gcom007

And how much worse off would we be if we had to subtract $5 million from our offense and defense to pay someone like Rinne when we already can't score goals? We failed to capitalize on two power plays after that 2nd goal at home in the 3rd period in what for all intents and purposes is a must-win game. Who gives a s*** about momentum if our guys can't rise to the occasion on two power plays in a situation like we had tonight?

Yep. I've never been one to think a good all-around team needs an $8 million goalie. So many of those expensive guys still don't deliver Cups and oftentimes are pretty inconsistent themselves. I'd take solid guys that have moments of brilliance surround by a fairly steady hold on things like Osgood and Howard any year. Howard has not been the problem. Like I said before, he hasn't been lights out, but he's hardly been bad, and he's looking worse because he's getting hung out to dry when our skaters are pinching and frantic because we can't score. I wasn't thrilled with that fluky 2nd goal, but I have absolutely no real beef with Howard overall.

The thing that sticks out to me is that Babcock seemed pissed about Holland's moves, or lack thereof, last summer. I have a hard time faulting him when Holland seems content to take no chances to patch obvious holes. He's afraid to move anyone. Maybe if guys were a little more afraid about getting traded or not getting re-signed, they'd put a little more effort into their game and play smarter. Just an idea. I'll give Babcock a pass for another year or two to see if Holland actually shows up and does his job to give Babcock the best team possible.

Holland makes offseason plans? Have I missed something the last few years? Oh, right...

Hudler and Flip never were and never really have been incredibly consistent players, and that's being generous in Hudler's case. I don't think it had anything to do with numbers and everything to do with misplaced loyalty to guys we drafted.

Yeah, and despite injuries, he still wasn't terrible. Wasn't at his best, but his body was a mess. Still put up 6 goals for 15-16 points if I remember correctly, again, with injuries.

Without a doubt. I haven't been on this site in ages. Busy year. I checked back in at the right time.

In my mind, who the hell cares? If I'm Holland and I've got a chance to sign one of the top players in the game who's a phenomenal asset and team player in every regard who desperately wants to be here for a $5 million cap hit, the last thing I'm thinking about is Jiri ******* Hudler. There's a run on sentence for your asses.

I would've kept Franzen with his deal, let Hudler walk and traded Flip. Hossa's contract is covered by Hudler and Flip, we still have some room to go after quality guys on the cheap like Eaves and Bert (which we ended up having to do anyways when everyone walked away from Holland and he had no backup plan). I don't like what Franzen's become since then, but who's to know. It's still not a terrible deal when you really think about it and he might have had a bit more consistency with another guy like Hossa in the mix who had consistent superstar talent on par with Zetterberg and Datsyuk.

Hossa was a harder worker than just about anyone on the team in his time here. He hustled like few guys in the entire game and had phenomenal two-way presence because of it. On top of that, he's a bonafide superstar. And he really, really, really wanted to be here and turned down a lot of money and security to even get a chance at one year. I would build a team around a guy like that any day over a floater like Franzen and a guy who peaced out to Russia for money.

That absolutely is his cap hit. Holland low-balled him with a front-loaded deal that had something like a $4 million cap hit.

Yep. It's amazing how things like numbers and addition seem to be lost on many around here. The decision to chase Hudler and Sammy and sign Franzen to the monster contract and/or not move someone like Flip continues to be one of the stupidest moves Holland has made. Absolutely absurd. It looks stupider and stupider each passing year.

s***ting on Howard is pointless when we can't score goals. Waste of time. He hasn't been lights out but he's been anything but terrible. He'd probably look a lot better if he wasn't getting the raw end of the deal when our skaters are pinching and frantic in the 3rd because we can't score a goal. We'd all like to see him make that big save or not get caught in a situation like tonight, but he shouldn't be in those positions either. He's not paid to be a superstar goalie and quite frankly, he isn't. Nothing wrong with that, but pissing and moaning about him letting in any goals when none of our skaters can find a way to put up more than a goal is absolutely pointless. This team looks like an old, slow, massive ship that can't be steered. It may have once been decorated, but this incarnation of the "TEAM" is well past it's prime. And that has little to do with the literal age of individual players. This team just doesn't play like much of a team. There's no spark, no heart.

I will never forgive Holland for letting Hossa walk.

