CrimsonFlame

The day has finally arrived. LGW

1. Predators 2. Wings 3. Blues 4. Blackhawks 5. Blue Jackets

So I was thinking about this the other day. A shorter season might not necessarily be bad for the Wings. In fact I think it could help them. With less games there will be a significantly lower chance of injury and injuries have had a large impact on team preformance the last few years. On the other hand, less games means less chances to capitlize on weaker teams. Especially if the percentage of division games are kept the same. While the overall percentage of divison vs non divison would remain the same, we would essentially be losing a lot of games vs the weaker divisions since the central is one of the tougher divisions in the league. And even less chances to beat up on the weaker eastern conference teams. Well what do you guys think?

I don't think winning the cup in a shortened year qualifies as "cheap". Especially since over half the teams make the playoffs anyway. You still need to prove you're the best of the remaining sixteen. I could see if the season was only a dozen or so games. But 40 is still a large enough sample size to determine who gets into the post season and who doesn't.

I'm a fan of the New Orleans Saints black with gold pants. Or just all black.

Just terrible. Can't even put it into words how horrible this is.

Overpaid imo.

Honestly that doesn't sound too bad right now. Let's save our resources for next year perhaps and see what we've got talent wise.

Of what, all 200 of them?

Being top ten in numbers is great and all, but in the end it's just that. Numbers. And those numbers didn't translate into good playing during the nashville series. You're kidding yourself if you think he was playing great then. Even saying good would be pushing it. If you like him then ok that's your opinnion. But saying he is unarguably a top tier goalie couldn't be further than the truth. If he was then well we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

Why do we want to trade for a foreward? Because none of ours did anything when it really mattered. I may only be speaking for myself, but I want to see some change. We've paraded out the same team for four years. We came close in 09. Didn't work in 10 11 or 12. It's time to try something knew. I'm not saying we need to go into rebuilding mode and blow the whole team up. But I do want to see something new. You can only send out the same team so many times before it's obsolete. Well that and the fact that our offense was atrocious for the entire second half of last year.

The problem with this is that he is not playing like a top five goalie at all. How many playoff games has he stolen for us since he was made the starter? Zero. In fact how many regular season games has he stolen at all? I'm not going to go back and count but I can imagine that the number can be counted on one hand. That's not "Top 5" caliber. Heck that's not even top ten caliber. Jimmy is the goalie that will have one or two really cool looking savings per game that all the fans will cheer and the announcers will go "OOOOH LOOK AT THAT JIMMY HOWARD". And then the rest of the game he's deflecting rebounds right back to shooters waiting in the slot.k Or he'll over play the puck and then have to dive back into the crease which will make a really awesome looking save, but one that was completely preventable in the first place. The problem with Jimmy is not that he is average. Like I said earlier, you can do just fine with an average goalie. It's not that he's paid too much because right now he's being paid next to nothing. The problem is with this "top 5" attitude. He is not playing even close to that level and yet people seem to want to talk about him like he is. This of course is reflected in the front office's complete negligence of a defense. Let's be honest, the Wings defense has been complained about for the last few years and it seems to be getting worse every time around. It's bad. When you combine an average goalie with a sub average defense, things are going to get messy. Now combine that with our EXTREMELY streaky offense and you're looking at a disaster scenario. Was Jimmy the entire reason we lost against Nville? No. There is plenty of blame to be dished out to everyone on the time. But calling him a top 5 goalie? That has to be a joke. Oh and one more thing that really bugs me. Saying "OH WELL JIMMY HAD NO CHANCE ON ALL THOSE GOALS" is a cop out. That's why elite goal tenders are elite. Because they DO stop those impossible redirections and one timers. Maybe it's luck. Maybe they are just that special. But they make those stops. And if you actually go back and look at the phoenix series, how many wrist shots from the top of the circle did Jimmy completely whiff on? I remember two crucial ones just off the top of my head. And even better, what about the one where he thought he had to play the puck in the corner. It's bad enough the defenders all goofed, but the goalie isn't supposed to be that far out ever. What was he thinking?

Howard is an average goalie. While you can certainly win a cup with an average goalie it takes a little more to do so. Namely a high powered offense to win games 5 to 4 or a solid defense to make up for the goalie's short comings. During the Nashville series Detroit had neither.

It's funny because minnesota will still suck.

Lidstrom you are a true champion and we're going to miss you. Thanks for everything.

Allow me to add on. Lidstrom in his prime - Lidstrom prime Lidstrom prime - Lidstrom prime Lidstrom Prime - Kronwall Jonathon Quick Pekka Rinne

Quick in a heart beat. Although I would be just as happy with Rinne.

Have you been to the joe? We do that too. That's just how fans act during the game.

Luongo is gone. The fans would riot if he starts over Schneider and there's no way a team can keep a 7 million dollar backup on the roster.

Yeah I heard this on 97.1 today and it gave me a lot of respect for Trotz.

I didn't have a chance to listen to the interview yet but based on the comments I've seen it looks like all he said was "blah blah blah we've had so much past success we're going to play hard and I doubt much will change in the off season". If this is true then I am very disappointed and have truly lost faith in Holland. This team has SERIOUS FLAWS all around. At least address them and encourage us that we will work towards fixing them. Not just "OH WAIT WE HAVE MIGHT HAVE ONE MORE RUN IN US". Because we've been hearing that for three years and enough is enough. Hanging onto a nucleus too long is one of the most detrimental things you can do. Just look at what it did to the pistons.

Yeah but isn't that basically saying "He's too good no fair ban him"? That's a dangerous line to consider in professional sports.

Really? I kind of prefer the defensive game over the 10 to 8 home run derby. Too many goals waters down the game. And slows it down.

Don't look at the stats. Look at the products. Our PP has been s*** for a while. Why? Because they spend more time looking for a perfect opportunity that never arises than firing on an ok opportunity.

RIP MicCrimon is all I'm going to say.