gcom007

And for the love, I don't get how anyone could be really upset with how things are going so far this year. It's not perfect, but damn, I think we're playing much better than one could say we even have a right to with this lineup. Something is clicking and we're picking up good wins and not nearly as many ugly losses as the last couple years. And we've done so despite having early injuries to some notable guys. I'm not saying we shouldn't make a deal if a good deal is there to be had that would improve this team, but I'm genuinely quite happy with where this team is at for the moment, and I think it's reasonable to expect that Weiss could come back and contribute on some level too. Hell, and maybe even Alfie will find his way back, and if he's healthy, the guy can contribute on the scoresheet. He proved that last year despite having to deal with a long Olympic grind at his age no less. We've seen a good number of games now, and without a doubt I'd say that it's much easier to be patient this year than it's been the last two years. I'm really loving this season so far, and I think we've got some serious potential even if we don't make any moves.

Definitely agree. The team has really been solid this year and even if they may be playing above what might have been reasonable or what might be reasonable to expect down the road, so long as they keep it up, there's no need to do much tinkering. Especially with Weiss getting a shot soon. Let's give him a month in the lineup and see what he can do and we really might not even need to even think about rocking the boat at the trade deadline unless we can improve the D. I still feel like we could stand to improve on defense more than on offense if we're thinking about doing anything in the playoffs.

You've got to be happy with Howard's play this year; he's bounced back from a rough season really well. But yeah, you're absolutely right. Unless Jimmy becomes a playoff beast in the next two years with a Cup or two involved, I think he's going to be on the trade block in the next 1-2 years. It'd suck to see him go in many ways as he's been a solid goalie for us most of the time, but he's clearly one of our best assets that we could use in a trade (once Mrazek is ready) and on top of that McCollum seems to be having a better go of it lately as well. These guys are younger and Mrazek in particular just has a ton of potential. Had Howard been able to elevate his play earlier on, maybe this wouldn't be an issue, but he made the team too late, and it just makes it a lot harder to justify keeping him when you have someone like Mrazek who's much younger waiting in the wings.

Call me optimistic, but I still think it'll be interesting to see how Weiss responds when actually getting a chance. Based on his history, he's plenty capable of becoming an important part of this team's offense moving forward. That was the goal when signing him and it's still possible that he could rise to meet that goal, and perhaps be better if given the right opportunities in time. And yeah, I get it, it's unlikely, and perhaps a bit crazy to think that at this point, but I think you've got to see how he does as a regular in the lineup before you do anything drastic.

Lindros is a fascinating guy in many ways. Tremendous player as you said, but some of his injury issues really go beyond the normal wear and tear and from his perspective at least bordered on negligence on the part of the trainers. Recall he had that real close call with the collapsed lung, and from what I recall, he had at least one if not more concussions that weren't diagnosed by trainers leading to more severe concussion issues down the line. I worry about the guy long term with as many concussions as he had. He's the kind of player that I really didn't like back when we had to play against him, but looking back on it all with some perspective, it's easier to be objective. I could understand an argument that kept him out of the Hall, but when you look at what he did relative to what he was up against and what he could have done had he been healthier, I think he really ought to get the nod at some point.

I thought it was Datsyuk who likes having Abdelkader on his line.

I think it'd be a colossal shame if Federov wasn't a first ballot Hall of Famer. He might not have finished at the level he started, but he was one of the greats in his prime, maybe the best in the game for a time. He belongs in the Hall of Fame as soon as he's eligible.

Priceless.

I think Osgood's improving in general. Last year was definitely a "learning experience" to be generous for him, but he's been better this year in general. It's nice having him around. Tough to beat Mickey on the play by play, but he won't be around forever. I really wish Murphy was still around with Osgood. I kinda get the feeling that those two together would be a lot of fun. Murph would help loosen Osgood up, and Osgood can be a real funny guy when he's comfortable.

The Wings look like a playoff team to me right now. If they don't suffer too many serious injuries, they're going to easily make the playoffs this year. Whether they're bounced early or not doesn't matter so much. They're looking much more solid right now in many ways, and that's what matters. I think they'll do alright in the playoffs if this keeps up. They might not make a run, but I think it'll go better than last year.

What the what?!?

