Slabby

I LOVED what I saw from Abdelkader tonight. Say what you will, but I think he has a shot at being a David Backes type player. Not a true PF, but a guy who can hit and drive the net. He needs to hit the weight room a bit, but he could be a tough guy to handle down low if he gets that strength. He already has the mindset (I thought his penalty was unfortunate, but a great drive to the net) and, imo, the hands. He has the size at 6'1. He's listed at 212, but I absolutely do not believe that (they also have Lidstrom at 190 and Zetterberg at 195. LOL). He looks 190 at most. Once he gets his off-season stuff up to NHL standards, he'll be a pretty decent-sized guy. I'd really love to see him get some minutes with a Datsyuk or Zetterberg. He'd be the only guy on those lines who makes a beeline for the front of that net, and that's a huge lack on those lines right now.

Since this board is so intent on doom and gloom, I thought we could look at the silver lining. How low do YOU think the Wings can finish this year? Really, it seems like this could be a "reload" type year with a set of higher draft picks and then back to business as usual next year. Could the Wings be bad enough to land a potential top 10 guy like Gudbranson? Really, you've seen the magic that Jimmy Nill and Hakan can pull off with virtually the lowest draft picks possible every year. In a morbid way, it would be fun to see what they do with better picks.

Personally, I'd hope for Tyler Seguin. He's already acquainted with the area, and I bet Babcock has seen him a bunch. Although Hall wouldn't be too bad

Two of those guys are two of the top young goalies in the league. Pavelec is going to be a star.

Red Wings prospect Brendan Smith named WCHA defensive player of the week http://blog.mlive.com/snapshots/2009/11/re...ndan_smi_2.html

Make that 2+7=9 in 5 games. Kid can definitely put up the points.

I think there's some kind of misconception going on here. Cap hits are PER DAY. Nobody at the league is going by the yearly contractual number, because it almost never IS that number at the end. The final cap hit is the per day cap hit multiplied by the actual days. So if Franzen misses some X number of days on LTIR (it HAS to be LTIR), Franzen's cap hit does NOT apply because he is not playing those days. Cap hit/day multiplied by actual days. If Franzen misses something like 2/3 of the season, he will only have a cap hit of 1.something million to the Red Wings because he has only played that many days. This is the exact same logic as you find in deadline trades. There are only so many days remaining in contracts (and you multiply that by the daily cap hit), so those players are effectively half price on the cap. so, in summary, the Filppula and Franzen injuries DO give the Wings cap space. Well, provided Fil goes on LTIR.

Man, what does this kid have to do to get called up to the SEL? I know he's undersized, but how much more he can learn in J20 when he's dominating like this?

He's 2+3=5 +1 in 3 games so far. He didn't play one game, but I don't think he was benched because he had a goal and an assist the game before. Badger junior defenseman Brendan Smith (Mimico, Ontario) did not give Stepan much time to celebrate his goal, as he scored on an unassisted breakaway just seconds later, putting UW up 2-0. The goal took some swift stick handling by Smith, as he skated past Maverick defenders end-to-end, before punching it in for the score.

What a spoiled, asinine comment. No hockey team is good forever. Jimmy D sets the table for several cups and now you criticize him for speaking the truth? You don't get to criticize him. He doesn't have to prove himself to you. He's a legendary team builder and you're some internet retard. Typical bandwagoner. Find a new team.

This forum makes me wonder sometimes: do some of you even watch the games? It's like a lot of people just check boxscores and make determinations from that. Bert has played well, and I thought he was good vs Washington. If you're looking for him to be a Holmstrom clone, you don't understand what Babcock is doing; instead of going with 2 scorers and a grinder, he has 3 scorers. Plus, Bert is an excellent passer, and he loves to do it, and that will make Datsyuk more selfish. This is a smart idea because a big part of what is ailing the Wings right now is good pro-level scouting on the part of other teams. They box out the Wings players down low because if they don't have a rush, they WILL go back to the D to make the play. If you watch, every single team we've played this year (maybe with the exception of Washington, but even they did it at times) has done the same thing, and it's been very effective. With 3 scorers, it makes the top line more of a free-wheeling lateral passing line, and everybody can score. I'd put money on Babcock emphasizing Datsyuk QBing the power play from the half wall over Lidstrom from the point too. For the record, I've thought Eaves has done a good job too. I'd like to see him get a shot up with Williams and Helm or some other third line combination.

