haroldsnepsts

That's not on Helm. It looked like the tampa player turned away from the hit.

Good point. Which makes it even more confusing. I honestly had no opinion on Weiss when he came here. But now it seems like anytime there's a puck battle, he loses.

At least it wasn't Jurco's.

A lot of Babcock's reluctance to use Weiss has to be his inability to hang on to the puck. Anytime he's under pressure it seems like he coughs it up. I don't get how this guy was a 2nd line center.

That penalty is a result of the league's hitting from behind policy of "it's ok to hit a guy from behind as long as you don't do it too hard, unless it's not okay because he goes hard into the boards."

Goalies work on most parts of their game throughout their career. It's why each team has a goaltending coach. There's actually a pretty interesting article about how Dubnyk changed the way he tracks the puck and it changed his game. http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=754075

Not that I'm aware of. Though it sure seems like teams would be smart to employ someone to do just that. Instead there's corsi, which allegedly correlates reasonably well with possession time. I'm not sure how rigorously that's been tested though. As a team stat it makes sense. Get lots of shots generally means you spent a lot of time in the offensive zone, which generally means you had possession. On an individual player basis though I think it's pretty useless. There's so much context needed that at that point you just need to watch the game.

According to NHL.com on the season Detroit is 5th best in the league at 52%. And that includes their recent games, so they had been strong in the faceoff circle this season. http://www.nhl.com/stats/team?fetchKey=20152ALLSAAAll&ord=desc&sort=faceOffWinPercentage&viewName=summary

I think taking E off the top pairing could help him with his struggles, but no way I want Kindl back on the team. Marchenko or even XO are an improvement. I know Kindl had the goal and the assist the other night, but he plays extremely sheltered minutes (last time I checked he had the highest offensive zone starts of any Dman in the league). He's good at getting his shot through, or at least he was last game until that goes away again, but this blueline is thin enough already. With Kindl in the lineup it extends every other pairing even further. Plus Kindl Quincey were brutal in the past and Q has been playing well. I wouldn't want Kindl to rub off on him.

yeah, I got the banhammer for a personal attack on myself. But weren't the Wings strong in the faceoff this season? Or am I making that up?

Another issue is the Wings have been getting dominated in the faceoff circle. Obviously Datsyuk is part of that, but even when he was in the lineup they weren't doing great. I don't know if that's mostly a function of the guy taking the draw or if it's the supporting players, because a lot of times it's the teammates charging into the circle that win it for you. If memory serves the Wings have been strong in the faceoff circle for a lot of the season, but now they're getting consistently outdrawn.

Wow. Dats gets beat along the boards and it leads to the late goal.

Weiss is not strong on the puck.

In what universe is a clean hit roughing? Such b.s.

Great hit by Q. then a fight for a clean hit. God I hate that. It should be an automatic extra 2 for the idiot who jumps someone for a clean hit. How the f*** does Quincey end up in the box for that?

Nice little outlet dish by XO along the boards as he's getting hit.

Nice job by DK playing physical behind the net. Want to see more of that.

Well that didn't take long. Sheahan gets hooked off the puck, turnover leads to the goal.

I hope not (about XO being sent back down). From what I've seen he's definitely earned his spot. It's probably going to happen, but sending him down and putting Kindl in his spot is a downgrade in the defense.

A big problem for the Kings is that Dustin Brown has fallen off quite a bit as well. He brings other things to the team, but not really enough to warrant the contract he has. Between him and Richards, that's a lot of overpayment. As cnot mentioned, buying him out would've been best for both parties. The Kings would've gotten more cap relief (I think?) and he wouldn't have that contract keeping other teams from picking him up.

The thing is, those guys aren't better than Franzen. They work harder than Franzen. And honestly that, more than whatever his production is trending, is what irks me about his play and why I think he's bad for the team. Can you imagine if Tatar had Mule's size? Because I don't think Tatar necessarily has a better shot or more skill than Franzen. Just greater will to get the puck and go the net. I never really buy into the "for his cap hit" excuse for his effort (not that you were making it). For one, the Wings are starting to be on the losing end of that contract now. And second, I just think it's bad for team morale and culture when you have a guy with so much talent who's half-assing it out there. And he absolutely is half-assing it out there some nights. Franzen has always been streaky, but you'd still notice him during games. Taking shots, creating scoring chances, being a jerk to play against. This season there's been so many games where he was completely invisible out there. Anyway, I didn't mean this into another bash Franzen fest. It just struck me after the game last night how it hadn't even occurred to me that he was out of the lineup. He is not missed, and he should be.

Why use his career average? It's not like he's put up around the same number of points since he entered the league. His first few seasons are not why he got that contract. He's at .67 PPG this season (Nevermind that he's also a -12 and half his points are on the PP). The previous four seasons his PPG were .76, .76, .73 and .72. It's a small sample size, but it is also a significant drop. It is not made up. I don't know if he's streakier or not overall but prior to his injury, he had 1 goal in 20 games. And it goes beyond points. You can't quantify his disappearing act by points. Players often factor in games without showing up on the scoresheet. There's so many games that go by where you don't even notice Franzen, and that shouldn't happen with someone of his talent. Guys like Sheahan and Tatar regularly factor into games more than Mule, even when they don't score.

Definitely. I'm sure he wanted to stay and the Kings did too. They just wanted the version of him from a few years ago. Lombardi made a sentimental decision and it's costing him. I'm sure some of it is Richards plays such a physical style and he's not a big guy. That's gonna take wear and tear and he's seen a lot of games in his 29 years. But it seems like it's got to be more than that for the wheels to have come off so fast.

Exactly! It didn't even dawn on me until after the game that he was out. To a lesser degree, Kindl as well.

In 1986 Canada didn't select Brett Hull for the IIHF World Championship. At the time he was basically an AHLer with a booming shot. Team USA gave him a call and offered him a roster spot, which he accepted. He credits that opportunity with Team USA to getting his NHL career on track, and has said it seemed disloyal to jump over to Team Canada after that break.