kipwinger

Hard to say who to target. Most teams aren't already out of the playoff picture so they'd generally be reluctant to part ways with a goalie I'd think. Vladar sucks. Markstrom has been good but he's old and has a bad contract (which should make him cheaper to acquire), but will he hold up? I've mentioned John Gibson elsewhere so I'll throw another name out there. Juuse Saros. He's young, really good, is on a bad team, and will be a UFA in a year (and there's no way he's staying in Nashville). He'd cost a lot but he's probably the best goalie that could reasonably be had. Nashville is about to start rebuilding so they'd want futures. I'd imagine you're looking at a 1st plus a good prospect and maybe a decent young roster player. Something like 1st, Berggren/Veleno, and Wallinder/Johansson/Mazur. Just a guess but I think that would be you in the ballpark.

We're scoring enough goals to win most nights (7th in the league in goals per game). Our defense and goaltending is absolute trash though. Chiarot and Petry were on the ice for 4 of the 5 goals scored by Ottawa on Thursday. Reimer and Husso look completely lost most nights. Lyon looked solid actually, but I don't think you'd want to bet your season on him. If the Wings brass wants to make the playoffs this year they need to do a few things: 1. Find a solid goalie. It's gonna have to be via trade and it's going to have to be soon before teams like the Oilers get in the mix. 2. Call up Edvinsson and keep him up and in the top four. Put him with any of Chiarot, Petry, or Holl based on the chemistry of the pair. Walman and Seider are fine and so are Maatta and Gostisbehere on the 3rd pair. 3. STOP. TAKING. STUPID. PENALTIES. Lalonde should use an actual gun and murder the next player that takes a stick penalty late in the 3rd period. Anything else we do beyond these three things is gravy. I'm not going to be mad if we get more scoring, or another offensive center (Tommy Novak anyone?) or whatever. But to make the playoffs the things I listed need to be dealt with immediately.

Last night's game was pretty damning for the Griffins' veteran leadership. Anybody who follows the AHL knows that the teams that generally make the playoffs are those with a lot of AHL veterans in key positions. For Grand Rapids that's guys like Hirose, L'Esperance, Spezia, Shine, Didier, Gettinger, etc. Those guys got absolutely exposed last night. The Griffs gave up 5 even strength goals and Hirose, Didier (the captain), and McIsaac were on the ice for three apiece. None of our young defenders (Edvinsson, Wallinder, Johansson) got scored on at all. Offensively the young guys led the way again, with Hanas, Berggren, and Lombardi each scoring to keep the game respectable. Spezia was the only vet that scored. L'Esperance was the Griffins leading goal scorer a year ago, he's got no goals and 2 assists through 11 games. Hirose and Gettinger are the only vets providing any real offense and they're getting caved defensively most nights. In a league where veteran leadership really matters, the Griffs are sorely lacking. But don't let that fool you into thinking the kids aren't playing well. They're the only bright spots on the team.

In a game where the Griffins gave up 7 goals, Simon Edvinsson had two points and didn’t get scored on while he was on the ice. He’s too good for the AHL.

Im watching the Griffins tonight and Cossa is looking sharp. Pretty encouraging to see him coming along.

I saw the score and assumed we were getting trounced until I saw the period stats and it looked like we were pretty much in control. Wow, Reimer looked stellar on that one.

I missed the first period but according to all the stats it looks like we're dominating them everywhere but the scoresheet. Bad day for our goalie or what?

Couple of big games here with a lot riding on the points, excited to see how the boys respond to the pressure.

I didn't even realize that. I just assumed the were bad. Looking at the standings they're in the first Wild Card position (in a crowded field) so you're right, we'd have to wait for the standings to shake out a little bit more. I'd definitely keep my eye on him though, he'd be a good get.

What about John Gibson? He's a stud goalie and his contract is bad enough that Anaheim may be willing to eat part of it just to get it off the books while they're rebuilding. If they'd eat a million bucks and we'd get Gibson at 5.5 million for the next three years I'd be pretty happy with that outcome.

