gcom007

I'll post my GDT question to you here where it's a bit more relevant... As someone not as familiar with his past, do you think he could be struggling from the pressure of playing in a market like Detroit? Historically, how tough has he been mentally? Florida's a very different market with very different expectations than Detroit. I'm wondering this mostly in light of the way he handled the injury last year. He clearly wasn't smart about dealing with it, and he spoke of the pressure of wanting to prove himself on the new team and all. If it's impacting his judgement that much, maybe it's a bigger issue for him in general. Or so I've wondered...

As someone not as familiar with his past, do you think he could be struggling from the pressure of playing in a market like Detroit? Historically, how tough has he been mentally? Florida's a very different market with very different expectations than Detroit. I'm wondering this mostly in light of the way he handled the injury last year. He clearly wasn't smart about dealing with it, and he spoke of the pressure of wanting to prove himself on the new team and all. If it's impacting his judgement that much, maybe it's a bigger issue for him in general. Or so I've wondered...

This just makes no sense to me. I get that it's frustrating, but if he comes around, we're better off with him, and there's still a good chance he'll come around. If it's really gotten to the point where he's truly bad enough to warrant conversation of dumping him for a late pick, then we did something fundamentally wrong in signing him. And as much as I'd love to thrown Holland under the bus for it in some ways, it's tough for me to get all in on that idea at this point. As I've said in the past, it may be worthy of questioning the decision to sign Weiss in light of how it's gone in addition to how so many of our free agent signings have gone the last few years, but I don't think it's of much value to do. But to be certain, something isn't quite adding up. Maybe the injuries have just taken their toll on him, or maybe it's just what happens when you play so few games over the last couple of seasons. I don't know what the real story is, and none of us do, but there's something clearly out of balance in the equation considering that a guy who is very well paid and who should be one of our top offensive players is riding the bench a lot, even when he finally cracks the lineup due to other players getting injured. Maybe I just don't want to admit that it's a signing that's more f***ed up than Samuelsson's deal yet, but I also don't think it's fair to at this point. I get that it's frustrating and that he needs to show more, but I still think there's a chance that that could happen in the coming months. If he's truly as worthless as some seem to think, we are royally screwed, because no one is going to take on that contract for a guy who can't crack a lineup. And just to be clear, no one should be hoping for that...

I have a crappy video I took with my phone to send to someone of the celebration and goal, give me a second...

Cherish this one, ladies and gentlemen...you won't see many games more entertaining than that. Monster played like a monster, and Z proved once again why no matter how much he may struggle, especially as his career goes on, that he is the leader and heart and soul of this squad. Can't post about this game without giving Bernier credit as well. He and Gustafson really went toe to toe all night and put on one hell of a show at both ends of the ice. In the end, we got the lucky bounce, but both goalies were outstanding tonight. A good old hockey game indeed...

Good to see Monster seems up the task of being a solid backup again. We should be in real good shape this year in net the way Howard's played thus far and with Monster building off of last year. And hell, if either are injured, we've got Mrazak to call up too! We may not have the best goalie in the league, but I wouldn't trade our trio of top 3 goalies for anyone in the league the way things are looking likely to go.

Holland is Babcock's boss. Babcock could get away with it for a game or two to send a message, but the current situation would not go down as it has if Holland wasn't on board. I guarantee you that. In any event, I'm really pulling for Weiss tonight. He seems like a good guy, handled the situation well, and we absolutely could use him if he can get back to the game he's capable of playing.

Glad he's got the right attitude about it, at least when he's facing the press. It's no easy task to face that question square on and be humble and positive. He deserves more credit for that then he'll likely get.

That will be a sad day. I get that it's a dump relative to the rest of the league's new shacks, but it's our ******* dump!!!

Nothing to be ashamed of except the dismal power play that desperately needs Datsyuk back. Howard was great. Still can't believe we haven't seen Weiss yet.

Oh, and... Proxy Server + MacBook Pro + AirPlay + Apple TV = How I kill stupid GameCenter Live blackouts

So much heart... Hands of stone...

