YoungGuns1340

Sigh. My issue is that there are a lot of teams as good as we are. And that there are 16 Cup competitors every year. And yes, the Wings *do* need to get better in order to have one of the best chances at the cup.

Haha, I was just going to make a thread like this. What is up with Lilja this year? Apparently it wasn't just a good start to the season. 50 games in and hes been a BEAST. Hes been our most consistent Dman game in and game out. Hes made me a huge fan of his this season. The most impressive thing about Lilja, IMO, is that its not a contract year for him. Hes seriously just going out there and getting his head in the game, giving 100% every night. I find that really admirable.

I think a lot of people saw that Zetterberg signed for 6M and, for some reason, that got people thinking we're suddenly in great shape financially. We still aren't. The Wings saved maybe 1-1.5M on Hank signing long-term. They didn't save 4-5M. Just because Hank signed at a discount doesn't mean we're not still going have to make all the pieces fit perfectly.

Am I the only one who isn't actually bothered by the losing streak itself, and the loss of points, as much as finding it bothersome that the Wings are playing the EXACT same hockey they have all season, in terms of work ethic, defense, and goaltending, yet are losing simply because we don't have our explosive offense intact? All this reassurance that "oh, we'll still be a top seed" or "Oh, we'll still make the playoffs" or even "Oh, we'll be back to winning in no time!" doesn't do much for me. I'm never concerned about that with the Wings. My concern is that we haven't improved over 49 games when there are plenty of things to improve on.

It actually IS a fair price, given Kronwall's contract. It might take a pick or a prospect as well. The problem is, the Wings don't have the 6M to throw at Bouwmeester either, and Detroit won't give up Kronwall for a rental. Which is too bad, because Bouwmeester would be just the guy to take over for Lidstrom when he retires.

I agree that Lilja *might* be the best defensive defenseman on the team this season, including Lidstrom. But you're dead wrong if you think that Lidstrom isn't playing any different than he has in years past. His skating is slower, his shots aren't as strong or as accurate, and his decision making isn't as quick. The fact that those skills have fallen by the way side speaks to age, not being overrated. You can't call yourself a knowledgeable fan of hockey - or the Red Wings for that matter - if you simply think Lidstrom is being "exposed." Everyone who knows the game of hockey can see hes one of the smartest players ever to play the game, and that the things that make him so great are the things that you don't even notice. In years past, where everyone else would make a mistake, Lidstrom would make the right decision. And guess what? People don't take notice when you do the right thing, only when you do the wrong. And on top of that, everyone whos watched Nick Lidstrom over the years knows that this year Nick Lidstrom hasn't been Nick Lidstrom, just by nature of watching him play year after year, you begin to have certain expectations for Lidstrom, which is to say, zero mistakes on a game-by-game basis. This year he hasn't been that - yes I agree - but it has nothing to do with being exposed.

And again, you're not paying attention to what I'm saying about seeding and numbering - which is to say, I'm not talking about it as an indicator. I'm using it as an illustration. The talk used to put everyone's mind at ease all season has been "well, the Red Wings are still the 3rd best team in the league." What I'm saying is, thats not true. If we're 50 games into the season, and the Red Wings are having their first real slump that puts them back into 4th, 5th, or 6th position in the league, thats no different from a team that had a big slump in the first 20 games, and has since been clipping along at a great pace. In short, my point is to illustrate that while other teams may continue to IMPROVE, the Red Wings haven't. What bothers me about the past 5 games have not been the losses. What disturbs me about the past 5 games is that we HAVEN'T looked different, with the exception of our offense. Which, again, speaks to what many people have been saying all season - our offense has been able to take the heat off our goaltending and defense. If our offense is hot, and can score at will, who cares if we get 3,4, even 5 goals scored against? We can still win. What this slide has shown us is not anything new about our work ethic, our defense, or our goaltending. The only thing this slide has shown is that we are a one trick pony. Without our offense putting up 3+ goals again, we're going to have a tough time pulling out the victories. Can you really disagree with that? Thats one case where the performance AND the stats back up the logic. ...And your point about the President's Trophy is irrelevant. Because if you're winning the President's trophy, then yeah, typically that means you're better than the competition, which is what I care about. If this where a league where EVERY team relied on high scoring efforts to win games, like they used to back in the day, then I wouldn't care. Fact of the matter is, there are about 10 teams out there right now who may not have the offense that we have, but their goaltending is much stronger. They score fewer goals, but they let in fewer goals too. Detroit is no better than those teams right now - and, for the most part, they haven't been all season. That kind of play puts them in a group of about 10 teams, as opposed to the few teams in the NHL right now that have great offense, great defense, and good goaltending.

