YoungGuns1340

Again, our record means crap when we can't grind out one freaking win against a halfway decent team.

How is a perfectly placed shot a fluke? Recchi threaded the needle.

That was a really nice shot by Recchi, but Kronwall did nothing to stop Recchi from getting into the zone. No way Recchi should've gotten such a clean shot off.

I love that we can have THREE players in front of our net and the ONE Tampa player gets to the puck first.

Its really sad that our defense is pretty much evenly matched against Tampa's. They're making almost identical mistakes.

A team being fully locked up at seasons end is pretty much non-existant, but yeah I'd go with the first one unless I had a slew of elite propescts that were ready to join the squad. Considering Muray doesn't have that luxury, then its not such a blessing. With 14 contracts to either re-sign or fill - 5 of those contracts needing to be either top 6 forwards or top 4 defenseman - a lot of that is going to have to come from free agency or from his current veteran UFA players who are going to use the market to their advantage. Its not like Murray is coming into a situation where he has 14 contracts to fill, but half of them are RFA re-signings. ALL 14 of Anaheims future spots are currently held by UFAs. If I'm a GM in this day and age, yeah I'd be wary of taking on a job that is going to require me to either work with or against free agency for the majority of my work.

I'm glad someone sees it the way I do. Hes still been doing a ton of great things on the ice as you would expect from a great defenseman, but its nowhere near Nick Lidstrom defense.

Fedorov also had ego issues, a love-hate relationship with our coaches, and was constantly dissatisfied with ice time. Zetterberg has never voiced a displeasure with the Wings organization and its never been alluded to. I wouldn't be too worried..

Filppula has not yet entered the realm of immovability for a variety of reasons. First of all, any limelight that wasn't being shed on Hank and Datsyuk up front went to Franzen and Hossa. Now, with the stats to back things up, even Hudler and Sammy are statistically outshining Filppula. The first and foremost way to get yourself into that circle of immunity is to build a strong rapport with the fans. With Hossa and Franzen winning their way into the hearts of fans where Datsyuk and Zetterberg are already present, the space for that rapport is decreasing. Like it or not - and I'm guessing not by the way you describe Filppula as some legitimate 2nd line offensive palyer when he has yet to prove anything of the sort - Filppula is inching further and further away from immunity as the season goes along. His defensive play is nothing that stands out more than that of Datsuyk, Hank and Hossa. And his offensive stats are nothing to write home about - especially with Samuelsson and Hudler doing significantly better than Filppula while offering defensive statistics no worse. Ultimately, Filppula being immovable is one thing without condition. But when you take into account that decisions are going to have to be made surrounding players that are significantly better than Filppula offensively, and not much different defensively, while there are players not much different defensively, but significantly cheaper than Filppula, then yeah, hes not untouchable. As for the situation prior to August, of course Holland wasn't going to move an uncontracted Filppula when he was still an unknown commodity in terms of offense (or lose him to an offer sheet for so-so pick compensation when the offer would be only a few 100k more than what Holland was willing to spend). The situation then at hand offered the Wings a lot of security in terms of secondary scoring should they lose the likes of Hossa, Franzen, Sammy and possibly even Hudler under certain circumstances in the coming offense. The security of Filppula's finances is seurity for the team. But that security could easily turn into a route of flexibility for the Wings. Would people be sad to see Filppula leave? Sure. And while I'm not saying Filppula IS going to be traded, you could just as easily draw a parallel between what Filppula is to this team and what Kozlov was to this team prior to being traded. Kozlov probably wasn't going to be traded if a guy like Hasek hadn't been available. I wouldn't trade Filppula for the hell of it, but when you consider it directly affects the retention of guys like Franzen and Hossa, the situation becomes an entirely different beast.

I agree. I dont see how people think a rookie bottom liner or 6th Dman is somehow going to have an effect on how our elite Dmen are doing. A guy like Fischer would be great to add to this team right now.

And that lone win came in OT after blowing a lead. That says WONDERS about our "real" record.

Hmm...reminds me of Yzerman's "I need to do better" fabled playoff speech... Good to hear it from the captain. I think everyones noticed how off his game has been. Last night was possibly one of the worst nights of his career, not statistically but in terms of his individual efforts and performance.

I was JUST gonna start this thread. 15 games - 27 points, 12 goals. Almost 2 points per game, 1 goal a game. I'm glad he wasn't the guy we traded for Lang.... You could debate which tandem is better all night long, but in terms of personality, after the way Semin spoke out "against" Crosby, its Alex^2 >>>>>>> Croskin.

