kipwinger

I came down to Detroit in 2009 from upstate to watch Michigan State in the final four. At the time there were few bars and restaurants downtown and they were all at capacity. Because there was no place for people to go the owners of all the downtown buildings had opened up the storefronts for cash-only 'pop up" bars. You'd walk into a totally empty storefront, buy a can of beer out of a plastic kiddy pool with cash, and watch games on a flat screen sitting on a table or something. One night we were just talking down the middle of Woodward with a 30 rack, along with about a million other people, just screwing off. No police, no traffic, and nobody gave a sh*t. 15 years later all the buildings a full and lit up. There are restaurants and bars all over the place. There are people all over the place. The public spaces pretty much always have events and people are gathered around. I've seen ice rinks in the parks, skateboarding competitions, you name it. Go sit any any restaurant downtown on any weekend and the place will be full of people waiting for an event at St. Andrews, or the Masonic Temple, or any of the casinos or sports arenas. Oh, and the place LOOKS nicer too. Building have been renovated, murals painted, greenspace, lights, the whole nine. Walking up Woodward toward the LCA from Jefferson Ave. now is genuinely beautiful. The turnaround is incredible.

Tomas Tatar is a pretty good comparable for Sprong in terms of what Sprong brings RIGHT NOW. He's a 20 goal, 40ish point winger with great possession metrics who can play up and down the lineup. Obviously Tatar did it much more consistently than Sprong has. After scoring at that rate for three seasons in a row (four if you count his 19 goals in 73 games as a rookie) he landed a 5.3 mil x 4 year deal at about the same age Sprong is now. Because the cap has been flat for quite a long while, and because he doesn't have the track record Tatar did, I'm going to guess Sprong falls short of that. 4.5million x 3 years (on the open market) is a guess I can get behind. Someone who needs scoring will give it to him, and I think it's likely that team won't be Detroit unless we clear someone like Fabbri or Copp off the books. My hope is that he'll value stability after bouncing around so much and take a little less for more term. 3.5 million by 4 years and some goal scoring bonuses might entice him.

I'm genuinely concerned that we'll make a trade and screw up the team chemistry that we're building right now. If we're still playing like this heading into the deadline I'd really only like to see an addition in goal (just to shore things up alongside Lyon, not necessarily replace him as starter), or a top six winger that plays fast and tenaciously, or maybe a depth RHD if one is available. But probably not all three. Our boys have bought into Lalonde's defensive structure and we're seeing great results. We've been beating the sh*t out of top teams for a month. I REALLY don't wanna change things too much. Like, if we add John Gibson and Jake Guentzel we might legitimately win a Cup if we keep playing like this.

Not if you're winning games. Not to mention the fact that our 1C and 2C are both less expensive that most competitive teams' rosters so we're saving money there. Take this with a grain of salt because I didn't verify the source, but according to this article the line had a 91% expected goals share against Philly. For those of you not overly familiar with the labyrinthine world of hockey analytics that's a very...VERY...good number.

Another great goal by the Ras-Copp-Fischer line. They're monsters right now.

I'd f*ck Osgood.

Neither of them work for Bally, they both work for the Red Wings media team. In theory they could guest spot, like Max Bultman (from The Athletic) did during intermission last week. But they're not part of the same broadcast team as far as I know. Edit: Also, they both do live work during home games. Carley is typically the one announcing promotions, giveaways, and games during TV breaks and intermissions. Daniella typically is set up on the concourse with Art Regner doing fan interaction stuff. Point is, they're both busy doing other things during the game.

John Keating is an essential part of the Red Wings broadcast. That dude's one liners are first rate.

He's feisty and he never stops working or quits on plays. I love the way he plays for a winger.

Lucas Raymond is one season away from being a star. That dude looks so good every single shift.

Such a luxury to be able to throw Ras-Copp-Fischer out there after a powerplay goal and just grind the opposition into dust. Just kills any hope of a response from the other team. Obviously they're not the Grind Line, but they serve a lot of the same functions.

Insanely heads up pass by Seider on Veleno's goal there.

And just like that...it's gone.

Larkin's out here looking like an all-star. What a snipe. Walman, rocket. 2-0!!!!!!

Just got in to Detroit to attend a watch party for the game tomorrow. For any of you that haven't been to Detroit, or haven't been in a while, I highly recommend you come visit. This is a hell of a city and the turnaround downtown has been remarkable and continues to amaze me.

Given how much he's already bounced around in his young career I wouldn't be surprised to see Sprong value stability and term over AAV.

Monster game from Kasper tonight. Only had 1pt. but he was probably the best player on the ice. Absolute force with 4 shots on goal. It's unreal that this kid won't turn 20 until April. He's going to really good methinks.

GR has a new guy in goal tonight. Some dude named Husso. Pitching a shutout so far.

Nathan MacKinnon is better than Conor McDavid. There, I said it. I'm happy to get that off my chest.

Kostin is a pretty big, pretty tough, dude. I don't think the three of us could hold him down. Also, the phrase is "run a train" not "do a train". I'm very very pleased with Augustine's play so far this year, but I'm going to need to see him play well against AHL competition before I'm ready to say he's in that conversation. So far he's been good at the World Juniors (tons of s***ty goalies have been) and good in the NCAA (a VERY low scoring league). Until he proves it against professionals I'm going to hold my judgement.

John Gibson. He's under contract for three more years after this one. Re-sign Lyon to back up Gibson next season and then let Cossa split the starts with Gibson over the next two seasons until he's ready to be the top dog. Bingo bango. Goalie problem solved. Our broadcasters talk about Michael Rasmussen almost every night now. He's starting to get back to his pre-injury form. He's a big part of this team's success.

That's a great win. The Flyers are solid and we pretty much dominated that game. I love that Lyon went out a responded after a shaky game against Dallas. He's far from perfect but he has earned the net and I'm really loving how the standard in Detroit is changing this season. You want a spot on the roster you have to go out and earn it. That is going to bode very well for this team down the line.

I think it's fascinating that fighting in hockey is a penalty but not an ejection, not sanctioned but not prohibited. Just like it's sometimes wise to hook or trip someone (e.g. on a breakaway) and take the penalty, sometimes it's wise to fight and take the penalty. Fighting in hockey is basically treated the same as intentionally grounding a football. Sure you get a penalty but it's often necessary.

This is a pretty solid take. If we end up making the playoffs I don't think it'll be a stretch to say that the Ras-Copp-Fischer line contributed to that outcome more than Patrick Kane did. Those guys are absolutely excellent and they've been instrumental in this little run we've been on here.

I think he's a really tough dude, obviously. But I genuinely think he's got the individual skill to score in the 15 goal, 15 assist range. He's been injured a lot in his career, and this year as well, and I think that hampered his development a bit. It's good that he can hit and fight, but he's a solid player too and I love that he can skate a regular shift with dudes like Veleno and Sprong and not get caved.