kipwinger

I usually really love these, but this one was boring. Nothing like the Philadelphia eulogy from a year ago. That one was brutal.

My votes would be Tippett (if available), Blash, McClellen, Granato.

The realistic thing I'd like to see is the Wings signing a decent defenseman, and Drew Stafford. The unrealistic thing I'd like to see is the Wings trade Gustav Nyquist for Ryan O'Reilly.

Guys like Parise and Suter are significantly better than anything that we had coming up. Those 2nd and 3rd tier free agents are marginally better than what we had coming up (or in some cases not better at all). All free agents aren't made alike. I don't mind Holland trying to land REALLY good ones. I also don't mind Holland being conservative and not overspending on the SORTA good ones. It seems like people just want free agents for the sake of it. I don't. I'm happier with Nyquist or Tatar than I would be with Pominville or Vanek. Apparently, so is Holland. I also agree that some of his acquisitions have blown up in his face. Weiss, Cole, Zidlicky, Tootoo, Sammy, etc. Which should indicate the inherent risk associated with free agency/trades. I'm glad that we've got someone who's cautious when it comes to these sorts of moves, because they don't work far more than they do. It almost seems like people around here think that if Holland made MORE moves, that there would be LESS risk. Which is silly. Very few signings/trades are slam dunks, and when they are (Suter, Parise) you've got a lot of competition.

If Babs doesn't coach the Wings next year, I hope he stays in the East so that I can watch Blashill beat him all season long with his old roster.

I'm not sure why the measuring stick for Holland's success is free agents or trades. He's shown that in the past he's not afraid to go out and get higher end free agents, or make trades. But if he can get what he wants internally, why would he trade for it? In the last two years he's added two 25+ goal scorers, a 40 pt. third line center (who's also really big), a back up (and now starting) goalie, a top four defenseman, and a load of depth players. All of that was already in his system and ready to go...for free. Why should he have gone out and traded for any of that? He did what every smart GM would do. See what he had in his organization, integrate those players that were ready, reassess, and augment (Cole and Zidlicky) as needed. I suspect that had the Wings organization not been overflowing with talent, that he'd have been a little more aggressive. It's not to say that he's never made a mistake, or that he couldn't have done a little more. But we weren't in a position like Minnesota where we needed a bunch of pieces and didn't have anything in the cupboard. They had to go out and buy/trade for Pominville, Parise, Vanek, Suter, Neiderreiter, etc. We didn't. We already had comparable guys in the organization.

Whelp, I've given myself about 12 hours to digest this and my preliminary thoughts are... 1) If you don't blow leads in the third period, you'd be in Montreal already. 2) The kids were better than they were a year ago in the playoffs, so glad to see some improvement (6 goals and 3 assists from Nyquist, Tatar, Sheahan). 3) Datsyuk and Zetterberg look ooooooooooold. 4) Anybody seen Zetterberg, Abby, and Helm? Me neither.

Why would Kindl be on the ice during the waning minutes of an important game? Lol. Don't get me wrong, I love the enthusiasm, but I think the chances of Kindl getting an empty net goal are about the lowest on the team.

I'm going to hold you to this after Kindl scores his third of the night.

Dekeyser is nineth on the team in giveaways during the post season. He has exactly one giveaway in this series. Ericsson and Quincey lead the team, with 6 and 4 respectively. For what it's worth. And Jakub Kindl! I'm telling you, he's going to be a monster tonight. I can feel it.

I think Holland's plan for post-Lidstrom was..."We'll take a run at Suter, and if not, no harm done. We've got Kronwall and he's a legit number 1". I don't think failing to replace Lids was as big of a screw up as failing to round out the top four with legit top four players. We replaced Lids with the best we could manage, but we didn't replace Rafalski, Stuart, or Kronwall with anything special.

I'm trying to stay positive here. Losing Kronwall is seriously the absolute worst thing that could happen to this team right now. Worse than losing Pav, Abby, Mrazek. Anybody. I'm actually about to "follow" Kindl on twitter and spend him inspirational messages all day long. Just to do my part.

I don't know about the rest of you guys and gals, but I'm just going to assume that Kindl will be exceptionally good for one night only. If not, this is going to be a depressing afternoon. As such, Wings 3-1. Goals, Kindl, Tatar (Kindl assisted), Miller (empty net). The Jak is back!

Smith-Kindl huh? Greeeeeeaaaaaat.

Soooo, Kindl AND Marchenko in? s***.

Not sure about that. Laviolette played a little bit tougher of a team in the Blackhawks. And played them really well I might add.

