kipwinger

Yeah, Datsyuk does virtually the same thing all the time along the boards, but instead of using his elbow he uses his shoulder and steps into the oncoming guy's chest. Brown needed to do that there, but used the elbow instead and got it up high. He's not a dirty player or anything, but a bonehead play.

Wow, that's a pretty ugly elbow. What a huge screw up that was. I'm sure Brown's pissed at himself for that one.

No need, this kid is small. I know he's super skilled and all, but given the number of big bodied goal scorers in this year's draft, if we have to settle on one of them I'm not mad at all.

I'd be pumped about Mantha, kid's got size and some serious goal scoring skill. Plus he's North American. Seriously, screw the playmakers and defensemen in this draft. Lock this kid up so I can look forward to our wingers in the future.

This is one of my favorite standups of all time. Well played.

I wasn't suggesting he call them out in the press. The fact that he makes excuses to the press is a symptom in my opinion. If my guys weren't executing for s***, and because of this aren't winning games, I'll let them know it by reducing their ice time/benching them. And then when the media heads ask questions I'll tell them what happened. We failed to execute properly. We made lazy line changes. We left our goalie out to dry. No need to downplay the fact that this team has looked like garbage all too frequently this year. Own it, and prove that you're trying to fix it through your personnel moves. If San Jose can bench Joe Thornton for playing like sh*t, then Babs can quit making excuses for two f*** ups which cost us valuable points, or saying how consistent we are when after we lose to Calgary (for the third time). To me, that undermines accountability.

You seriously just killed me with that one. Well played.

I have a strange brain the works in progression. So one thing leads to the next which leads to the next, and so on, until finally my thought process finds a resting place. So here's how it worked when I read that Dekeyser needs a nickname. Dekeyser -> DK -> Donky Kong -> King Kong -> Kong. So Kong it is. Edit: This is nearly identical to the way I nicknamed my younger brother, who has been called "squeege" or "Squeege McQueen" for over two decades. Johnny -> Dirty Johnny -> DJ -> Deege -> Squeege -> Squeege McQueen (optional).

Nyquist and Brunner are going to be lethal together after they get a training camp's worth of time together and a little more weight and strength to go around. They really work well together.

We're not a very good team. Most nights we're going to play teams that are better than we are, and because they're better it's going to make it harder for us to execute...and hence...lots of bad games. Part of the reason why these guys are professional athletes is because they're SO COMPETITIVE that they're willing to put the time, effort, hard work, and sacrifice into making themselves pro-level athletes. If you don't care whether you succeed or not, win or lose, you don't becomw a professional athlete. You join the band. Real life is not a movie. The "Miracle on Ice" wasn't a miracle. That team worked hard, prepared, learned from mistakes in their previous game, and executed their game plan properly. That's why they won. Not because the Russians didn't care, or some other silly b.s.

Good call, they make mistakes so they obviously don't care. That's rock solid logic.

Well whatever the reason, he gets castigated for "quitting on the play" while Brunner does the same s*** and not a peep around here.

This Kostitsyn thing is overplayed. Remember against Calgary when Brunner quit early on a shift and Jimmy threw up his hands after getting scored on? Didn't hear anybody saying "Brunner" didn't care, or didn't want it. He f*cked up and made a bonehead mistake, probably because he was exhausted and therefore wasn't paying attention to the play developing. Same with Kostitsyn, but he's from Nashville and he's Russian and his last name's Kostitsyn so all of the sudden the doesn't care if he wins or loses, gets scored on or not.

It's really strange to me how often people say stuff like that. One too many inspirational sports movies I guess. Professional sports teams don't lose because they "don't care enough" or don't "want to win" or whatever. They lose because they're not talented enough to execute properly, haven't prepared properly, or are simply kept from executing by a superior team. All this ra-ra, win one for the Gipper, b.s. is garbage. They're professional athletes, they all "care".

Truculence dude. Plain and simple.

It's hard to tell from that photo because there's no scale. You should have held your thumb up for reference.

Doens't it seem likely that the reason that Toews and Kane have so many goals is precisely because they've got serious depth across the lineup though? You can't really double team either of those guys when they're on the ice because Hossa and Sharp can beat you on their own if you don't take them seriously. I think both Pav and Hank's numbers are low because teams have figured out that the Wings can't beat you when Pav or Hank are kept off the board. You can't do that with Chicago. By having real depth in their forward core it opens up the ice for the stars as well.