No way Mantha and Nyquist are going anywhere. It's not even worth worrying about. If any deal happens, those names won't be a part of it unless it's for a legitimate superstar; and I mean SUPERSTAR superstar. And I don't think that's going to happen, do you? Tatar and Jurco though? I could see one of those two moving to get a more substantial deal done, but I think we could afford it. I hate the idea of losing Tatar in many ways, but there's a part of me that's really on the fence about him anyways. If he sweetened the pot enough to bring in a legitimate quality defenseman, I'd be able to stomach it, but I honestly doubt that it'll come to pass. I don't think he's as untouchable as Mantha and Nyquist, but I don't think he's too far behind either.

So easy to go off-topic with Babcock or Holland, as it's hard to discuss one without discussing the other. That said, I still think Babcock stays another year at least if not more, because I don't think for a second that he's BSing when he says that this is where he wants to be. And sure, he's giving himself enough wiggle room that I wouldn't be shocked if he left, but I really do think he'll stay, at least for now. I do think at the very least making Holland wait, delaying talk of an extension, and dictating that he wants 1-year deals is definitely somewhat of a power play on Babcock's part, and I don't blame him for it at all. That he got the advice from Bowman is not surprising, and that he'll likely be able to pull it off without a hitch says a great deal about how much sway he does indeed have, because he knows he could get hired by just about any team yesterday, today, or tomorrow should he or the organization cut ties. I'm not saying that Babcock is on Bowman's level historically, but in the context of today's NHL, he easily has more power and leverage to dictate the terms of a deal than any other coach in the league. And that does make me wonder if he is trying to force Holland's hand a bit more on certain issues. As I've said, I don't think Babcock is simply doing lip service when he says that he and Holland have a good relationship and that he values the fact that they have different opinions, I do think Babcock has grown a bit more tired with the way certain things have gone in terms of the roster, and perhaps he's going to try to scrape up a few more of those "votes" he made reference to each year by maintaining his ability to walk away at the end of any given season. It's pure speculation, but I sure wouldn't blame him if that was part of his game. After all, one difference between him and Scotty was the fact that Bowman was much older and was having his own health exams during each offseason here before he made up his mind to come back; Babcock wouldn't be leaving for retirement so as to maximize his quality of life in later years. I do think Babs is sick of having to send people down to GR that should be in the NHL, and I think he's more than a bit tired of waiting for a right handed shot or two on D, though the former issue is likely the one where he'd press hardest as it's the easiest to address. If he can in any way buy himself more of a say when it comes to such decisions, he'd be wise to do so.

