chaps80

Agreed. This down period was inevitable with the salary cap unless you are bang on with most of your draft picks or can attract some elite players away from the teams that drafted them. Not happening.

That's always been Howard. He's got the talent to be one of the best in the league night in night out, but he's prone to mental breakdowns and sudden lapses in his game at really bad times. You never know when it will strike. That's why he will never be the goalie to get the Wings back to a Cup win, regardless of who is in front of him.

Holland isn't going anywhere anytime soon unless Illitch croaks and his son makes it happen.

HAHAHA

Yup. Can't even take advantage of the Kings, who aren't doing too much better points wise, without Jonathan Quick.

Not much if it's mostly tied up in bad contracts.

Yeppp. Do you remember the shot in the first OT that bounced off Osgood and behind him heading into the net and he did this crazy flip and snagged it just before it got over the line? I liked that Osgood guy.

As many skaters for as many shots on goal.

Only the Wings could make a goalie with a 1-5-0 record and 3.20 GAA and .822 SV% look like Carey Price.

Well, the cap came into effect in 2005. Many predicted the Wings to be in the bottom of the league within a few years. It took 12, with two finals appearances and one Cup along the way. Not bad.

The Wings also didn't draft in the first round 5 times from 2000-2010, and the highest they picked was 15th in 2010. That's the result of being a yearly contender.

Exactly. And some of the best players in NHL history have been passed over numerous times in drafts for way lesser players or huge busts. For example, Brodeur was drafted second last in the first round (20th overall) in 1990. Top 10 that year: Owen Nolan-QUE Petr Nedved-VAN Keith Primeau-DET Mike Ricci-PHI Jaromir Jagr-PIT Scott Scissons-NYI (played 2 NHL games) Darryl Sydor-LA Derian Hatcher-MIN John Slaney-WASH Drake Berehowsky-TOR 7 of them had long NHL careers, but only Jagr will be in the HOF with Brodeur. After the top 10, the only real notable names are Brad May-BUF (14th), Keith Tkachuk-WPG (19th), and Bryan Smolinski-BOS (21st). Out of the rest (ahead of Brodeur), two didn't even play one NHL game.

At times yes. But they have both shown they can play if they put effort in. They just don't do it a lot.

Blash would be on real thin ice with water pooling up to his ankles by now with pretty much any other franchise with the piss poor results he's gotten from the players he has. Sure the D has holes and there's no high end scoring talent, but if you look at the roster compared to some others, there's enough here to work with and at least compete respectabley. A lot of it just seems to be players being lazy and not playing hard and to the best of their abilities every night. The OT winner Philly scored a few nights ago is a perfect example. Schenn skates around Howard unmolested while Larkin stands at the far post and DD gets lost after a half ass shot block attempt on a shot that never came. Blash isn't holding guys accountable for s*** like that (Sheahan is still playing after an abysmal start that's continued till now. BENCH HIM!), so they keep rolling along half assing it. The only two who play hard pretty much every night are the two goaltenders, but they can't score goals. If it wasn't for Howard and Mrazek, this team would be so far in the basement that the season would already be over. The nights when either of them aren't channeling early-50's Sawchuk, it's a disaster. The D can't bail them out, and the team can't score.

Haha not all our 1st rounders sucked though. Since 2000: Kronwall Kindl Smith McCollum Sheahan Mantha Larkin Svechnikov Cholowski Kronwall, Mantha, Larkin are the top three. Kronwall was a top D in his prime, and Mantha and Larkin have already made some impact and will be cornerstones going forward. Sheahan and Smith aren't great, but they are decent players who can step up. Kindl and McCollum were obvious busts. Svech and Cholowski it's way too early to tell.

Most of the points this season came in OT/Shootout. Either winner or loser points. Not many regulation wins.

Agreed. I'm surprised Mrazek even got the start against CBJ when Howard was good to go, even though the team got 8 out of 10 points with Mrazek while he was injured. 4-1 loss, Mrazek's benched. 4-1 loss, Howard still starts the next game. Party on Blash. Looks like I won't be going to The Joe before it closes either. I had planned on it, but it's not worth the money or the trip down to see the 2016-17 version of the Red Wings. Can't see the team that opens LCA being any better either.

Well, i don't think Mrazek is ready for 70 games. Not many goalies ever play that many unless they're Price, Lundqvist, or Holtby. A 50/30 split with Howard would be fine, and help get Mrazek more experience going forward with Howard most likely gone after this season, but it's not looking like it'll go that way.

True, he could be back to running a tandem system now. I know Holland said Mrazek was the starter going forward this summer, but I don't remember if Blash agreed with that or not, or if he even commented.

Ahh yeah, screwed that one up. Whatever the rest of the league does doesn't really matter. This team has been going nowhere by striving to make the playoffs and bowing out first round in four of the five past seasons, and in three of those four in 5 games, instead of letting The Streak go and commit to a rebuild. This rebuild on the fly has done nothing. It's had the opposite effect of it's intention. This team is in bad shape.

There was an NHL.com article about the goalie sitch in NY(R), with the author saying no matter how good Raanta has been lately that they have to get Lundqvist back in there ASAP. He mentions the fact that coaches like to ride the hot hand no matter where that goalie is on the team's depth chart, but Lundqvist has been benched over a week, which is plenty of time for him to get his head right and work on the parts of his game that have weakened. Just gotta get him in while letting Raanta know that he's playing starter calibre goaltending right now, and he will be used again soon with a bunch of games in the short time comin up. Howard has been great this season overall while Mrazek has played great but has had some troubles too, but you always need to get your starter going again regardless of how his backup is playing. Blash is always too quick to turn to Howard Mrazek was playing great for the last 5 games, has a bad game, then Howard gets the next start. Doesn't make much sense, but most of what Blash does doesn't make sense. After tonight I figure Mrazek will be back in next game, cause that's how Blash rolls. As for tonight's game by the team overall, embarrassing. Didn't miss much I see.

I have a feeling your being sarcastic, but since the loss in the Finals in 2009, all that's happened is first and second round losses. 2009-Lost in Finals 4-3 to Pittsburgh after going up 2-0 2010-Lost Round 2 to San Jose 4-1 2011-Lost in Round 2 to San Jose 4-3 after going up 3-1 2012-Lost in Round 1 to Nashville 4-1 2013-Lost in Round 2 to Chicago 4-3 after going up 3-1 2014-Lost in Round 1 to Boston 4-1 2015-Lost in Round 1 to Tampa 4-3 2016-Lost in Round 1 to Tampa 4-1 Sad.

No. He played great. Got the team a point at least. He was pretty much left alone on the winner. Schenn was allowed to skate around him while Larkin just stood there and DeKeyser was lost. Defence sunk the team again, as it does most nights. I am very surprised Howard has kept his calibre of play going this far though. Even after the yearly injury which usually results in the yearly appearance of Jittery Jimmy. Good job finally earning the paycheck.

I figured Vanek was gonna be a huge steal and be big for this team as well. He's making less than half of his previous contract right now (but still getting paid close to $8 million this year along with his buyout from MIN) on a one year "Let's see what you've got" deal. He's gonna perform to sign a bigger long term deal.

I thought "fronting" was picking up drugs now and paying for them later. lol