kipwinger

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.

Bu-bu-bu-but Babs is a Jack Adams finalist in the making. We're just all to dumb to understand his genius. It takes a real visionary to squander your best offensive threat in a game you're losing 3-0 just to prove that you don't have to change things if you don't wanna...

I'm with you lock step on this one. I have no idea why anyone thinks Yzerman should be our GM. Oh wait, yes I do.

That's actually pretty funny. It's hard to tell whether he was pointing out that the BJs were winning, or sincerely trying to explain to Abby that there's such a thing as a score board, and that it's good to know about and contribute to it.

I didn't watch the end of this one, what did Prospal do to piss everyone off?

greeeeaaaaaaatttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!

I wouldn't be so sure. He'd never be able to maintain his reputation as a big hardass if he admitted he was wrong about something.

Franzen on the PK? Why?

Did I miss a memo? Is it against the rules for anyone else to shoot on the PP aside from Kronwall?