dirtydangles

I think DD and Smith have been praised for their ability to skate the puck out so I don't think this is necessarily a situation where Kindl is just doing what he is told. Kindl doesn't have the strength to stave off forecheckers in the corner and skate out with the puck - that is his problem (in my opinion).

I'm not sure how Nestrasil has earned a spot over Weiss... I like the kid but in the past we have seen Cleary over Nyquist and Cleary over Tatar and I just don't see how it doesn't go Weiss over Nestrasil.

Weiss is at least skating well - which was a huge problem last year. That is problem number 1 fixed. The rest COULD be solved by giving him some better line mates but babs doesn't seem to want to entertain this idea.

Babs clearly has a problem with Weiss. He put him with AHLers in preseason and now won't let him into the lineup to start the season (probably because he didn't perform in preseason). Give the guy a chance to impress you.

According to the wings site it says this: http://redwings.nhl.com/club/player.htm?id=8475250 But it seems you are right nonetheless.

Nestrasil is a 6'3 RH C. We can use a guy like that in the lineup. If he keeps progressing the way he has we will have quite the gem. I like Callahan and don't want to lose him but Nestrasil is clearly more valuable to the team long term.

Through the entire preseason Babs hasn't given Weiss much in terms of line mates. It looks like he wants to split Z and Dats up and have Weiss play with with Sheahan as 3rd line C. I just think Weiss needs to be able to play where he is comfortable and not think too hard about things. That being said he is skating much better out there and getting involved (when his line mates can help).

We ARE in a great position to move quantity for quality. We have 5 NHL dmen in GR 2-3 of which could crack the lineup. Not to mention we have a plethora of F prospects too. I think we need to look at our Dmen and think who we want here long term: Kronner (for the next 5 years probably) Dekeyser (long term spot) Smith (maybe long term if he keeps it up) Ericsson (could be worth moving while he still has value - he doesn't produce much and is getting injury prone) Quincey (not going to be around much longer) Kindl (good as gone) Lashoff (not long term) Sproul Ouellet Backman Marchenko Jensen I bolded the names I think could have a future with the Wings long term. As you can see we STILL have a surplus of dmen so we have to think about moving some pieces for a legitimate upgrade (top pairing dman). I'm thinking we trade multiple Dmen plus other assets to a team with little depth on the back end but a good piece on the top pair. If we could move E and one of the kid dmen in a bigger package for a top pairing dman we would look so much stronger. Then subtract Q, Kindl, Lash and you have a blue line with a solid future. Next season: Kronner - Top 2 dman Dekeyser - Smith Kid - Kid Kid

Jensen's skating is unbelievable. Never really seen him with nhl talent before and he was burnin.

I think it has something to do with practice... Think about it: the Wings practice against the Wings - we aren't an overly physical team and in practice we would be even less physical than in a game. If you practice going to the dirty areas and into the corners over and over again in practice without any physical impact when you get to a game situation you do the same but get destroyed. I think our players are just generally not totally expecting huge impacts - look at Sproul, Datsyuk recently who were surprised by hits they typically wouldn't expect from practicing against a soft Wings team.

This is laughable... its not even the regular season yet and we are down key players. What is in the water? We always say things will be better year next without our big players getting injured - its time to PLAN and EXPECT for this to happen and focus on acquiring reliable depth.

I think to start the season we get the most bang for our buck by splitting Z and Dats up considering we have lots of depth at wing already and Weiss won't likely have enough chemistry to be a 2C yet. Weiss - Datsyuk - Helm Franzen - Zetterberg - Nyquist Tatar - Sheahan - Jurco Miller - Glendening - Abdelkader I think this is decent to start the season but I would like to see this by the end of the season: Zetterberg - Datsyuk - Mantha Franzen - Weiss - Nyquist Tatar - Sheahan - Jurco Abby - Helm - Glendening (Shutdown line for playoffs)

well the good news is that weiss is skating well. not much else that i took from this game.

No Edzo tonight and what do you know? These commentators aren't half bad. So far.

Sweet... Quincey-Smith.... ohdear. I just hope the hawks don't goon it up like the pens last night. They were playing playoff level physicality in preseason and nearly killed Sproul and Datsyuk. Preseason shouldn't be an opportunity to put people out of the regular season. If it was we should just ice a bunch of goons and have them destroy other team's players and who cares if they get suspended because they won't crack our lineup anyways.

I'm sure Smith could spell Lidstrom if you asked him too - some people are just poor at pronouncing foreign names. You can correct someone a million times and it still comes out the wrong way in passive conversation.

^Awesome kid! Hopefully he sees some cups soon! If he is 6 I'm guessing he doesn't remember '08 - if he was even born yet - but he has the Pens hate that 08' and '09 bred.

Haha! was about to post "OMG seriously???" I'm sure there are a few new fans that are thanking the almighty you posted this first to save them the embarrassment.

things learned - hornqvist is the only name these commentators know and wouldn't shut up to the point where they managed to overrate him sproul is tough as nails pens are looking to play dirty this season wings pp and pk were pretty good mrazek looked great none of the GR forwards look ready to make the jump he caught his skate on the ice and torqued his knee awkwardly too. wasn't sure which it was

We are doing WAY better in our own zone with Mrazek's puck playing ability.

yeah - reckless abandon is a great trait for a hockey player... good luck with the suspensions.

sproul got boarded pretty bad so that sucks. otherwise looks like datsyuk and tatar playing with a bunch of kids out there. nothing special but nothing terrible.

they sound like kids talking about how great their dads are. just so biased.

sproul back out there?

good its not just me - these guys are crap. wasn't sure if I'm just rusty from a summer of no hockey watching