kipwinger

Exactly. If your strategy is to win every game by a single goal, then you don't have a large margin of error. There was a time when if we were down by a goal going into the third period, you could almost bank on us getting it back. Not anymore. Nowadays we can't protect a lead going into the third unless every single thing turns out perfectly in our favor because that's the only goal we're getting that night. Get some offense in the lineup or get used to bitching about the refs ALL SEASON LONG. Because there's going to be a lot of bad calls that cost us games if every game is this close. Also, since when did our fan base because so full of complainers? We're not the only team that will lose a game because of a bad call this week. Let alone this season. You don't see good teams getting all bent out of shape because of a disallowed goal, or a questionable call.

They spent the entire 4 on 4 in our zone, and not surprisingly the guy who was absolutely flying for the entire penalty hustled to a lose puck and made a play. I'm not too beat up about it.

I don't remember the last time a Wings defenseman took the puck away from an opposing player in the defensive zone, passed it up to a forward competently, and that forward (along with the others) managed a shot on goal. All our offense comes from the hard work of the forechecks. Kudos to them. But if our defensemen don't start helping create offense, we'll struggle to score, and our team will go nowhere.

I get what you're saying, but I don't think it's so easy to compare the Weiss situation to Zetterberg or Helm. Those guys were returning to a system they knew, in positions they were familiar with, and the absolute confidence of the man dishing out the playing time. None of which is true of Weiss. I don't think (as I'm sure you'd agree) that Weiss gets an unlimited blank check because of this. But two things jumped out to me after Weiss' first game back... 1) "I've never played left wing in my life so that's tough too, trying to figure out the system as a winger. All of that stuff is tough. It was fun to be back in the mix, playing again in a game and hopefully we can do more here coming up." - Stephen Weiss 2) "He got an opportunity to play in a game," Babcock said. "He didn't get a ton of opportunity but at least he got in the game and got some action going. Weisser, it's not going to happen overnight. I'm not expecting a guy to look good in his first game back, in a new position, with the coach readily admitting that they're not giving him much of an opportunity. And then there's this, which is worth thinking about... "But we're happy with him. We think he's going in the right direction. We think his attitude is great and we think he's working hard." -Babs

Too late. I made the exact same joke about Kindl on page one.

Agreed. Never.

Dude, if they'd be good with McGrattan they'd be great with Colton Orr. Ya know, considering he broke Candyass McGrattan's face. And whadda know, Colton Orr (like pretty much every other enforcer) is available this year.

Wait, does he shoot right? This should really lower his trade value eh? Kindl and 7th?

How could that be any more humiliating than their endless mediocrity? At least it would break up the routine of sucking as bad as they do.

So did everyone else.

So, you read that article and interpreted it as "Babs didn't like the Weiss signing"?

So when you originally said "Babs wasn't too thrilled with the signing" what you meant was "Babs wants Weiss to work hard, learn the system, and play responsible defense or else he won't play"? Because those aren't the same thing...at all. Not even the tiniest little bit.

Or skate. They're ******* horrible skaters. Montreal skates circles around them.

I was literally thinking the exact same thing. I was thinking "too bad I can't use photoshop, but I hate Looch sooo much". Great minds.

I AM LOOCH!!!!

Here's one of the walls at Ivy and Coney in Washington, D.C. How cool is that? I think I found a home away from home lol.

I love Emelin. Dude hits like a ton of bricks. What are the odds Marchenko is his cousin or something? That'd be nice. Yes, drag Dale Weise out of the press box and KILL HIM!!!! Who cares if he didn't dress for the game, gotta show the league what Boston Strong really means bro!

If there are any Wings fans in the Washington, D.C. area you're more than welcome to join me and some buddies at the Ivy and Coney bar in Shaw for the game. It's a Detroit and Chicago themed bar that serves coneys and local beer. Half of the place is garbage. I'll let you decide which.

I agree, but I'd take it a step further. Weiss needs to play, and play at center. He's not likely to provide much offensive punch playing a position he's never played professionally, in a system he's still learning. Doesn't sound like a recipe for success to me.

I blame Qincey, or Cleary, or Kindl, or Gary Bettman. Somebody.

Darren Helm missed a year and a half with injuries and wasn't a healthy scratch once he was healthy. There's not to be more to it than this.

It's immensely satisfying to know that Babs will admit to doing "dumb" things, which are counter intuitive, even though he discussed not doing them before making the decision, and ultimately regretting it. It gives me a huge amount of ammunition the next time I say Babs did something dumb, and that he should know better, and that it cost us, and that he didn't have a valid reason for doing it. Actually, I think I'm going to put the best parts of that quote in my signature line so that I don't forget.

Lol. Well at least SOMEONE else thinks that Mike Babcock does dumb s*** that costs us points sometimes. http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2014/10/not_having_gustav_nyquist_on_i.html

Yep, I would totally play Cleary in the top six. Because that's exactly the same thing as using Franzen or Zetterberg in the shootout before Nestrasil. Exactly. You win, I lose. I guess I better go pick up Dan Cleary on my fantasy hockey team now.

Lol. I must be confused. It seems like you're saying that trends over time don't matter as much when drawing conclusions. And that the most reliable information, with which to form expectations, is the most recent information. But if that's true than we can reasonably expect Zetterberg to produce over a point per game, Weiss to only produce 8 pts. total, Gustavsson to play better than Jimmy, and Darren Helm to shoot two percentage points higher than the league average. I'll admit those things are theoretically possible, but I'd also wager on every single one of them.