kipwinger

I know. I'm basically just baiting him because I know how much he loves Smith. Sorry to involve you in my Machiavellian scheming. And sorry to you krsmith17, it's just too fun screwing with you about Riley's brother.

So swap Ouellet with Smith. First, it downgrades the package enough to get you the types of guys on the market. Secondly, you get to keep Ouellet, who is better in every way that Smith. Win-win.

In the final analysis, Carlyle just couldn't make the toast in Toronto.

Jurco will still be fine. He's 21. By 24 he'll be doing what Abdelkader is doing now. By 27 he'll be around 50-60 pts. a year...and physical. Everything we hoped Franzen would turn out to be. Jurco is a big kid, but always played a skilled game. He's basically learning how to be a power forward, but learning in the NHL rather than Juniors or AHL. It's a steep learning curve. Abby had the same one. Jurco is already an excellent passer, once he learns how to score in tight, his production will explode.

And yet, despite praising him for 2/3 of an article, she didn't inexplicably start speculating on his trade value for the last third. Weird.

Babcock on Weiss: http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2015/01/red_wings_tomas_jurco_playing.html Babcock said Weiss has been fine, but he must take someone else's minutes. "I think he's battling real hard, now he has to take someone's job," Babcock said. "That's how it is." Unreal. We're playing like garbage, we can't score, and Weiss has to earn more than ten minutes a game? I don't remember Abdelkader having to earn back his ice time after his shoulder injury (the same exact one as Weiss had, but which kept him out longer). Babcock is such a ******* tool. At least Khan finally asked though. I like to think it's because of TheGlistening's friendly prodding lol.

Haha. Well he is, after all, a genius.

You know what's extra annoying? This video where Babcock talks about Weiss and extolls him to "score, score, score" in order to help the team. So then Weiss does. And then Babs benches him.

I'd get Ryan Lambert to do it. I'm sure he'd relish questioning Mike Babcock to his face. Lambert's my kind of *******. As for St. James doing something meaningful...maybe she could cut off her own hands so that she'd never type another article again. That would be about the extent of her utility at this point.

If I was Ken Holland I'd call her office right now and ask "what the f*** Helene"? Why would you speculate about a players' trade value, and fuel subsequent rumors, while he's playing the best hockey of anyone on the team? I've always thought Helene St. James was stupid. But this is seriously next level stupidity. It's like if stupidity went super saiyan.

I'd like to thank Helene St. James for starting all this crap with her retarded article. What the hell was she thinking? I wonder what it would take to get Tomas Tatar's mother to punch St. James in the mouth?

I take projections with a grain of salt, but based on their current levels of production we can "expect" the following: 25-30 goals: Tatar, Nyquist, Datsyuk 18-20 goals: Zetterberg, Abdelkader 15 goals: Helm, Sheahan, Franzen, (maybe) Weiss. 10 goals: Kronwall I agree with you about the vast difference in the quality of our defense, but it's really not hard to see why Babs would feel that way about the forwards (at least). If you look at it like its listed above, you've essentially got a first line full of 30 goal scorers, a second line full of 20 goal scorer, a third line full of 15 goal scorers, and a shutdown fourth line.

Jeff Blashill and Dallas Eakins' situations are NOTHING alike. This isn't the first time you've used Eakins' tragicomedy as a justification for why Blashill might not be the right choice for Detroit and you couldn't be more wrong. 1. Jeff Blashill is a MUCH better coach than Dallas Eakins was in the AHL. His record and accomplishments speak for themselves. Something Eakins cannot say. 2. You're falsely making it seem like Eakins' wasn't successful in Edmonton because he wasn't an established NHL coach and was coming from the AHL. That, in short, is bulls***. Many coaches, with much greater experience, have sucked worse at coaching the Oilers. Eakins' actually had a better record coaching the Oilers than Pat Quinn did. 3. The Red Wings are not the Oilers. A team led by disciplined, decorated, and accountable veterans intermixed with some up and coming young players who have learned how to play the game right and were developed correctly is NOTHING like a team full of young, entitled, first rounders with zero development and no accountability. Overall, I actually agree with your general point. No sense letting Babcock go if there isn't a better option. I agree 100%. And it's up to Ken Holland and co. to determine whether there are better options. But please stop using Dallas Eakins and the Edmonton Oilers as some kind of cautionary tale. Literally the only thing that Eakins and Blashill have in common is that they both coached in the AHL. Aside from that, they're apples to oranges. He did. Right here. I linked you to this a couple weeks ago. Clearly you and Uncle Mike have very different opinions on the offensive potential of this team. http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2014/11/theres_no_shortage_of_power_in.html

It's definitely not being asked in local coverage. I've got about every Red Wings news source and blog tagged, key worded, and sent to my phone. If anything happens with this team, I'm alerted to it, and I haven't seen a single mention of Weiss situation across the board. I've even used my MLive alter ego, "TheGlistening", to email Khan directly and ask for an update. Everybody is mum. It's like they're purposely not covering an obvious story...but I have no idea why.

