lwing

From the first game in 2001 you could not keep your eyes off this guy. "Who the heck is this kid and how in the world did they find him?" Every single year he made improvements to his foundation of insanely out of this world skills and creativity. He got stronger, he got better on D, he shot more, he stole more pucks, he developed even more jaw dropping moves, he started actually celebrating goals a little bit more with the rest of us (who were usually jumping and screaming at what we saw), and he took on the role of a leader. Above all he was and is a class act. I have zero tolerance or respect for those who are angry that he is leaving and feel he somehow "owes" the Wings or you anything. It is his life and like all of ours, you get only one and it is short. He lost his mother at about the same age his daughter is now. Of course I don't know the man, but I think it is easy to figure this out and appreciate the internal struggles he wrestled with. Family is more important than anything. Good for him.

Such authority. Were you president of a debate club? Look around, there is no shortage of debate. You seem to have a way snubbing people who probably agree with you on major points. I agree 100% Holland needs to act and has not. I disagree in that he has said the right things, even this week. He always leads with excuses.

Instead of apartments: http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2016/01/detroit_mayor_expects_resident.html I really wish they would turn the Joe space into a public space/park. I think it would do a lot for the city - many great cities have done this (Chicago as the most extreme example, but that came about after the fire). Detroit has essentially walled off the river front with the Ren Cen, Cobo, Joe... while the few parks on the water have always been the best places (Hart Plaza, Chene Park).

After Crosby snubbing Lidstrom, my #2 painful memory from that game 7 are two awful plays by Brad Stuart - turnover to a goal, penalty to a goal. We were out coached the entire series with Pitt being more adaptable, but it really was ours to win or lose. Had Stuart not played like a ditz in that game, we might have our second 2 cup streak. You will not convince me - Stuart should have committed seppuku after that one.

Thank you sir. You can still be a fan and be critical. Being a homer serves nobody right now. The only bold move I remember Holland making was whipping out the Ilitch check book and signing Hasek, Hull and Robitaille. I have seen no evidence of boldness, genius or strategy since the cap. He is not capable of dealing with constraints. He is handcuffed by his aversion to risk and lack of creativity in utilizing all available assets including trades, scouting, and taking chances by letting hungry young players challenge the veterans for their job. One more thing. Accountability. Especially on D. Only a bunch of guys feeling safe in their job could have performed so inconsistently this year. Even with the mediocre talent on our D, a little good old fashion tough love and a culture of fear of failure would have driven some of them to perform better. But even if he makes some moves here, we will fail with this coach. He is not remotely close to the smarts and leadership of our winning coaches. Another safe call.

I went back and looked at the numbers and holy cow, you are 100% right and I was 100% wrong. Look at that, internet forums really are a place of enlightenment! Actually, that was sarcasm. I did look at the numbers (http://www.sportingcharts.com/nhl/rivalrylisting/)%C2'> for the past three years TB has out measured the Wings on key stats AND they beat us twice in the playoffs (once without key star players).

But why didn't he say the right things the past few seasons? All I have heard are excuses - cap, trading, parity, availability of players... Always some excuse with Kenny yet other teams win playoff series and cups.

Yes, he would have. He built something in TB while Holland fiddled in Detroit.

I find this is the only thread I want to read here. Thanks for all these videos. The assist vide is fantastic. Just a few thoughts here. Datsyuk lost his mom at 16 and his dad about 10 years later. There are more important things than hockey and in the end there is nothing more important than family. If he wants to spend time with his daughter, I can appreciate that.

Well it is only a sample size of 1 fan, but heck, I'll take it as proof positive of Hawks fan rudeness! :-) I see this selfish crap all the time from all kinds of people in NYC, Philly and DC. Once saw an able bodied male refuse to pick up his bag so a very old man, 70-80s easily!, could sit down. I repeat, his bag had it's own seat!!! A few of us passengers gave him sh%t and told the conductor (commuter train) who made the loser move it (not to mention a sign to move your bag right in front of the jerk). Honest, there are times I wish it was legal to call someone out for a good old fashion fist fight.

Yea, but... Who else in sports can say they have a 25 year playoff streak? We have a great young team that almost won many of the games they lost! In this playoff series were tied in the third period every game! We need more time for our young players to develop! The refs suck and have it in for Detroit! Holland hands are tied by the cap! ..ok, I can't do it, but I'm sure others can do just fine in coming up with all the weak head-in-the-sand homer excuses.

Genius!

Because he says stupid meaningless stuff like this after every game (including the last): “I thought our guys played really well, we just couldn’t find a way to find the back of the net, obviously,” Blashill said. “You can say whatever you want, but in all four losses, it was tied in third period. The power play wasn’t good enough. When you put yourselves in position to win hockey games, you gotta win them.” Because he was hired because of his reputation with our young talent, but then he wasted a year not developing our young talent, killing our old talent by depending on them for everything, failing to improve and make accountable our medium age talent, and didn't benching those without talent. Because he works for Kenny Holland, the most over hyped "genius" in any sport. Because we will waste another year with him before realizing he is not the guy to lead this team.

