Carman

On the bright side we are one player away from this being a one goal game?

Haha Quincey is a joke. Man I'm done trying to defend him. He is absoutely awful.

Has to be the 2 shots for, we are team built to put up point, control the puck, and create turnovers. And the exact opposite is happening right now. Getting scoring chances should be a strength for this team.

Yeah, umm don't think this could have been any worse. Team just isn't skating. Let's see if Babcock can find a switch somewhere in this intermission.

penalty kill looks good here, oh wait it's because Zetterberg and Datsyuk are out there.

If there is a time for a fight it would be now.

Howard hung out to dry, we need someone to step up.

Maybe Gerbe, maybe. Ugh this powerplay was terrible, Filpulla at least had the right idea in getting the puck to the net. And there's the penalty, nice job Mursak. Dumb penalty to take in the neutral zone.

Have to at least get some good opportunities on this powerplay, we need some momentum

Agreed, he's been the only one I'm noticing out there right now. Ericsson has been fine, I think this could work when he plays with high skill guys, his size is a huge plus out there to create room. First line hasn't been terrible, but they can be better. Quincey with just a horrible play.

Samuelsson is a versatile forward that puts up over .50 point per game, which was better than Ryan Smyth, Latendresse, Hornqvist, and Derek Roy... Not to mention has chemistry with other forwards and Babcock.

Franzen and Bertuzzi led the Red Wings in +/-, and they are definitely not two of the best forwards on the Red Wings.

Great job on the GDT, looks awesome! Big game to open up the season think it's going to be a high scoring game, 6-4 with Brunner getting 2, Zetterberg, Franzen, Smith and Eaves

Florida is dying for offense, kinda see what they are trying to accomplish.

Read a pretty good article that tries to give reasons for the success of the Red Wings especially in the cap era. http://lastwordonsports.com/2013/01/18/ken-hollands-brilliance-revealed/ I agree with most of what the article said, it pretty much states that the strategy Holland is using IE. (Keeping *ready* players in the AHL longer) to make sure that when they get done with their rookie deal they don't have a huge contract negotiation to wade through(Like P.K. Subban, Ryan O'reilly, and what will be Edmonton's problem the next few years), rather they have just 50 or so games to go off of and we get them to sign a cheaper long term deal. He relies on the older players to eat up important minutes and remain competitive while not playing a Brendan Smith and giving Smith's agent ammo for his next deal so that we can get the same player for cheaper. A good example was Hudler, we got a lot of him for cheap, then he chased the big pay check that Holland wasn't comfortable to pay. Interesting theory nonetheless.

Good move should be a good role model for the kids in Grand Rapids, just not enough room up front for Knuble, wish him luck on finding a team.

Sorry, I don't put much stock into +/-. But if you want to then you do realize Kronwall has a higher career +/-? But really +/- is a very misleading statistic in my eyes at least. I watch a lot of hockey, and look at all of stats and trends. That's how I come to my opinions. +/- can go beyond a player's control, like goaltending, and simple luck. I personally like noticing giveaways, takeaways, hits, decisions(pinching, commiting to a corner in the defensive zone, first passes etc.) http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/blog/eye-on-hockey/20753045/dale-hunter-goes-away-from-plus-minus-for-scoring-chance-based-system

Glad that's funny, would like to know the defensive area's Suter is better than Kronwall at. Kronwall is much better in the corners, blocking shots, being physical. Here's a good article backing up my claim that Suter, while a very good defenseman was helped tremendously by the play of Weber. Here's a quick excerpt. http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/blog/eye-on-hockey/19616275/nashvilles-defensive-struggles-when-shea-weber-wasnt-on-the-ice

He did have 128 hits last year(in 58 games), more than Douglas Murray for example. He needs to be more physical though I agree, but he also needs to block a ton more shots. That's the area he needs to improve in the most, we need him to be a force on the penalty kill, he's showing glimpses but he does have a way to go.

You do know that Kronwall has a much better career PPG than Suter, all while being much more physical, and dare I say it better defensively than Suter? Not to mention the difference in power play time considering first and second line defenseman, with Suter playing with Weber, and Kronwall usually on the second pairing behind Lidstrom. Kronwall isn't elite Norris discussion, but he's a top 10-15 defenseman with a absolutely amazing skill that can change games unlike many point producing defensemen in the league. Wings got hurt with the loss of Lidstrom, but they are still one of the better offensive defenses in the league. Compare Doughty(36)/MItchell(24) Kronwall(36)/Smith(.50 PPG or around 38 points) Voynov(20)/Greene(15) Quincey(26)/White(32) Martinez(12)/Scuderi(9) to Colaiacovo(19) only 50 games on St. Louis/Ericsson(11) Yea, Lidstrom helped Whites numbers, but he's put up similar numbers 26,30 etc in Toronto and Calgary as well. Colaiacovo only played 50 games, Quincey has put up 38 in the past. The Wings defense is also younger as a whole.Kronwall,Quincey, Ericsson are all physical. I don't see a great discrepancy, surely the Kings had Quick play extraordinarily well, but Howard's career numbers are very similar.

Would really like Volchenkov, he's exactly what we need.

brendan smith with a nice one. Howard looked good on the shoot out

Wouldn't work for Salary reasons, if we do something like that Filpulla, or Franzen will have to be involved.

Guy hasn't even played a game yet, and already getting this treatment. He's a good player that puts up comparable numbers to Okposo, Foliginio, Riemsydk, Derek Roy, Latendresse, Hornqvist, etc.

Agreed, he hasn't played like one since he was with Florida. He would most likely cost too much for me to be interested as well. But I just can't help but feel that Bouwmeester would be such a good fit with Kronwall and the Red Wings. The reach, skating ability, positional awareness, and pass all are strengths that Bouwmeester still has. Yes his numbers have not been good, yes he is not worth 6+ million a year. But he's not Wade Redden, he's still top pairing guy, that plays 82 games every year and plays every facet of the game. He would be a better fit than Yandle, Yandle is a very good to elite defenseman, but he is purely offensive, much like Kronwall, he doesn't play the penalty kill, he won't block shots, he's not overly physical(granted Bouwmeester isn't either). Yandle just doesn't fill a need for me with this current red wings defense, I don't think him and Kronwall's game mesh well enough they are too similar in taking offensive risks, we desperately need a top 4 guy that can kill penalties, play on the powerplay, stay healthy and be a rock for 20+ minutes a game.