Son of a Wing

Disastrous was maybe a little dramatic but I do feel every line needs at least some physical presence. I do agree with you that Nyquist and Tatar have proven themselves enough in GR and deserve to be here full-time. I would just suggest a bit more balance through the lines. Something along the lines of this for this year and next year: (Assuming no buyouts or additions and resigning Brunner) Tatar Datsyuk Franzen Bertuzzi Datsyuk Nyquist Cleary/Abby Zetts Nyquist Tatar Zetts Sammy Filppula Andersson Brunner Andersson Franzen Brunner Mil/Eav/Emm Abby Tootoo Abby Helm Tootoo Miller, Eaves, Emmerton rotating in. 3 fairly balanced scoring lines and a pretty good checking line. With the injuries to Bertuzzi and Sammy I feel either Cleary or Abby is forced into a higher role like we've seen most of the season.

Those lines would be a disaster. First of all who on those top two lines is going to win the board battles? Who's going to the tough areas and is able to stay there? Who's opening up space with physical play? Putting the top 6 danglers on the top two lines is not going to equate to a more productive offence. Do guys like Tatar and Zetts have grit and play bigger than they are? Sure but it's not enough when you look at the line ups they would be matched up against. They would be eaten alive. We need a big body on those lines. Sadly Franzen and Abdelkader are our best options at the moment. Our only option thanks to Holland and Injuries. Second of all, one of our biggest problems has been a lack of net front presence and too many perimeter shots. Those top two lines would only add to those problems.

What exactly does that have to do with anything? The streak was never about the '91 team or any one team or player.

Playoffs are ALL that matter. Anything can happen. To sacrifice our winning culture for a 1% chance at drafting a better player is well....ridiculous. People underestimate the effect the playoffs can have on our young players. We currently have 9 players on our roster who have never played in an NHL playoff game.

haha Thanks. Also if people have never heard of the London Lions i suggest you check this out. If you thought European expansion was just a recent topic then it'll be an interesting read. Here's a quip...

Nice pun lol Rick McCann if actually interested. No one big. He was up and down between the main club and affiliates for a good 10 years. Have to admit it's pretty special having a few boxes of old memorabilia from back then. Still have a few programs with him and Howe and others in it as well as many international items. I will share one story that has always stuck with me. One game my father took a hard slapshot off the ankle in a game but continued to play. After the game he realized his ankle had swollen up immensely and ended up being taken to the hospital for a blot clot it had caused. The result was that he had to get his vericose (sp?) vein stripped from his leg. Very serious condition if not treated immediately. Anyways shortly after this happened he was having a dinner with Howe (said it was steak and lobster lol) and the ankle/leg was swelling so bad that he couldn't even get up. No pressure on it at all. Howe, without hesitation, picked my dad up in his arms carried him up several flights of stairs and called the team doctor. This is an old vet doing this for a rookie in the old days. Howe being Howe I guess. Class act.

Well I guess my username says it all. Father played for the Wings through the 60s and 70s. Was also the captain of the first European NHL (Detroit) affiliated team the London Lions. Needless to say I was a Wings fan from birth. Also it's a coincidence I live in London Ontario.

A deep prospect pool does not equal NHL-ready prospects. At least not in the roles they would be used. The players playing over Tatar and Nyquist are of different skill sets. Management has decided that, with the roster we have, the greatest chance of success is to grind games out. Mike Babcock has proven to be effective at this style of play. Tatar and Nyquist do not contribute much to this. They are very much willing to sacrifice offensive POTENTIAL for players with PROVEN defensive skills. Whether you like to admit it or not it's worked out alright so far despite the spoiled fanbase going nuts. Of course fans should have expectations but to not have the ability to see what this team is going through is naive. To not realize there are at least 10-15 teams just as attractive as us as a destination to play for players is naive. Again this isn't 10 years ago where there's 2-3 teams at the top where everyone wants to go. Talent is spread out more and more. We're not going to get the top players every year. This is a reality.

The talk of Franzen getting bought-out is so ignorant and asinine it's unbelievable. Fun conjecture for knee-jerk reaction fans i guess.

Those figures don't exclude the players on LTIR like Pronger. Might not be many others. Not too sure. I think Vancouver is in the most trouble. Should be interesting to see how the goalie situation plays out.

No I'd love to have a #1 team every year but I realize that is not realistic. Especially in today's capped league. This is not 10 years ago and Wings fans need to step into the current era. Wing's management is trying to build another solid foundation without doing anything too high-risk. This way we can compete for the playoffs on an annual basis instead of making knee-jerk decisions and going for broke one year and recovering for the next few. (see Philidelphia) Hockeytown is a mere nickname. To hold a team accountable to THAT of all things is kind of ridiculous.

Judging by your tone you'd think we're in last. It's a transition period. There's more attractive teams than ever with the parity. With that we will get less and less big name UFAs. Get used to it.

Ya know it's funny. When this season started everyone was chastising our roster, saying we weren't good enough. Declaring us a non-contender/playoff team and stating how we would be lucky to be in the top half of our conference. Too many depth guys not enough impact players. We lost all those key defencemen and Homer and the decline had dawned upon us. Yet here we are almost at the trade deadline and still in a playoff spot. So in summary, if our roster is as bad as people say....If Holland has been that inept over the last couple offseasons/seasons....Why is Babcock taking so much heat? As much as people may not agree with some of his personnel moves its the bottom-line that matters. We are, so far, in a playoff spot with this roster full of "depth players". Quite frankly I think he's done just fine with what he has to work with and hope he stays here for years to come.

It's threads like these that give Wing's fans a bad name.... There's 29 other teams and the talent level between the top and bottom has closed greatly since the institution of the salary cap. You all should get used to not landing every marquee player. In fact it's an incredibly naive view to have. The wealth of the league gets more distributed now than ever. This "spoiled child syndrome" mindset is getting really old.

Where did this whole "decision by noon" thing get started anyways? Ive seen it thrown around blogs and twitter with statements of "he said...she said..." but have yet to see an actual source claim that. I know Don Meehan was quoted as saying a decision was coming either yesterday or today at the latest. If anyone has a source on that, that'd be much appreciated.

I have to laugh that you corrected yourself from "We gonna have 10 def...." to "We going have 10 def...." For a second there I thought this thread was a waste of time....lol

He signed with Petersburg??

Agreed. You're definitely right with how people piggyback popular trends to get exposure though. There's an abundance of "insiders" all over twitter.

Actually it has nothing to do with page hits and all to do with followers. It has 0 impact if a non-twitter user clicks on and reads their twitter post.

Why do I hope that? Because otherwise I don't see how the delay would be in Detroit's favor as far as landing him. Why would his agent do that? I don't know it gets people talking and gets his name out there. Just take a look at how many articles have been written in the media about the guy in the last couple days.

I'm hoping it's his agent (Meehan) trying to drum up as much attention as possible. Otherwise I don't understand the delay if he is in fact choosing Detroit.

Yet if he actually wants to play this season he should realize the earlier he decides the better. Will need time to adapt to a new system not to mention the speed and tempo of the NHL.

Nice Network reference. Perfectly sums up how I feel about waiting for this whole Dekeyser situation to play out... Sure am glad he made his decision by Mond....Wedne......Friday by noo.....oh wait still waiting....

I would say quite the opposite. Two 2nd round draft picks for a top 5/6 slow d-man (who is reported to be out of shape) who is a UFA at the end of the year. They paid a steep price for Brendan Morrow but he has the potential to be an impact player for this season and more.

Not sure why you'd be surprised. It's a Red Wings forum and women's hockey is rarely if ever discussed....ever.