kipwinger

I'll take your word for it in terms of the quality of these guys. I havent seen most of them play. I just noticed that 5 of the top 15 north american skaters are defensemen, and 3 of the top 15 euros are as well. But zero defensemen are top end in either the NA or Euro rankings. So theres a fair chance that the top defense prospects don't get looked at until 10-15. But again, whether these guys are worth the effort I don't know. I don't really begin tracking minor league guys until after the season.

That comparison you quoted was to Hakstol, not Babcock.

Agreed (with some caveats). And he STILL made the playoffs, so what's the problem? Unless you're suggesting that he will never improve upon his mistakes this year? I believe he probably will as he gains more understanding and confidence at the NHL level. I don't expect a rookie coach with a mediocre team to have all the answers right away. I DO expect him to learn and improve as he gains experience. He made the playoffs as a rookie, as his power play and player usage improve (which they should after a full off season to analyze the team, and some new assistants), so will the teams success.

Kris Draper is assistant to the GM, but not Assistant GM. That's Ryan Martin, who is also the GM for the Griffins. If anybody is being groomed its him. Or maybe Fischer. Drapers position was created for him to take care of him after his retirement, but he has almost no responsibilities regarding scouting, drafting, or roster management.

That has more to do with how tight the standing are. 4 points could be the difference between 5th and 8th. Hence the drop. Our win/loss rate wasn't noticeably different between January and April. So despite "spiralling" down the standings we werent losing any more than we had been. And we DEFINITELY didn't loss at a greater rate than a year ago, so its obviously not the coach. Blash ain't perfect, but the effort some are making to paint him as some kind of unsuccessful hack rings false to me. He's a rookie coach who turned in a decent season with a mediocre, transitioning, team.

You're splitting hairs. He's won one more playoff game and had what 2 more regular season wins? If he's "better" the difference is negligible. Efforts to paint Blashill as some kind of failure are almost entirely attributable to a frustrated fan base which is unaccustomed to transitioning teams.

Not really. Holland was a key part of selecting Lindstrom, Ferdorov, Konstantinov, Kozlov, McCarty, Lapointe, and Osgood as director of scouting before he was GM. Then he was instrumental in drafting Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Kronwall. Stevie gets credit for Johnson, Kucherov, Palat, and Sustr, but he had NOTHING to do with Stamkos and Hedman. As far as player acquisition goes, Holland gets credit for Hasek, Hull, Robitaille, Rafalski, and Chelios. Stevie gets credit for Bishop, Garrison, Stralman, Filppula, and Callahan. No matter how you cut it, Holland was instrumental in building a dynasty. Stevie, while not entirely bad, hasn't drafted or acquired nearly the talent Holland has. Trying to divorce Holland from the Wings success, past and present, requires such a stretch of imagination as to make such an argument absurd.

Regardless of his familiarity, its harder to coach at the NHL level than the AHL level and a coach, just like a player needs time to adjust their game to the increased competition. Its the reason why almost no coaches (or none) have won a Cup as a rookie. Its really hard to do right away. Blashill inherited a borderline playoff team and did just as well as his predessessor. Anybody expecting an immediate transformation was being unrealistic. Coaching a borderline team into the playoffs as a rookie coach is quite an accomplishment. He wasn't perfect, no doubt, but he did a good job considering the team is in the middle of a transition. I'd be far more disappointed with the result if he took over an established team full of prime stars and underperformed in the playoffs. He had almost the exact same season, with a very similarly transitioning team, as Dave Haskoll in Philadelphia and nobody is saying that rookie coach should be fired.

I think the one thing, aside from replacing Ferschweiler, that we need to do is try to move up in the draft as far as is reasonably possible. Not into the top 5 or anything, but as high as we can. There are a ton of high end defensemen in this years draft and most have good size. None will go in the top 5. We currently draft 16th. Move up as far as possible and take the best offensive dman of the bunch. That's our biggest organizational need.we already have our future top centers and goalie, plus a ton of good wingers. We just need that future offensive guy to pair with dekeyser and we look good going forward.

