ogreslayer

Think Homer's watching the game up in the suite thinking "If Cleary still has a job, I could still play...for sure."?

With all the Swedes in the organization, maybe go with a Viking funeral instead.

And a good pinch by Kindl to start it off too. Wow...

No morning skate so no idea what the line combos would be yet. I've seen speculation ranging from Eaves with Z & Brunner to Abby moving up to the 2nd to replace Cleary or Flip moving up.

I still hold the opinion that if there would have been a full season with a full training camp & pre-season with it, the team would look significantly different. Instead of ragging on Kenny, I think he deserves credit for bringing in some known-qualities veteran players to in essense enhance the organizational depth they'll need to make it through the season.

Last I saw is that Bert's still out & the speculation is that Abby will move up a line. That should mean Andersson as 3rd line center w/ Eaves on the wing.

Seems to me that if you have to name it anything (which I think is unnecessary when it comes right down to it) name it after the man that was really responsible for all of it....the Mike Ilitch Era.

Before anyone else does it, I'm going to post (though sarcastically) that maybe they'll trade him to the Wings for Emmerton, Mursak, & a 5th. That said, I wouldn't be opposed to Kenny trying to make a deal for him, I just wonder what the Oil would ask.

And to add to that, he was expected to captain the Russian World Jr team in 2012 before he blew his knee out. There's a chance he'll be pulled over to GR next season.

That would be Alexei Marchenko, a 6'2" 183lbs d-man the Wings drafted in the 7th round in 2011. He was allowed to develop in the KHL instead of being brought over to GR. Supposed to be a good puck mover despite being a more stay-at-home type of d-man. A righty too which is a plus.Edit to add stats: He's put up 4 goals, 5 assists, & an even rating in 39 games for CSKA Moskva this season as a 20/21 year old.

Oh please Joe Buck, DO NOT going into hockey broadcasting now. He already ruins every football & baseball game he does imo. The new hockey broadcast team of my nightmares now: Joe Buck, Eddie "Subtle Interference" Olczyk, & Pierre McGuire between the benches.

What's worse, Jackman winning in 2003 or the fact that Scott Gomez won in 2000? Or would it be Andrew Raycroft in 2004 or Steve Mason in 2009?

Small sample size but he holds a 71.4% face off percentage right now. Certainly beats the 45.5% win percentage held by the Wings current 4th line center.

I agree with you on all of this except the last piece really. The bottom line is that nobody can say for certain that the Wings don't have someone in the pipeline that can be the next standard bearer. To say that "we" collectively knew that Hank & Pavs were going to turn into what they did while developing over in Sweden & Russia respectively, or during their first couple of seasons in the NHL is complete revisionist history at this point. Who's to say that in 15+ years from now we're not all bemoaning the fact that the Wings don't have their next Calle Jarnkrok in the pipeline to carry on the Yzerman, Lidstrom, Zetterberg legacy of leaders?

FYI, the Wings do have another forward on the roster that came straight to the Wings from overseas without going through GR after being drafted. Note "being drafted" so no, I'm not talking about Brunner. Also, 2 of the prospects mentioned below are expected to do the same thing. The idea that the Wings leave most or all Euro prospects in Europe first before bringing them to North America is as much a myth now as the ones going around about the Wings only drafting Europeans & drafting small. If you go through the current list of European born prospects, 7 are either in or spent time in a Euro league after they were drafted (Calle Jarnkrok, Teemu Pulkkinen, Mattias Backman, Alexei Marchenko, & Rasmus Bodin who are in Europe now and Joakim Andersson & Adam Almquist who are in Det/GR) & the other 6 (Being Nyquist, Mrazek, Tatar, Jurco, Frk, & Tvrdon) were already in North America or came over immediately after being drafted. But back to Tatar. In his 3 years of development (all in GR btw) after being drafted at the age of 18, he's averaged .69 points a game & that includes his stints in Detroit. If you take out his games with the big club & just look at his scoring pace in a "minor league", it bumps to .72 a game, which is what Datsyuk put up in his 3 years in the RSL after being drafted by the Wings. Also consider that Tatar is doing that over a longer season & against theoretically tougher competition. Zetterberg btw put up .82 a game in Sweden before coming over to Detroit. If you really just want to compare Tatar to Hudler though, Huds put up .97 points a game in GR compared to Tatar's .72. The difference though, which is what will ultimately separate Tatar from those Hudler comparisions, is that Tatar isn't as one dimensional as Huds. He can skate, plays with energy, can forecheck effectively, isn't afraid to muck it up in the corners, and actually plays defense. He's got enough upside where I think he should be considered Tatar 1.0, not Hudler 2.0. Completely different players.

While saying that Hank & Dats played 0 games in the minors i.e. the AHL is technically correct, it's a little misleading. While neither were brought over to play in the AHL, it's not like they went from being drafted to stepping into the lineup, which is how you kind of present it. Hank played for 4 seasons in Sweden between being drafted & making the Wings and Pavs spend 3 seasons in Russia. So "earning starting jobs right off the bat" really means "earning jobs after 4 & 3 years respectively maturing in a league considered inferior to the NHL product (just not the AHL) & then given a job after a full training camp prior to the season." Tatar btw is in his 3rd AHL season, didn't have a training camp this year to show the coaching staff that he was ready, & should make the team next year at a slight younger age than Hank & Pavs did.

"Stadium"? No, but the Wings could use a new arena. Just make sure to bring the boards from the Joe though.

Yeah, too bad he didn't do something like play in the KHL during the lockout...

Have him center the 3rd line & move Abby to the wing

I wonder how much of that's due to the back issues he's going to be out for now.

I think Barnaby applied that same code to garage doors too, didn't he?

Plus I think someone needs to take a look at the current makeup of the Wings' prospect pipeline. Not many sub 6' Europeans left any more. Just Nyquist, Tatar, Jarnkrok, & Pulkkinen really as far as forward prospects go & Almquist on D.

Move Tatar back up to the 2nd line & let's see Andersson, Sheahan, or Ferraro get some time with the big club imo.

Instead of suspending Franzen, the NHL might want to use their resources to find that sniper in the upper deck that took out Perron instead. Embellish much, Perron?

Think Howie's on the bench asking where the hell this team has been the last couple of games?