kipwinger

Kane started. Derek is a freedom loving American after all.

He's got 200% less goals than Michael Rasmussen.

Yeah, we were coasting a bit in that period. Pretty sloppy. Look for us to get an early powerplay in the second and take over from there. I think they'll get it going now that they know SJ aren't pushovers.

He better. I'm so goddamn pumped right now.

Does Lalonde start Kane tonight or is he a fascist? We'll find out in 10 minutes.

Another goal by ASP today. That's 9 so far on the season, typing the record for most goals ever by a U20 defenseman in the SHL. He's still got more than half a season to go. SY got an absolutely gem at 17OA.

Who knew that JT Compher was going to be so important to our team that taking him out of the lineup would cause major disruptions throughout our forward group? Oh...that's right...I did. That dude is f*cking awesome.

Sh*t.

He isn't? I'm just hearing this. So Debrincat and Kane will have Copp then? Not ideal but also not the end of the world. So it's this? Veleno-Larkin-Raymond Dcat-Copp-Kane Fabbri-Ras-Perron Kostin-Fischer-Sprong

Soooo, is everyone else going nuts today or nah?

As is tradition, lets see some BOLD predictions for the season. It's no fun if they're predictions everyone already thinks will happen so you're encouraged to go out on a limb a bit here. I'll start (and I'm keeping it to 3): (I've made this prediction elsewhere) Given that they both play over 50 games, Edvinsson will outscore Seider at even strength and his defensive metrics will grade out more highly than Seider's (as measured by Dom Luczyszyn's player cards at The Athletic). I'm using this measurement because it doesn't require I buy a new subscription and because there's no obvious way it's biased toward one or the other of Edvinsson or Seider. Michael Rasmussen will score 20 goals and 50+ points and people will begin talking about him as one of the best young power forwards in the league. The Wings go .500 (or better) against Tampa, Toronto, and Boston.

Those forward lines are really good. If we can get Edvinsson in the lineup and maybe shore up our goaltending at the deadline we're a really competitive team. We've got scoring on every line, responsible centers on each line, lefty/righty on each line, size, toughness, skill. Aaaaannnnd we're getting our lineup sorted earlier than most so we've got 75% of the season to work on chemistry and gain reps. We could really be on to something here. Veleno-Larkin-Raymond Debrincat-Compher-Kane Fabbri-Copp-Perron Ras-Fischer-Sprong Kostin Walman-Seider Edvinsson-Gostisbehere Chiarot-Holl Petry

I dunno man, LeftWinger has been around forever. How would it look to lurkers thinking about joining the board now that the Wings are good again?

https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/teams/detroit-red-wings/line-combinations

I know. I was responding to his (joking) post about developing a strategy to get Brandon bounced from the WHL playoffs early this year so he can play with the Griffs.

Sure, they were all tough compared to you or I. But I'm saying, was Orr tough compared to actual tough guys in the NHL back then? Because I know Coffey wasn't. The reason I ask is because the number of fights a guy has doesn't really mean anything if he's not actually tough/fighting tough guys. Look at Abdelkader.

I like Chiarot and I'm glad he's on our team. I just don't want him anywhere near our top four.

This is probably on target. Going into the 3rd against Montreal the other night I was thinking, "we're about to run this up". That obviously didn't happen. So then clearly it's about learning how to execute the game plan properly rather than the game plan being flawed? Because one suggests the coaching is bad and the other suggests that the team just needs more coaching and more reps.

Before my time, did he fight actual tough dudes though?

I don't care whether Seider fights or not, but I do wish Kostin/Fischer/Chiarot would have beat the sh*t out of someone last night. Both Fabbri and Larkin got hit hard in the numbers. Would have liked to see some kind of response there.

Same, and I genuinely don't know the answer to this. There has to be a rationale behind doing it. But it also clearly isn't working. So I'm left wondering whether the strategy is flawed or the execution is flawed.

Danielson is coming on a bit now, but ultimately he hasn't really been dominating in the WHL. I'm not in a rush to move him up a level just yet. After training camp I thought maybe he should be on a fast track but it hasn't shaken out that way. I think he needs to just play at this level and learn to dominate before we start thinking about him in GR.

I presume he would as well, but Brandon is pretty solidly in a playoff spot so I don't think it matters much. Maybe if they lose early.

I get what you're saying, and I've said the same things myself. But there has to be a reason why teams do it right? I guess I'm trying to consider whether Lalonde does this defensive shell thing because it's was effective in Tampa and we just need to improve at executing it? Using your analogy, team's don't run a 2 minute offense all game in the NFL because you're more likely to make mistakes, you'd tire out your offensive player, take more penalties, etc. They do it situationally because it can sometimes work in short stints. But here's the thing, teams have to drill their hurry-up offense over and over and over to get good at it. It's not just their regular offense but all sped up. It's an entirely different system. So is our defensive shell an entirely different system that we need to keep working at to improve upon? Or is it a bad concept overall? I have no idea.

Legit question here, but do good teams also go into a defensive shell when they have a big lead in the 3rd but just execute it better? I'm wondering if this isn't something Tampa did, Lalonde learned (or helped implement) and he's trying to teach the Wings how to do it...but we're just not very good at it? The reason I asked is because a few years ago it was all the rage to criticize Blashill for using the drop pass on powerplay entries. Everyone raked him over the coals about it. But if you watch, most of the rest of the teams in the league use it too. The problem wasn't that we used the drop pass. The problem was that we weren't very good at using it and needed to get better at it. So, is playing a conservative system late in a game the league standard that we need to improve upon? Or is it something we shouldn't do at all?