kipwinger

I don't "trust" what people say. I trust what evidence tells me is true. Last year Chicago was top ten in the league in "shots against per game". And that was through 82 games. I'm WAY more worried about goals against, than shots. And right now we're letting in a disproportionate number of powerplay goals compared to the number we're scoring. Keep trying to pin this on our "weak" defense. But sooner or later you're just going to have to conclude that they're not as bad as you're trying to make them seem. And that we've got much bigger fish to fry when it comes to getting this team playing as well as they can.

It's always convenient to ignore stats when they don't support your argument. Seriously, I do it too. Buppy called me out on it a couple days ago. The fact of the matter is, we're not getting scored on much, and when we do it's often on the powerplay. Our even strength goals against is less than 2 gaa. That's pretty good. However we've given up 4 pp goals (and one even strength goal) in 5 games. That's not great. Now it seems the argument is changing so that we're now blaming the defense for the offensive shortcomings, which is an even more tenuous argument. No matter how you try to paint it, the facts are never going to support this "our defense sucks" argument. At least not through these first six games. They were bad in game four. That's it.

The top three most penalized players on the Wings team are offensive players. 8 of the top ten are offensive players. Our defense has literally taken 3 penalties all season. Our offense has taken 13. So aside from the fact that we're not getting scored on much (at even strength), our defense is also not taking a ton of penalties. But his just further illustrates my point. No matter how good the defense players, people will find some way to inflate their culpability in our loses. Our defense is pretty good. At least so far. Not only are they hardly our "biggest" problem. They're hardly a problem at all.

One thing I'd definitely do is get Kindl back on the powerplay. His best game in the preseason had him on the PP sideboards (i.e. Ovie's spot) and he scored a goal, hit a post, and had another waived off. That's promising. He's always had a good shot, so I'd like to see that utilized on the pp. The PK is too early to tell. It was really good for the first 4 games and then stunk in the 5th. So maybe they just had a bad game and need to tighten up. But I'd be monitoring. Also, I think that as soon as we get the second and third lines figured out our shot totals will go up. We're getting a lot from the top line, and a trickle from everybody else. Getting three balanced lines can't help but increase the total number of shots. For instance, Tatar has 5 shots through 5 games. That's obviously not going to continue all season, his line just isn't gelling right now.

I'm sure they were. But again, if you only give up 1 even strength goal, then defense isn't your problem. I'm not saying we weren't outplayed. I'm saying that "the defense sux!" or "the goaltending sux!" is just a lazy, default, way of finger pointing. That's pretty clearly not the problem. At least not in those two loses.

Maybe so, I didn't see the game so I don't know which PK unit got scored on. But again, if you only give up 1 even strength goal, you've played a pretty good defensive game. Also, as I said, we've got to convert on our chances too. You're not going to win many games in which your opponents score on 100% of their powerplay chances and you score on 0% of yours. And that falls on the skill guys. It's easy to blame the third pair defensemen, and fourth liners. Obviously nobody like criticizing Zetterberg and the rest of the stars. But their job is to put pucks in the net, and they didn't.

We're top ten in the league in goals against. How is the defense the primary culprit? In our two losses we gave up 9 goals, four of which were powerplay and empty netters. I'm not here to explain away our shortcomings or make excuses for the team. But this old "blame the defense" cliche is tired. IMO we really need to find a way to get guys like Tatar, Richards, Sheahan, and Jurco going. We can't have one line consistently producing offense. Also, our special teams need to improve. That game against Montreal has an entirely different complexion if we make good on even one of those powerplays. And obviously you need to kill at least one of those penalties to keep that game within reach. There are plenty of areas to be improved, but blaming the defense is lazy. They've played fine.

I didn't watch this game, just to be clear up front. But from an outsider's perspective, it's hard to believe that our goalie and/or defense are to blame for a game in which we gave up two powerplay, and one empty net, goals. I see that we were also 0-3 on our own powerplay, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say special teams were probably the difference no?

My question is, if you die in Canada do you die in real life?

We've been over this. Donkey work.

Or he was emotional upon realizing that his career is basically over, and the sport that he's literally destroyed his body to play has passed him by? Nah, nevermind. He's probably just a delusional jerkoff.

Thanks for the info. Makes sense to me.

It's not even that I necessarily think she's bad (she is), it's that she seems like she's bad AND kind of an ******* too. Here's another gem I just remembered. "As the NHL trade deadline ticks down to a dozen days leeway, one of the reasons the Detroit Red Wings approach with calm is a gangly young Russian."

Craig Custance ‏@CraigCustance 10m10 minutes ago Just spoke w/Dan Cleary who will report to Grand Rapids on Tuesday. Looks forward to mentoring young players: "I just needed some time."

In her latest twitter update, Helene St. James not so subtly calls Joakim Andersson a "plug". Is it just me or is her coverage getting weirdly critical and negative. It's like there's always subtext. Maybe I'm just reading into it, but it always seems like a backhanded barb or something. Recent headlines include: "Red Wings' Franzen (head) out Indefinitely - again" "If no Glendening Friday when Wings host Carolina, Joakim Andersson available to plug hole." "Red Wings' Jurco plays 'pretty well' in season debut". "The Detroit Red Wings are too savvy to read much into their hot little start".

I don't gamble, so I have no idea what gambling laws are like. But isn't sports betting popular AND legal in many places? Is the point of contention that these sites are just gambling, and therefore should be subject to the regulation of the various state gaming commissions?

I do too, they're trash together. Now that I made that Radim Vrbata comparision, I started watching the Sedin, Sedin, Vrbata line from last year, and I don't see why Tatar, Datsyuk, and Jurco couldn't be that when Dats gets back. For now leave them with Richards, but I think a line with those three has huge potential. Larkin-Z-Abby Tatar-Pav-Jurco Nyquist-Richards-Sheahan Helm-Glen-Miller Yikes.

If Jurco can compliment skill players (i.e. skate with them, take their passes, work a cycle with them, maintain possession in the O-zone, etc.), drive the net/screen, and bang in the occasional rebound he will both justify his place in the top nine (or six) as well as set himself up for future success as he finds a new game and increases his comfort level. He's just got to get it through his head that he's not Marian Gaborik, and he's probably never going to score like that. I think sometimes he wants to be a slick player more than he wants to be an effective one. And is that any surprise when you look back at him doing all his fun puck tricks? He obviously fancied himself a dangler, but his future success probably depends on playing simpler. There's no sense trying to be a bad Gaborik when you could be a perfectly good Radim Vrbata.

Because he loves playing hockey? So much so that he pursued a career in it? He's probably fairly passionate about it wouldn't you think?

Well then Chara is slower than an amorphous solid. Suck a butt dumbs***s!

Misogynist.

I don't think he got hit. He just didn't have symptoms, got cleared, and then symptoms came back. It was worth a shot if he was feeling up to it. I can't imagine anyone, in any industry, wants to be forced to call it quits.

Not too broke up about it really. I wish he could be playing, I hope he is able to play, I think he would make us better. But it also helps deal with our forward logjam. So that's a positive.

Glass is a supercooled liquid, smartass. Read a book.

Good point. He is a really huge guy. No denying the potential impact of his hugeness all sorts of stuff. He's like, bigger than Derian Hatcher. That's huge.