The fourth line, in my opinion, is the easiest thing to fix of all of our problems. And it definitely should be fixed. There are a slew of guys that we can call up or trade for that can fix it. Mind you, I don't expect ANYTHING to change until the trade deadline has passed and the roster limit is removed. But here are some names: Call ups/Roster guys: Justin Abdelkader Darren Helm Aaron Downey Derek Meech Trade for: Chris Neil Marty Reasoner Gary Roberts Trevor Moen Dan Hinote Ian Lapperierre Chris Gratton Scott Nichol Jeff Cowan Sign (believe it or not. Risky, but it could pay off and would be crazy cheap): Marty Gelinas Marty Lapointe Scott Thornton No, these aren't great options all around, but I think all the guys listed here have a great work ethic and bring an energetic, gritty presence.

Yes. And Henrik Zetterberg is making 2.65M. Holy Smokes is Filppula overpaid! See? I can do that too! Edit: But just so we're clear, Handzus at age 25 was making 1.43M a year. And at 29 (New NHL) he was making 2.1.

Even if Flip only had 10 points on the season, I would say the same thing. In my eyes, it has nothing to do with the statistics as much as it does with his offensive performance and presence. When was the last time you saw Filppula in the offensive zone and thought to yourself "he makes it look so easy!" Filppula doesn't do that. I admire him, because he gets a lot of his points from hard work. And while thats nice, its still not something you can reward with 3M on a very deep offensive team. Honestly, as much as I love Holland and think he is the best GM in the game, I think he and the rest of the brass got cocky with this contract. They thought they'd set themselves up for another pat on the back in 3 years when Filppula might've potentially had a great contract. But its backfiring on them. Franzen and Hudler have made themselves more valuable than Flip, and Helm has climbed out of the woodwork to prove hes a solid NHLer. Now they have tough decisions to make. Its actually kind of sad when you think about it. Had Holland pulled off an Alex Steen type of contract - basically, a 2 year contract at about 1.7-1.8M a year - we wouldn't be having this conversation. Not only would Filppula be more or less earning that contract, but he wouldn't be eating up as much cap space, and he'd still have the chance to cash in and prove himself to be more than just a solid two-way center, but a strong offensive contributer as well. I doubt he was asking for 3M per season either, but we'll never know. If he does get traded however, it will have everything to do with finances, and less to do with his play, which is ultimately the fault of Holland, not Filppula.

Huh? How is Datsyuk in any way comparable to Filppula? During the days when Datsyuk "couldn't finish," it had everything to do with him being an elite passer, and playing on a line with Brett Hull and Brendan Shanahan. Of course you're going to be prone to passing when you're playing with two of the greatest goal scorers of their era - one of all time. At Filppula's age, Datsyuk put up 51 points - in the OLD NHL, mind you. And in Datsyuk's third year in the league, he came up with 30 goals and 68 points - still in the Old NHL. The one thing that Filppula has ever had over Datsyuk has been his defense. Datsyuk was ragged for being defensively irresponsible, whereas Filppula has always been great defensively. If you ask me, there isn't a comparable guy to Filppula on the Wings roster right now. Zetterberg at Flip's age now - again in the old NHL - was on pace for 20 goals, 58 points, and he had already shown that he was a great passer and a great goal scorer at that age. Same thing with Datsyuk, at Filppula's age, you could see his potential based off of what you saw every game - great passing, great puck movement, incredible stickhandling. Even Hudler - at Filppula's age, he put up 42 playings playing 12 minutes a night in a third line role. Even last season, you could see that Hudler had great offensive instincts and a great wrister. The fact that hes only built on that speaks to experience and further development on that raw talent. Which, in my mind, is the difference between Filppula and the other three. With Hudler, Datsyuk, and Zetterberg, you could see/can see the raw offensive talent that would come through as they developed and got used to the NHL game. Filppula has NEVER had that raw talent shining through. Filppula has never been a guy that game in and game out made it known that he had a wicked wrister, great stick-handling skills, or a penchant for finding the open man. Those are the type of tip-offs that come through in a players game no matter who they're playing with or on what line. What Filppula has, and what his development and performance have indicated over the past three years, is that he's a great skater. Hes great positionally, and hes know where to be on the man to man coverage. He also knows when to step up and when to use his speed. Hes shown that hes not afraid to go the net, and that his passing and shooting skills are good. But not great. And most importantly, hes offensive sense has never been there. In short, offense is never going to come easy to Filppula. As of now, I think a great comparison for the type of player Filppula is going to pan out to be is Michal Handzus. (Ironic, because as I say this, Handzus has 7G and 13A for 20 points in 47 games - eerily similar to Filppula). Handzus has always been a reliable guy. Hes always been a great PKer and a great defensive presence, and his offense has been decent, but its never been something he was known for. He could pull of a fancy move here and there, but his offensive production - from what I've seen of him over the years - has always come from the basic tap-ins, give and gos, and the occasional well-placed shot. Incredibly, Handzus' seasonal average point production in his full seasons has been an even 50 points, averaging about 21 goals. That seems about exactly on par with what Filppula will be giving you over his career, maybe a little more.