Not to whine TOO much, but I thought the Blues got away with a lot in their own zone. They had backchecking forwards hanging all over the puck carrier. If you compare the defensive zone play, it looked like an old NHL team vs a new NHL team. Zetterberg was pretty bad. Defensively, he's fine, but you can tell he's really not used to his linemates. His passes were off almost every time. Leino was great. He needs a LOT more icetime than he got tonight, because he's a consistent scoring threat. He seems a lot faster than last season.

I don't see Bert getting too many goals. He doesn't play that game anymore. He's old and slow, and he likes to camp out on the LW boards and center passes to the late man. I'm sure that's basically his job: break the zone and get the puck to Zetterberg. IMO, Bert will rack up a ton of assists if he stays healthy, and Zetterberg and Cleary will take care of the goals.

I love Helm as much as every other Wings fan, but man, Abdelkader is closing that gap. It seems like he's taken his speed to the next level, and now he's catching d-men off guard. He's turning into Helm with hands. He looks like a very, very mature player. What insanity it is to send a guy like this to the AHL. on a sidenote, I'd pay good money to see Eaves-Abby/Helm/-Cleary. That would be a tough forechecking line with offense down low. Eaves is really channeling the "I am a wrecking ball" mantra. Just like Cleary did. Tatar, skill-wise, is absolutely ready. But he needs to get stronger, and most importantly, he needs to add a first step. You can tell that he's still adapting to the North American game; he looks dynamite standing still, but can look lost when he has to skate the puck somewhere (and he's a little too slow to do that right now anyway). OHL vs AHL is a tough one for him. Maybe give him 10 games and see if he can hack it, physically, and then send him to Plymouth if he isn't ready.

Hoping for a big debut performance out of my boy Tommy Potatoes. Playing with Pare should be good for him; kid's a quality playmaker. Newbury is kinda meh, but somebody's gotta take out the garbage on that line.

I hope he has a few hits in him. "Crosby got MASHED by Tatar!"

This Tatarsalad kid in a monster. Skinny midget kid, motivated to dominate the NHL, then the world because of his embarrassing last name. You don't even have to see him play to feel his rage. It is palpable.

I prefer this one.

Exactly. This is insulting. We want Mike Grier the player, not just Mike Grier the black man.

I was just running some errands and thinking about Fil's game, and I think his problem is not so much skill but confidence. He doesn't have that "I'm the guy" confidence to be a finisher for his line, or at least he hasn't. I bet his stint on the 3rd line had a bit to do with that. But as we all saw in the playoffs, he does have the capability. I'm hoping Babcock, et al will take him aside sometime this season and tell him to start being more aggressive and doing things himself. Dats was the same way, and didn't really break out until he started being more selfish. But Zetterberg never had the problem, so it's more of a disposition type thing.

He's not an elite offensive talent, but we're talking about the second line with 2nd unit PP time. 55 points is a pretty damn good season for a second liner anywhere in the league (especially with scoring going DOWN). I know we're used to monster teams, but Fil is a good second liner and a borderline first liner on a lot of teams in the league. We're just spoiled.

Kronwall is a fantastic passer, though. I agree with some of the previous posters that the #2 PP won't be run from the half-wall like Huds did. I think more than anything we'll see Kronwall running the PP, and then Franzen battling along the boards and in front of the net with Fil on the boards serving mostly to win battles and chip the puck back to the D, and then Leino can be a late man for whatever scoring options come up. It's a good #2 PP for any team in the league. I guess us Wings fans are just a little bit spoiled.

The Wings don't need anybody named Alice anyway. We need to get more gritty. Can't we sign someone named Earl or something?

I call dibs on the "Black Snake Moen" username.

You're not understanding. Huds is gone for THIS YEAR. What's to prevent him from taking his nice, shiny frontloaded contract money in year 1 and coming back to Detroit next year? If anything, that sounds like the perfect situation for Huds. Detroit will still have his rights and arbitration should proceed as it normally would. Detroit can just accept that contract and hold onto his rights. It puts Detroit in a decent spot in the sense that they can build their team this year knowing that they'll have a decent guy coming in when they have a little more space, and Huds can get top icetime somewhere else and maybe it'll improve his confidence and he can bring that back with him. It's basically like using the KHL as a non-affiliated, better AHL. I bet Holland isn't too disappointed.