kipwinger

Same Defense huh? Babs must not remember the third period from the last game.

The only fight I've ever seen Sheahan in didn't go so well for him, so I hope they weren't thinking that. Then again, Babs does love to try and make guys into something they aren't so that might be his goal here too.

Check out the Malik report for details on this move. He's got a good recap. The only reason the move was made is because GR was playing in Vancouver and IF one of the Wings couldn't go on Sunday there wouldn't be enough time to get someone back from B.C. It's a purely precautionary move on Holland's part.

Can't wait for another "grab a spot and take hold of it" quote from Babs.

I understand what you're saying and share your concerns. I too think that Smith has been abysmal on defense this year. I only commented to say that it's sad how far we've fallen when our options come down to speculating on moving a bad defenseman to forward. But I guess that's the situation we're in until this summer (at the earliest) and I don't see it changing so I guess I'm just going to have to live with it. That and wonder how the hell it came to this.

Agreed. Kinda sad that our season pretty much rests on getting help from four other teams. Not exactly what I was hoping for coming into this season.

Ugh, St. Louis, San Jose, and Chicago our next three games. Not looking good. If we don't play any better than we have been the last few games we might be in a world of hurt really soon.

I don't disagree with a lot of what you're saying. We are terrible at putting players in a position to succeed. Certainly Nyquist is more skilled than most of our players. And definitely Franzen, Clearly, Abby, (and I'd add Filppula) don't create any offense either. What I'm saying is that whether Nyquist is in the lineup or not won't matter because our entire team is made up of guys who can't take a game over, minus Dats and Z. If teams can stop them then we lose. Look at last night. We played a horrible team, and yet got dominated for much of the game. We won (barely) because Datsyuk and Zetterberg rose to the occasion. Nyquist had a nice goal for sure, but our season hangs on whether D or Z can win a game for us. Hell even the s***ty Colorado announcers accurately spelled out our game plan. Late in the game they said, "Detroit is just looking to hang on until overtime and then put the game on Datsyuk and Zetterberg's shoulders", which is exactly what we did. I'm glad it worked out, but it won't against good team. So, for the millionth time...Nyquist is a good player, maybe one day he'll be a game changer, but he's not right now and therefore having him in the top six or not will make no difference as far as how well this team performs this season.

I cannot believe we're talking about the Detroit Red Wings and our options for how to not suck involve moving Smith to forward and Franzen to center, Flip to wing, and Abby to whatever, etc. etc. etc. I"m as bummed about this team as I've been in a long time. It's ******* obvious that we simply don't have enough competitive hockey players on a nightly basis, yet rather than get any (for three years in a row) we'd rather retread old guys, move guys away from their natural positions, and call up the youngsters (all at one, and for only a few games at a time). Oh I forgot...and then we wait, and hope, and pray, that our saving grace will come back to us. "Darren Helm is our deadline acquisition". Right. Can't wait for that offensive dynamo to kickstart this team.

It's almost like they each played as if they had a legitimate top sixer to play with.

Well glad to see we got the points, but man did the Avalanche ever take it to us in the third.

Colorado announcer talking about "Kronwall always looking for the dirty hit". Nice.

He looks heavier than 190 lbs. too.

Yeah my streams are s*** too. Anyone wanna PM me a message relating to my problem but not expressly endorsing live streaming?

Knowing Babcock he'll do something asinine like make Hank the center and put Pav on the wing or something like that.

I sort of just miss having you know...actual top four talent...in the top four. Didn't Meat Loaf sing a song about 1 outta 4 ain't bad or something?

Leaving our second line as what, Flip, Franzen, Cleary? Swap Cleary with Brunner when he's healthy and it's worth a shot. Nothing else is doing anything.

I'd check out too if I were getting punished physically each and every night and had zero space to do anything because of non-stop double teams. Screw it, you're their meal ticket and they won't give you somebody better to play with than Justin f'n Abdelkader and Johan Franzen.

Dave Bing ought to know how much money Illitch has, or at least he knows Illitch has the 60 or 70 million dollars in taxes that he hasn't felt like paying.

Hmmm...my prediction? They'll double team Datsyuk and Zetterberg and effectively shut down our already abhorrent offense. But they're worse so we'll probably win. Junk goal by Miller, one by a defenseman not named Kronwall, and a PP goal by whoever.

I hope so too, but to be honest the points game began on January, 19th.

I was going to say the exact same thing. Glad I looked through past posts. Anytime you offer two guys twin 13 year 90+ million dollar contracts you're not exactly pinching pennies. The fact that they chose a different place to play says nothing about Illitch's willingness to spend money. FYI to everyone else who thinks otherwise...the Motor City Casino last year alone made enough money to pay for the duration of Prince Fielder's contract. Illitch has PLENTY of money for both the Wings and the Tigers. Fact.

Well a few days ago they said he'd be ready in a week and a half. So unless something changes, yes he is expected back.

What are you talking about, we've won three whole games in a row twice this season!

You know, they sort of remind me of a poor man's LA Kings from last season. A lot of tough, scrappy, opportunistic scorers, and solid defensive core, and one really elite skilled player. Plus good goaltending. If this team makes the playoffs they'll really do well in the tight checking, physically grinding sort of game. I can see them being a spoiler.