kipwinger

Nice choice for lunch. Did you spit on the windows of American coney as you walked by? Lol Never been to the Wings Club, hope it's good for you (though I suspect not for your wallet). Have a great time man and give us updates on the game as it plays out. And I'd recommend being in your seat by the time the pre-game intro/video package starts. The Wings' media team does a great job and the video package was definitely worth seeing.

Where'd you eat?

We play Ottawa again January 31st. If I'm Lalonde I'd tell one of my tough guys to try and go with Joseph on his first shift. If he won't go, move on to Plan B...dump the puck to Chabot and Sanderson and run them through the end boards for the rest of the game.

The return on Gibson will be interesting to me because he's a good goalie, but he's making a lot of money and has a lot of term, and most contenders won't be able to take that contract on without sending something back. This is basically what happened with Chychrun last year at the deadline. Arizona didn't want to take anything back so they had to settle for less. That said, taking back an expiring contract (like Husso) shouldn't be an issue for them. It'll be interesting to see how this shakes out.

Well this is extremely promising.

"Edvinsson's delay" isn't about maturity. He had offseason shoulder surgery and the prognosis was that he wouldn't be ready for camp. So SY went out and filled the roster with guys that would be ready. When Edvinsson returned early his path to the NHL was blocked and it would be a bad look to re-sign Maatta, or acquire Gost, Holl, or Petry and then immediately cut them without playing a game. The plan was always to wait for an injury to solve that problem for SY and there haven't been any. None of this has anything to do with his play.

I've stated elsewhere, Karlsson is trash and the trade being a "big deal" was the entire point. Kyle Dubas LOVES to be the center of attention.

When everyone is healthy I hope they keep Veleno at center. I'd like to see Larkin, Compher, Veleno, and Fischer as our four centers and then get Copp and Rasmussen back on the wing. Veleno with Fabbri and Perron should be able to carve up depth defenders.

Veleno is stepping up in a big way.

This is a game we can, and need to, win. To stop the bleeding at least. Veleno was great last night and I hope he can keep that going. I'd also like to see more consistent lines instead of line juggling. Maybe something like this? Fabbri-Veleno-Raymond Debrincat-Copp-Kane Berrgren-Ras-Sprong Czarnik-Fischer-Aston Reese

If none of the three goalies are very good, and they aren't, then what's the difference between rotating three s***ty goalies and rotating two s***ty goalies? The roster spot it still better used on a player that can help us win games, not one that's sitting in the press box every night. Berggren can (and does) score goals. Right now we need those more than having James Reimer playing every fourth game.

Or one good goalie.

Steve, given recent events do you still think that carrying 3 goalies is the optimal way to construct this roster?

Veleno looks fantastic considering he’s our 1C tonight against a top team.

You’re insane. Look at the minutes those guys are playing. Out there killing penalties against one of the top teams in the league and then are back out two shifts later to take a defensive zone faceoff. Veleno, Ras, Copp, and Fischer are doing God’s work tonight.

Anyone seen the Shoresy episode when he crosschecks the dude for trying "The Michigan" twice in a game? That's David Perron right now and I love him so much for it. I'll be a fan of that guy until the day he dies and I'm seriously considering starting a GoFundMe to pay his fines. I wish he'd have done it to Stutzle to let them know, you take on of ours it's open season on yours.

F*ck, forgot about that time Jamie Benn broke his neck.

So Larkin DEFINITELY has a concussion then?

I’d say that’s pretty close on the return considering his contract is fairly high. If Anaheim wants out of it without retaining salary then they’re going to have to take a little less than is optimal.

Well that's two of us coming to the same conclusion. Basically a done deal at this point.

All this talk is too rational for me. Boooorrrrrrriiiiiiinnnnnnggggg. Seems clear to me that we're trading for John Gibson, keeping Lyon as a backup, and moving on from Husso and Reimer. You heard it here first.

Believe me, I'm skeptical too. I'm commenting on it here because A) there's a rumor, B) the Wings are down two top forwards and have goaltending issues so there's a need, and C) Berggren was didn't play for GR yesterday. In total it seems like there COULD be something brewing, but I'm entirely speculating.

Rumors swirling around Berggren right now. I've seen some speculation about Hanifin but that one doesn't make much sense to me when we've got Edvinsson ready to go. If Larkin is going to be out long term we need to chase Elias Lindholm. If Larkin will be back relatively quickly I'm thinking a move for a goalie makes the most sense.

I understand what you’re saying but I don’t think last night was the same thing as those two games last season. Last year we were bullied and humiliated on the ice with a full compliment of forwards and no injuries. Last night we played without a significant portion of our team after a really really scary on ice incident and battled like hell to the final buzzer. The score might have looked the same but the effort wasn’t.

I actually liked the effort of the guys last night when you consider we were playing with 9 fowards and both our top centers were missing. We had a lot of chances and while we were definitely going to lose that game after the first (it was like the wind was sucked out of the room at the arena) they kept working and tried to get back in it. Kudos especially to Veleno, Rasmussen, and Fischer who were out there for some of the roughest minutes I've ever seen anyone play in a hockey game. Those three were dogs last night. My big takeaways were, A) we've got to figure out our goaltending. Not like "who's the starter" but rather "which two are we keeping". We need skaters occupying that last roster spot. B) If Kostin isn't playing in last night's game then why's he on the team? He looked really good two games ago and was out last night. What gives? C) Holy f*ck the penalties. We take sh*t penalties ALL THE TIME and it's killing us. Perron, Rasmussen, and Walman all took dumb penalties last night that hurt us as much as losing Larkin. We have to learn to play disciplined hockey. D) If we're going to take penalties at least be physical and earn them. I was fine with what Perron did after Larkin's injury, but otherwise we didn't respond until the 3rd when the game was out of reach. At that point we had a meaningless fight and Seider threw a few hits that didn't matter. Set the physical tone from opening puck drop against teams like that. I mean, we're taking penalties anyway. I'd rather they be for roughing than for tripping or slashing. Ugh.