Icesurfer

Detroit's defense will be so bad that the best thing that can happen for the Wings in 2012-2013 is that the year be another lockout. Which got me to thinking..... if the year is a lockout I wonder how much of Weber's $27 million will the Preds be liable for?????????????? Almost makes you think the Preds will vote FOR a lockout.... along with a few other teams regardless of what the players want.

Forget about the bottom six..... I am more concerned about the top two..... defensemen. I am predicting right now that LIDSTROM will be back in uniform and on the ice for the Wings by January..... and I am not talking about the Alumni game. After 3 months of extra rest Lidstrom will be so bored he won't have any choice.....LOL. I think Lidstrom would enjoy playing just half a season. Besides, he will feel guilty for retiring and leaving the Wings in such a perilous state.

Instead of signing mediocre or second tier players to two year or more contracts maybe the Wings would best benefit from signing only one year contracts and waiting for the 2013 free agent class. Perry, Getzlaf, Morrow, Roy, Elias, Zajac, Visnovsky, Enstrom, Edler, Ryan Whitney, Timonen, Regher are just some of the players who may be available next year. Wings may also be better off if 2012-2013 were to be locked out. Even making trades may not be the wisest choice. And also could wait until the trade deadline to see what kind of team the Wings really have. Why waste cap space on a multi-year contract that they may regret next summer?

Maybe in January 2013 Lidstrom may decide to come back for 3 or 4 months. I am just thinking that a Shane Doan signing may be a regrettable 3 year signing..... and Wings sign him just because he is the next best available option. I think the Wings can deal with just one "transition" year versus forcing a two or three year transition by virtue of a second rate signing.

Wings will be able to sign quality players but that is really not the problem..... whether they sign the top free agents or not. Everyone knows by now that defense and goaltending win championships. I hate to say it but without Lidstrom Wings will have to eventually upgrade their goaltending. Wings must now win like everyone else... with top notch goaltending. I was one of Howie's biggest supporters. Last year I was expecting Howie to improve his rebound control, but what I saw was that it actually got worse. The difference was the defense was so focused on getting to his rebounds first that they left the opposing skaters unchecked and open. You can't keep plugging holes. Either Howie improves his rebound control or Wings will have to upgrade. There is no Lidstrom to mend the mistakes and the shots will not be kept low like they have been in the past. Teams got very smart against Howie.... they learned to just throw the puck at the net and play for the rebound. So how the Wings do in 2012-2013 will not depend on which defensemen and forward they sign but rather rest on the shoulders of Jimmy Howard. And for Pete's sake spend some of that money to get a decent backup, one capable of assuming a number one role.

ONE Nashville win against the Yotes. That tells you just how bad the Wings were. Very embarrassing for the Wings.

The Yotes are beating the Preds with their speed.....great speed on all 4 lines. Boedker is as fast as Helm. When you can roll 4 lines with speed you can activate the defense and because of the speed you don't have to worry about getting back on defense.... especially with Smith in goal. And everyone thought Nashville was fast. That just goes to show you how slow Detroit really is..... especially when the Yotes do it for 60 minutes.

Obviously this will hinge on whether Lidstrom comes back. I think Lidstrom will come back because he is still very capable and it would be nice to see him in the big house. What I really would like to see is the Wings get Shea Weber next year (2013-2014) when he is a UFA pending on what kind of contract he signs this year as a RFA. I imagine Nashville will try to lock him up and to sign him for a long deal.... it will have to be for some big bucks or else he may want to test the market the following year. I was wondering if the head slam on Z precludes the Wings from wanting Weber.... although Z was not really injured. So if you think Nashville will tie up Weber then maybe you want to try to pry Suter AWAY. So in that case I would trade Quincey.... IMHO, Quincey is NOT worth 3 to 3.5 million dollars. Quincey has NOT impressed me at all..... he makes too many mistakes and has brain farts on the ice. Quincey is a RFA and the Wings can trade him. So if Lidstrom comes back you have Lidstrom/Suter (although he shoots left), Kronwall/Ericsson, White/Smith and Kindl as your backup. Ian White is still the only one who shoots right. Could use White and Suter on the PP.... and Nick and Nick.

It is not an accident that the young fast teams with great goaltending are leading the way. All GM's should have seen this coming when the hooking and holding was taken out of the game. It allowed the speedy players to have the biggest impact. Experience and skill are no longer hallmarks of the game. Goals scored are not mostly the pretty goals by skilled players in the playoffs. They are scrappy and rebound goals put in by great skaters who will go to the net. But it starts with great defense as well as goaltending and the defenders have to contribute to the scoring by picking up the rebounds. EVERY line on the team has to have speedy good skaters. Every skater, IMHO, has to be good enough to kill penalties if necessary, although, you can not expect your highly skilled 5 on 5 goal scorers to spend time on every penalty kill.

