krsmith17

Mantha - Larkin - Frk Bertuzzi - Nielsen - Athanasiou Rasmussen - de la Rose - Nyquist Abdelkader - Glendening - Helm

He was supposed to be out for "2-3 weeks" a week ago, so... another couple weeks I guess...

Not a Red Wings prospect yet, but...

Great news!

Yeah, you never know though. You certainly can't bank on an injury from a contending team, but it could happen, and I'd wait until the offseason to extend him. There may be a few teams looking for an upgrade to go on a run.

I want Howard to be extended beyond this season, but best case scenario in my opinion would still be to shop him up until the deadline, with the understanding that he will get a new contract this summer. Maybe some team will lose their number one long term and cough up a 2nd or 3rd round pick for him. Bernier and Sateri / Rybar can hold down the fort for the last few months, maybe even improve our draft position...

Yup. Besides, is there any Wings fans out there that didn't love Todd Bertuzzi? If so, f*** them. I loved Big Bert. Now I love Lil' Bert.

He went through a 3 or 4 game stretch where he was floating (worse than I've ever seen), but he's played hard the past couple games. Last night in particular he was really moving his feet. Still not near enough pucks on net though.

I agree with this. He's not getting near enough shots on goal. He said last year (or the year before) that his goal every game is to put five shots on goal, because if he does that, more often than not, he'll score at least one. He hasn't been coming close to that most nights. He needs to get back to that shoot first mentality. That comes with confidence, and you can tell his confidence is at an all-time low right now. The team really needs him to get going.

Doing exactly what he did last night. He played a solid game. Like you said, he was "attacking the slot off the boards", he was also forechecking, and creating scoring opportunities. The production has been s***, but I think if he plays the way he did last night every game, the points will come...

I suppose Mantha had another bad game did he? Your Mantha hate is next level s***...

I was going to start a Helm appreciation thread, but I thought maybe that would be a bit much... But I just want to say, I don't mind Helm on the top line with Larkin and Mantha... for now anyway. He was outstanding last night. Won just about every puck battle and created a lot of space for Larkin and Mantha to do their thing. It didn't result in a goal, but a lot of zone time and scoring opportunities. He looked like the tenacious, 22 year-old, dog on a bone Helm when he first entered the league. Good to see. A small aside, Frk also played a great game, had a lot of scoring opportunities and set Megan up for that great chance. He ripped one just wide, rang one off the post, and scored a goal that was overturned due to being offside, and he wasn't credited with a single shot on goal...

Operation LoseForHughes failed. I can't believe he put Larkin and Nyquist out there... Should have been Abdelkader, Glendening and DeKeyser... On a more serious note, yeah, I was kind of pissed to see Abby out there as well, and then to see his sorry excuse of a "deke"... It's frustrating, but we still won the game, so it's whatever.

I agree with this. IF Blashill is still the coach in a few years, and the team is looking like a playoff contender, then we should keep him around. Blash is still relatively young for an NHL coach, and has only been in the league a few seasons. Like young players, it takes time for coaches to develop as well. I've seen improvements in Blashill over the past few seasons. It still pisses me off that he constantly shuffles lines in game, but his game to game line shuffling has decreased significantly in my opinion. Some of his player usage still pisses me off, but he does have limited options. Maybe when Larkin and Veleno develop into reliable two-way centers, that can dominate the circles, he won't be so reliant on Glendening. The most important thing to me right now, like has been mentioned, is that we see growth out of the young players, and just about every one over the past year or two has met or exceeded expectations. That's Huge.

Coach Q might not be around (coaching) when this team turns things around. It'll be a few years before this team is truly ready to compete. Quenneville is 60 years old. There are only 4 coaches in the league older than Q (Tortorella - 60, Desjardins - 61, Carlyle - 62 and Boudreau - 63). What makes you think he would want to spend the twilight of his career coaching a young, rebuilding team? I think IF Quenneville decides to continue coaching, it'll be with a team he thinks he has a good chance to win with in the next few seasons. I doubt he would see that with the current iteration of the Red Wings. I may be in the minority, but I have no interest in Quenneville coaching this team. Keep Blashill around for the remainder of this season, and see who's available this summer. Maybe IF Yzerman comes back to the organization, he would have someone in mind. It's not like there's a shortage of options that could be available... Darryl Sutter, Lindy Ruff, Dave Tippett, Dan Bylsma, Dallas Eakins, Sheldon Keefe, etc, etc...

Trade him before he fades...

We just lost Zetterberg and we got Christoffer Ehn AND Jacob de la Rose... Eat it Canucks!

Do you also form an opinion on a team that you haven't watched in a couple seasons based on Twitter and Facebook comments?... You know the ones... "Holland sucks"... "Blashill sucks"... "[insert player name] sucks"... "this team sucks"... "everything sucks...

and likely to some extent, intoxicated...

No, the reason is, Holland and Blashill are on the same page. It's time for fans (the same fans that have been begging for this rebuild) to get on that page as well... We're not good. Why do people want this team to exceed expectations? That's literally the worst case scenario for this team right now. I'd hate to have an elite coach that was able to pull this team, scratching and clawing all the way to the playoffs, only to get bounced in the first round... "Trust the process".

I'm really not sure how people expected this team to perform this season. Would a different coach make this team any better? Maybe... I'm not sure though. Larkin is having a breakout season. Mantha has struggled. I doubt that's on Blashill though. Athanasiou was playing the best hockey I've seen him play prior to the injury. Bertuzzi is playing above expectations. Rasmussen is playing as well as you can expect a 19 year-old. Cholowski has far exceeded expectations. Who are all these kids that he's "ruining their development"? EDIT: Even if a different coach like Quenneville would make this team slightly better, is that really the best thing for this team going forward. No it's not...

Sorry, but I find it hard to take your opinion with any credence when you admittedly haven't watched a single game in a year and half or longer... Maybe Blashill isn't the best coach in the world (he's certainly not the worst), but this team isn't going anywhere any time soon, regardless who's behind the bench. Blashill is not the reason we're a bad team. We're a bad team because we don't have any elite players. We don't have any elite players because we've been so good for so long. Maybe, if Blashill is as bad as you think he is, he will be the reason we finally get that elite player we so desperately need in next year's draft... Or maybe we'll be bad enough this year despite who the coach is, due to the natural cycle of a salary cap league...

Yeah, I think Nyquist will waive his NTC, in hopes of going on a playoff run and maybe winning a Stanley Cup. He could always come back to Detroit a few months later if both sides agree on a return. Vanek, I'm not so sure. For whatever reason (he likes it in Detroit), he might not be willing to waive his NTC. I guess going to playoff teams that aren't really contenders like Montreal, Florida, and Columbus has soured him on the idea of getting traded at the deadline. Maybe if a team like Tampa or Nashville showed interest, he'd reconsider.

I don't think Green should be traded at this year's deadline. I think Vanek should be, but probably won't. I think Nyquist should be, and probably will. I also think one of Ericsson or Daley and Howard should be, but probably won't...

That's certainly thinking outside the box...