Yzerman would be the sentimental, yet wrong, choice should Holland be replaced (which would also be dumb). Tampa Bays success has more to do with drafting Stamkos and Hedman as anything else and Yzerman had nothing to do with either. He's had some successful acquisitions (Bishop, Stralman), some decent ones (Garrison, Boyle), and some bad ones (Carle, Filppula). But most importantly he hasn't won jack s***. In general I think its a bad idea to give front office duties to former franchise stars. It almost never works. Because they're so beloved they tend to be above scrutiny and their stature within the organization discourages any critical evaluation of the job they're doing.

I hate Jeff Blashill because he's a rookie coach who finished the regular season with just as many points and only 2 few playoff games than his predessessor did the year before. What a loser! He should be more like Babcock, who took over a presidents trophy winner and coached them to a first round mauling by the 8th seeded Oilers in his first season with the Wings. Or we could just give it a minute and not be so absurdly reactionary.

I once saw Tyler Johnson described as a maidmer. Which, apparently, is the opposite of a mermaid. Being a fish top half with a human lower half. I can see it.

By your own admission Abby was under coaches orders not to drop the gloves at all. So I don't see what difference the timing makes. But I'm not trying to talk you into anything, so have your kicks. Kickazz, no double standard at all. My disdain for fighting in hockey is so well documented I didn't think it needed repeating. I disapprove of both fighting AND fans acting like idiots.

Of course there's a point in waiting, you don't hurt your team while the game is still winnable. Especially if you're down two goals and trying to come back.

Might want to read back a few pages. A few folks were. That's what my post was in reference to, but my quote function isn't working correctly on my not-smart-enough phone.

Dumping beer on a player is classless. I don't care who it is. A couple years ago many here at LGW went on and on when Chicago fans did the same, bemoaning how disrespectful it is. Looks like at least one of the Red Wings faithful is no better.

Lol. Brendan Smith has got to be the least self aware guy on the team. I'm glad he's in tonight, but he should never...eeeeevvvvveeeerrrr...be allowed to do media AGAIN!

Sure. If that's how you call it. Another is that we are transitioning to youth. Something you've repeatedly advocated. I'd let the old free agents walk. Make market rate offers to Stamkos and Okposo (no harm if they go elsewhere), trade Pulkkinen to move up as far as possible in the draft (selecting the best offensive defenseman possible), and pencil ALL of Mantha, AA, Larkin, and Callahan into next years lineup.

I feel like I'm one of the few people around here who don't think we look too bad going forward. And that our "down years" aren't all that down. We will be as good or better next year than we were this year. Even without Datsyuk. Two years from now we will be really good. We've already got our next first and second line centers in the organization. We've got two higher end goal scorers in Nyquist and Tatar. We have quality supplementary power forwards in Abby and Mantha. And we've got a future franchise goalie. Our defense needs work, and even its not as bad as people think. We are in a position now where our old guys are too old, and our young guys aren't quite there yet. What we need is time, for our next generation to mature. That's it. Chasing guys like Backes or Lucid would only put this team in the same spot its already in...just two or three years from now. All I want from Holland and company is to commit fully to the kids in the off season, and improve the defense if possible without losing anything significant.

I don't think we are sunk without datsyuk at all. Especially if we can sign Okposo. Tats-Larkin-Okposo Nyquist-AA-Abby Z-Sheahan-Mantha Helm-Glendeninh-Callahan Doesn't win us the Cup, but is at least as good as we have now. For all the hand wringing about Datsyuk leaving I'm really not that worried. We've hardly had him for the last few years anyway.

This isn't that hard. Split Tatar and Nyquist up. Larkin-Pav-Tatar Nyquist-Z-Abby AA-Richards-Mantha Sheahan-Glen-Helm

Stars in 5 Blues in 7 Kings in 6 Preds in 7 Panthers in 5 Wings in 6 Caps in 6 Pens in 5

Use Pulkkinen to trade up as far as possible and take the most offensively competant defenseman available...provided he's not a midget.

Certainly decreases the likelihood of another lockout.

On the plus side this pretty much guarantees a full on shift to the young guys. I hope Holland goes hard for a quality scorer (Okposo) as a bridge to the young core and makes Larkin, AA, and Zetterberg our top three centers next season. Datsyuk was amazing, but its time to see if the next group of guys can take over. I'm optimistic.