Tim Cheveldae's Ghost

Eaves is fine according to Holland, just sore, no broken jaw.

Brunner's early season numbers are easily attributed to playing during the lockout, as were Hank's. No surprise they've cooled off at the same time as the rest of the league has finally caught up speed and conditioning wise. I think Brunner on the 3rd line will do him well, he'll see lesser defensive pairings and will probably get more space to do things. I happen to think Babcock's line shuffling Saturday worked wonders, the team seemed to feed off it. Not really worried about him at all, he's an everyday player who is experiencing his first dose of NHL reality. He'll get back to scoring soon.

Ruff is the same type of coach Babcock is...he plays favorites and is very stubborn, hence its no surprise the two of them are good friends. If the Wings decide to make a coaching change in the future, I hope they opt for a young guy with new ideas and who isn't afraid to piss off some veteran players. Babcock was once like this, but he's morphed into a company line man who favors those who have been in the league for some time.

There's a lot of issues and its across all aspects of the team. The biggest starts with coaching and the "system" Detroit plays, which seems to be no system at all. Each line kind of does it own thing, and there's no continuity between one line to the next. We obviously all know the lines have been a bungled mess too, putting players in positions to fail and not letting the skill guys succeed. The other is mental toughness, which is something this team has lacked the past 2-3 seasons. They let negative things turn into worse things and by then, the game is over. The recent Calgary game and the Anaheim game were basically carbon copies of each other. I question the amount of leadership outside of Zetterberg and Kronwall on the club, there doesn't seem to be much urgency or pride anymore when things get rough. The player personnel in my mind, is less to blame. Obviously Ken made some dumb moves that haven't panned out, but the defense has been better than expected this year. I think Holland undervalued what he had in Grand Rapids and its saved his goose by having guys like Lashoff and Tatar up who are NHL ready and could contribute. I also believe there's a serious difference in opinion between Babcock and Holland in what kind of team they want to put on the ice, Babcock has said so vocally numerous times and its leading to the crappy line combos and inconsistent play.

Babcock's the king at passing off the onus on himself to other people. He plays his favorites like every other coach in the league does.

Lockouts are commonplace amongst all industries, so this is no surprise. Its only until recently that owners of companies have begun to exercise that right more, knowing they can squeeze their employers down to their demands eventually. I hope the NHLPA never gives in to what the owners want and the league ultimately suffers a great defeat. I'm a Red Wings fan, NOT an NHL fan, so I could care less about the other 29 franchises. The longer the players refuse to negotiate, the better it will be for them in the end. They can always play overseas and marginal players with 2-way deals can play in the AHL. I think the whole season will be missed, maybe more, and the NHL will fade into obscurity in the American sports realm. The owners have brought this upon themselves and they will get what they deserve.

There must be an infusion of youth next year on the team. In today's parity-filled league, you can't rely on old veterans to win when every other team is getting younger and faster. I think the Wings need to start changing their philosophy on how they handle youngsters, because perhaps the "Red Wing way" isn't the right way anymore.

If Nashville, Phoenix, St. Louis and LA all win their series', the West will have 4 teams in the 2nd round who has never won a Stanley Cup. I'd say that's good for the league.

Hank-Pav-Homer Nyquist-Fil-Franzen Hudler-Emmerton-Cleary Miller-Abby-Conner Demote Huds and Franzen, move Nyquist up and sit Bert for Conner. More importantly, Pav and Hank must play together to occupy Weber and Suter against them. Wings win that trade off.

Age isn't a factor, complacency has set in and some players are just not willing to commit to win anymore. Most of these guys have won a Cup and have gone to multiple Stanley Cup Finals. Change needs to be constant in pro sports, you can't get comfortable with the same guys, patch a few holes and expect to win. Ken Holland will be tested in this offseason like never before, especially if Nick retires. Its time to rebuild this team, inject some youth and trade away an asset while you still can for whatever value they have left.

I think you gotta give Babcock some say in what players he wants/doesn't want. There's an obvious chemistry and grit issue this club has and the players unwilling to commit themselves need to be called out or moved. The home winning streak this year masked all the problems this team had and at the end of the day, it means squat. Gotta get bigger and meaner in the offseason.

I think the Wings come out strong for the first 5 minutes and try to pot one early, but if they don't I will expect more of the same. Team hasn't played a complete game all season, so I don't think it'll magically happen. As for "puck luck", you make your own breaks by working hard and causing havoc. We'll see what team decides to show up.