Then you better be prepared for the possibility of that not happening on a consistent basis this year. We talk all day long about how Babcock is a coach that demands an incredible work ethic from this team. We can talk all day about what a great bunch of guys we have on this team. We can talk all day about what the Wings are capable of. But that doesn't mean anything. Put yourself in their shoes. Half these guys have luxurious contracts to fall back on for 3 years or more (Datsyuk, Stuart, Cleary, Filppula, Rafalski, and Kronwall). Other guys are immune to severe punishment due to the Wings loyalty clause (Lidstrom, Ozzie, Homer, Draper, Maltby, McCarty). Other guys have NTCs to protect them (Cleary, Raffi, Stuart). And ALL of them except two have just won the ultimate prize and its no surprise that those two guys who HAVEN'T won the cup are arguably the only ones playing up to their potential and beyond for at least the last 8-10 games. As fans, we tend to give the players superhuman qualities. The fact is, they're human. They fall prey to complacency. We saw it happen 5 years ago. We saw it happen with incredible players like Selanne, Pronger, and Giguere last year. We saw the effect that a guy like Dallas Drake can have on a team to guard against that complacency, and if you ask me, thats going to require a shake up. Do I think the Wings HAVE to make some substantial roster changes to be successful in the regular season? No. Do I think the Wings HAVE to make some substantial roster changes to be substantial in the off-season? Yes. Edit - theres irony in that you have Billups as your avatar. I wouldn't mind a Dumars-like move right now

....yet you neglect to mention that he needs to sign 8 forwards and 6 defenseman with that money.

"Sad, isn't it?" Spare me. NHL players are human. As HUMANS, we are subject to constant criticism. Its a fact of life. Hockey players are no different. Most people get more flack from their own mothers than hockey players do from their fans. This "oh poor hockey players" bit is as trite as baseless bashing itself.

It goes beyond a cup hangover - we have reached another plateau with this club. Say what you want, but Lidstrom and Rafalski have become the new Yzerman and Shanahan of this club. I know its basically illegal to criticize Nick Lidstrom on this board, but holy hell has he been average. Say what you want about his nice defensive plays - those go by the wayside when hes not putting forth the effort. Lidstrom was on the ice for at least 4 goals against last night. I don't care how many of those were on the PP - thats simply unacceptable from Lidstrom. On one goal he wiffed the clearing attempt right in front of the net which allowed Staal to score, and the second time he left his man completely unattended by the goal and half-heartedly threw his stick in front of the player after the shot had already been taken and the goal scored. Same goes for Rafalski. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy in his own zone. And its a direct result of getting outworked. Also, I'm starting to believe that accusations that Stuart is prone to looking disinterested on the ice. They had the same comments in Boston and LA. Now that Stuart has his contract, is he going to give an all out effort? Honestly, what did people expect? Our core defensive players are looking at 3-5 years of contractual security with one guy in his twilight years and the others being bottom pairing Dmen. They've all just won a cup - two of them have won it more than twice. Up front, we have at least 5 players who have won 2-4 cups. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is my theory: With all this security, why do these guys have to fight like dogs every night? Job security? Check. Cup glory? Check. What else matters? I'll tell you what else matters. Stats matter. Offensive stats in particular. Are those there? You're damn right they're there. Its become all this team cares about. And why shouldn't it. What else is there to look forward to besides personal glory when you're in the midst of fruitful years? If this continues, and I'm Ken Holland, then I'm looking at my roster thinking "ok, who is expendable and who can be traded for a guy with hunger?" Our old problem has become our present one. There isn't any other problem with this team than complacency...

The Wings have become like a basketball team - no point in turning into the first 58 minutes of the game, because the game is dediced in the last two minutes.

Bounce back? Bounce back to what? To the subpar defensive play they've been displaying all year? How about the Wings need to start playing complete games on Thursday, for the first time all season.

Yes.

He hasn't been great, but look at the shots hes facing. I'd say even a fraction of the goals scored on him this year are goals I could score on Ozzie with the time and space the Wings D are giving me.

The two players I'm most disappointed tonight are Datsyuk and Lidstrom. Lidstrom needs to get that elbow checked out or something. Those weak stick checks and clearing attempts are simply uncharacteristic.

Hey...win as a team, lose as a team.

Why are we all surpised? So we've met two teams that can match us in offensive ability - the Penguins and Sharks. And if they can match us on offense, we're goners. Score 6 goals and cant win a game? Props to your strong defensive play guys. But what do I know? Im just a spoiled fan who should accept crappy defense play from my team for 15 straight games..

Wow. Terrible Datsyuk play. Terrible Lidstrom play.