kipwinger

Every time I watch they've been together, and they were a pair during the prospects tourney as well. Though admittedly, I probably haven't seen as many games as you. I watch when I've got a stream and the Wings aren't playing at the same time. I agree with most of your thoughts above, except that I'll say I'm not overly concerned with Sproul being less than stellar in his own zone, given his offensive upside. None of Doughty, Subban, or Cam Fowler were great in their zone for a few years. Still, their offensive skill set made it worth while to keep them on the big club. They just needed their minutes sheltered a bit until them matured. I know it won't happen because this is Detroit, but I'd have that kid focusing almost entirely on honing his offensive skills and being adequate defensively. I'm not convinced its always best to have guys that do a little of everything pretty well. Sometimes it helps to have a few guys who do one thing extremely well. With his skill set Ryan Sproul should regularly put up 50+ points in the NHL. But probably not if the organization requires him to do it the way Lidstrom did.

KHHHHHAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with the second paragraph but not the first. We've been better without Datsyuk than with him. His being gone from the lineup hasn't (up to now) been the source of our tendency to drop games.

Whatever dude. It's the world that's creepy and weird. Our collective obsession with obnoxious, blowhard, assholes like Cherry, Milbury, and Roenick means that likeable weirdos with absurd amounts of hockey knowledge have no place in the world. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of low brow stupidity; he's merely a victim of it — and rather tragically. Cassius was right. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves." Good night, and good luck.

I'm going to go on record right now as the only person on LGW who actually likes Pierre McGuire. I find his commentary insightful and believe it provides great value added. Additionally, I think he's just a likeable guy with a good disposition. I think people only don't like him because of the way he looks. If he were taller and had a square jaw and more hair everyone would adore him. I'm starting, getting on, and driving the Pierre McGuire bandwagon.

2 inches and 15 lbs is a pretty big difference in size. However, I do agree that Jensen would slot well with Dekeyser, but that would leave Sproul with Ouellet and I don't like that because I think Sproul will need someone who lays back and plays defense so that he can make plays offensively...which, by the way, is the reason why I think he (and Backman) aren't playing well this season. I HATE that pairing.

Ok, but which types of teams are more likely to make the playoffs, let alone peak in them...ones that can string together wins, or ones that have great games (Chicago, Columbus) and then fail to build on them? That's all this thread is about. Inconsistency is a problem, regardless of whether it's been detrimental thus far.

You know who loves Mitch Callahan? Jeff Blashill. Here's hoping he's the coach of the Red Wings next year am I right?

God knows I'm flabbergasted by almost all of Babcock's personnel decisions, but to be fair, all these lines are going to change the second Datsyuk is healthy enough to play.

The reasons I picked Marchenko over Jensen or Backman are these: His size, right shot, great passer, defensive d-man. I wanted another defensive d-man to go alongside Dekeyser. I see Jensen and Backman competing more with Sproul, Ouellet, and Smith and despite being really good, I think they lose out. Also, I think you need to give Marchenko another look. He's a lot like Brad Stuart. You don't always notice how good he's playing because he's not flashy. But you'd sure miss him if he was gone. I definitely see him anchoring an offensive d-man the way Stewie did for Kronwall early on. As for Athanasiou, I agree he's going to be a beast. I only left him off the list because I think you've got to give to get and because we've got Nosek and Larkin. But really, if we can keep two of the three, I don't care which ones. Ideally we'd keep Larkin and Athanasiou and trade Nosek, but he's an unknown quantity and I doubt (right now) he'd get much interest.

Center. But you didn't think Babcock would make it easy did you? Obviously if you want a guy to be your second line center one day, you start him as your third line wing. It all makes perfect sense if you have an honorary PhD in Sports Psychology. Dumb asses like Jeff Blashill just make Weiss a center and give him decent wingers and look how that turns out...

His actual middle name is Mitchell. His given name is John. The more you know.

Then they should stop buying tickets and put pressure on the organization to make some fundamental changes. They're like Lions fans. If you're sick of losing stop giving them money.

Last year everybody was ready to trade Tatar "because we have Nyquist so he's redundant" and this year many are ready to trade Jurco "because we've got Mantha". About the time we draft and develop top six wingers folks are ready to trade them. Insane. To me, Nyquist, Tatar, Jurco, Larkin, Mantha, Quellet, Sproul, and Marchenko are untouchable. Which still gives us Jensen, Backman, Pulkkinen, and one of Nosek or Athanasiou as high end prospects for trade. Think about it. In five years the wingers on your top two lines can be some combination of Tatar, Nyquist, Mantha, and Jurco and your top four defensemen could be Sproul-Dekeyser, Ouellet-Marchenko (Lefty-Righty, offensive-defensive in each case).

