going to be a HOFer is crazy.

What NHL.com are you watching? Soon after the game Pav's goal was the #1 featured video, and now they have a collection of Datsyukian dekes on the front page.

That highlight reel will be 2 hours long and hopefully released on bluray. The man had a highlight reel last NIGHT that's better than most guys do in several seasons.

A lot of their team looks a lot better at the moment because they've come out of the gate absolutely firing on all cylinders and sort of caught the rest of the league off-guard. When they cool off a bit, which they will, they'll still have some iffy goaltending, so-so bottom 6, and a couple of very mediocre d-men. Still a very good team though. Could make a run for it this year, doubt they'll make it all the way though.

Don't even feel bad about the loss. Just watching Datsyuk tonight was enough for me. Babcock has got to wake up sooner or later though. Had he started the 4-on-4 OT with Datsyuk+Z/Tatar we would have probably won the game.

No, in the 2011 playoffs for example he had some unreal games. And I rememer a game in the 08-09 or 09-10 season where he single-handedly decimated the Hawks. There was a youtube montage of his performance in that Hawks game, might still be out there.. But this is certainly on that level. Insane play from Houdini tonight.

Of course... curse this season..

Have I mentioned Pavel Datsyuk is a GOD?? Please someone else on the team look at him and go "hey I want to try in this game too!".

Swedish journalist Per Bjurman was in Detroit and talking to Nick Lidstrom and Holmstrom outside the lockerrom at the Joe, when Mike Babcock came by and had this to say: - I love you more than when you played, because now I understand how much you meant. Our ******* powerplay ... I can not get anyone to do what you did. Damn, "Homer", if I had known better maybe I would have appreciated you a bit more, he shrieks happily, unaware that it is a Swedish journalist next to them... from :http://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/hockey/internationellt/nhl/article16250985.ab

I can only remember a whole heap of games where we've been down and unsuccessfully tried to come back. Maybe it's happened but it's been too rare.

For real.Why can we never come back from being down in a game?? You can just tell we'll lose this one 3- or 4-1.

Lazy penalty by Fil. I liked the way Fil-Z-Brunnner looked though. Problem is Datsyuk's linemates. Give him Tatar for pete's sake.