The timing can and likely does have as much to do with how it would affect the roster. Again, bear in mind, he's still counting against the Wings roster this week, and keeping him in the mix when traveling requires no roster moves which they'd want to do on a road trip if they weren't taking him and Franzen was still on the fence. I do think there's a higher likelihood that he'll crack the lineup on the trip given this move if Franzen isn't back and we don't become magic scoring machines beforehand. But if it doesn't go great, and I'm not expecting miracles from two games in GR so far as what it seems the team expects from him and how camp and practice has gone thus far, I don't think Babcock will hesitate to bench him again or bury him. And to be clear, I don't like it or fully get it, but the way the Wings have been handling it all, I just am not expecting a major change in his status anytime soon. If it were my choice, he'd be in the lineup every night. I'm of the mind that even if he struggles at first, the NHL game and the competitiveness any pro has would help him get his act together quicker than riding the bench and getting sent down to play a couple games in the minors. I'd get it if he was a lesser player, but I don't get it at all given the type of player we know he's been.

I honestly wasn't even thinking about Weiss in the context of the list. Way too early in my mind to lump him in there either way.

Does anyone really think they'd send Babcock packing for Blashill so long as Babcock wants to be here? If you have the best coach in the game wanting to be your coach long-term, you're not playing games with him because you don't want to lose your minor league coach, and you're not running around making promises to your minor league coach about taking over the big job. I get that we like Blashill. I get that all parties involved have every reason to be happy with what he's done. I am not trying to criticize or minimize the guy at all. He probably deserves to be an NHL coach at this point, and likely will be soon one way or another. But we're talking about Mike Babcock here. Mike Babcock. Like the guy or not, I don't think there's any question that he's the best coach in the NHL right now, and by that measure, it's pretty safe to say that he's the top coach in the game of hockey. Mike Babcock will be with the Red Wings for as long as he wants to be with the Red Wings, it's as simple as that. Anyone who really thinks otherwise hasn't really thought through the fundamentals of the situation enough. Why? Well, better put, why would the Red Wings think that? I could understand and come up with plenty of reasons why Babcock might want to move on at some point, for him, but I can't think of a single reason why the Red Wings would have any interest in having him move on at any point in the near future. And for f***'s sake, the Red Wings didn't get rid of Holland after 4-5 years of s***ty off-seasons, why in the hell would they, especially the freshly signed Holland, want to ditch the guy who coached teams into the playoffs the last two years that really kinda maybe shouldn't have been playoff teams? I cannot say it enough, the idea that the Wings would want to move on from Babcock in light of what he's accomplished, his status as a/the top coach, and what he's done with our kids the last couple years makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

I would tend to think this if not for the timing of everything that's happened thus far. Why is this happening now? From what I recall, Babcock said point blank early on that certain people weren't playing because of their compete level. I don't understand what could have changed so that we can assume this conditioning stint means he must almost be ready. He went through a full camp, played pre-season games, and started the year with the team as a healthy scratch, and aside from getting into one game, he's remained a healthy scratch. After all that, he's been assigned to GR for a conditioning stint for two games. I don't see that as the arc of a player working his way up towards being healthy and ready to be in the lineup every night, at least not in any ordinary way. It's not like Helm last year where he didn't really get pre-season games, and that's the closest I can get to thinking of a situation like Weiss's that the Wings have gone through recently. Helm was down for a very short time if I remember and it was explicitly because he didn't have the full camp/pre-season experience, played 1-2 games in a year and a half or so, and needed to get a couple games in before returning to the NHL lineup. Weiss wasn't out nearly as long and played a lot more games over the course of time that he was in and out, not to mention the fact that he has more NHL experience. On top of that, if he's really ready to play games, it's hard to imagine he'd do worse subbing in for some of our guys right now. It's not like all of our kids have been playing out of this world, though I don't say that to cast any sort of permanent judgement. I just mean, it seems reasonable that he could sub in for Nestrasil more than he has at this point and the balance of the team wouldn't be shaken. I get that he's played very few games the last couple of years, but if he's healthy enough to be playing pre-season games and not start the season on IR or on a conditioning stint in GR, than there's likely more to it. This seems more like a "what else can we do" situation. I'm sure they're hoping that getting into some games might help get him going, and it very well might. I'm not saying any of this as someone who believes the guy is worthless; I'd love to see him get into the lineup and contribute and barring something else going on that we don't fully know about, I believe he's capable of doing that. But if they just thought he needed to get into some more games, I really think this would've happened weeks ago. He's getting two games, and he's staying on the Wing's roster during that time, and he'll travel with the Red Wings this weekend. It sounds as if they know Franzen won't be back before the weekend, so the roster isn't going to be an issue. I think this is just an experiment they're trying because the opportunity allows for it. While I hope it's the first step towards him breaking back into the lineup and staying there, it's hard to imagine what two games in Grand Rapids will do to change things in Detroit after the way things have gone since the start of camp.