The long suffering Maple Leafs' fans ought to be saluted each and every game for being the most fickle, arrogant, and entitled group of fans in all of professional hockey. Hard to imagine why a guy like Phil Kessel wouldn't be interested in saluting a bunch of folks who were calling for his head after a 37 goal, 80 point season. Ditto for Kadri. And Reimer. There's only one salute these s***birds deserve, and it involves something other than a stick in the air. Maple Leafs fans, you are the problem.

I hope you're both right. Weiss need repetitions and confidence and he's not going to get either of those on the bench. Hopefully Babs' understands and is on board with this. Weiss needs to be given a line, with competent wingers, and enough time to find his game. Which shouldn't be asking too much. Look how much time Babs has given Helm to find his game after his craptacular start. Weiss is going to have some bad games on the road to recovery. But if he keeps getting jerked after each bad outing, he's never going to gain any traction. For now I'd stick him on a line with Helm and Jurco as wingers, and just let him get his strength and speed back. They won't score much (or at all) but if they can play teams even (until Dats gets back and the lines shuffle again) I'll be happy.

Not to be the type of guy who criticizes others' ideas and doesn't provide any thoughts of my own, here are two theories I have. Feel free to destroy them as needed... 1) Last I heard, we were 3rd in the league in powerplay opportunities and 19th in the league in powerplay percentage. A better powerplay equals more goals, and on most nights, more goals equals more wins. In this case, inconsistency is borne out of missed opportunities. 2) Without and established (and reliable) top two centers, Babs' is forced to mix and match lines and combinations in an attempt to find offense. Most of the time he doesn't get it (because he has to use guys out of position etc.) and when he does (like with the current Tatar-Sheahan-Abby line) he'll be forced to change it as soon as Dats or Weiss gets healthy. In this case, ever changing lines equals little chemistry, and little chemistry equals inconsistent nightly productivity. Aaaaaand attack.

Ericsson isn't "well into his 30's" and Quincey has been very good this year, let alone good enough to be on the roster. You're distorting things to make an argument work that doesn't. Our defense has a good dispersion of veterans and youth, just like almost every other defense. I do agree with you that Dekeyser has been our best d-man, and that he occasionally makes mistakes, but every team and every player occasionally make mistakes. But that doesn't explain why we can't string together wins. Look, I'm not saying we don't have young guys on the team. We do. Every team does. I'm just skeptical of overly simplistic answers. Two years ago we were really inconsistent and it was because we had "too many veterans" and they weren't "hungry enough". It was wrong then, and this modern "too many young guys" theory seems wrong now. We are not noticeably younger than any other team, and older than many. The theory simply doesn't hold water.

Helm, Abby, Quincey, Ericsson, and Miller are all veteran players in "their prime". And then we've got quite a few older veterans, with a bunch of kids mixed in. I'd imagine our age dispersion isn't noticeably different than any other team. And it's not like we've got a 48 year old Chelios and a 41 year old Lidstrom on the team bringing up the average age. The average age his high because we've got a mostly veteran team. Now, if one were to say that young guys occupy extremely important roles on the team, I'd say they've got a better point. But then we'd have to look at other teams and see how many of them have young guys occupying top four, and top six spots. I'd imagine it's more that you think.

Don't we still have one of the oldest teams in the league? Edit: Yes, we do. http://stats.nhlnumbers.com/teams

Beats me. That's why I created the thread. To work through plausible theories.

Good luck getting Dats and Z healthy at the same time. And should one of them get hurt, who takes over that center spot? This has been the problem for a couple years now. We don't have two reliable centers, even with Dats and Z on the team because they're both injury prone. I agree with your approach though, and hopefully Ken Holland is somewhere doing this exact thing. Sitting down and figuring out who slots where and who doesn't fit into the long term plan for the team.

Sure, anything can happen. But all things being equal, you've got to admit that Jason Demers is a much better defenseman than Brenden Dillon, right?

It's not expensive for Jim Nill apparently. For that guy, getting good defense is a simple as identifying the biggest one dimensional thinker in the Western Conference and giving him EXACTLY what he wants....a big stupid meathead.

When in doubt I whip it out, got me a rock n' roll band, IT'S A FREE FOR ALL!!!!