Lonewuhf

Seriously? These lines are going in the wrong direction.

How about: Filppula - Datsyuk - Zetterberg Bertuzzi - Franzen - Nyquist Eaves - Abdelkader - Cleary Miller - Helm - Holmstrom Or something similar. Fil has been playing too well to be demoted to third line, even though I know he's a natural center, it just seems like it would send the wrong signals to players. Holmer and Cleary have both played trashy so far, they need to be filling out the third and fourth lines. Unfortunately, however, I think Babs will do what he's been doing the whole time and continue to play both on the top 2 lines.

Inconsistency is what makes second tier players second tier, though I wish they wouldn't be so inconsiderate and do it all at the same time :flamingmad:

I guess we may as well just change the website name to "Lets go Crymson" since you're obviously the only one that matters.

Thanks for taking what I said and blowing it completely out of proportion. If you have any VALID arguments, post them here, otherwise please stop posting in this thread. I didn't pull a "OMG OUR TEAM SUCKS WE WONT MAKE THE PLAYOFFS SCREW EVERYONE" post, it was just to point out MY personal point of view. I don't care what our record is, we've played like s*** the last 4 games, the coaches keep doing things that obviously aren't working, and are rewarding players who aren't performing. We've scored 4 goals in the last 3 games, you can play it off all you want, but something's wrong, and something needs to be changed.

Er, Fil has been one of the hardest working players on the team, and is tied for the most points... You also didn't include Bert or Cleary in your list... Have you even watched this season?

It's not just this year. I don't feel he's made some of the best decisions for the past few seasons. He just seems to send the wrong messages to the players with the way he runs things. He's tired of people not putting forth enough effort, yet not only does he not punish those players, he seems to reward them.

This

Er, I highly doubt they trade Fil. He's been one of the most solid performers on the team so far. I hardly think of a "vague tweet" as anything that can be even considered a rumor. Fact is, we're losing because our top paid players aren't performing.

How can your account only be 3 weeks old yet you're -44 rep? P.S. Who is this? Sounds like Stinky Fish Taco...

Except breaking up the 2nd line right now would be suicide. The second line is arguably the only line holding us in some of the games. That line has 1/3 of the points of the entire team right now.

I c wut u did thar.

I can't for the life of me understand why you think Flip is no more than a 3rd line center... His point production is right at the end of 2nd line players but he missed 11 games last season. He's got as good of a defensive mind as any 2nd line player. That being said, I have been as disappointed with his production as anyone. He's got the skills to produce more, he just needs the 'shoot more' mindset. This year he seems to have it. He's much more aggressive, he's shooting more, and he's in really good positions for rebounds. He was one of our top (if not our top?) point producer in the pre-season (yes I know that means nothing, but it's at least proof that he can score). People who say he's not a 2nd line player seem to be looking at what's expected out of him instead of what he's producing. If he's not producing what people expect, he's apparently a bad player (I don't get it...)

Blaming Claude Giroux for this hit? These announcers are such tools...

So not even 2 periods into the second game of the season and Babcock is already changing up the lines. I realize that the lines didn't look too good in the first period, but how the hell does he expect any chemistry to be built up between players when he doesn't even keep them together for two games?

I understand why he did it, but he did the same thing throughout the entire season last season and none of the players looked like they could trust the other players. I also think one bad period is absolutely no reason to break up lines. Lines are going to have bad nights, and to me breaking up a line for having a bad night shows no trust in your lines. Actually I do, the above reason is why it's irritating to me.