I have defended the Alfie signing many, many, many times here and am a big proponent of bringing him back this year if he can get his health together, which I sincerely hope he can. I think he's a great asset and that's the kind of veteran move I prefer to see out of Holland. Is it unfair to criticize Holland about Weiss? On one level, yes, certainly. But has the guy made enough moves that worked out to give him much benefit of the doubt lately? I don't think so. Don't get me wrong; I'm not at all saying we should be pissed Holland signed Weiss, and I don't want to go overboard with anything on this matter, but when I look at how many signings haven't panned out lately, and I see yet another one that has had at the very least a tremendously rough start, I can't help but be concerned and question whether Holland is making the wisest decisions. Is he not being critical enough about player's health and ability to contribute as they age? I know for a fact that several people seemed concerned about Weiss's fragility when we signed him, so it's not a case of trying to rewrite the past. And for the love, he signed Cleary, two years in a row, and I'm not even one of the people who held him over the coals for the Cleary signing last year. I honestly liked the price relative to the risk, though thought it was unwise given how many forwards we had and what it meant for bringing up guys from GR. This year I found it nothing short of embarrassing, though I have lost far more respect for Cleary than Holland in the situation as Cleary should know that it's time to hang them up and that he's taking a spot from someone who deserves to be on the NHL roster. He should've been the bigger man and let Holland off the hook for the handshake deal after the way last season went. As much as I want to drag Holland over the coals for that one, I'm much more pissed that Cleary had the audacity to hold him to it than anything. Can't say it enough. I don't want to isolate all of the guys we didn't sign, because I don't really care. Look back through my posting history and you won't find me crying about any of the guys that we pursued but couldn't sign. Sure, I would've liked to have seen it go the other way, but I haven't blamed Holland for them in the individual circumstances. Perhaps at times he may be deserving of it even, but I don't go there. My biggest issue with him is he's done far more bad than good in free agency in the recent past, and I believe that's cause for concern and questioning. When so much cap space is being wasted on guys who don't play, you have to question why these guys are being signed in the first place, and at that point, it goes back to the guy who's offering them the contracts. And I have given Holland plenty of credit for signing our high end free agents to reasonable deals, but he's also gotten burnt trying to work with mid-level talent. We lost Hossa largely because he didn't properly manage mid-level talent as far as I'm concerned. But I've been happy with most of the deals he's worked out with the RAs too. I'm not one to say he's all bad, but I don't see how anyone can look at how the last few years have gone and not see some very glaring problems that are worthy of reasonable concern. I think he has strengths and weaknesses as a GM, and one of those strengths is working out good deals with high-end guys and retaining those cornerstones. He's also very good at finding great bang for the buck players in the $1-2 million range; he seems to have a knack for finding skilled guys who may have underachieved and getting solid mid-level work out of them on this roster. But his weakness is with the straight mid-level guys he tries to sign. Those just keep coming back to burn him, and they burn through a lot more cap space as well. With all the money being wasted, and given his skill set, he'd do better overpaying to bring in guys that can absolutely contribute and lead from the higher end pool while plugging holes on the low end with great bargain players. If you're going to burn through money on guys who don't play, why not overpay someone who can play and actually contribute? It's not ideal, but at this point, it's a very reasonable suggestion.

Drafting is one thing, but look at the guy's record with free agents lately. You really want to defend him there? And for the record, outside players we bring in through free-agency or trade is what was being referenced, not the drafting and development system. Drafting I think is the one area that most everyone agrees that Holland/the organization has a good handle on. I don't think Babcock has any sort of a problem with the guys we develop either, clearly. If anything, I'd say it's quite the opposite. He seems more pissed he can't bring up the people he wants from GR because Holland has made so many terrible moves in free agency the last few years, which again, was the point of the post you replied to. And so again, I ask, do you really want to defend Holland's work in the free agency market lately? Personally, I don't think it matters who the coach is when you look at many of those deals; they were just bad deals. Too many guys have been signed for too much money that just should not have been signed at all, especially when you're a GM that constantly whines about not wanting to overpay for premium talent. You talk of having the same philosophy for 20 years, but when it comes to building a team, it's a different world in the cap era than it was 20 years ago. You can still draft and develop the same as you always have, because that's all the more important in the cap era, but how you acquire outside talent is a whole new game. You can't just throw money and tradition at the problem anymore. And really, any way you shake it, Holland has clearly struggled with acquiring outside talent in the cap era, especially as time has gone on and the realities of the cap started to weigh down on the team. Hell, what seemed like a big win in getting Weiss has been nothing but ugly thus far, and given the slew of signings that preceded that deal, you've got to stop and ask some serious questions about Holland's strategies with outside acquisition if you're going to be at all objective. It's a very, very, very reasonable thing to question and be concerned about at this point, if you're not just flat out fed up with it already.