Dude, this is dangerous. Some of us have jobs! I want to add one thing. Beyond all the moves and stick handling, the guys wrist shot is just sick. Very unique.

At this level, I think you ask them to do both. However, you have to have this commitment all season long and I don't think I am alone in thinking the primary goal here was to make the playoffs no matter what and no matter what our outlook would be in actually winning something once we were in. The drive was a fear of losing, not a desire to win. Now it is simply too late. I listened to Blashill's reasoning about Mantha, and as someone who works with stats (and saw Moneyball :-) ) was not impressed. I really wish someone asked the other question - why keep playing some of the guys who aren't succeeding? If pressed I'm almost certain Blashill would say the reason the PP is not succeeding is due to a lack of PP goals! Now there's a correlation for ya!

I'd really like to share your optimism, but Blashill isn't inspiring confidence in me and this goes back before the playoffs. I don't see any signs of strategy or adaptability and we have boatloads of promising offensive players under performing while hungry young guys sit. And our D? Enough said. Buck has to stop somewhere, but maybe Holland is calling the shots on who plays. If true, then both are failing to do their jobs.

I am with you 100%. I just ranted about this in "Fixing this mess" What other coach in any sport would say this? This stubbornness and lack of logic is disturbing. People like that rarely change. We are in for a long road of misery here. Dave Lewis Junior.

I'm not a frequent visitor, so didn't want to start a whole new thread on this, but to me, a big part of this mess involves the inexplicable comments from Blashill on AA. He wins the game for us and shows more energy and drive than 80% of the other forwards (if not all) and yet we hear that he is uniquely talented to capitalize on low minutes and despite scoring and making things happen we need to keep him to low minutes?!?! This makes zero sense to me. Blash needs to take a course in logic and critical thinking. It is almost as if Blash will never backtrack on this, even if AA ends up with a hat trick of spinorama goals on 8 minutes of play. If we had so many other forward dominating, then I could see this, but those days are loooong gone. To me this is a big symptom of the Wings outdated mindset of carefully cultivating young players for years and years. I firmly believe that if we let these hungry talented kids loose, the veterans would perk up and play for their darn jobs (since they don't seem to be showing up for their paycheck as it is). Of course fear of streak handcuffs KH and Blash. Sorry, end of rant!

If Holland is deciding on who plays for Blashill then both need to go. This is depressing. Our team has been sliding into mediocrity for years and for the first time I just want the season to end as soon as possible.We had no business making the playoffs and it just gave al the deniers one more excuse in a mountain of excuses. Accountability. Is there any? Maybe we need Martha Ford to come over and clean up the exec suite for the Wings.

A little off topic, but can anyone see a player like Abby scoring 20 goals without Datsyuk? I love the guy (Abby), but I don't see it (though would love to be wrong). "Fixing this mess" is going to get very messy and very real.

I wish I wasn't such a pessimist. You have a great attitude. I'm afraid I am too much on the Dark Side here, but I appreciate your outlook!

Yes, that is the one I mentioned (my bad, it was Devereaux not Dandy). Thanks for such a cool and long clip of that! As for some of you, I believe this is the "APPRECIATION" thread? :-)

We are in 100% agreement. Weight, dead or not, can be found in any age!

From the first time this guy stepped on the ice in a red jersey you couldn't help but watch him. Outside the big ones, here are a few of my favorite memories. First year, he made a deke where he "passed the puck to himself" off the back of the net then made a ridiculous move and pass to Dandy to score. The breakaway he made in the famous triple overtime SCP game with Carolina and deked the daylights out of three or so players (so close to ending that game). SCP with the Penns where he faked a pass back to Kronval, but then used his dragging foot to kick it back up to himself was off the charts creativity, skill, confidence and daring INSANITY! The time he was being asked about his on ice vision and how many people he sees and his response of something like, "I see about twenty thousand people."

I wish Pavel the best and he doesn't owe anyone a thing. Besides, with Holland so expertly carefully planning for his (and Z's) eventual retirement (just as had with Lidtstrom), the Wings are in extremely competent hands with a strong core of proven veterans who show up every single day to play and, gosh darn it, they pay to win! But there is more. They also are doing double duty in working with coaching to entrust a strong group of youngsters to take the reins. Just think how lucky we are are! Holland could have easily ignored reality, rewarded poor performing veterans, made high stake losing gambles on free agency, lacked the guts to trade away dead weight, and delayed the development of our young players, all in the name of clinging to useless playoff streak!