kickazz

The prognosis looks terrible. First it was big hits and he would be out weeks. Then it was big hits and he would be out month or two Then it was minor hit and he was out for half a year. Now he plays two games - no major impact and he's out on IR. (short term it seems like) Am I the only one noticing this trend?? Supposedly earlier last month he mentioned that the doctors said his situation won't get worse than it is (physically)

Hey you never know. He could be back in a month!

Is anyone surprised? We all knew this was coming. What an awful position to be in for this guy. Love him or hate him, he tried. Im just surprised it came only two games in.. I thought he would at least play on and off this season.

So you were wrong in suggesting he retire?

Lol in his defense number9 isn't ALWAYS that easy to read.

Babcock wouldn't come up with a plan like that. He would just yell at Ovie. A lot.

Don Cherry is a joke I haven't listened to him in years. His opinion to me is meaningless. I take the posters here more seriously than that guy. But I am aware of the Ovie - Cherry 'love/hate'.

What's the canadian way? Crosby's way? Or Toews? Or Stamkos? or Gretzky? Howe? Orr? Lindros? So many different styles IDK which one you're referring to!

No no, remember around May of this year you suggested Zetterberg should retire! So forget the 90 points he should do what LeftWinger suggested and just retire already. Waste of a roster spot.

Kessel and Crosby need to find some chemistry. Once they do, look out.

Do we really know if this was his first time? All we know is Trotz benched him for being late. For all we know it could have been a few times and Trotz wanted to send a message. Either way in this situation what happened was this - Ovie was late. Trotz benched him. Personally I think it's kind of funny because Ovie WOULD be late. The guys a troll. That's what makes him such a fun player to follow in games and interviews/all star games.

Yeah I agree, it happens. I'm just making the point that Ovie isn't your ideal captain. He's the best player for sure. Irreplaceable for sure. But your best player necessarily doesn't equate to being the best leader and best candidate for captaincy (getting a bit off topic). I've never thought of Ovie as a "captain" material type of player. Imo he doesn't meet a lot of requirements of a true captain. Sure I guess he meets the "crazy good a** player quality" and off ice charity in the community but that's not all there is to it. Being late sure as h*** isn't! Maybe I have some bias because as a Wings fan, our leadership quality is just ridiculously awesome and it might be unfair to compare Ovie to it. Who knows.

Uh no. Because he slept in for his practice and make an excuse that he set his alarm for pm rather than am. Godlike goal scorer and all be that was pretty idiotic. You get fired for stuff like that in the non-sports world. You would want to build your team around a captain who can't even show up to practice on time? Especially when prospects will be up and coming and learning from your habits? If anything Barry Trotz made the right decision to cover up for Ovie's dumb mistake. Basically making a statement that this is a professional league and you better show up on time. No matter who you are. Captains lead by example or project it vocally or both. Either way showing up late is not very "captain-like". Being a captain isn't just playing hockey, it's playing hockey and everything else. Anyways my point in regards to Pav getting captaincy over Ovie had more to do with workethic not "two way player or goal scorer". Style of play has nothing to do with becoming a captain.

I mean that is a good point. Love ovie and all but he is not captain material imo. There's a reason why Datsyuk captained that Russian team over him.

Nyquist and Z goals were absolute snipes.

Number9 is correct. The loss of hockey popularity in Detroit is quite evident. We no longer are "hockeytown" of Scotty Bowman/Yzerman era. Lets just hope the new stadium brings more fans back. Actually we've had one home opener and another regular home game. The home opener had terrible attendance. Probably one of the worst in recent times. Home openers should be packed. And they almost always are packed. This year it wasn't. What's more interesting is that this was a home opener against one of our biggest rivals (historically speaking) against our former coach. Still the lower bowl was half empty. This was common conversation for those who actually attended the game and have a good visual of the stadium. So the topic of this thread. "Joe being half empty" isn't unusual. This was on the minds of the fans who attended the home opener as well. This has been noticeable for quite some time now and it was even more evident these first two games.

Its been bad this year and last more so than previous

Alt account to the max.

Again I don't know if Datsyuk's return shud be the cause of breaking up Larkin and Z. Datsyuk and Zetterberg on a line is usually our "oh s*** we need to generate some offense" strategy. We aren't in an "oh s***" situation we're 3-0 to start the season. There might not BE a reason to unite the euro twins and might be better off to keep them separated.

Which goes back to the previous points made 2 pages ago by the other members. I like how this convo worked out.

I'd rather have Z be with Larkin than Datsyuk at this point.

Supposedly Cooper and Blash are good friends http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2015/10/coaching_buddies_jeff_blashill.html

Those tickets are worth like thousands of dollars. A lot of them actually are up for sale on Stubhub.

He makes mistakes even if we play the Edmonton Oilers or Phoenix Coyotes. Tons of them. And his mistakes are usually really really dumb. Just pointing out why he's criticized. Maybe. I'm not saying he had a bad game. The point is Smith is a target for criticism because of track record. I thought this was obvious around here? For the record I think Smith has had a pretty decent start. I'm not complaining.

Because he's going on to be 27 years old and has days where he plays like he's 20