I don't really think it's fair to have Modano or Lang on this list. Modano had a freak injury that no one could've predicted and Lang's time here wasn't as dreadful as some make it out to be. Uwe Krupp, however, has come to mind many times when thinking about Weiss. I don't know what kind of shape he's really in, or what's really going on behind the scenes at all for that matter, but the way this is going, it's just weird.

Can I pose a question without people from both sides of a certain argument flying off the handle? Probably not, but I'll try... When one considers our difficulties in signing free agents lately, and one considers the "luck" of many of the free agents we've signed lately, is it reasonable to wonder whether it's had an impact on guys decisions to come here? We know at least one former player didn't have kind things to say about his time here (largely about coach, and personally I think the guy is an *******), and when you consider that we've had a few regular NHL guys sent down to GR, now even Weiss...it just makes me wonder what the perception outside of the organization is. I know it's just a conditioning stint, but the guy's also been benched for all but one game in which he cracked the lineup due to an injury and played 8 minutes, so it hardly matters when we're talking about people having their careers buried when they come to Detroit.

1 Stanley Cup, though I'd agree that one should give Babcock whatever he wants to stay. But I don't put much stock into this report to be honest.

I just moved down here to Nashville, but I can tell you that it's a good atmosphere at the games, and people are pretty good sports about everything. The good hockey fans are good hockey fans. One thing though is that from what I've heard, if you buy tickets through official channels, they make you buy tickets to two games when you want to buy tickets against teams like the Wings. Lame. I'd try finding tickets through a 3rd party if I were you.

What a terrible 58 minutes only to be followed by an insanely awesome 7 or so minutes of hockey. I really wrote this game off before the 3rd started the way the team looked tonight. I can't believe we pulled off the win. We didn't deserve it, but we're getting a few points back from the two games we were robbed of points, so I won't complain.

Why? We don't need to have a world class defense if we're solid front to back. Howard and Mrazak are going to be good enough for some years to come to keep this team competitive in most games with a solid defense. I'm not saying I wouldn't love a top-pair guy, but it's a lot more reasonable to expect us to be able to pick up a solid 2nd pair guy and it wouldn't cost as much. I said we have nothing to complain about in goal or defense, thank you very much. Howard has been largely great and Gus was fantastic in his first outing.

But look at the defense we have! Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I think we have great defense, but relative to what seems reasonable to expect from this squad, they've done a pretty good job of keeping the other team from scoring goals. The games have been tight and we've been in nearly all of them. And we still have Kindl in the lineup, who hasn't been good, but he's hardly been terrible. If we can find a way to add a solid 3-4 d-man via trade at some point this season, we're going to be in pretty damn good shape in the grand scheme of things. It's not going to be great anytime soon barring something dramatic, so again, I'm going to try to judge them relative to what's reasonable to expect out of this specific squad. It could be a lot worse.

I've never been as sold on Ericsson as some. I think he's overachieved at times. I'd be all for him playing as well as we've seen him, but I wouldn't be shocked if he struggled to do that consistently. Overall, we can't complain about the D or goaltending for that matter too much at this point. The system is working pretty well and they're holding their own for the most part.

It seems that way in some ways, but I don't really know that for certain. It's hard to imagine Mike letting them go as long as he has a say in things though.

The part about the Illitches selling the teams and Little Caesars wouldn't shock me in some ways, but considering the source and the idea of Babcock magically swooping in to be Toronto's GM, all I can do is laugh. I've wondered as of late what would happen with the teams as Illitch is getting up there. Is his family going to stick with it and run the show? Would he sell them off to the right buyer? These are just questions that I've had in light of Mike's age and health problems though; I'm not going to go on the radio and pretend I know something that I don't. Pathetic, though it's typical for those jokers. And what about Olympia Entertainment, Bob? Seems like that would make it into the mix if there were any truth to this.