It's tough for me to blame Babcock when even he seemed pissed last summer about Holland's unwillingness to make certain moves. If it wasn't clear before, it's gotta be crystal at this point: it's time to shake things up. Probably won't happen.

Too bad Android has so many variations of resolution. It makes it far more difficult to support users of the OS. So glad I'm not a user iPhone and iPad placeholders, I mean Android devices... Looks great on my iPad and iPhone. You might want to make a 2048X2048 version starting in February or March as the iPad 3 is likely to have a Retina Display like the iPhone 4/4S. Between a Retina Display iPad and a LTE iPhone 5, 2012 should be a dark year for the Android camp. (Sorry. I'm just a huge Apple ***** and I generally don't care for Google nor their half-baked, endless-beta products.)

Ha, actually, yes, I was bored at that moment and on top of that, I was a history major for awhile and had to write at least 3 10-15 pages (or more) papers a week while in the program. You learn to write a lot in as fast a manner as possible. I've unfortunately never been able to dial it back down since deciding I had no interest in being a lawyer at all and switched programs.

Not sure Datsyuk is really the right guy for all the reasons discussed already, though primarily the language barriers. I think he's more of a leader than people give him credit for though and wouldn't be a terrible choice at all. What has he not excelled at in his career (besides maybe the first few weeks of a season...ha...)? Generally speaking, I've been saying for years that Datsyuk is the heart and soul of this team when it really comes down to the game on the ice, as much or maybe even more than Lidstrom. Dats is to the offense what Nick is to the defense, but like Nick, his contributions on his opposite end are just as impressive as what they do in their positional roles. But again, still not sure if his English-level is really up to the task. That said, I don't know how I feel about Z these days. He just seems spottier more and more as time passes since the back issues first crept up. He's still a great player, but he is not our best player at all. He does not instill fear into opponents like Datsyuk does. Datsyuk is a superstar among superstars, again, much like Lidstrom, whereas Zetterberg exists on the fringe of superstardom at this point at best. I'm not trying to suggest that being the best has anything to do with being a good captain at all, but it absolutely has something to do with the decision making process at the very least. Obviously, a less than great player can be a great leader and captain, and a great player can be a terrible leader and captain. But great players who possess a strong character that matches their skill set stand a solid chance at growing into being great leaders and captains. You're going to be looked at as a leader if you're the best whether you want to be or not, so it's inevitable that being the best has something to do with being the captain. As Jimmy D said after Steve retired, "your captain is your best player." And everyone talks about Steve setting the bar in a sense, but Steve didn't just become "The Captain." Before he was "The Captain," he was chosen to be the captain because he was the best player; he was the centerpiece of the organization. He became "The Captain" because frankly, there's likely less than two handfuls of athletes who were as much of a warrior than Steve Yzerman. What he did in the 2002 Playoff run is nearly unparalleled in all of sports. But none of that changes the fact that those reasons had nothing to do with why he was originally chosen to be captain. He started out as the captain because he was the best, and then became the best at being a captain and a leader when he wasn't necessarily the best player, quietly, without any pretense, and that's why he is "The Captain." So clearly, being a leader of the magnitude that Steve Yzerman was is not where one starts out when becoming a captain, and that's why I'm not convinced that Pavel couldn't be the captain of this team and a great one at that over time. Z might be more similar to Yzerman as far as his playing career goes in being derailed offensively somewhat by injuries, but he wouldn't be starting out at captain as the best, or on top of his game. And like it or not, being the best does have something to do with the role. But let's be clear about something: Nick retiring after this season is hardly a done deal. He obviously still has a lot of gas in the tank and there's really no reason other than a lack of motivation that he couldn't continue playing maybe even 4-5 more years. I don't know if he will, but I'm hardly convinced that he won't the way things are going. If he plays even another year or two past this year and you start looking at the next captain then, you've got a Zetterberg who will be closing in on his mid-30's, likely with more back issues and decreased output and more limited ice time, and chances are he won't be playing into his 40's like Nick who has managed to evade major or nagging injuries throughout most of his career. And with Datsyuk, while I could see him playing into his 40's more easily than Zetterberg, he's two years older than Z. Even Kronwall is already 30. These guys aren't spring chickens. If Lidstrom wasn't one of the absolute best players to play the game, he wouldn't have gotten the nod at his age, and only Datsyuk comes close to a Lidstrom-level of all-time greatness (obviously well behind Lids, but far ahead of Z). Now, if Lidstrom retires next year, it'll obviously be Dats, Z or Kronwall (I think the matter would be discussed in that order personally, with Dats getting the nod so long as he was comfortable with it), but if he hangs around, I think we'll see the Wings looking to a younger player who has the potential to carry the torch for longer. I don't know who it could be (only a hope in a certain player stepping up in the next year or two) but I don't think it's a lock that Dats or Z will get it if Lids hangs around past this season.

