unsaddleddonald

I'll have to disagree with that. He is a talented little s*** who is not a stranger of cheap shots (along with the rest of the Boston team). Anyone have a video of the game in Boston last year where Marchand tried to fight Eaves in a Wing's blowout and Eaves was like "get the f*** out of here"?

My point exactly! You EXPECT Pav and Hank and Mule to produce. You don't EXPECT Cleary to produce, or Hudler, or Bertuzzi, or Holmstrom, or Helm, etc. You'll take anything you can get with these guys and they play their butts off (most of them), but they CANNOT be heavily leaned on to score. We need another guy or two that we EXPECT to put up points. Hossa had a crappy playoffs for us, but we expected him to score every night. That is the type of player we need to add.

Counter-point is that we lost the series. So obviously there wasn't enough of it.

I'll be more specific in saying TIMELY goal scoring. Against San Jose, where was Dan Cleary, Filppula, Hudler, Bertuzzi, Holmstrom? In that series, if Pav and Hank weren't on the ice we wouldn't score. Think of those guys (besides seemingly Filppula who is FINALLY doing what we expected): when they score it is icing on the cake, but they aren't guys who you can depend on to score when we REALLY need it.

You make very valid points. I think a lot of it is that high end talent has arrived in which in 07/08 we were playing against a bunch of kids. Those kids have grown up in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Washington, Philadelphia, etc. In hockey, unless you are the Blue Jackets, it is tough to not draft really good players if you are drafting high. That is what those teams did and the payoff is showing up now. San Jose is different in that they have made moves on top of the fact that they have found gems (Couture doesn't count because he was a top 10-ish pick that they got from St. Louis somehow....). The Red Wings haven't made a big trade/acquisition (not including Hossa) in a while mostly due to the fact that if it ain't broke don't fix it. But, as you documented, our scoring needs a tune-up. It is weird though, because even though we finished 2nd (?) overall in goals scored last year, who could you REALLY count on to score? Franzen when he felt like it? Pav when he wanted to shoot? Hank? Fact is we haven't had a PURE goal scorer (not to mention a 30-goal scorer) since Hossa and before that it was Shanny? All those teams that we "fear" have a guy or two or three who can net 30-40 goals. We have an iffy one (Franzen) As much as I love and appreciate them, Hank and Pav are PLAYMAKERS and not GOAL SCORERS.

Your research gave me a boner. Now if we can only find a way to beat the Blues. Hmmmmm.....

Thought about this today and it made me laugh. Any update on whether or not Babs is still the only person in the world who doesn't know how to pronounce his name correctly?!

Look, I love Babs as much as the next guy. But there is NO WAY he is right and everyone else is wrong. Filly-poola......

I think the problem most of us have is that this was a cop-out answer for the NHL. They simply split the conferences..... If things were like they should be (i.e. a Columbus franchise didn't exist), we would be in the East. Pure and simple.

I'm just itchin to see SOME of Brunner. Put him on a line with Pav or Hank. A guy can only do so much when his linemates are Cleary and Helm. Those guys are good players, but they are not facilitaters. Give him someone who can hand out the sugar!!!!

Does this mean Brunnstrom is gone again? I haven't seen enough of him to even give an opinion, but I'm sure Babcock knows more than I do.....

I don't believe you (3:40).

Hopefully Dale Hunter is a terrible coach and Alex Semin likes coney dogs. Hopefully those two things are true.

LOL Toronto. 1967 was sooooooo long ago. Quick, someone get them some more oxygen because they're starting to get a little crazy.

I disagree about Kindl. Although i won't say he has looked terrible, he does scare me in those situations where he is the last guy back and he needs to make an outlet pass with a forechecker coming in on him. He has been prone to turn those pucks over. There was an instance last night against the Ducks where this happened and the puck was chipped up and Jimmy had to make an awkward reaction save to it.

I think his post to post (lateral) movement this year has been a Babcock "fantastic"! I especially saw this in the Kings game on the 5 on 3. He looks absolutely dialed in right now.

After seeing that I have another reason to dislike the Sharks: they are full of Cana(we put the maple leaf on everything)dians. NOTE: the only good Canadians are the ones who have ever been associated witht the Wings

Can i hear from Fil and Mule please? 0 shots from both

Dammit. Thanks for the heads up though

what a calm, soothing voice.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGlhmoXQLdM

The two goal scorers in this game combined for 16 shots (Cleary 9, Kronwall 7). That is good for Cleary, he understands that you have to shoot the puck to score. BUT WE DON'T NEED DAN CLEARY TAKING 9 SHOTS A GAME. Our four top forwards combined for 5 shots (Datsyuk 2, Zetterberg 0, Franzen 1, Filppula 2). I mean....come on. Datsyuk says he's been awful then takes 2 shots?! Zetterberg didn't even have 1. This is like the Twilight Zone. Nothing is making any sense.....

ENOUGH. i don't care how good a hockey player is: you can't be a productive first line player with your wingers being Tomas Holmstrom and Dan Cleary. Both of those two.....BOTH OF THEM.....have been and will be products of their linemates. You can't have two of those types of players on the same line. Pav has been given mission impossible. GOD HELP HIM!!! you forgot to mention that he never goes a shift without losing his balance (i guess) and falling to the ice.....or how he tries to get by a defender along the boards at least 5 times a game and never succeeds------->turnover.

Regarding your youth movement argument, i agree for the most part. My issue isn't that significant, but the fact is is that most of our youth is expendable or in other words they are simply role players. The first two, Hudler and Filppula, are, in my eyes, underachivers at best. Nothing needs to be said about Hudler that hasn't already been said and Filppula can have his moments but he drives me crazy when most of the time he decides to shoot it is his "patented" pull the puck in close to his skates and use the defender as a screen shot. Our best scorers are 30+, and while they aren't THAT old, it is a little bit disconcerning that we haven't had a bona fide (zetterberg/datsyuk type) young stud come by in a while. I realize that they don't grow on trees, but still. I know of all the prospects we have and their potential. Here is hoping that Nyquist, Tatar, Smith, and Jurco turn out to be those guys.

OK BOYS, Filppula: over/under 0.5 shots tonight?

I definitely understand what the situation was last year and how the goals were distributed as a result. But my observation is look at Dan Cleary, watch the way he plays. He cannot create offense for himself because he has limited agility and his speed has been diminished compared to years past and playing with Pav has netted him all but 2 flukish goals this year. That is just what he is now. I don't think he is a player that can be leaned on when we need a goal (see last years playoffs). For the most part we have only two such players. Three if Franzen is on a roll. Guys with good shots like Filppula, Bert, and Hudler rarely shoot, so you can't lean too heavily on them either. Look around the league, or even in our own division. Chicago goes at least 4 deep in guys who can score at any time. In addition, they have guys like Bolland and Frolik. San Jose goes at least 6 deep in guys who can score consistently. Vancouver goes at least 3 deep with two of them being in the top 5 players in the game. IMO, we do not have enough consistent firepower. We don't have enough guys who shoot the puck every time its on their stick. Cleary is a great player to have, but his time as a top two liner is past i think. And like you said, even with injuries considered, it is disheartening that we haven't had a 30 goal scorer in 3 seasons....