derblaueClaus

Not keen on the defensive pairs. Smith and Green were too good in my opinion to break them up. Marchy/DeKeyser had some problems for sure but they were our top pair and I think they looked surprisingly decent for that. At least it is not a problem fixed with changing Marchenko for Green. Why Ott is out is also beyond me. I thought him the best of the OMG line.

Not too bad, I think we played pretty well until the wheels fell a little bit off in the third. Vanek was great, PP looked much sharper than last season, Smith/Green were a force out there but our PK still needs some training. All in all I've seen far worse season openers. Oh, and f*** the Refs.

WTF ?

f***.

Nielsen !!!! Bishop f***ed this one up.

Great shot, gotta give them that. Well, thats why Vanek got two.

Pulks is a -1 atm btw.

Great period. I'm surprised how organized they already play. I suspected much more chaos and hiccups with all those new lines and new guys in the lineup.

Who was this Matthews again ?

I'm calling 911, someone has to lock up Mrazek for those robberies.

Mraz is on fire tonight.

Vanek !!!!!

OMG pulls the first PP for the Wings. Not bad.

Here we go ! Show them guys !

So much will depend on if Nielsen can fill his role as No.1 center this season. Let's hope he can fill Dats shoes in that regard.

Thanks, I somehow thought he had already last year.

Offense wins games, defense (and a good goalie) wins championships. Holmström - Yzerman - McCarty Lidström - Murphy Hasek

1. Larkin will lead the Wings in points. And there will be a more than 10 point difference to the 2nd best in the team. 2. The Caps will win their first Stanley Cup. 3. Holland will find a way to trade for Trouba or another young No.1 D-Man.

Can't wait ! LGW !

Love that, maybe add a "over the years." Or make it short and simple : "Thank you Steve "MMS" Shoen. From LGW"

Twitter also has you covered. Weird indeed, I'm eager to see what comes out of it.

Sure. But Holland and the scouting department have to ask themselves if their criteria for picking players was right at that time. I can't answer that, but the decision they made were either due to the wrong criteria at that time or they indeed just didn't pan out as projected. But I wouldn't rule out the former especially if you look at a player like Pulkinnen. Small, highly skilled but can't hold on to the puck. These kind of players worked some time for the Wings but the game has changed over the years and the Wings might have ridden that horse a little bit too long. But whatever the reason, we can't help the fact that our prospects from that period of time just didn't archived the level we would need and our beloved winged franchise needs to figure out why. Just to make it clear: I'm not saying "Its all Kennys fault, tank it and fire him !!!!!!!1111111". Hindsight is always 20/20 and Holland has proven in the past that he is one of the best if not the best GM in the NHL.

That's the weird thing. There is something coming up. Trade or from GR. Pretty much everything already said on this issue. That guys like Frk and Pulkinnen end up on waivers shows two things for me. First that Hollands roster management is questionable at the moment. And that our scouting picked the wrong guys from 2010 to 2013 or so. If that is because the players needed for the game have changed, scouting just got worse, bad luck or a combination of all three I don't know. But we didn't get what we needed out of those drafts for sure and that hurts us now.