Well if he's half the genius everything thinks he is then here's his chance to prove it. He's got a healthy roster. By his own admission he's got more people who can score than he's had since 2009. Also, by his own admission he's got the "best team" he's had since 2009. So if he can't make a little noise in the playoffs then I think that goes a long way toward answering the questions you asked above. I don't expect him to win it all, not with this defense. But I don't think a conference finals appearance is asking too much...if, as I've said, he's the bestest coach eva.

Haha, I think everybody knows my feelings on this one. So I'll avoid rehashing it.

I agree. At this point I don't want to see any kind of trade that involves significant pieces. Firstly, because I have a lot of faith in our kids. Secondly, because I have almost no faith in our coach using guys properly. Wouldn't it suck to lose Tatar for Myers and then have Babs utilize him in some asinine way? And it's not like that's out of the realm of possibility. I'd waive Kindl (or trade for picks), promote Ouellet, and (maybe) add a second tier, right shot, defenseman at the deadline, if the asking price isn't too much.

The value of that trade is probably about right, but I still don't do it. I'd trade Nyquist before I'd trade Tatar. Tatar is harder to play against and spreads his scoring out over the long haul. Zombo's roster above is softer than the one we've already got. They'd get pushed to the perimeter and rendered completely ineffective in the playoffs. I love Yandle, and I'm fine with Vermette, but not for Tatar and Helm. They're two of the very few players on this team that can score in the crease areas.

Any scouting report I've ever seen on Weiss mentions his two way game and defensive responsibilities. But I don't know either. That's why I'm irritated that nobody has bothered to ask or write about it. You've got a 5 million dollar player getting 7-10 minutes a night, AND he wasn't playing bad before getting benched. It's a head scratcher.

I mean, maybe there's a perfectly good explanation for it. My problem isn't (necessarily) that Weiss is on the fourth line, it's that nobody is even asking why. And given his production up until the demotion, you'd think the dramatic reversal in this fortunes might be of interest to a beat reporter.

It drives me nuts that not a single member of the press corps has asked or written about this Weiss situation. Khans busy speculating about all-star ballots, while St. James is making up trade rumors involving Tatar. Neither, apparently, have the time to ask actual questions about real team issues. Garbage.

Not sure if you noticed but we don't win close games. Before last night, of games decided by one goal, we've lost 12 and won 7. Of the games decided by more than one goal, we've won 11 and lost 6. Of the seven close games we won, four were against non playoff teams. Playoff teams nearly unanimously beat us in close games. I'm not overly confident that close games can "go either way".

Everybody goes ape over really big guys. Doesn't matter if they're good or not as long as they're big. Ryane Clowe's contract? Brendan Dillon for Jason Demers trade? Tyler Myers for Tatar speculation? What's the common denominator? Hugeness.

Because he's a bonehead who's developing at a snails pace, and is currently a less productive "offensive defenseman" than Kindl...who is universally considered terrible. So his value isn't what people think it is. Everybody talks about his "potential" all the time, but unlike Tyler Myers (whom I also don't think is very good), Smith has never once shown he's capable of producing in the NHL...even for a brief period. And because we've got better players in GR eager to fill that spot. I'd trade him for Mike Green right now. Which is what I did in my proposed scenario above. DISCLAIMER: I REALLY don't want to turn this into a Smith debate though. I only brought it up because you asked. Everybody knows how I feel about him, and I know how everybody else does, so we can all leave it alone. My real point was to suggest that we can improve our puck movers pretty significantly without losing a guy like Tatar in the process.

I hope that we don't need opposing goalies and special teams to suck in order to win close games. Because you know who has really good goalies and special teams? Every single playoff team. It doesn't bode well for our chances of success if we can only win when we score a couple powerplay goals a game on some garbage goalie.