I saw the fight, and it was a Tootoo special again. He didn't wait to square up. Too bad it didn't give him an advantage in this one.

It has nothing to do with the seed number - it has everything to do with the fact that there are a LOT of teams in the league right now that have been playing comparable hockey to thing Wings since day one. Back when Babcock said the Wings weren't among the elite at the beginning of the season, that was easy to accept, because we still had a long ways to go. Now nearly 2/3rds of the way through the season, we haven't separated ourselves from the pack as much as people like to think. What that boils down to is a lot harder competition in the playoffs, and our stats across the board indicate that.

The thing is, the Wings aren't playing much different than how they have been all season. The only real difference is that the offense isn't clicking at the rate it was because of injuries. The Wings may be able to win those regular season games pulling out the explosive offense once we get all of our big names back, but that won't cut it in the playoffs. And thats my ultimate concern.

I agree that Conklin has been solid, but hes not a starter. And he hasnt shown any signs that he has an extra gear in big games, which is key going into the playoffs. At this point, I do want Backstrom, but hes going to be too expensive. 4M on the open market is completely reasonable, and he could see 5 from an overpaying team. Ideally, the Wings need to look elsewhere. With the way the goaltending has been this season, it actually might be safe to say that some names like Leclaire, Fernandez, Ellis, Huet, or Khabibulin could be useful to the Wings. But our rivals aren't going to trade with us, and the other guys are too expensive right now. Kari Lehtonen could be a trade option, and he could probably be signed to a 3M per year contract, but that still might be too much money (4.4M total) put into goaltending. And the Wings won't trade, waive, or buy out Osgood.

You mean when we were far and away the best team in the NHL and were playing without 2 to 4 of our top 4 Dmen on any given night? Yeah I remember that. Why do you ask? Just to give you an idea, we're 3rd in the league right now by a decent margin. We're 8 points behind San Jose, and they have a game in hand. We're 7 points behind Boston, even in games played. And just to really paint you a picture of how great the Wings are compared to the rest of the team this league, consider this: A New Jersey Devils team - playing without Brodeur of course - is a mere two points behind us, having played 1 more game than us. This team can't afford another slump where we lose 5 out of our next 6 games. I don't think people realize it, but if the Wings don't stop this slide, they could find themselves sitting in the 4th seed going into the playoffs.

You know, we're not the only ones in the league who watch the Wings a lot. There are a lot of scouts out there who are taking a look at the Wings and telling their bosses - namely other GMs and coaches - that the Wings goaltending is brutal and that their defense is prone to mental lapsing. Therefore, the game plan is simple when you face the Wings - put everything you have into the offense. Let the defense take care of itself, but shell Osgood and Conklin with pucks, and save your best efforts for the offensive end of things, and we'll pick up some weak goals. Its a simple solution to beating the Wings at this juncture, and its not going to change unless our goaltending comes up with a big game, or our defense protects our goaltenders from any of the tough shots.

Theres still a ton of offensive talent on that lineup. Two of the top offensive Dmen in the game, and 3 25+ goal scorers, plus Hudler, and still nothings coming? Without Hank and Homer, we have a better forward lineup than half the teams in this league. Thats not a vaild excuse.

I'm dumbfounded. How can you have twice the skaters on the ice, and not even pull off a deadly PP? The fact that we didn't score aside, we had over a minute and only came up with one decent scoring chance. The extra passing was the icing on the cake there.

Holy, ******* f***. How did that just happen?

Just set up the play and make it happen.

SIX ON THREE.

Leino seriously looks like hes been playing as a top 6 forward in the NHL for 5 years. He hasn't missed a step in the ofensive zone. His defensive coverage needs some work, but that will come.

MVP for Ovechkin is right. I don't think theres a less mobile defense than the Washington Capital's defense. The fact that Washington has won so many games shows how much they rely on the guy. He just takes games over.

Some people just enjoy bitching. I do. And I'll continue to do so. Well, at least its Ovechkin.