LeftWinger

There he is, hiding in plain sight!

Franzen is no longer a legit threat. Teams have figure him out. All they need to do is play him rough and he turns into a ballerina. Sure he has 5 goals in 12 games and over an 82 game schedule that is 34, but he won't play 82 games, he is too fragile. I cannot tell you how disappointing Franzen has-been (and yes I meant HAS-BEEN) because that is what he is, he peaked in 2008 and 2009 and has been on a downward spiral the last two years. Sad thing is, he has very little trade value, nobody is going to take that Go awful long contract and we are stuck with it hitting us for a cap hit of $3.9M until he is 40. He is making over $5.5M in salary right now as well last year and is nowhere near earning it. As far as I am concerned he and Hudler are both a waste of salary. Still think they should have re-signed Hossa instead, but at the time I can see why they chose Franzen. Too bad they didn't have a crystal ball too see that after he signed that huge deal he would tank it... Let's hope Kronwall doesn't do the same...

Too bad Bertuzzi seems to have lost a step or 60, but I am glad Hudler won't be in. Too bad that none of the "kids" are coming up, does that mean Brunnstrom AND Emmerton are in too? I kinda lost track of the extra players.... Read the article but here is the lineup mLive said they practiced with: Cleary-Datsyuk-Holmstrom Filppula-Zetterberg-Franzen Abdelkader-Eaves Miller-Emmerton-Brunnstrom The third line is missing a player....where is Filppula? perhaps a call up is forth coming? Still need Cleary OFF that first line!

Easy whiskey. A couple of lines are looking good, but our most of our players that are paid to score are still missing...Franzen, Hudler in particular...but I am glad they are playing better! There ya go! A 360 would put them right back where they were... Can't say this loud enough! Holland, we need a SNIPER or TWO! At this point thus far, Holmstrom has been his best winger, may as well re-sign him for another couple of seasons if Holland cannot get a PURE SNIPER.

Much better period, yet there are a few players who are just bad still.... ...funny, Bertuzzi out with the "Flu"

need to get cleary off that top line...man Hossa would look good out there!

Franzen is horrible. He has no confidence what-so-ever... Cleary that was disappointing...

God I hate dump hockey...make a freaking play with it! Enough dumping it through center!!!! Make plays! Be smart!

That is one of those phantom penalty's that the ref said,I think it happened so I best call it just in case, so I don't like stupid by missing it...well guess what, you looked stupid....

Way to go boys, score some in bunches and gain that confidence back! Great Job!

a few good shots, mostly garbage ones though...the played ok, but still not as they can.

Still not excited over Franzen or Hudler... They got a ways to go to get off the s***list...

Wings don't only need to win this one, they need a decisive win....5, 6, 7, 8-1! Something like that to get them out of the scoring funk they are in! Let's Go Wings! We are behind ya! Not gonna happen, not Franzen. Wings don't need another one scoring effort, they need to come out a put tons of pucks on the net and get about 8 goals (5 at least.) They need confidence that they are out of the scoring drought. Sure 1 or 2-0 still ends the losing streak, but they need to know that they can score at will, get some scoring confidence and end both droughts! If we win 1-0, great, but then we still struggle scoring into the next game and that is not good... Hell, I'd even take 9-8 win right about now to exorcise the scoring demons....

Ya got me....maybe they deemed he was assisted into the net area...might be one of those grey area's regarding the rule.

I say f*** the Ranger Boo Boo!

I hear ya, but if they have less than 10 wins after 20 games....then it will be majorly difficult to gain enough to get into the playoffs. Unless they go on a 15 game winning streak, which is not entirely out of the question. I'd like to see at least 13 wins out of 20, but that would mean they need to start a streak right now...they best get going!

Thing is, this team peaked in 2008. Period. The players who are here now that weren't here then just aren't skilled enough to make a difference. If this is the way our "core" is going to play, we have about 20 more years of this mess with all those "lifetime" contract Holland handed out. Although I am sure Holland didn't think that they were going to start diminishing after a couple of seasons...If we are stuck with THIS Franzen and THIS Zetterberg and THIS Kronwall or worse until their contracts are up.....sheesh! Well at least we may see a top 5 draft pick every year for a bit, eh? Seriously though, this team needs to find their identity and search quickly. If they get buried too deep in the standings too early, there wont be any coming back. They got to win at least 6 out of the next 9 if not more in order to save their first 20 games and keep pace for a playoff spot. If they only win 1 or 2 of the next 9, there may be no saving the season...maybe. They'd have to go on a hellacious winning streak if they wanted to get back to the top. Where are you Wings? Please come home!

Nobody would take either of those two from us right now....

Yes...but by no means am I saying he is the only problem, I was just saying that Franzen is not a top 6 forward. But yes, this entire team is playing in mud right now. Cannot trade the entire team, so you just got to see if they can turn it around...and soon.

Fixed it for you.... Zetterberg and Datsyuk, even in their current slumps are our ONLY legit top 6 players... and they aren't getting any younger. This team needs two pure snipers. There is not even ONE on our team and that is our problem...

This is just painful to watch.... I am glad Kronwall is celebrating his new deal by playing like crap since... I have come to my own conclusion, Franzen is hot garbage. I don't want to hear anything about Hudler and his potential anymore. The whole team is playing crappy, but the guys who are paid to score aren't doing it. Has Kipper broke a sweat tonight? If this garbage continues thru the first 20 games, or should I say if they don't win at least 6 out of the next 9, then Holland is really going to have to address this team with some kind of shake up... ...I just keep reminding myself that these are the Red Wings and they are just in an early funk. Better to get it out of the way now, than April. Please....

This is just painful to watch...

Yes, I touched on this earlier as well. If Nashville feels they can only sign one of them and (we'll know in December) Detroit is indeed moving East, Nashville would have no issues trading Suter or Weber to the Wings. Same goes for the other rivals too. Wouldn't mind seeing Hossa come back in a deal, or even Oshie. You shut your mouth when you're talking like that!

He just hasn't been the same player since the incident. Maybe he was using steroids before, I am not sure, nor am I accusing him of using. But, he just hasn't been the same, he is a shadow of his former self on the ice. He cannot turn it back on... a 50 goal scorer would be wonderful to see on this team again...

They did overpay prior to the Cap rule, but it should be noted that they haven't had to overpay their players. Holland is a business man and he is going to try to get the best players he can for the least amount of cap hit. It's not the Wings organization's fault that the players accept a lower deal to stay or come here. Those players who don't give Detroit a chance because they feel they will get underpaid, on't deserve to be here anyway. Kronwall, Stuart, Lidstrom, White they don't have to accept the deals and could even ask for more, it's not like Holland wouldn't pay more to get someone, but he starts low and the player starts high and they negotiate. Besides, it should say something to those other type players (ahem, cough, wisniewski, cough) that if Detroit was such a horrible Scrooge-Like organization, why do the players that come here almost always re-sign and usually wind up finishing their career's here? That is why players like Wisniewski are blantently just in it for the money and not too interested in winning, but hey, if some bottom feeding team wants to throw money around, good on him for taking it. Besides that type of player can only spell the word team with an I and I am not too interested in having them here if that is the case. Which is most of the reason I cannot stand Hudler, maybe the last few years have taught him a lesson or two, but it usually doesn't. Back on subject, in my opinion Suter is worth $7m+ so I don't see Holland having any issues offering him a team high salary, he would be taking over for Lidstrom, right?