At least it was nice to set a record but it was all downhill once it ended.

Well, I guess I was wrong. I said Wings would win 2 games in this series and they won only one. I'm sorry I will try to be more accurate next time. They went down with a whimper. No level of experience or skill can top great goaltending, excellent defense and speed, speed, speed in today's NHL. Howard and Detroit's defense have a lot of work to do before next year starts.

Well, I guess I was wrong. I said Wings would win 2 games in this series and they won only one. I'm sorry I will try to be more accurate next time. They went down with a whimper. No level of experience or skill can top great goaltending, excellent defense and speed, speed, speed in today's NHL. Howard and Detroit's defense have a lot of work to do before next year starts.

The Blues will win the West. It is hard to beat excellent defense and goaltending. They will skate all over LA, then Nashville. When Howie learns to control his rebounds he will be as good as Halak, Elliott or Rinne.

St. Louis has just finished a long 6 game road trip (5 out west) and won FIVE of them. Needless to say the Blues are hot and playing very well on the road. First time since February 2009 that they had won 4 in a row on the road. The Wings are not playing well on the road and they have 8 games left on the road. Blues have 9 games left on the road. Who has the advantage now? So for those who thought the Wings were going to win the division because their schedule is easier..... think again. IMHO, the Blues have the advantage simply because Detroit is hurting and still have not corrected the problems on the road. Detroit's season is over, IMHO, if they don't win the division. The Wings' trip out West coming up next week may be the turning point.... one way or the other... although the game against the Blues in St. Louis on April 4th will probably determine who wins the divsion and each team has won outright their home games against each other this year.

Howard needs to spend the whole summer working on improving his rebound control and preventing rebounds. Obviously that has been every teams game plan against him.... just shoot the puck on net for a rebound and play the rebound.

SPEED, SPEED and more SPEED! Behind defense and goaltending, SPEED is the next most important asset in today's game. All you have to do is look at the teams who are winning in the west..... excellent goaltending and defense with many young fast skaters.... LA, St. Louis, Nashville and Phoenix. Wings have FOUR players on their team who are anything but young and fast..... FOUR is way too many... Franzen, Homer, Hudler and Bertuzzi. You may be able to get away with One or two slow or older skaters with less energy .... but if you can not roll line after line with energy and speed you will not survive..... plain and simple. You need SIXTY minutes of energy and speed.... 40 minutes is no good. Secondly, and this goes along with the speed, is the ability to kill penalties. The SAME slow skaters do not kill penalties. IMHO, if you do not have 10 skaters on the ice who are capable of killing penalties you are going to cause fatigue, injuries and exhaustion to your top players. Datsyuk and Zetterberg have done yeoman's work. They are simply spending too much time killing penalties and should spend more of their ice time playing at even strength. It only makes common sense. You don't trade Datsyuk and Zetterberg..... you dump Hudler and Homer to start and then you send Franzen and Bertuzzi for off-season speed skating and training because you know they won't be traded away. Letting Stuart go and using Smith will also increase speed on defense. Third, give more ice time to the speedsters..... put them up on line 1 and 2. Z, Filppula and Hudler were something like a MINUS 23 on the road early in the season.... and that has returned... and yet Babcock has kept that line together. This year Babcock has had the least line shuffling compared to any other year.... it was done only out of necessity when someone was injured.... that is a sign of a coach getting into a very stale pattern. Datsyuk with Helm, Abby or Miller on his line would have been interesting to see. Helm, Abby or Miller could have also been paired with Zetterberg. Filppula could have centered the third line..... separating your scorers so that 3 lines would have some scorers. The top two lines, IMHO, were the worst top two lines the Wings have had in 18 years..... and it wasn't because of Datsyuk and Zetterberg but it was because of Bertuzzi, Franzen, Hudler and Filppula. If the Wings are depending on Filppula to lead them to a championship it will be a long wait.... he is a third line center at best.

A very weak finish to this season may just entice Lidstrom to retire if he feels the team chances of winning a cup in the next year are not good. And that changes everything. There are FOUR teams in the West that are playing "Red Wing-like" hockey better than the Red Wings..... St. Louis, Nashville, Chicago and San Jose.

So for all the Filppula lovers out there can someone please explain to me why Filppula has been so NON-productive since the end of March when the Wings started playing some very important games? Filppula is a third line center at best.

