NGKEIB

I agree with the sentiment here; Howard's performance last night was okay, and certainly didn't cost the team the game. First goal was Ericsson and Rafalski with a nice combo assist move, and the 2nd one I'm sure he'd like back, but he made some good saves. It was the offense I was concerned with...

When did Ericsson ever play with Pushor? Don't get my wrong, I'm not saying that Ericsson is a waste of space/not a good prospect etc. - I just think that everyone would benefit if he was paired with someone not prone to defensive errors and who could cover for him (so basically Lidström or Kronwall, or Stuart if needs be).

In my opinion, as soon as he was moved down, he started making mistakes and looked less confident. That said, that pair is looking worse now. I think that they should stick him with someone other than Lebda. Chelios would probably have been a better call.

It looks like the puck has left his stick for quite some time, but when you watch it in real time, it's a small margin. Not a pretty hit, but legally nothing wrong with it - stayed on his feet and didn't use his elbow, two things Kronwall often does. It's an ugly play, but I don't think that it should be a suspension. If the league is getting pissy about hits to the head, then it should make rules, not examples of players.

I'm not debating that, I'm debating the fact that they were 'unstoppable'. Our only goals in games 6 and 7 came from Draper and Ericsson. The closest thing we had to an unstoppable line in the playoffs was Franzén-Zetterberg-Cleary. And in any event, none of this changed my point, Cleary should stay where he is as he played well with Draper and Bertuzzi, they had a lot of good chances. Holmström's best chemistry is with Datsyuk and Zetterberg so keep him there.

No. You give him a new partner, in the hope that it will get him playing like he did when he first got to the team last year. Also, it wouldn't necessarily be more ice time, it would be ice time with better defenders, so that the team doesn't need to collectively hold their breaths whenever Lebda and Ericsson are out there.

I agree - when he first came in, he got to play with the best (I would look decent next to Lidström), but a decline was immediately noticeable when he moved down a couple pairings. Do you think that something like this would help: Lidström-Ericsson/Kronwall Stuart-Rafalski Kronwall-Lebda/Stuart/Ericsson ?

Bertuzzi is also having problems... Apart from his 'goal' last night, how many times has he hit the post this season? At least 5, surely. Lebda was alright tonight - Stewart's goal wasn't his fault, and while he did his usual of skating the puck into the opposition's zone, at least he made sure it got deep. Ericsson hasn't played well, and I think that he would benefit from playing with a better partner, but that throws everything into disarray. I don't think Holmström is the problem with Zetterberg and Datsyuk, as he's been alright, and certainly looked better up there than Bertuzzi did. I'm sure that Cleary would do a good job, but he played very well with Draper and Bertuzzi, so I would keep him there. Leino, Filppula and Williams once again controlled the puck well, but continue to fail to convert. I have no real problems with the fourth line's play, as they cycled the puck and threw some hits. The bottom two lines need to keep working hard and getting scrappy goals, and the top two need to start doing the same - crash the net etc. - who cares if we have 50 shots on goal in a game? We saw this in the playoffs, if we're kept to the perimeter, we can outshoot our opponents 50-20, but still have fewer goals and fewer good scoring chances.

What finals are you talking about? Maybe you mean Franzén-Zetterberg-Cleary... In any event, Bertuzzi-Draper-Cleary had a good game, and while Howard did let one in that he should have stopped (though he also made a number of good saves), you can't in any way blame him for the loss.

I don't think that we should hire a new defensive coach, I think that we should give MacLean his old job back. Put the fear of the moustache into the PKers hearts. As for McCrimmon, he's had his chance - I just hope that the vaunted Red Wings 'loyalty to players' doesn't apply to coaching staff. He hasn't earned any. As for who to hire for offensive coach, someone suggested Gallant - does this guy have a good coaching record? Or would it involve encouraging everyone to take penalties all the time and fight a lot.

I think that Emery's mask is cool - and I think that the league should have gotten off of his back about having Iron Mike on there.

(for both the post and your avatar).

Mitchell Callahan for the win!

I agree that if they play the way they did last year (not counting the playoffs, in Maltby's case as he stepped up then) they should be benched - the point is, that they're not playing badly at all. Maltby is injured, I know, but I wouldn't have benched him the game before. Oh well. It will be fun to see Helm I guess, but I'm not sold on Eaves. I'm sure that if we didn't have plenty of players competing for that spot, he would be playing.

Malik at mlive.com brought this up. Brad May is thinking of taking number 24, and called Chelios to make sure it would be alright (nice guy, huh). Malik then wondered if Chelios' jersey merited retiring, and also mentioned that while Fedorov's 91 merited retirement, relations between the Wings and him aren't very good, so it may not happen. Finally he brought up the issue of 16, and asked whether or not it would be retired while it's last bearer was still alive. Discuss. Re 16, while Konstantinov was a big contributor, and had a tragically shortened career, I'm not sure that it merits retirement since he wasn't with us long enough, but I do think that it should remain out of circulation in respect for what happened to him. I think that Fedorov deserves to have his number retired, based on his enormous contribution to the team. Working against him is the fact that he held out, parted under bad circumstances etc. Chelios is probably the best American-born player ever, and a shoo-in to the Hall, but I have to wonder whether or not he really had his glory years in Detroit (answer is no), and am therefore not in favour of retiring it.

Not at all similar cases. Cleary was a reclamation project - a highly touted prospect and junior player who never cut it at the NHL-level, and has now turned into a versatile defensive forward who can be counted on for some scoring. Helm doesn't have the offensive upside.

It's a real bummer, but he just didn't seem to perform as well as Meech did at the time. On a brighter note, I know that many people were disappointed about losing Matthias in the Bertuzzi deal, but apparently (haven't been following him) he hasn't been living up to expectations.

Wow, I had no idea that Scott Stevens was a power forward!

According to mlive, Maltby was injured in practice, so may not play against Buffalo: http://blog.mlive.com/snapshots/2009/10/ki...during_red.html

I think that Knuble, Ward and Kozlov are good shouts.

You can download good quality matches with no adbreaks free from nhltorrents.com, so I wouldn't say that the archives feature is a plus. I'm satisfied with streaming (for free) those games that I feel like staying up to watch (and I usually never have trouble with quality etc., I find that sopcast + good streamer + fibre-optic internet = win), and download those that I don't feel like staying up to watch, and watch them the next morning (without checking scores, of course).

What do people think of his taking of the number 24? I know that some have suggested that it should not be worn for the next few seasons out of respect to Chelios. The fact that May called and asked him, combined with the fact that Cheli wasn't a regular player for us at all towards the end of his time here doesn't make me feel that May is out of order doing that...

I agree with everyone but the OP really... At times I was a bit annoyed that he couldn't score, but he redeemed himself by solid defensive play. Similarly, at times I wished that he would finish a check, but then changed my mind when I saw him wheel a way to get back into a better defensive position. I certainly don't think that he's been lazy - hopefully he can get some offensive chemistry going, but if he's playing well defensively, I'm happy.

Only three games in? I don't buy it...

I think that most of the suggestions for 18, 33, 24 and 26 are tongue-in-cheek...