kipwinger

I don't know anything about this Pulock kid but he seems to be getting a lot of buzz, which means two things. 1) I should look into him, 2) Detroit will never draft him lol.

Don't try to rationalize the Tootoo benching. Babcock is the only guy on earth who in the same interview can say “I go through this time and time again with players and media and everyone: The players decide who plays, not me. If you play good, you get to keep playing". And then say immediately afterwards, "Now, Lash, there’s nothing wrong with Lash’s game,” he said. “We just want to change here for a day". Sometimes I have to work really hard to convince myself that he's not a performance artist whose whole "routine" is to make obviously contradictory statements just too see if he can talk people into believing stupid s*** simply by scowling and having good hair.

I know this will never happen, and I don't mean to entertain the idea that it would, but just out of curiosity would any of you trade Franzen+Kronwall+Nyquist+1st for Ovie? Moreover, would the Caps take it?

Seriously awesome shift. Scouting report on him says he lacks hustle and intensity. Definitely proved the haters wrong on that one. Atta boy Shawn!

The difference is that one of them scores goals and the other racks up secondary assists. Also, Nyquist's most common linemates last season were Datsyuk and Bertuzzi so it was more than just "a bit more time". Finally, Tatar didn't cool off, or at least any more than Datsyuk, Zetterberg, or anyone else did. Nobody is scoring goals currently. If we take the last five games as any indication then our only offensive threats have been Kronwall and Kindl. Ugh.

At the NHL level Nyquist is not nearly as good as Tatar has been. In spite of being given as much or more opportunity. I don't know what he did to impress you, but if that did the trick then think back 5-10 games ago and pay attention to number 21 and your mind will probably be blown into cosmic dust.

Who said anything about giving up Nyquist and a 1st for Stafford. I know I sure as hell didn't. Nope, he just invented that. Nobody has ever suggested Stafford was worth that.

It also sounds a lot like what a ton of people here at LGW wanted to do with Zetterberg last season during his prolonged scoring slump. That fact that dumbasses want to bench a guy for a slump does not mean that he's comparable to a 34 year old grinder with two bum knees. Also, as I've already said, I don't think Drew Stafford is a superstar, or some sort of saving grace. He's a big, rugged, scoring winger who has loads of offensive talent who would really help out on a team which has ZERO big, rugged, scoring wingers and instead has to use Justin Abdelkader in that role and somehow hope the fairy godmother magically turns him into a scorer. He makes 4 million dollars and is a legit top six winger. How is that an over payment? He's coming of two consecutive 50 point seasons, AND given his size can do a whole lot of other things most of our wingers can't. Like hold on to the puck down low, score from the high traffic areas, wear down defensemen, clear space for the skill guys, finish a check, etc. etc. etc.

Dan Cleary has never in his life scored 30 goals or put up 50 points. He's also not as big as Stafford or as fast. And while Buffalo as a team may not be much worse that Detroit this season, they have traditionally been much worse. Finally, even if the team wasn't as bad as Detroit, it's still a defense first system, and Stafford has NEVER played on the wing of an elite center. We have two of them. Stafford is definitely having a down year. But he's not "Buffalo's Cleary" and is a prime candidate for the old "needs a change of scenery" adage. Never said he was a star, just said he was a good young power forward that would help us. As for the rest of your meandering thought, you just proved my point for me. Lots of teams move lots of guys for lots of reasons. The fact that Stafford is trade bait doesn't mean he's not any good. Give Nyquist a shot at what, getting steam rolled by top defensive pairings while stickhandling and passing them to death? We need goal scorers...he isn't one. Thanks for playing.

You can guarantee it huh? Aren't you just...drum roll please...speculating? The only difference is that you're speculating in a different direction. Well, that and you aren't a professional hockey analyst who's job is to know things like team cap space, player efficacy, internal budgetary limitations, draft and development strategy, etc.

Both Smid and Stafford are 27 years old. Stafford is under contract until 2015. Smid isn't, but only makes 2.25 million. He could easily be re-signed if wanted. Regehr is middle aged, but still very effective. Especially if we do make the playoffs, which I understand isn't a guarantee, of the three he's perhaps the riskiest but still a proven commidity and one that could make a very big difference. As I've said all along, I think we're a competitive team that has underperformed for a lot of different reasons. Injury, roster turnover, etc. But one of the biggest problems IMO is that we simply don't have enough guys in roles their suited for. Our entire season is predicated on whether old guys have enough gas in the tank, whether young guys can step up into roles they've never played, whether certain guys will form chemistry with one another. Just once this season I'd like to see what this team could do with 6 legit top six forwards, and 4 legit top four defensemen. Yeah Stafford's two consecutive 50 pt. seasons were flukes. Also, if I'm following you right now you're suggesting that the only reason that guys get shopped is because they aren't good. Which means that Filppula, Yandle, Iginla, Perry, Clowe, Stastny, Luongo, etc. are all not good. Then again, we do have Nyquist, and lord knows he's the future.