Legwand wasn't our biggest free agent acquisition in years though, and he at least played. Weiss has been a healthy scratch. Again, a player with a $4.9 million cap hit has been a healthy scratch for the first two games of the season. Sure, Babcock might not like him, but I don't think Holland would let that fly if there wasn't a damn good reason, or if Weiss simply isn't really ready. He may be "healthy" relative to his prior injury problems, but perhaps his conditioning is not close to where it should be, or something along those lines. This can't be so simple as "Babcock doesn't like him." I get that it's easy to cast Babcock in such a way when you're making broad strokes, but you don't get away with making decisions to bench a player like Weiss for petty reasons in the NHL. We signed this guy to be our 2nd line center a little over a year ago; he's the 3rd highest paid player on the team that's not a goalie. He's got a deal that's structured almost the same salary-wise as Kronwall's, who is the anchor of our defense! If this goes on, I think you have to figure that Holland is in agreement with Babcock on the matter, and if so, Weiss is currently at a sub-Samuelsson level within the organization. Even Sammy started the first couple games last year before we had to worry about injuries to stars like we have this year, and he wasn't even making nearly as much money. Nothing about this smells right.

That he's saying that and Weiss isn't in is telling. I don't know of what exactly, but it's telling of something...either Weiss isn't ready or Weiss done gone and screwed up something big time in terms of his relationship to this team.

Lewis also got the reputation for taking it easy on the veterans and being too much of a friend as opposed to a coach. How true that is, I don't really know, but the greatest coach of all time didn't think Lewis should have gotten the job either.

Best GDT ever. Franzen with the Paul Coffey special.

It'd be great on so many levels if he had a big season. First, obviously, it's going to be necessary down the stretch to win with this team. We're going to face much tougher tests than we did tonight and Howard has to be better than he was last year. But also, and I mean this as no slight at Howard, but if he can elevate his game again and put himself among the top goalies in the league, which he's capable of, it'd set the stage for him to be the best trade bait we've had in a long, long time should we decide to go with Mrazek next year. I've got nothing against Howard at all, and I'm cheering for him and I expect that he'll have a better year. Part of me would hate to see him go, but if Mrazek is the real deal and ready to take over, one of them has to be moved, and Mrazek has far more years ahead of him, and some think he's the better goalie. Howard couldn't make the team out of training camp until the Wings were out of options, so despite him only being here five years, he's already 30, whereas Mrazek is 22 and likely could roll into the starting job now if we needed him to. We've got too many other holes to warrant having two well above-average starters around, and Howard could be a key piece in a trade this off-season to fill one. I expect Mrazek to get more opportunities to play this year whenever Monster or Howard are out with injuries. If he has a strong season in the AHL and fills in well on call ups, you have to imagine Holland will be entertaining the idea of moving Howard this summer to land an impact player. Again, we just haven't had this good of trade bait in a long while. The best we had in the recent past was Flip, and I think Howard's a much higher profile player. So I'm really, really, really, really, really hoping Howard has a really strong season! If you like him, you should be pulling for him. If you don't like him, you should be pulling for him all the more. There is absolutely no logical reason for there to be any Jimmy Howard hate on this forum this season. And before anyone asks: CLAUSES: NMC (through 2014-15); NTC (2015-16 through 2017-18; player can supply 10-team no-trade list)

Not much to complain about, but not much to get super excited about either. There were definitely some pleasant surprises, but it's the first game of the season and Boston was pretty clearly not on their game. Howard played well though which is a big plus, and I'd say his ability to lock it down and stay focused despite not getting much work made him a big part of this win, despite people wanting to blame him for E's stupid mistake. Very encouraged by Smith's play. No 3rd period meltdown. Defense actually looked pretty solid relative to what we're working with. With E back in the lineup and Smith and Dekeyser improving, having Kindl in the lineup to start this season really isn't a huge blow. Sure, it'd be better to have Ouellet, but if Kindl can do anything to make him even slightly tradable to start things off, it'd be ideal. We're much stronger in the top 4 then we were down the stretch last year, and that helps more than just a little. It'll be interesting to see what changes Babcock makes to the lineup. Weiss has got to crack it sometime soon, right? Will Kindl play until he's traded or waived so as to try and get someone interested in him?

Maybe all the flack he got really did light a fire under his ass. If he can bring some consistency to his game, that'd be absolutely huge for this team. Don't even...

SABOTEUR!

I'll take it.