The Datsyukian Deke

I can't get over the fact we're still playing him...over anybody...

Which would be ok, if that happens to everyone. But it does not. What did Lucic get for spearing Danny, 5k?

I hope Chris Illitch decides to sell Kenny...maybe to Walmart, they could use him packing bags. ......... What pisses me off the most right now is, as bad as we've been, we can't catch a break either way. Hitting bar and post when the game was still in reach...can't those things go in, for f***s sake?

https://www.capfriendly.com/players/jonathan-ericsson Took me 5 seconds.. Oh, and when you click on "compare this contract", you get an idea how bad it really is..

Heeey...this at least makes Blashill less likely to sit Ouellet for no reason at all..

@kickazz: I wouldn't have complained about a 36 year old leaving after a one-year-deal, believe me. With the cap the way it is, the shorter the term on older players, the better..

Players and agents sign everything that benefits them. Your GM gets paid for being smarter than them. It's as simple as that.

Giving a 3-year-deal..there was talk about Pavel potentially leaving before... And, even more importantly...bad management for years, wasting cap with crap and thus not presenting a real opportunity to your star players.. I doubt Nick had even retired if this team had still been contending.

I don't even blame Datsyuks agent. The guy is looking for his own money, he gets a share, so hell yeah he is going for the 3-year-deal.. You want to blame someone, if anything, blame Holland. And feel sorry for Pavel for (partially) ruining his own legacy in Detroit...for a difference of just one year...had he been signed for many years more and his daughter became seriously ill or something like that, no problem, go ahead, i'd understand it. But this way? Not so much..

The best part about that is...he could expect to be able to, because of Pavels excellence.

I completely dislike Larkin on the PP so far. If we want the % to go up, I don't know if having him on first PP is a good idea... Kid shines in 5 on 5 because of his speed, but the whole PP structure...not his thing so far, takes too much risk too often, losing possession too often...

Because Nyquist - Helm - Vanek has been clicking and been or best line combination so far this season, I'd bring that back when Helm is healthy again. Give him 4-5 games on the 4th line to get his wheels back, and then try that line again. Unless we find a working combination on the first 3 lines in the meantime....haha.. Right now I would go with Tatar - Zetterberg - Mantha Nyquist - Nielsen - AA Jurco - Larkin - Vanek Ott - Glendening - Sheahan because Sheahan in his current form is a waste of minutes...if everyone was healthy, I would bench him...ok, might still be more useful than Ott and Miller, but that's about it. For the rest of the lines...AA is too talented too get wasted anywhere below 3rd line and I think that 2nd line could click, and with the slump Sheahan is in, having him center the 3rd hurts that line..put Larkin there. And for Jurco..play him 3rd or 2nd or don't play, but stop that nonsense of trying to make the guy a 4th line checker...that's just not him and will never be. I'd rather like to see the guy traded for a future draft pick than watching this crap anymore...

I think we're not going to find progress until we find a coach who actually plays the available players to their strength in the roles they fill into. I'm about to throw up everytime I see Glenny play 2nd line winger. That's just ridiculous, as it was all those years with Babs using Helm there (or even on the top line..). All those wasted years of Dats having such tremendous scoring talent next to him.. Mantha is great right now, because he is used the right way...next to a set-up guy like Zetterberg.

@frankgrimes: Looks like the same timezone I'm in..why don't you just buy GCL?

Given the fact of how much production you lose overall, through the games missed by injured players due to opponents like Emelin, you could argue that having some 4thlining goon just for making those guys think twice about the immediate possible consequences would make an overall "plus" at the end of the day. And to be honest..as long, as we have guys like Ott and Miller who don't produce at all anyway...well, might have someone like Matt Cooke instead, just for intimidation and protection. I'm pretty sure we would benefit from that. .... That's my stance given the current circumstances, don't get me wrong. First of all this joke of a league should get all those idiots removed from the league...but not going to happen...that whole discussion about protection and player safety and health is completely fake...

Your're right about many aspects of it, no doubt. My thoughts are just... - when you're obviously not a preferred destination in terms of city/weather (if i was Stamkos, that would've been a major reason to remain in Tampa, too ), you need to convince otherwise - showing of a roster with bad contracts won't make agents more likely to tell their players, if they wan't to have a chance to win, "hey, go to detroit, they're almost there" - having bad contracts and playing those players has already cost us development time for kids we cannot get back...where would young DMen potentially be if that slot wasn't blocked by Ericsson for years?

No, it just makes him look like he made it to a civilized (read: equal) view on other people, regardless of colour, race, religion, gender or what the F.. else some brainiacs still consider appropriate criteria to judge their fellow human beings. But as evidenced by the election, way to many people in your country obviously lack that required IQ to get there...

http://www.wingingitinmotown.com/2016/11/21/13706150/report-pistons-to-announce-move-downtown-will-share-facility-with-red-wings Confirmed, they'll share the arena.

Our problem is not making the playoffs and thus not drafting top5...our problem is handcuffing the team through overpaying bad or average players to a degree that not enough cap is left to throw maximum money at the real targets in free agency...and then playing these guys in roles they are just not goog enogh for, because playing them lower or sitting them would mean admitting how bad these contracts were... With good management resulting in under, not above average deals for ericsson (or just no deal, in his case..), abdelkader, helm and weiss (previously) we would have enough cap flexibility to offer other terms to the big guns than we were before. Plus, giving away talent like Jarnkrok for one-year-rentals shot us in the foot, too..

I just love the fact that our #1 Center is healthy and versatile enough to play major minutes on the first line, and PP, and PK. Seems like forever since we had that...

I would love a look at.. AA - Nielsen - Tatar Adelkader - Larkin - Z Nyquist - Helm - Vanek (since that 3rd line works great, dont't split them) Sheahan - Glendening - Ott As for defense, as long as E is in, this gets reduced to "whose production/performance is most likely to get hurt the least when paired with him.." ..

Ha, finally is has been discovered how E can contribute to this teams success! Fight! The more, the better! Because...chances are 99,9% that the other team hurts more from missing their guy for 5 minutes (regardless who it is ) than us missing E..

We shouldn't forget that we got an early lead against a team that is a title contender, which we are not. And we scored 4 goals, with goalscoring not being our biggest plus the last years. Petr shouldnt let any softies in, PK should get their s*** together everyone simply has to work the full 60. Then we can win against anybody with the upside of our youngsters. We need to get Miller scratched too, Sheahan to 4th with Mantha in on 2nd or 3rd line and...Ericsson bought out. Which won't happen all of a sudden, but getting AA in over Ott is at least the first step in the right direction. Maybe the Wings could hire some guy for advanced stats to show and read some statistics to Blash and Kenny?

I don't get the three claims on Frk. I didn't see enough to consider him not to pass, so that's a surprise. These GMs either know a lot more than I do () or they're idiots. We'll see..

No, "in Detroit" would absolutely not mean anywhere close to Wings facilities. He's under contract with the Jets and there's something called "CBA" in place.