kipwinger

Pavel hasn't been "feeding" Tatar anything. Pav has assisted on 6 of Tatar's goals. The same number that Sheahan has assisted on. And just ahead of Nyquist and Dekeyser, who have each assisted on 5 of his goals.

Martin St. Lois did at the same age. Although, he was playing with stamkos at the time.

If we can make some noise in the post season, even if we don't go all the way, we should be a destination for FAs considering we'll be one of the few contenders who will have the cap room to add a bigger piece. But I'm thrilled with Zidlicky's play, so no need to break the bank if it's not a great fit.

Well, that didn't really work all that well either. Ian White, when paired with Lidstrom, looked like a much better defenseman. But he was still Ian White lol.

1. Why not, you said you could? Start with the even strength ones, since those are all we have been talking about this whole time. There are only 6 of them. And I already showed you who was responsible for three of them. 2. The Schenn goal posted above is not on Kronwall. Schenn is Smith's guy from the blueline in. In no defensive scheme anywhere do the defensive players stop and go back the other way when the offensive players crisscross. You crisscross with them. Kronwall did. Smith didn't. 3. As I said before, the fact that Zidlicky sucked on the Harntell goal doesn't make Smith's play good by default. Smith sucked too. You cannot let Anisimov make that pass out front. It's Smith responsibility to tie up him or his stick. Smith did neither. The fact that Zidlicky blew his assignment too isn't a free pass for Smith.

Ok, go ahead. Find me three even strength goals against, during the last three games, for ANY other Red Wings defender. I'll wait. We're focusing on even strength (and not PK) is because people were saying that Ericsson and/or Quincey should be demoted at even strength in favor of Smith. But he's been MUCH worse at even strength than they have been. If people had said, "Smith should replace Quincey on the PK", I wouldn't argue.

So, Smith that wasn't that bad, and he's been our best defenseman lately huh? Lets just see if that's true. During the last three games, Smith has been an absolute dumpster fire 5 on 5. He's been wholly, or partially, responsible for 3 goals against, and one breakaway. If this is him being "good", then I don't want to see him being bad. Don't believe me? Here's the video. Here's Brendan failing to either tie up Anisimov's stick, or take the body and put him into the boards, and thus allowing him to take a pass behind the net and make a play out front for a goal. The fact that Zidlicky was worse on the play doesn't mean Smith was good. (Note: Pay attention to the replay, you get a good look at Anisimov making a routine play right in front of Smith's face). <iframe src="http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/embed?playlist=777725"frameborder="0" width="640" height="395"></iframe> Here's Brendan leaving the eventual goal scorer to "help" take a guy that Kronwall already has, and who's safely steered away from the play, leaving the aforementioned goal scorer all alone in front of Jimmy. <iframe src="http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/embed?playlist=779663"frameborder="0" width="640" height="395"></iframe> Here's Brendan throwing the puck away, and then drifting clear across the ice to challenge the guy Dekeyser already has, allowing the play to be made from the spot he should be in. <iframe src="http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/embed?playlist=779702"frameborder="0" width="640" height="395"></iframe> And finally, in his best game of the last three, here's Brendan bungling a routine play, turning the puck over in the defensive zone, and allowing an excellent scoring chance that Mrazek bailed him out on. <iframe src="http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/embed?playlist=781009"frameborder="0" width="640" height="395"></iframe> Third pair defense are rarely to blame for losing streaks, and this is no different. But you are all insane if you think Smith has played well the last three games. He hasn't. I don't blame him for the failures of our PK, but he's EASILY been our worst defenseman 5 on 5. Here's the evidence. Disagree with me? Go find the videos to prove it.

No doubt. That's why I'm completely fine with leaving Zidlicky exactly where he is. Whatever keeps hime fresh for the PP (which is where he's doing his damage) is fine by me. I'd shelter him from now until eternity if he scored even half as much as he is right now. No need to gas him making him play defense.

Chances are he wouldn't be playing this well if asked to be a top line defender. He couldn't start 75% of the time in the O-zone as a top line defender. Which means his offense would likely sag, and he'd get exposed more defensively. From a recent TSN article: Marek Zidlicky – The veteran, and newly-acquired, Red Wings defenceman paced the attack with a goal and two assists in Sunday’s 5-1 win at Pittsburgh. Since coming over from New Jersey, Zidlicky has seven points (3 G, 4 A) in seven games, with five of those points coming on the power play. While the ice has been tilted in his favour, with 75.0% offensive zone starts in Detroit, Zidlicky has put up strong possession numbers (59.9 SAT%, +6.3% Rel. SAT%) in seven games with the Wings. It didn’t take much, considering how left-handed the Red Wings blueline has been in recent seasons, but Zidlicky is already the top-scoring right-handed defenceman for Detroit over the past three seasons.