Okay.

55 is ideal. 60 tops.

He's looked great since the playoffs. I think having such a successful run personally gave him a lot of confidence and he's playing really great this year. He really stepped up and made it happen. He'll have to weather some storms no doubt, but he's proving more and more everyday that he's got what it takes to be successful.

I'll generally be the first to admit that quite often, perhaps far more often than not even, staying the course and riding out the bumps in the road proves to be a wise decision. It's too easy to let your emotions get the best of you and I'd stilly firmly say that far more often than not, our emotional responses serve as very poor indicators of the actual status of a situation. As Red Wings fans, we've gotten used to an organization that is run with this idea at the center, more so than ever now that we're well settled into the cap era. Over the last 7-8 years, we've seen significant individual transitions take place within the organization, but we really haven't seen a true rebuild. Frankly, we haven't needed it, so naturally we haven't seen panic-induced trades, we haven't seen too many major signings and we've seen a great deal of loyalty continue to be shown to long-standing Wings and younger guys that developed in our system. This is not a bad thing. We've seen a lot of success over the last 10 years despite many pieces of the previous foundation moving on. When you can rest with that kind of confidence and continue to be successful, it's very easy to develop a sense of pride over the whole matter. And why shouldn't we (or "they" when referring to management)? Our resilience is something to be proud of. Loyalty is something to be proud of. The simple act of not succumbing to the emotions that lead to panic is something to be proud of. And many of us are quite proud. Many of us do indeed take a great deal of pride in our steady insistence that things will work out in the end. And again, with this team's success even in the many years we failed to win the Stanley Cup, we've been faced with little reason to question our stance. After all, even when things don't quite work out perfectly, there are far worse positions to take up than those in which one's enslaved to ever-fickle emotions. It's occurred to me though more and more over the course of the last couple seasons, just as a hint in the back of my head, that my pride was served up with a larger and larger dose of a little something known as complacency. It's become less about confidence in my beliefs and more about having any beliefs at all. And if I were to be honest, I'd say that it's clouded my perspective on things in certain situations. But as this off-season came and went and lead into this season, it's gotten harder and harder to sit here and rattle off any variation of the line "we'll be fine down the stretch." Even though a large part of me still believes that to be true on some level, an increasingly larger part of me is looking at this team with a desire to skip the stock lines and the filters and call it exactly how I see it. What I simply cannot deny seeing at this point is an organization that's run down, more than a bit off the path and still desperately trying to rest on it's laurels. I see management that looks more complacent and timid than truly prideful and confident. I see a lot of players that are familiar faces that I've grown to like, but they're becoming known more and more for their face and less and less for what they're doing on the ice. And as for the coaches, it's been a bit of a revolving door, but from what Babcock's said about the players and management over the last couple years, I can't help but think that he's truly aware of what the problems are and what needs to happen, but he can't force Ken Holland to make a move nor the players to shoot the puck more. Still, all factors considered, the Detroit Red Wings organization has become a comfortable, functional mess. How do I know that that's the plain, simple truth? I'm not upset about it at all. I'm more bored than angry. I can't even muster up the frustration level enough to feel annoyed. And I can't sit here and tell myself that I haven't been thinking this more and more each day over the last couple of years. So what am I getting at? I'm not entirely sure. I don't know exactly what needs to happen. But it's getting to the point where I can't tell if it's pride based on a somewhat-objective sense of confidence or just plain stupidity when I try to tell myself and others that Franzen will pick it up "down the stretch." And what I've realized though is that it doesn't matter either way. The fact that it's a question says it all and there are too many questions just like that one right now with this organization. It's still great to be loyal and stalwart and it's still silly to be impulsive and impatient. I'll never say otherwise, but perhaps what is most important is that you also have to be able to adapt to changing times. Adaptability is everything. To do so, you don't need to be impulsive, but you do need to be agile. You have to balance loyalty with objectivity. You have to step out into the darkness and take some chances to gamble a bit, knowing full well that sometimes you win, but sometimes you lose. That's life. In either circumstance, adaptability is still everything. "Survival of the fittest" has far less to do with strength than it has to do with adaptability. I have no trade possibilities to offer. I don't even know if trades are truly what we need right now or the best choice in the current landscape. I don't know if Datsyuk or Zetterberg should play together or be split up, or if Z's back is or isn't hampering or bound to eventually hamper his effectiveness. I don't know if we can trust that Franzen will or won't become a consistent scoring threat again. All I know is that when pride devolves into complacency, you stop moving forward and making progress and you begin digging your grave. I can't take pride in beliefs for the sake of beliefs or positivity of the sake of positivity. I take pride in objectivity. I take pride in aiming to be the best every time, with little regard for the value of the end result so much as the value of the effort leading to whatever the result may be. I take pride in the idea of perfect successes and perfect failures. By that I mean that win or lose, I don't want to have to look back and second-guess every decision. I want every decision to be made not with the end goal in mind being to just get by, but to be the best, giving it my all, win or lose. The presence of that attitude in the Wing's system is largely why I've grown to love the Detroit Red Wings so much over the years. They weren't only brilliant and loyal and patient, they also had all the drive in the world to be the best in every way possible. Their enthusiasm was infectious; their passion, utterly and completely contagious. They weren't just the class of the NHL, they were the class of the sports world in general. But as 2011 winds down and 2012 approaches, my reaction to a five game winning streak to start the season is the same as my reaction to the six game losing streak that followed: I just don't care at all. Complacency has become a stronger force than pride. The passion is gone. It's hard to care about a team that doesn't seem to care about the game. It's hard to care about management that openly admits to not getting the job done as well as they'd like. And while I'm somewhat more sympathetic to the coaches that have to sit in the middle of these two sides and try to make the most of it, I'm tired of hearing the same lines about working harder and shooting the puck, if only for Babcock's sake. I'm sure he's infinitely more sick of them than me. Again, I don't have answers or even suggestions, and I don't know who or whom to blame or praise. I don't know if we need trades. I don't know if we need to truly rebuild this team from the ground up. I absolutely know one thing for certain though. It's been hard to ignore for awhile and it's clear as day now. It's time to think differently.