I'm heading to the Red and White game tomorrow at the Van Andel and I was wondering if anyone who's gone to one before knows if there's any opportunity to get signatures or meet the players? I was hoping to get a jersey signed. Also, who thinks these teams are a little... unfair? TEAM WHITE: NO. PLAYER POS. SH. HT. WT. BIRTHPLACE D.O.B. 3 GARNET EXELBY D L 6-1 215 STE. ANNE, MB 8-16-81 5 NICKLAS LIDSTROM D L 6-1 189 VASTERAS, SWEDEN 4-28-70 8 JUSTIN ABDELKADER C L 6-1 212 MUSKEGON, MI 2-25-87 13 PAVEL DATSYUK C L 5-11 194 SVERDLOVSK, RUSSIA 7-20-78 14 GUSTAV NYQUIST C L 5-11 170 MALMO, SWEDEN 9-1-89 18 IAN WHITE D R 5-10 200 STEINBACH, MB 6-4-84 21 TOMAS TATAR C L 5-11 179 ILAVA, SLOVAKIA 12-1-90 32 LOGAN PYETT D R 5-10 200 REGINA, SK 5-26-88 35 JIMMY HOWARD G L 6-0 205 SYRACUSE, NY 3-26-84 38 THOMAS MCCOLLUM G L 6-2 208 AMHERST, NY 12-7-89 40 HENRIK ZETTERBERG C L 5-11 195 NJURUNDA, SWEDEN 10-9-80 46 JAMIE JOHNSON C R 5-11 185 PORT FRANKS, ON 1-3-82 47 BRENT RAEDEKE LW L 6-0 190 REGINA, SK 5-29-90 49 ANDREJ NESTRASIL C R 6-2 200 PRAGUE, CZECH REP. 2-22-91 54 SEBASTIEN PICHE D L 6-0 200 LASARRE, QC 2-4-88 58 NICK OSLUND RW R 6-3 210 SAVAGE, MN 11-15-87 65 MITCHELL CALLAHAN RW R 5-11 175 WHITTIER, CA 8-17-91 67 GLEASON FOURNIER D L 6-0 176 RIMOUSKI, QC 9-8-91 70 WILLIE COETZEE RW R 5-10 180 MAPLE RIDGE, BC 11-7-90 96 TOMAS HOLMSTROM LW L 6-0 203 PITEA, SWEDEN 1-23-73 COACHES: JEFF BLASHILL, CURT FRASER TEAM RED: NO. PLAYER POS. SH. HT. WT. BIRTHPLACE D.O.B. 11 DAN CLEARY RW L 6-0 210 CARBONEAR, NL 12-18-78 23 BRAD STUART D L 6-2 210 ROCKY MOUNTAIN HOUSE, AB 11-6-79 25 BRIAN LASHOFF D L 6-2 208 ALBANY, NY 7-16-90 26 JIRI HUDLER LW L 5-10 182 OLOMOUS, CZECH REP. 1-4-84 27 TRAVIS EHRHARDT D L 6-0 197 CALGARY, AB 4-12-89 29 TY CONKLIN G L 6-0 184 ANCHORAGE, AK 3-30-76 36 JORDON PEARCE G L 6-1 201 ANCHORAGE, AK 10-10-86 41 CHRIS CONNER RW L 5-8 175 WESTLAND, MI 12-23-83 44 TODD BERTUZZI LW L 6-3 235 SUDBURY, ON 2-2-75 51 VALTTERI FILPPULA C L 6-0 193 VANTAA, FINLAND 3-20-84 53 LOUIS-MARC AUBRY C L 6-4 202 ARTHABASKA, QC 11-11-91 55 NIKLAS KRONWALL D L 6-0 192 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN 1-12-81 56 BRYAN RUFENACH D L 5-11 184 CAMERON, ON 4-15-89 57 LANDON FERRARO C R 6-0 171 TRAIL, BC 8-8-91 59 FRANCIS PARE C R 5-10 185 LEMOYNE, QC 6-30-87 60 TREVOR PARKES RW R 6-1 180 FORT ERIE, ON 5-13-91 63 JOAKIM ANDERSSON C L 6-2 198 MUNKEDAL, SWEDEN 2-5-89 64 ADAM ESTOCLET RW R 6-2 172 ORNO, MN 3-24-89 77 GREG AMADIO D L 6-2 225 SAULT STE. MARIE, ON 5-13-81 93 JOHAN FRANZEN RW L 6-3 220 VETLANDA, SWEDEN 12-23-79 COACHES: BILL PETERS, JIM PAEK

It was a really fun game to watch, though I was also disappointed that the Wings left really quickly in the third (Fil was not one left playing, he left with everyone else. Homer and Huds were left til the end). Helm and Ericsson were also not on either roster which was kind of a bummer. I really love watching Helm play.

I like how it mentions that Dats was a healthy scratch for 2 games. Now look where he is.

He's a fun guy to be around too. He did an event at the Applebees I work at where he served tables for charity. At the end they sold off some gear, including the aprons the players wore. I got Pare's and Ehrhardt's. Since the manager there knows the people who ran the charity he had the guy bring them back to the Griffin's dressing room and had most of the players sign both.

I dunno why Fil keeps getting thrown in the 'potential trade bait' pile... Holland and Babcock have never once even remotely implied that Fil could be traded. According to pretty much every account, they're happy with him.

He's likely just going to be benched all year anyway.

Yeah, sorry. I realized that immediately after I hit post. Sorry Edit: Thanks for fixing it mods!

Til he gets a 3.25mil contract too. >.<

Only one of Franzen or Hossa was going to be resigned. Franzen agreed to terms, Hossa did not (nor did I ever hear about him saying he'll take a discount). It was Franzen who stopped us from getting Hossa, not Flip. If you're going to bring things up at least get your facts straight. On topic: This deal is terrible. Like others have said, it sends the wrong message to not only players on the Wings, but to other players around the league. In my opinion he didn't even deserve the 2 mil he was originally offered. I'm hoping Holland has something up his sleeve, or this could make it onto the worst signings by a GM list.