I disagree with the OP. Our defense isn't immobile. Kronwall, Smith, and Kindl are all very capable of playing the transition game effectively. Additionally, our stay at home d-men are all highly mobile for that role. I can't say it's an either offensive or defensive problem. You really have to be able to make things happen as a five man unit. What I will say though, is that when teams don't have any reason to fear your offense, they can be quite a lot more aggressive on the forecheck without fear of getting burned. IMO, the d-men are struggling because teams are pressing us too hard. If you have a good offense, or if you're playing with the lead (something we don't seem to be doing a lot of) then they have to lay back and try to clog up the offense or else get burned. But again, I don't think it's an either/or thing. I think it simply comes down to not having a very good team from top to bottom. You can't squeeze blood from a stone, and you can't take it to the opposition without dynamic players. We had that once, but have slowly replaced highly skilled guys with mediocre substitutes.

I have to preface this by saying that it's only his rookie year and I know Smith will get better. But given that he's not been real good lately, and given that Kindl has looks quite good lately. How many of you would be opposed to Kindl getting Smith's ice time right now. IMO Kindl has been the only defenseman other than Kronwall who has been effective defensively, while still being able to move the puck up in transition. I really like this guy's game right now.

I agree with you to an extent. There are definitely fewer sellers, but we're struggling now. If Holland is going to do something he's going to need to take advantage of the early market. As we get closer to the deadline the prices will increase, and we all know that KH is VERY reluctant to pay market value. Three weeks from now more players will be available, but the prices will be too rich for Holland's blood. Right, no room on this team for big, tough, shutdown defensemen who excel on the PK, or a young power forward on Datsyuk's wing. Good call.

After the last three games I keep expecting to wake up to the headline "Detroit pulls trigger on trade for..." and I keep getting disappointed. There are players to be had, I have no idea why this hasn't happened yet. Is there really that much to sort out? Figure out if Bert is going to be back ever. Figure out if Samuelsson is going to be back and contribute. Figure out if Nyquist and/or Tatar are in your long term plans. Figure out what picks you're willing to part with, and whether they can be replaced by shopping anyone on our team. Does anyone really believe that Drew Stafford, or Smid, or Regehr couldn't be had right now? Furthermore, does anyone really believe that they wouldn't help us? I'm at a loss.

From an article in the Calgary Herald: "Well, it's amazing to me how you can play so well, look so organized, and look so talented. It's almost like you get playing so good that you get loose. It's crazy. We just gave it to them. It had nothing to do with them...To me, that was a disturbing loss because all we had to do was continue to do things right and you win the game." - Mike Babcock. Sure Mike, we were so good that we lost. Gotcha.

I agree. However, I don't think it has anything to do with "getting it". Tatar was effective because he plays a tenacious north/south game and keeps his feet moving. Nyquist plays on the perimeter because he's an east/west player who relies too heavily on stickwork and fancy pants puckhandling to create chances. That's VERY hard to do effectively at the NHL level with any success. Until he moves his legs and goes to areas where the big boys play he'll be relatively ineffective. Tatar doesn't have that problem because he's a tougher kid.

It is up to him, and he doesn't play them.

According to Babs Tatar needed to get sent down because with Flip back in the lineup there's just no opportunity for Tatar on the powerplay. Yet here I saw Nyquist getting PP time, and he so obviously deserves it over Tatar. Also, why is Tootoo not playing? Must be he didn't earn it.

Well this conversation is interesting. Nevermind Mikael Samuelsson, I want to see how long it takes for you guys to start comparing high school stats. On a different note, anybody ever see "Napoleon Dynamite"? That Uncle Rico was a real character, "glory days...they'll pass you by...glory days...glory daaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyysssssss!"

I agree with you, but to me it's about comparing like with like. Kindl is a puck mover, and in that role he's really only comparable to Kronwall, Smith, White, and (maybe) Quincey. When you compare him to that group I'd say that he's out performed everyone except Kronwall. If you compare him to the stay at home guys his defense won't look good, but you could say the same for the others on that list. Depending on if we acquire another d-man, and if that d-man is a shutdown type or an offensive type, then you'd have to judge who the odd man out would be. But barring something major, I can't imagine Kindl getting bumped from the lineup anytime soon.

Babcock explicitly said in the pregame that it didn't have anything to do with Lashoff's play, but that they wanted "a change, just for one game", or something to that effect. Lashoff will be back soon.

Another good game from Kindl last night, and good to see him get rewarded for it. This guy is turning into a legit NHL defenseman at just the right time. Babcock talked at the beginning of the season about guys stepping up, but I doubt he (or most others) thought it would be this guy. At this point it would be pretty hard to remove him from the lineup, but that's just me talking.

Thank god everyone else lost this weekend too. We're still sitting in 4th place in the west and are actually a point ahead of third place Minnesota. Caught a lucky break there, hopefully we can get this turned around soon.

For some reason the Wings fell prey to a massive episode of "groupthink" this summer. They were willing to throw MASSIVE contracts at Suter and Parise, two guys who have NEVER played like they deserved that much money. Presumably because they bought into their underserved reputations. Yet they were scared away from Semin, who's contract is a lot but at 1 year wasn't going to be a problem, also presumably because of an undeserved reputation. I have no idea why Semin got singled out for laziness when the entire Washington organization has the exact same problem. Semin clearly isn't a long term solution, but who can say they wouldn't rather have him on Pav's wing, just for this year, rather than sit on all this cap space for the season. He couldn't possibly have hurt us this season, and he would have had ZERO negative impact on the future either.