Since the rumors about Kane won't go away I thought I'd play with the lines a bit. Here's what I came up with: Dcat-Larkin-Kane (if Kane is signing to play exclusively because of Dcat with only makes sense) Copp-Compher-Raymond (I love this line more than any other linemate Copp/Compher have had) Kostin-Ras-Sprong (Loved this line last night and Ras and Kostin seem to have chemistry) Fischer-Veleno-Fabbri (this line was good last night but I'd mix Perron in to rest Fabbri and/or in case of injury) I really don't hate these. The top line is going to sacrifice possession a lot but hopefully can score beyond their mistakes. They'd have to be utilized carefully. The 2nd line is a hell of a matchup line since all three are responsible players. They would score a decent amount as well since Copp and Compher have the puck a lot and can both make plays to set up Raymond. This third line could do some serious offensive damage and would be a load to deal with given their size/skill combo. The fourth line is "blah" but it worked yesterday and I don't hate it against weaker competition.

I think it's pretty funny, and I don't mind it. My one problem (and this is true for other teams like Chicago as well) is that it's meant to troll the other team. We score a goal and rather than celebrate our team's accomplishment we're trying to be irritating instead. I kinda don't like that part of it. Why not "Detroit vs. Everybody" by Eminem instead? Like, make the point that our team did something good as opposed to "something bad happened to your team".

Every time Kevin Weekes calls a game I’m reminded why I’d like to see him jettisoned into space on a rocket.

I really like this Kostin-Ras-Sprong line too.

I really like Christian Fischer as a bottom sixer. If you can’t score being big, tough, and fast is a decent enough fall back.

Shoutout to the NHL for their TV distribution strategy. I have the ESPN plus app, the Bally app, Hulu, and Max. All of which have carried Wings games so far this season. So of course todays game is on none of them. If David Perron is not going to be contributing to the success of the powerplay in a meaningful way then why is he on the roster?

This will be a good game for the boys to get back on track. Looking forward to a solid effort.

I'm kinda baffled by Lalonde in general lately. Overall I'm not mad at his job performance, but I'm starting to question certain things. I genuinely can't understand why he's deviated so far from what made us successful for the first 6 or 7 games. Both in terms of lines as well as the powerplay. It makes no sense to change something that has shown it can clearly work, even if (in the long term) it won't work AS WELL as it was. He took something that was working so well that it was unsustainable and completely altered it because it stopped working at that unsustainably high rate. AND THEN he won't even consider changing that top defensive pair despite the fact that they've been getting caved for five or six games now. Not that I'm saying he should change it, I'm just curious why you'd change a top of the league powerplay but not a top pair that sucks. Like, what's the rationale for one and not the other?

What a monumentally dumb thing to do. Like, “Brendan Smith hitting the puck with his hand from the bench” levels of stupid. Im not surprised, this is a guy who thinks a cosmic entity in the sky is able to create time and and space but instead cares what jersey he wears for warmups. What a f*cking dips***.

Shoutout to James Reimer for committing the dumbest f*cking penalty of the season (so far). Cost us the extra point. What an asshat.

I can't see real well, is that Brendan Gallagher or Pat Verbeek?

*Red Wings have a league best powerplay* Everyone: The Red Wings powerplay is due for some regression. *Red Wings powerplay regresses* Lalonde: We've got to change the powerplay completely! How does this make sense? Arber Xhekaj's last name makes more sense if you spelled it backward. "Jakehx" looks like it could be pronounced "Ja-Kai". "Xhekaj" does not.

Good idea, we can probably get McDavid for them.

When are we going to talk about the fact that Seider and Walman have sucked pretty hard so far this season? Aside from that crappy goal against we're kinda handing it to them so far in the 1st.

Looking forward to seeing Xhekaj and Kostin rumble at some point tonight. Edit: Really liking how the Fischer-Ras-Kostin line has looked so far this game.