YoungGuns1340

Joey Mac is a very, very average goaltender. He has been at every stage of his career. Hes high on confidence right now, but he'll come back down to earth soon enough.

I definitely wouldn't. Hossa was invisible for the first 5 games, despite playing with the better linemates, isnt as good defensively, and went through a 4 or 5 game lull where he did nothing more than score an empty netter recently. Up until CBJ, he was pretty ineffective for a handful of games. Zetterberg, on the other hand, has been putting up points on a consistent basis. Hes also playing with the lesser linemates. Franzen can't get an assist for the life of him and while Sammy has been playing well, hes not an incredibly skilled guy. Overall, the 2nd line hasn't had much chemistry, and you can't fault Z for that. 10 games ago when Hossa was on fire, I could see your point, but Zetterberg has been the only one giving a full effort every night over the entire season so far.

Kronwall and Rafalski sounds like a disastrous pairing. Both of those guys seem like they're making one too many plays to get the puck out every time theyre pressured. Stuart and Lidstrom (obviously) have both been the better of the four defensively lately. I wouldnt mind Lidstrom-Kronwall, Rafalski-Stuart.

You know, just because we love them and think the best of them doesn't mean these guys aren't human. If you had received the highest accolades in your profession last year (all the while having to work an extra 2 months to do so without any extra pay), and in some cases 1-3 times previously, with your paycheck secured for 2-4 more years, do you think you'd be giving your best performance? Even if it was subconscious, do you think you'd have the drive to give it your all every day, or even some days? Now do you think you'd be able to get your whole crew, most of them in the same position, to bring their best game all on the same night? Has anyone stopped to wonder what the correlation might be between Zetterberg, Hudler, Hossa, and Sammy playing well or better than they have previously, while guys like Lebda, Cleary, Rafalski, Lidstrom, Filppula, Draper, and Stuart haven't looked up to par on may or most nights? I have a pretty good work ethic, but I'll admit, if I had a position with that much security, I'd probably slack off a bit - even if I didn't realize it. And If my superiors were coming to me and saying hey, our productivity is looking pretty good, then I probably wouldn't think I needed to change what I was doing. Those are our Wings right now.

I don't care about how Ozzie is playing. All I know is if the defense were to improve, Ozzie would improve. At least one defenseman has been able to share the brunt of the blame in almost every goal scored against Ozzie this season (and Conklin). Too many chances in the slot. Too many second, third, fourth chances at the puck when its sitting in front of the net. Cut those out and Ozzie wont look so bad. No goalie is going to look hot when hes facing that kind of s***. I feel bad for the guy. Half the time he sits in his net and 10 minutes go by before the opposition gets in the zone, dominates our defense for about a minute and a half, and scores because they have 4 open players while our defenseman stand around and look like idiots. Make no mistake, thats gonna f*** with your confidence.

Also, why do the Ducks qualify as a litmus test when Vancouver and the Penguins rank higher than them? Please explain away why we've lost twice to the Canucks and to the Penguins. I'd love to hear the homer excus...er..."rationale" behind these losses.

The rational approach is to put on the rose-colored glasses and excuse ourselves out of every poor performance?

And yet it still won't cut it.

That article says nothing and means nothing. Holland wants to keep him? Great. I'm sure Holland would like to trade Kopecky for Ovechkin straight up as well. And Hossa is going to re-sign on the cheap just because he did last year? Last year and this year are two totally different scenarios. People are forgetting that Hossa signed here because WE RETAINED OUR ENTIRE CUP-WINNING ROSTER. In order to retain Hossa, we're going to have to get rid of at least a few guys. Not to mention, if we don't do well in the playoffs this year, you think thats gonna motivate him to take a paycut again? "Well, Marian, we lost in the 2nd round and have to trade assets just to fit everyone under the cap, but we're still willing to offer you a few million less than you'd make on the open market.." Get your head out of the clouds. Accepting that he'll be a Wing for one year only will save you the disappointment when he goes somewhere else.

I disagree. Things are that bad in hockeytown, if you're looking towards the playoffs. Screw the pathetic 1 goal margins we get against crappy teams in the league, or maybe 2 goals with the occasional empty-netter, but those teams aren't going be around to boost our self-esteem and inflate our record in the playoffs. As of now, the Wings have ONE real strength - their PP. Lets take a look at our recent losses - Vancouver, Montreal, San Jose, Boston. Boston - #1 in GAA San Jose - #4 in GAA Vancouver - #5 in GAA Montreal - #7 in GAA See a trend? We come across a decent defensive team and we're toast. We don't get the calls going our way, and we're lucky to score more than a goal or two. Here are some interesting statistics: Record against top 10 teams: 3 wins, 6 losses Record against middle 10 teams: 7 wins, 1 loss Record against bottom 10 teams: 5 wins, 1 loss Record against top 15 teams: 5 wins, 7 losses Record against bottom 15 teams: 10 wins, 1 losses Record against current playoff-bound teams: 6 wins, 7 losses Record against non current playoff teams: 9 wins, 1 loss In short, our record is ridiculously inflated by bottom-half or current non-playoff teams. We have NO winning records against top 10 teams, top 50% teams, or playoff-bound teams.