Exactly. Fans waste too much time worrying about this sort of stuff. The decision was handed down, it isn't what we wanted but its time to move on and focus on the game at hand tonight. I'm sure the Wings players had already done the same yesterday.

Losers find excuses to why they lost. Was the officiating bad? Sure. But there's plenty of time in the game, and the Wings didn't even allow a power play goal, they actually benefited from the calls. So, someone explain to me why this an issue again? The better team wins in a 7-game series, if Detroit loses they have no one to blame but themselves...not the refs and not Bettman.

Brett Hull's tying goal in Game 3 was the most important, IMO.

The injuries can only be an excuse for so long. There's a distinct chemistry issue and a lack of depth, as Babcock noted last night. Abdelkader and Cleary each scored one goal in March. The scoring from the blue line has dried up, something the team was excelling at early on in the season. The club peaked back in Feburary and has been on a downward trend ever since then. 17 points since the home win against San Jose, including just 7 wins. The home winning streak was great but it all amounts to a hill of beans right now. They're under .500 at home since then and have the 2nd worst record in the league ahead of Toronto since the end of February. Its great that this team had some accomplishments this year, but right now they are a shell of themselves and the quotes I'm reading from the players indicate that. When Abdelkader says "we're taking steps" with one more game to play, what does that tell you? I don't think you can realistically expect this team to win anything unless they get more contributions across the board, they will not win if only Pav and Hank are the ones forced to shoulder the load.

We'll need to see what happens from CBA talks to accurately determine how much cap space the Wings will have to spend. General thinking is that the owners will want the cap lowered and no longer tied to league revenues so that it stays stagnant or moves very little.

I'm sure Dan is a proud guy and doesn't want to sit unless he absolutely can't play, and I know Babcock will want him to play since he's a veteran. So, I don't see a remedy to the issue unless he hurts himself further and can't play. As far as contractually, he has a no-trade clause so he's not going anywhere in the offseason either.

Sitting Howie is the right thing to do. If the Wings play their game like we know they can, it shouldn't matter who is in net. I could even play!

Kenny has already stated that he doesn't want to expel any current roster players, so I doubt you'll see anything major unless its an offer he can't refuse. I mid-level forward and depth guy are probably your best bets, as I'm sure the thought of Emmerton or Mursak playing in the playoffs is something the organization isn't 100% on. No way that Franzen or Filppula get moved considering the impact they've had this season, sometimes it hurts more to subtract a player than it does when you gain one.

s*** happens, maybe this year Vancouver will finally be able to beat them.

Looked like a twisted ankle or knee, no way he plays this weekend but I would be shocked if he misses any playoff time. However, if he's out then we'll truly see what the team is made of.

I didn't like that any of the players apologized for playing like that in front of their home fans. People paid good money to see that and its despicable that none of the players had the balls to admit it. To the topic at hand, this isn't Babcock's fault. Coaches are always supposed to foot the blame for things, but they don't play the game. It's why I stopped coaching, because I was getting too emotionally involved for something I couldn't control. The buck stops with the players and they know that. If they get bounced early, Babs will report to Kenny and tell him who he thinks should be off this team if there are any rotten eggs, and I suspect that may happen. The Wings have obviously expressed confidence in his coaching abilities with the extension so he's not going anywhere, this is a player issue and only the players will be the ones able to resolve it.

IMO, the team is due for a shakeup in the offseason regardless of the results. Salei and Ericsson will likely be let go, Draper will retire and its like Miller/Eaves will be let go, or one of the two will. Honestly, I think this team is frustrated with how the season went. A great start, they were dominating teams, then the injuries came. We had a replay of last season, which a lot of current players were involved with. Lines have been jumbled up, defensive pairings have been mixed up all year, there seems to be no cohesion between anyone from this and its showing. Getting Pav back will help...the Wings are thin at center which is why Modano was brought in, and his absence has shown that. Outside of Hank and occasionally Fil and Helm, there's been little in the way of transitional offense since Pav has been out. But, one man does not a team make, I'm cautiously hopeful this club got the wakeup they needed, and its a shame that the Nashville game didn't serve as that. I don't want the Wings to become one of those holier than thou teams who think they're too good for the season or to try hard consistently.