He's just so frickin' smart, and his ability to read our skill guys is incredible. He said as much after yesterday's game, but it was pretty obvious from the get go. I've said before that Kronwall is so good with Dats and Z that they should be the Euro triplets, but Zidlicky is just as good with those guys. Or maybe it's just been a while since we've seen good offensive defensemen so it just seems remarkable lol.

Neither he nor Smith are great defensively, but that's not really their purpose. They don't start in the D zone much anyway, so it's not really an issue. I mean, Zidlicky is clearly making a difference for the team, and Smith is much better with a rightly than without one, so I'd just keep doing what they're doing with that third pair. Give them opportunities to impact the game in the offensive and neutral zones, and keep them out of the d-zone as much as possible. Seems like a recipe for success. Ken Holland wins again.

So, is it safe to say that Marek Zidlicky ******* rules or what? Makes me drool thinking about what might have been had we been able to get our hands on him earlier. Both of these trades are working out for us pretty mightily. Kudos to Ken Holland. At the deadline I said that both trades addressed needs, but didn't address them enough. Boy was I wrong.

So Brendan smith on the first pair for two goals against at even strength today. Can everybody who thought that was a good idea raise your hand...and then go purge yourself of other bad ideas.

I don't really know why you guys care whether they're healthy or not. Everybody knows that once you get in to the playoffs "anything can happen". It's just a crap shoot after that. Or so say all the dummies anyway.

Honestly, I have no idea how that works. I thought they already did that. But I'm not 100%

Khan says he's going on the trip and could be available if needed. But otherwise it'll be a few more days.

Just going to go out on a limb here, but everybody realizes that Columbus doesn't actually suck right? They're SUPER injured. Like worse than we were last year. But when reasonably healthy they're actually a pretty good team. This is the type of game we need to win, and I'm not making excuses for the loss. We clearly need to get our forward lines and defense pairings worked out in the wake of the Cole and Zidlicky additions. But Columbus is a solid team. So lets not make this loss into something worse than it is.

Raise your hand if you said none of our regular defensemen could ever get scratched for marchenko? Clearly we aren't better with him in the lineup. Except all those games we won against good teams...with him in the lineup.

Exactly, so what's the problem. If nobody thought Holmer was a millstone around Datsyuk neck, then they shouldn't think so about Helm either. Also, over 50% of Holmstrom's goals in 07-08 AND 08-09 were on the powerplay. He actually finished less frequently (5 on 5) than Helm does.

The guys over at Winging It In Motown are having a s*** fit on Twitter right now about Glendening on the first line. About six tweets in a row addressing it. I haven't seen this much indignation since Malik decided to address the Babcock to Toronto speculation. And then address it again. And again. And again. And again.

I honestly haven't seen a lot of Boychuk over the years. Am I missing something? I mean, he's putting up better offense than he did in Boston, and I know he's a good defensive defender, but is he anywhere near 6 million dollars good? Even if it were on a shorter term?

This will be a brilliant move if they turn around and flip Boychuk and Matt Martin to the Flyers for Voracek and a 2nd lol. Because Broad Street Bullies yo!

And he got a NTC for a few years. Who is his agent?

"As for preparing the Wings to play the Blue Jackets, this was Babcock's reply: "We come in here, we try to make everyone look like the '68 Montreal Canadiens," he said of the Habs team that won the 15th Stanley Cup in club history. "Doesn't matter what their record is. That's what we try to do. But they don't believe us. "The bottom line is we know we've got to get better. We aren't firing on all cylinders right now, like we were two weeks ago, so it's time to get our game back, and that's what we're going to try to do today." I think he means, "think of every opponent as the '68 Canadiens". Not "make them look like the '68 Canadiens", which admittedly, we've been doing the last couple of games.

He now makes exactly as much as John Tavares makes. Nuts. It's the term that kills me though. 6 million is too high, but he actually IS a good player. But 7 years for a 31 year old stay at home defenseman is awfully high.