Theophany

He said he thought that Helm would be back after Fil. But obviously not, since it stated in the same article that Helm would be back for tomorrow night's game (a full week before Filppula is scheduled to be back).

Er, a week ago the Wings were in the middle of their streak of 27 complete PKs. People still wanting to fire McCrimmon are out of their minds; Wings' PK has gone 37/39 (94.8%) in the last 12 games.

That's not an injury, that's a blessing.

...in the regular season. Right? That's what you meant.

Even more important than this single year is the depth of our roster moving forward; Eaves, Miller, and Bert are proving that given the chance, they can play and succeed having first and second line minutes. More than that, though, is that Howard has finally proved that he belongs in the NHL, and his confidence increases with every game. Our roster should make every other team in the league scared when we're back to normal, be that next year, or late this season.

Oh look, Babcock is smiling!

Luckily for us, all of the guys we normally wouldn't see have matured as hockey players over this year. I mean, who would really think that Eaves and Miller would make up a main core of our team and be keys to why we're doing so well? I certainly didn't. I thought that would be Dats, Z (ouch), Franzen (ouch), Filppula (ouch), Cleary (ouch), etc.

Per mlive: Bertuzzi-Datsyuk-Holmstrom Leino-Abdelkader-Eaves Draper-Helm-Miller May-Newbury-Maltby Defense was on rotation.

Holland's intentions have nothing to do with the subject; the poster I quoted said that the Wings' system (meaning GR et al) brought up the players that are doing so well for us, when it's really been Holland bringing in guys from outside the organization which has really helped us. Howard has really been the only outstanding player from GR, though Abdelkader and Helm have done well. And you're right, I have no idea what Holland's intentions are other than to do what's best for the organization, I've never said otherwise.

It's only analysis if you don't actually know the history of the players playing for the club.

Not to completely destroy your point, but only two of the guys on your list are Wings "projects": Abdelkader and Howard. Miller was picked up by us in response to injuries. Same with May. Eaves was picked up to be a 13th forward, and has shown himself to be good enough to play at the level where—due to injuries—he's playing on a line with Datsyuk. Bertuzzi was picked up to bring some grit and get some scoring on the lower half of our forward lineup. Newbury and Janik were both picked up in the offseason and haven't even played a full half-year with Grand Rapids. So then we're pretty much down to Abdelkader, who has played pretty well, and Jimmy Howard, who at 25, is starting to come into his own despite being mediocre at best in the AHL, and bad in the NHL. Sounds like the Wings' system is average, maybe slightly above-par. What you meant to compliment was Ken Holland's scouts, and the coaching of the Wings' system. Since, y'know, only 2/8 players you named actually come from the Wings' system and 6/8 comes from outside of it. This isn't me bashing the Wings, BTW. I think we've done fantastically as an organization this year, but to give credit to our system when we've only called up one guy (Kindl) from said system and had one more that was meant to play in GR take a full-time role after Filppula went wrist-first into the boards is kind of dumb. Just saying.

Brian Westbrook I think is the only person who's better at concussions than Lilja. Concussion, fine for next game, concussion (another one), out for 5 weeks and unlikely to return this season. Though Lilja definitely competes with him.

Just wait until Franzen is back. Sniper + playmaker + screen = goals.

Actually, it means compared to other second line centers in the NHL, he fits in with about 70% of them, with roughly 15% being better than him and 15% being worse than him. On the third line, Fil is in the top 15% (probably more like top 5%). You're wrong if you think Dats and Z are better for the team on the same line, BTW.

12th Cup please and thank you.

Really? You think that Alfredsson will be captain over Lidstrom? Personal achievements really don't play into it, but you do realize that Alfredsson really only has a Calder to his name, as opposed to Lidstrom's 6 Norrises, 4 Cups, Conn Smythe, and Olympic All-Star (if we count NHL All-Star nominations, Lids also has more)? This is an honest question.

Yeah, uh... See what Drake_Marcus said. You don't pair up Z and Dats unless you absolutely have to.

No, but Colorado has a much more solid core of forwards as opposed to Phoenix. Same thing on the blue line. Also, I'd take Anderson every single time over Bryzgalov.

Fixed your lines for you.

I prefer this for any Boston logo:

In the absence of Helm, these lines are ones that I like, with Bert being as hot as he is.

LA and Colorado are much more legit teams than Phoenix is.

Sure there can. In conference vs conference play, West is owning East. Granted you're right and it will probably even out more, but at this point, it's not impossible to think that the West teams may end with an absurd amount of points.

Players can waive their NTC, but I know what you mean; Rafalski will retire after his contract is up here in Detroit, where he obviously wants to end his career.

Done. I don't want to replace my avatar of Nick, though.