kipwinger

Howson was responsible for bringing in Bobrovsky during the offseason, before he was fired. Actually he was responsible for every major move the team has made since 2007 (except the Gaborik trade) including bringing in Dubinsky, Anisimov, Aucoin, Wisneiwski, Johnson, Prospal, Umberger, Tyutin, Foligno, Nikitin, Letestu, and Erixon. So pretty much their entire team was acquired by him in one form or fashion, and they're playing well right now, so credit where it's due. Also, says something about how woefully inadequate their drafting and development is if you've got a team made up of this many trades and UFA signings. Edit: Wisniewski doesn't make 7 million dollars, so you might want to brush up on your fact checking a bit

They didn't really help us out. We're not competing with St. Louis. We're competing with Dallas and Columbus.

More meaningless platitudes from our fearless leaders... "You are what you are, and this is what we've earned this year," coach Mike Babcock said. "This is what our team is. We're no better or worse than what we are and we're a team that's battling to get into the playoffs. "Win a game, that's all. We take the same approach we have every year. Try to win games and get better."

He does delay a lot, but I think he'll improve in that area. He's only going to learn that there's very little time to make a play like that over here. I'd like to see more of those one timers and I think we will going forward. Probably not this season, but definitely next. Brunner's going to be a real good goal scorer for this team, he's exceeded expectations so far, and is only going to get better as his strength, conditioning, and comfort improve.

"Some guys score goals and some guys don't, and we got a lot that don't" -Mike Babcock "No sh*t" -Planet Earth

I wasn't suggesting that Couture could do it on a regular basis, I'm saying that when skill players get lucky its spectacular. Considering we've got very few of those types of guys, we don't see it really often. Also, while you "really doubt" it, it's only reasonable to assume that Datsyuk occasionally pulls something off that he wasn't sure he'd be able to do. Just like every other player in hockey.

Haha, I watched Brendan Shanahan's video explanation of the incident. According to Shanny every player is responsible for their own tongue, and much like their stick, they must be held responsible for ensuring its proper use. Additionally, while there was clearly intent to lick, no penalty was assessed by the on ice officials. Furthermore, it must be taken into account that Jeff Halpern was not injured as a result of the incident and was able to return to the ice later that period after squeegeeing off his visor. In Summary: Clearly intent to lick No "licking" penalty assessed Halpern was not (physically) injured; no mention of the psychological effects Because of this the Department of Player safety has decided to issue a warning to Buffalo's Steve Ott. He will be considered a repeat "licker" going forward.

Reputation aside, Semin signed with Carolina on a one year deal. So even if he hadn't turned it around, it still wasn't any kind of risk. Also, I don't think he was any more of a risk than the contracts we took on. There were definitely big "if" questions surrounding whether or not Sammuelsson or Colaiacovo could return to previous form, and management itself suggested that taking on Tootoo was "outside their comfort zone". They were willing to do it with three cheap plugs but not one elite level goal scorer. Also, it's management's job to scout these guys and determine whether or not Semin's reputation was his alone or because of Washington's system. I managed to get it correct before the season started, if they didn't, then I'd be glad to take on a scouting position for the Wings at half the price of whoever they're paying now. Where did you get that they wanted Brunner in return, got a link? He was traded for the equivalent of Flip, Tootoo, and Lashoff. No goal scorers went the other way in the Gaborik deal. Of course there was a lot of luck to it, I imagine that a lot of the insane things that Datsyuk does surprise him too. But their skill level allows them to, occasionally, make something out of nothing. Luck or no, pretty sure Emmerton or Abby don't pull that off a thousand times out of a thousand. When high level players go above and beyond, insane things happen; when average players go above and beyond they just look like good players.

Steve Ott is a total clown, but I still like him because he once did this...

He doesn't need to be "perma-banned", but I do think his ice time ought to be reduced. He's been consistently outplayed by Kindl all season and yet he still averages more ice time each and every game. He's a rookie and he's playing like one, and that should spell third pair for him. But he's one of Bab's guys and so he'll continue to see considerable playing time. Back when Ericsson and Kindl were young and sucking they were out of the lineup every other night, but Babs loves him some "Smitty". Haha, it's been so long since we've had a goal scorer that we forget what they look like and what they bring to the ice. Couture buried that because that's what he's on the ice to do...put the puck in the net. If only there had been any goal scorers available at all in the last four years...oh wait...cough...Alex Semin...cough...Marian Gaborik...cough cough.

Did Eaves just throw like six hits in one shift?

Did Abdelkader, or anyone else on the team for that matter, pay any attention to what happened when he drove hard on the net against Anaheim? It's like that little nugget of success just somehow got lost in the fray.

Haha, Mikey going the extra mile to sell that relatively weak call.

At the very least reduce his ice time, he's consistently playing more minutes than Kindl who has only been outplaying Smith for the entirety of the season, in every conceivable way. Then again, "Smitty" fought a guy once this year and he's got more "upside", whatever that is.

Well if that one goal doesn't completely vindicate Ken Holland and Mike Babcock then I don't know what does.

jesus, finally.

Nope, couldn't have. He did everything he could do and in the final analysis the only thing he could do to improve this team since 2009 was acquire Quincey, Cola, White, Sammy, and Tootoo. That's it. There were absolutely no other options.

It's cool guys and gals, it's just fate. There was LITERALLY NOTHING that Holland could have done since 2009 to improve this club. Nothing. Sometimes you have to face facts.

Given the way they're playing that's a pretty big "if".

Every professional athlete wants to win. Do you think they want to lose? It's a team full of mediocre plugs, rookies, and Datsyuk and Zetterberg. They get outclassed in these games because the opposing teams actual deal in real talent, and put together competitive lineups. We, on the other hand, always look for the cheap "if" solution. "Well if Miller can find some offense...". "Well if Abby can play like Homer...". "Well if Kronwall can tighten up defensively...". And on and on and on.

If they made the playoffs they weren't all that awful. Ya know?

No team doesn't want to make the playoffs, and they all didn't suddenly forget how to play the game. They are, however, out manned at nearly every position on nearly every line. Plugs can't beat quality players, no matter how much they "want it".

Unreal.

I'll agree with that, but you have to consider that a good portion of those GWGs are in fact what they say they are...game winners. And if you've got a lot of them, then you're scoring in clutch situations. Your example of Franzen scoring the fifth goal in a game but getting the GWG after the opposition comes back to score four times does happen. But Franzen also scores a ton of actual GWGs, and that's fairly clutch. Are their other factors? Sure. But this is a stat that is actually kept, and it is indicative (though not the complete picture) of clutch performance.

Wasn't Semin still available?