The powerplay, which ironically is McLellan's legacy.

They're sitting out of the top 50% in the league, and have a goals against average over 3 goals per game and you don't think that sucks? You're telling me the Wings need to score 4 goals per game in order to pull off a victory, but their defense doesn't suck? Spare me the bulls***. Maybe if we had as little talent as Atlanta and Columbus have on the back-end, 23rd wouldn't be so bad, but on paper we have the best defense in the league. And they shouldn't even be 11th, let alone 23rd.

But that also doesn't mean that 91% of your team needs to have won the cup previously in order for there to be enough experience on your roster. I don't care what kind of talent you have - in the modern day competitive NHL, especially post-expansion, its damn near impossible to win the cup back-to-back without some incredible kind of motivation. And spare me the "oh well the Red Wings were the last ones to win the cup back-to-back" excuses. They were fighting for fallen teammates and fallen staff members who were never gonna play another game of hockey in their careers. Barring a similar situation, the only way you the Wings are getting that motivation is from fresh blood. Does that mean blowing up the roster? Absolutely not. But I've said it before and I'll say it again. Theres a reason Dallas Drake was the first person Lidstrom gave the cup to.

Yeah. I'm sure everything McLellan taught the Wings is completely forgotten. I'm sure we're not using his ideas and system for our powerplay this season, considering it was terrible last season and we've had so much player turnover that all of our new players are likely unfamiliar with McLellan's old system.

Hes having his best year as a Wing. I don't think hes as good as what his pace is (nearly 75 points) but hes a hell of a bargain and, unless injuries play into things, hes a lock for 50 points.

What are you talking about? The defense is the problem, and they've got Kronwall, Stuart, and Lilja who are all physical and tough, its just a matter of them playing like it, which is a more general probelm - no one. is playing. up to. their potential. That includes energy, toughness, scoring, goaltending, skill, etc.

No I completely agree. I was thinking the other day that this organizations loyalty has finally come back to bite them in the ass. In fact, our problems have began to parallel our issues previous to 06-07, and thats that we've become complacent. We have no motivators. Theres a reason Helm, a rookie, comes into our lineup and looks like he should be getting 20 minutes a game. He has the jump. And if he were twice as skilled, his jump would translate into offensive production. We need energy, and we need that energy to bring a variant of skill. At this point, I could care less who is traded, but theres no reason the Wings can't actively try and trade some of the dead weight to get some energy on this team.

He was, which is ironic because its the only thing thats working for us these days. Which is why I think although he was an offensive specialist, he probably contributed a lot more. You don't hire a coach to work on the PP alone. Hes gonna have a huge impact on other parts of the game. Does anyone know where Barry Smith is? Is he coaching over in Europe? He sounds like he'd be a godsend right about now. Or maybe having Bowman back for Babs to talk to would help...

Pretty much a perfect post right there.

It was proposed a few games into the season, and its becoming a more and more legitimate answer to our problems as the days go on.

No worries. Communication gets annoying when you have to use a forum..

I don't think we were particularly tough last season. We didn't even have Stuart for the majority of the season last year, although we did have Drake. I think what we need is new faces, flat out. And at this rate, they might as well be tough players. I was wary of the Wings re-signing the entire Cup-winning roster in the off-season, because I didn't think we'd be motivated or hungry, and it looks like thats the case. We need new chemistry.

I said it 5 games into the season, and its sad that it still applies nearly 20 games later. And thats that if we ever meet a team that can keep us to fewer than 3 goals, we're done. We can't keep the opposition to fewer than 3 goals a game, except on the rare occasion.

I'm sorry, but when this season have we been "up 3-0 on the defending Champs." Oh wait, we ARE the defending Champs. Try actually understanding a post before you read it. And that includes all phrases in the post. So to spell it out for the thick-headed readers, if the Wings...we're up 3-0....on the defending Champs...they'd probably trap...because of the pick-me-up....a team gets....from beating....the defending Champs. Understand? Jesus..

If Daniels keeps on saying "another rare regulation loss", they're not gonna be so rare anymore. And hear we ago, "the Wings didn't play poorly tonight, they just didn't get the stops." We'll just turn our heads as the Wings take 35 shots and can only nab one lucky goal.