kipwinger

Do we seriously not have anyone better than Abby for the top six, like Sheahan, or Ferraro, or f****** anybody else?!? Christ.

You only think that because you can't comprehend the sheer brilliance of Mike Babcock. Remember, many people (here and elsewhere) think he's a Jack Adams candidate this season...for his tireless work screwing up the timing and chemistry of every line in every game. If you hate Babs, then you clearly hate this team. Why don't you go cheer for the Pens you traitor!

Yes he does, and he's currently tearing it up. His 2013 season has already surpassed anything that Jurco did in the Q, AND he's doing it on a worse team, AND Jurco's stat line was super impressive. I cannot wait until these two are wingers in the NHL. How weird will it be to go from having elite centers and horrible wingers to having elite wingers and average centers...oh wait, we've got Jarnkrok coming along. So pumped.

Even without them playing above their heads you're still talking about a team in which Helm, Bertuzzi, Sammy, and Filppula missed significant time and one in which Colaiacovo and White (both projected to play significant time) either under performed or didn't perform at all.

You should probably re-read the whole argument to fully understand the context that I was speaking in. I already stated that anytime a goalie scores it's a "lucky" thing. Someone else said that it's less "lucky" when a goalie shoots the puck rather than simple getting credited with the goal. My response was to suggest that shooting in a goal is probably more so because it almost never happens. It's far more common the other way around and as such, less "lucky". Nobody thinks it's lucky if the mail comes tomorrow, or a coin lands on heads vs. tails. Those things are likely to happen. In terms of goalie scoring, what happened last night with Brodeur (according past precedent) suggests that it's much more likely to occur than the alternative, and therefore less "lucky".

That's your problem right there, it's not just the addition of Sammy, Cola, and Bert. It's the addition of those guys plus Helm. AND, it's a team in which Flip, Ericsson, Kindl, Smith, didn't all miss significant time with injuries as well. None of Nyquist, Tatar, or Andersson have a game winning goal, and only 3 of their combined 8 goals came in wins. While they've all played good, none of them has been a difference maker thus far. So I'll amend my statement and say that having Helm, Bertuzzi, and Sammy in the lineup doesn't guarantee that we'd have done better, but it does mean that we probably couldn't have done worse. Add to this the fact that all three of them would have made their respective lines much better, Helm obviously, and Bert and Sammy would certainly produce more with Datsyuk than Cleary and Abby have. Finally, these numbers don't even take into account how many more games we likely would have made more competitive with fewer defensive injuries. As well as he's played, Lashoff on the top pairing is much worse than Ericsson (who missed time) and as we've seen, Smith and Kindl in the lineup makes the team better than it is without them. So again, our early season performance is not indicative of the team overall, and therefore shouldn't be used as a baseline for projections.

Right, but if you compare the number of times in a given season there's an empty net, versus the number of times goalies have scored you have to come to the conclusion that luck was involved in each one, if not it would happen more often. Are some stranger than others? Sure. But every time a goalie scores it's strange, so again...splitting hairs. Edit: Actually, according to this the majority of goalie tallies have come in the same manner as Brodeur's last night. As such, statistically it's far "luckier" to shoot the puck and score for a goalie than to score as the last person who touched the puck before the opposition shot into their own net. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_goaltenders_who_have_scored_a_goal_in_an_NHL_game

Again, anytime a goalie scores it's because of luck, not because of skill. You're splitting hairs for some reason that I can't understand. Also, it's really not that strange though it's still really lucky. The exact same scenario happened last year between the same two teams when Cam Ward was credited with a goal after Kovalchuk back passed down the ice on a delayed penalty. Lucky, yes. Luckier that other goalie goals, no.

You can't use the first 24 games as any indication of this team considering all of the injuries. Our win percentage during that period would likely have been MUCH higher had that not been the case. When doing any sort of statistical analysis you have to be very careful that your baseline stats are actually representative before going any further. If a team starts out under performing for any number of reasons, and then you extrapolate from there you're likely to end up with an even more skewed result. For example, last year Zetterberg started out very slowly. If, during that period, you projected his season totals they would fall far short of what's expected. However, once he got over his funk he produced like he's capable, he finished the season where you'd expect (top ten or fifteen in total points). The same is true for a team, and this season our team under performed for quite a while to begin with. But again, that's not representative.