While I don't doubt that Holland will be actively working the phones over the next month or two, even if something goes through, I just don't know if I believe that it'll be the mystical answer we all seem to seek when talking about trades and "new blood." I guess what I'm saying is that if it takes bringing in a figurehead of sorts to represent being "hungry," then, well, I guess I just think that's bulls***. And pathetic. This increasing problem revolving around "effort" and "hunger" is an organizational problem, and I don't believe that one person will truly fix that. It's really a silly idea when you think about it. And what does it say now? I've talked about the potential for a trade tonight, and again, I am getting to the point where I'm expecting something to happen. But don't be confused: I don't care. Why didn't they do that years ago? Why do they keep investing in guys just because they've already invested something in them? It's a bigger waste to let their value burn out in your hands. If it's not "HELL YEAH," it should be "no." Get out while the getting's good. Why don't actual results take precedence over potential? If they did, they would've made trades or different signings or retentions over the last few years that they didn't. Any isolated moves they make now will just look desperate. This team has the pieces in place to be good and even great, but there's something missing. And while players and chemistry are party of the equation, this has become an organizational problem. More than any trading or rebuilding that is done, they need to start thinking differently.

Losing Rafalski's outstanding passing abilities certainly isn't helping in this department. Again, Ian White was a good pickup any day of the week, but let's be clear about one thing: we absolutely have not replaced Brian Rafalski yet. Not even close.

I have less faith in Holland lately than Babcock. Holland seems to be getting spottier and spottier with his signings and too many times now in the cap era has been caught unprepared in the offseason. They're too loyal to guys we develop and not willing to let guys go to mix things up. He's simply not adapting to changes in the game and with this team in general. Adaptability is everything in life, and Holland has struggled to adapt since...hmm, since when Scotty Bowman become a consultant for the Hawks.