First of all, with the excellent forechecking from Nashville the only way to beat it is to make the LONG passes out of your end to a good fast skater. How many long passes have the Wings made out of their end in this series???..... ZERO! It is embarrassing to watch the Wings try to come out of their zone at times. Secondly, you don't start the game with slow skaters like Bertuzzi, Franzen, Hudler or Homer... that is the kiss of death and you are asking to be buried in your own end and wear out your own D before you even get into the flow of the game. Nashville is fast and they try like hell to get the first goal. The first goal wins the games and wins the series. Get all the fast skaters playing the minutes in the first 5-6 minutes of the game and the majority of the first period. Third, keep making the shot passes to the skater at the side of Rinne's net or a shot pass to the guy in front. If you think you are going to blow the puck by Rinne from the blue line you are wasting your time. When the shot pass comes the D can move in. It will be Detroit's D who scores the winning goals.... that's how they did it earlier this year and they seem to have forgotten that.

VAN/LAK: 4-0 STL/SJS: 4-2 PHX/CHI: 4-2 NSH/DET: 4-2 NYR/OTT: 4-2 BOS/WSH: 4-1 FLA/NJD: 4-0 PIT/PHI: 4-3 WC Champion: STL EC Champion: NYR SCF Champion: NYR

It is early golfing season for the boys in red and white. Price might have been too high for a top 6 forward at the trade deadline but that is exactly what the Wings needed and Holland sad he liked the team he had. Oh well. 6 weeks ago I wrote the "Blues are in the driver's seat". 3 weeks ago I wrote the Preds were in the passenger seat and the Wings were sleeping in the back seat. Now you can throw the red and white jerseys in the trunk because they are packing for early vacation. Wings will win 2 games in the playoffs.... maybe 3 if their power play starts to work and if they are lucky. So that means they will exit in the first round. It was all downhill after the 23 game win streak. Too many mental mistakes on a team that is not clicking. This year had to be one of the most significant collapses in Red Wings history. On February 20th Detroit was number one in the NHL, Howie was in the running for the Vezina trophy, Datsyuk was in the running for MVP and Selke trophy, Lidstrom was in the running for another Norris trophy and Detroit had just set a record for the most consecutive home victories ever. Things couldn't have looked any sweeter. Then in a flash, as if a tornado hit Joe Louis Arena, almost all of that vanished in a hurry. The 23 game win streak remains but everything else is gone. A first round exit wound be the topping on a humble pie.

Wings may benefit from the possibility that the Devils are happy to be right where they are in sixth seed and to play the third seed in the first round. They may rest a few key players. I think the Devils are going for a penalty kill record..... if so that should be easy against the Wings. On the PP Vancouver makes some nifty passes to the skater in front of the net who in turn passes it to a skater coming down into the slot or off to the side of the net.... great play... goalie doesn't see it. I like it better than the attempted tip play.... that is getting boring and is not working. Lidstrom can do a shot pass to Homer who then passes it off to Datsyuk moving down or across or off to the side of the net. "The Devils’ penalty killing efficiency of 89.8 percent (26 goals against on 256 times shorthanded) would surpass the post-expansion league record of 89.3 percent established by the 1999-2000 Dallas Stars."

Franzen doesn't really warm up until the playoffs are ready to start.... LOL. Or maybe you just have to get the mule mad. LOL. Thank goodness because our REAL top line needs to be our REAL top line. Z, Hudler, Filppula are great against non playoff teams.... especially Filppula.... but when it comes to top tier teams with size they are not impressive.... Filppula gets most of his points against teams like Columbus. If Detroit's defense doesn't stop with the turnovers and bad passes they won't win one game in the playoffs.... sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. As has happened so many times earlier this year Howie saved Detroit's bacon. Detroit must finish fourth to have a chance in the first round. Detroit will also have to stop giving up the first goal.... I don't think I ever saw a team win the cup by coming back to win every game.... LOL.

Babcock is making a montrous mistake by not playing Howie against Nashville if he is ready to play. First of all, if Howie can't be thrown into the fire and be expected to perform then he is not a number one playoff goalie. Secondly, there are 4 games left after Friday.... with one of them a back-to-back. Third, players are known to hit that "proverbial wall" about 3 - 6 games after returning from an injury.... Detroit has too many in that category at the start of the playoffs. Fourth, Conklin will lose to the Predators giving the Predators a great chance to finish fourth. Fifth, the defense needs to wake up... they were absolutely horrible in the last Columbus game and all were a MINUS except for Ericsson.... maybe if the defense knows they have to put up a wall in front of Howie that just may wake them up. Sixth, Howie needs to get as many games as possible against a skilled team.... expecially one he will be facing in the playoffs.... correct the mistakes now. Otherwise, everything is pointing to a first round exit by the Wings if Conklin is in goal on Friday and the Wings lose. What kind of message are you sending to the team when you are afraid of your number one goalie facing a competitor, even if he is not in top game condition? It is a team game and if the team is playing like a team they will give Howie all the protection he needs. Showing fear is a recipe for failure.