Bold prediction: If Holland misses out on Dekeyser, at least one member of this site will call for him to be replaced by Yzerman based solely on the results of these NCAA signings. Can't wait.

Wow. I probably should point out that EVERY SINGLE goal ever scored by a goalie is lucky. It's not like they're out there taking one timers, so to emphasize it's "luckiness" is sort of redundant. The luckiness of it is what makes it so rare and odd. Like a freakshow, but with less terror.

I certainly believe they should move as many of their bad contracts as humanly possible. I was just looking at our roster and their salaries and couldn't figure where all the money was going considering only Datsyuk and Zetterberg make any kind of real money. Upon closer inspection I found that 3/4 of our roster is full of people who under perform for their contracts or are hurt. Ugh. Hypothetically, you could trade Franzen for Gaborik and White for a pick and come out pretty close to even against the cap. Who doesn't think that sounds better than what we've got going on now?

Well the rumors I'm reading now are saying that they want to shed salary. They are reportedly interested in trading for Dan Boyle but need to clear space and a Gaborik for Boyle trade won't work because San Jose is looking to shed salary as well. According to one rumor the Rangers want a top four, right shooting d-man, and some depth roster players. If they are planning on acquiring Boyle then I don't think they'd want Smith. Maybe Nyquist or Tatar, but not another d-man.

Just a thought, but if the Wings sign Dekeyser and/or the other guy, the big Czech, would you be willing to part with Smith then?

According to the rumors the Rangers want a defenseman coming back so I doubt it happens. I just reported what I saw on the rumor sites and they said that the Red Wings were one of two teams with interest, but they didn't elaborate. I have no idea if we've made an offer or anything else.

Well I stand corrected. Good work on that one Nyquist.

No s***, can we please just get Tatar back up already? I'd really love it if every time I said, "man he's got good hands" about a rookie it was immediately before or after a goal.

According to the Fourth Period rumor site, Detroit is reportedly showing interest in acquiring Gaborik. Interesting...

Had to share this...too awesome!

Trade him now and get something good for him. All his nifty puck handling hasn't done s*** at the NHL level and it's only going to become more difficult once we move east.

Nice, thanks for the update.

So due to St. Patty's regularities I did not watch the game last night. Anything pertinent happen that I should know about?

I agree, been thinking this for a long time now. Zetterberg and Brunner are better off apart considering they're the two top shooters on the team and there aren't enough pucks to go around for both of them on the same line.

I think everyone on his line has much less space to make plays right now. Teams are bearing down on the Zetterberg-Brunner-Flip line because we've got no offense coming from anywhere else. A little more offensive depth and all of the sudden teams can't focus so heavily on one line, and the entire ice opens up for everyone. Same is true of the defense as well. They're getting killed by the opposition's forecheck because nobody has any fear of being burned by our offense so they press us harder than normal. We need to find effective lines and quality personnel real quick or we can expect more of the same for the remainder of the season.

Exactly! Just for fun I google searched "Young Mike Babcock" to see if I could find a picture of him in his youth, or his days coaching the juniors, or anything of the sort. Being a fairly famous person you would think there would be some. There...aren't...any. "Mike Babcock" is a character created by the National Hockey League to evaluate fan intelligence. If the reasonably intelligent "rabid fanbase" of the NHL does not notice/care that this man is an imposter then surely they aren't smart enough to give a damn about repeat work stoppages, arbitrary rules changes/enforcement, and blatant favoritism. Worst of all, the plan worked. So well in fact, that one of the premier organizations in the league hired this loutish thespian before being let in on the secret. After a good belly laugh Ilitch, Holland, Devellano, and Nill decided to play along with the charade while closely guarding the fact that the Red Wings ACTUAL head coaches since 2005 have been Todd McClellan, Paul McLean, Jeff Blashill, and Tom Renney. Time to wake up Red Wings fans. We're being hoodwinked! Doncha see?