kipwinger

I'm not mad as long as we're winning. I just don't think it's some big mystery why we're not scoring much. And I completely agree with you that those guys have been impressive. They've played the game they're supposed to. That game just happens not to be very offensive. Ideal lines... Z-Pav-Jurco Franzen-Weiss-Nyquist Abby-Sheahan-Tatar Miller-Helm-Glendening Kronwall-Ericsson Smith-Dekeyser Quincey-Kindl That's with everyone healthy and no roster changes. Obviously, if I could start waiving guys and promoting guys then it would change a little, but not much.

Annoying Babcock quote of the day... "I think we've played hard, we've played well. We've been in 10 games now, we haven't scored. So, eight in the exhibition and then two in the regular season and you don't score real easy so far. We're looking forward to Pavel (Datsyuk) to get back one day and get guys back in their right spots and we might score a little more. I'm impressed with how hard we work. I'm impressed with our specialty teams, impressed with our team speed. We've got to finish more." Think that has anything to do with the fact that you're dressing Abby, Helm, Miller, Glendening, Andersson, and Nestrasil? I mean, what a surprise that your first line produced more when you replaced Abby with Nyquist. Hard to believe putting offensive players in offensive situations yields offense. If you want more offensive maybe send "Nesty" back down for someone who can score, or get Andersson off the wing (or off the team), or try plugging Weiss in...ya know...because he's been consistently good offensively his entire career. Just a couple of thoughts anyway.

Maybe, but if you transition well then teams generally won't forecheck as hard for fear of giving up odd man rushes. Our defense doesn't get the puck up very well, so teams don't have to worry about laying back. They seem to press hard knowing that they're not going to get burnt deep. And even if that's the same game plan everyone has, we seem to be especially susceptible to it for a couple of seasons now.

It's an easy play to get incensed about because it was the game winner and it was there was a questionable no call. But, truth be told it was flukey and it'll even out at some point. Much more troubling to me were the two seemingly routine plays that ended up in the back of our net. Howard and Smith's turnovers were both due to an inability to handle the forecheck effectively. It's a problem we had last year too. Babs needs to get that sorted out pronto, because unlike flukey no-calls, and defensemen toe picks, this problem is likely to repeat itself over and over as other teams realize the best way to beat Detroit is to forecheck the hell out of us.

Boychuk is a good defenseman, don't get me wrong, but he's a lot like Brent Seabrook. He's good defensively, good enough offensively, and worked well within the system he was playing in. That said, he's not a superstar and shouldn't get paid like one.

I generally agree with a lot of your posts, but I hate your lines up there. You've got one of the best playmaking centers and passers in the league (some say in the history of the league) and you're giving him two former centers who have never played significantly on the wing. You're completely negating the advantage you have by lining up Datsyuk at center. This is one thing that the Red Wings, and a lot of our fans do too much of in my opinion. Ideally, you don't want Datsyuk scoring too many goals himself. You want him setting up goals. And he can't with Weiss and Helm on the wing. It's a little bit like having Ovechkin on a line with guys who can't pass well. He's got an elite skill at one timing the puck, which is lost of nobody can pass it to him. Same with Datsyuk. He's an elite playmaker. But he can't make plays if guys can't finish them. Both of Datsyuk's best statistical seasons came when he had a legit scoring threat on his wing (Zetterberg and Hossa).

Lol. Is that what you said to begin with? You went from "Smith had the best offensive stats" to "Smith had the best 5 on 5 stats" and now you're at "Smith had the best 5 on 5 stats per minute played". Just stop. This is a bad joke. You intentionally misrepresented reality in order to validate some preconceived notion you had. Then you got called on it. And now you're scrambling to try and make it look like you were full of b.s. to begin with. But you were. You definitely were.

Oh, is that what you said originally? And actually he didn't 5 on 5 or otherwise. He was third on the team in 5 on 5 points, behind Kronwall and Dekeyser. So no matter how much you said it, you're wrong. Over and over and over again. And it give me so much satisfaction to say so. You. Are. Wrong. Brendan Smith did not have the best offensive stats, 5 on 5 or otherwise.

Exactly.

Oh, so he didn't "have the best offensive stats" then?

For a foreigner?

What do you mean he had "the best offensive stats"? Which stats would those be?

You'd think we lost 8-1.

"Quincey sucks!" "Quinces sludge!" "Qwertzy snwerks!" "Durka durk!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ScD6-AWPEQ

I'm not comparing the two coaches. Obviously Babs is a better coach. What I am saying is that people act like it's the end of the world to make the playoffs and lose early. If I've read once I've read a thousand times "we don't want Blashill to be another Dave Lewis", to which I assume they mean they don't Blashill to win his division, makes the playoffs, and lose to a Stanley Cup finalist in each of his first two years as head coach. I'd take it. Did they expect him to win the Stanley Cup? How many rookie coaches in any major league sport do that? But if I had to compare...as far as the roster, Lewis had the pretty much same roster in 03-04 as Babs had in 2005 and got the same results. His 03-04 roster was also significantly worse than anything Bowman had in 99, 00, 01 and he got the same results. He really only "tanked" in 02-03...as a rookie head coach in the NHL. Clearly he's not as accomplished as those guys but he wasn't as experienced as those guys either.

I don't get the Dave Lewis bashing around here. You're hardly the first to do it either. He took the Wings to the playoffs and lost early. How is that any worse than what Babs' has been doing since 09? It could be worse guys. People make it seem like he had a losing record or something. He got fired because back then Holland's mantra was "we want to compete for the Cup every year". Now it's "we want to make the playoffs every year".

Lol, when he joined the Leafs I told my dad he left the second most scrutinized job in hockey for the first most scrutinized job in hockey.

Just when you thought professional athletes weren't idiots, "Tootooruututootooruutootoo durr hurr".

We're still going to end up having to trade at least two of those guys...maybe even three of them. Unbelievable that after having a s***ty defense for like 5 years we'd finally develop this many defensemen in the span of a couple years.

I agree with your point in general, but I would point out that it's not unheard of for a rookie to step in and play on the second or third pair without too many issues (Dekeyser). I think you can't assume that every prospect will be able to handle that, but I don't think a team should be so risk averse that they end up playing worse defensemen just because they're not rookies. I think part of the reason that Dekeyser was able to step right in is because he was an NCAA product, meaning he was used to a more defensive game (as opposed to Canadian Junior Hockey) , he was used to playing against men, and he was a little older when he finally made the jump. Certainly those are characteristics that Jensen AND Marchenko have in common with him. I wouldn't be surprised if either of those guys were able to step into a limited role on this team and play better than your average 18 year old junior hockey graduate would. Not a guarantee, but I wouldn't be surprised either.

Brendan Shanahan?

I'd rather face the tough schedule early than late. Everybody will be finding their legs at the beginning of the season, so it's reasonable to assume we'll win (and probably lose) at least a few games that we otherwise might not. Given some of the question marks with our team, I'd be thrilled if we could steal some games during the tough part of our schedule.

I think that post was tongue in cheek.

If we continue to play well (and get better) without any outside acquisitions does that make Ken Holland a genius again? It's hard for me to keep up with who is and isn't a genius in this league these days.

I can guarantee you one thing, if Tootoo and Ruutu are on the same line you'd better keep your head on a swivel.