I disagree with your premise though. I don't think he has been colossally bad in FA or at the trade deadline, at least not during the time period you're talking about. You yourself said that if you can't get a guy like Suter, you should get a mid level guy. Which he went out and did, in White and Quincey. He later got Dekeyser to play in that role too. He also signed depth defensemen in Colaiacovo, Commodore, and Zidlicky as well. On top of that he signed or traded for four top six forwards (Alfredsson, Legwand, Weiss, and Cole). Two of them were busts because of injury. We don't make the playoffs without the other two. During that time he also signed depth forward in Tootoo and Sammy. And he brought in Brunner, I don't really know what you'd call him, though he really didn't play bad for us. Finally, he brought in a backup goalie for cheap, who acted as a bridge between Howard and Mrazek and did a pretty good job...especially a year ago when Jimmy was injured. So, in the last five years, Holland brought in: White Quincey Colaiacovo Commodore Zidlicky Dekeyser Alfredsson Legwand Weiss Cole Brunner Tootoo Sammy Gustavsson. That's not terrible. And, aside from injuries (which you can't anticipate before they happen), it's actually a pretty good mix of players that filled a variety of roles for us. It should also be noted that we didn't give up a hell of a lot to get any of those guys either. So he managed to do all that AND not mortage the future. I'd say that's pretty good considering the alternative (give up a fortune for guys like Vanek, Iginla, Jagr, Pominville, Nash, Suter, Parise, etc.) hasn't exactly yielded positive returns for the teams who have gone that route.

Remember when Helm was coming back from his groin and back issues and he generally didn't seem as effective as before? It seemed due to the fact that he hadn't regained that extra step of speed he had, which made him a special (as opposed to just a decent) player. As he began to regain that step, his game began to round back into form. I never saw Weiss play in Florida. But at the time of the signing, all the reports I read on him said that he was a very quick player. They listed skating as one of his biggest assets. During his time in Detroit he's looked average in that department, and I wonder if the speed he lost due to his groin and hernia issues is the difference between Stephen Weiss the 60 pts. player, and Stephen Weiss the 25-30 point player. Just a hypothesis.

Take it easy Harold, I was being a smartass. Not lobbying for Kindl. Shoot over to the Zidlicky bashing thread and you'll see I actually defended how the defense has played thus far in the series. I'm not at all upset with the current makeup of the blueline, and was speaking more to Kindl's weird trend of coming in off the bench this season and looking really good, only to wind up right back on the bench. Which says as much about him as it does about anyone else.

Hello hyperbole, it's been a long time since I've seen yer' ugly mug around these parts!

I'm not actually worried about it. If history is any indication, Kindl will come in and score a goal and an assist in Game 7. He will then be banished back into the nether realm...of course.

You've clearly got an axe to grind, which is the point of contention. You're blaming Holland for things like Nyquist being small and lost, and Stephen Weiss being less effective than he was prior to an injury he didn't have when Holland traded for him. You're right to say that Holland has made some mistakes over the years. Nobody would argue that. But you're attributing things to him which are totally asinine. And what's more, you're doing it while the team is actually performing pretty well in the playoffs. Which also suggests some sort of agenda. You might have a point if we'd just been swept. But we didn't. We've played well and earned a 7th game. Why don't you wait and see how the season turns out before assigning blame/finger pointing.

As a "special consultant". You know who else is a "special consultant" to the Red Wings. Chelios and Lidstrom. It would be a stretch to attribute the team's successes or failures to "special consultants". You're reaching dude. You can search the entire world over, and you will not find ANYONE who's a better NHL General Manager than Holland. He's got the hardware to prove it. He is, literally, the most accomplished executive in the business. Period. Fin. So I'm not really sure what you're trying to do here, say that he should be replaced with someone better? There isn't anyone. Demonstrably so. Or are you saying that he's really not that good, and that his underlings did all the work? Which would be silly, because the team was arguably MORE successful when he was the underling. No matter how you cut it, he's the most competent person at his job...by a ******* mile.

Lol. Disagree. Whole heartedly. Since Bowman left (2002) we've made the playoffs every single year, went to the finals twice, and won the Cup once. Since Yzerman left (2010) we've made the playoffs every single year. Same with Nill (2013). You know who's struggled since Yzerman and Nill left? Yzerman and Nill.

Only on LGW does a GM "deserve blame" for building an almost entirely homegrown roster, making the playoffs for the zillionth time in a row, and being poised to upset a better team in the first round. The only thing Ken Holland hasn't done is play/coach the actual game itself. Has he made some mistakes over the years? Sure. Have those mistakes seriously inhibited our chances of being competitive? The results certainly suggest otherwise. Or is he supposed to make no mistakes whatsoever?