I agree that they're probably have to go young and start with the rebuild now (though I'm not sure that was the plan as recently as a couple weeks ago). But I hope they don't "stockpile" the young talent. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying. Seems like if they're going to do this they really need to see what they've got, and they can't do that unless they play these guys and give them good looks. You're not really doing yourself any favors by loading up on all these young guys only to keep them in GR while guys like Abby, Sammy, Cleary, Colaiacovo, and White are in the lineup. If you're going to rebuild, it seem like you're still going to have to make the unpleasant choice of cutting guys loose. And that's something this organization is generally reluctant to do.

What with the litany of excuses bandied about by Babs after the Calgary game, it's hard for me to think anybody has any reason to give a damn. On the Howard turnover for a goal against Calgary: "I assume Bruns thought it was going to get rimmed to Howie, and Q thought the same thing, and Howie thought he was in a bad spot when it was dribbling towards him," coach Mike Babcock said. "It's a big mistake. You can watch hockey for years and never see two of those plays in one game, never mind in one year." On losing to Calgary (for the third time) after playing solidly against Chicago: “Pressure usually means you have a chance. Pressure on us is to maximize our potential and play as good as we’re capable of being. I think we’re where we should be. I’ve heard all year we’re not consistent. We are consistent. We’re one game or two games over each month. This is what we are. We’ve got to find a way to crawl into the playoffs.” Oh I see, it wasn't two massive f*ck ups that cost us two points, it was a statistical anomaly. And we're not inconsistent, we win as often as we lose. So what if when we lose it's typically to people we shouldn't, after we've led all (or most) of the game, and typically without getting a point. No biggie. "Right where we should be". I see the light now. All season long I thought we were playing poorly. Now I realize that we're playing really good and that our competitive and largely consistent game is being thwarted. Not by under-performance, boneheaded screwups, or substandard play from our core guys. But rather by random flaws in an otherwise mathematically predictable game. How foolish of me.

I agree that a lot of them are not good enough, but I think they're misutilized as well. For instance, Datsyuk needs the puck on his stick to be effective but he doesn't like to shoot, Brunner doesn't carry the puck much and does like to shoot. So put them together. Similarly, Zetterberg is defensively responsible and has shown that he can score a lot. Filppula is defensively responsible, and despite every opportunity, has shown he can't score. So why not let Flip center the second line (and take the lion's share of the defensive responsibility) and let Zetterberg play the wing where he can score. The defense is still in capable hands as Flip excels in that area, but at least you'll have someone on the wing that can score. Ideally, for the remainder of the season I'd like to see this. Brunner-Dats-Franzen Zetterberg-Flip-Abby Nyquist-Andersson-Cleary Tootoo-Emmerton-Miller/Eaves When Bert gets back swap him with Abby and put Abby where Emmerton is. When Sammy gets back he rotates in and out with Cleary. Also, if we make the playoffs I'd strongly consider scratching both Cleary and Sammy and putting Tatar with Nyquist and Andersson as they've obviously got a lot of chemistry and have worked well together

Of course they look worn out, they're carrying the team on their shoulders, and everybody knows it. Our team is a one trick pony and everybody has figured that out.

I agree. But I don't think it will make too much of a difference because at least in the short to medium term all of our prospects are undersize, pass first, perimeter guys, and most of them are centers or converted centers. I can't wait for a couple of years when we've got actual wingers with a little size (like Jurco, Frk, and Tvrdon) ready to be inserted into the lineup.

It's not just size, it's size and skill combined. Abby's got all the size you'd ever need but he doesn't know how to finish. Holmer could finish, Ryan Smyth can finish...Abby can't. He's got no knack for scoring at this level. What we need is a couple bigger bodies who know how to finish on a play. Guys like Horton, Stafford, Clarkson, Paajarvi, come to mind. They've got the size and skill to score down low, which is something we're sorely missing. Ideally I'd like a sniper too, and I think it would help with a lot of things, but until we get a legit net front presence on each of the top two lines I think we'll be kept entirely to the perimeter and therefore easily kept off the scoreboard in tight games.

Link on the shredded groin thing or just speculation? Brent Gilchrist had a shredded groin, you don't tough that out no matter who you are. Zetterberg isn't scoring because he and Datsyuk get keyed on all game, every game, because they're the only offensive threats we've got. If Franzen's line started scoring goals regularly then the defensive emphasis would shift to that line and Zetterberg would score again. That's called depth and it will help you. Simple as that.

It's funny because I agree with you about Holmstrom playing past the point that he should have, and it's interesting to note that even then he scored more often than any of our current wingers sans Franzen. In his last three seasons he scored 25, 18, and 11 goals. I'd kill for that kind of goal scoring in our top six right about now haha.