haroldsnepsts

f-ing Hudler on the point.

Franzen? what are you gonna do there besides get punched in the face and turtle.

don't you mean his yambags?

Flip?!?! How did you put that over the f-ing crossbar?! It's seriously like he doesn't want to score goals.

There's the difference between Homer and Franzen in front of the net. Mule tips it and then as soon as he gets hit, stops going after the puck. Homer keeps hacking at it as the defensemen are hacking on him.

I'm honestly a little surprised Dats doesn't get called more often for all those little hooks around the hands.

Dats! The Pavel we know and love is coming back around these days...

Nice pass by Z! And flip finishes! On a side note, is it just me or is this site taking a long time to load for other people too? I'm guessing because of one of the ads, because that's where it seems to hang.

Agreed. But after Chelios came here, I guess all bets are off for me saying that.

Well, I specifically said defensemen. Not forwards or goalies. And I think he is a little too patient sometimes. I'm certainly not saying he's awful at it, but their track record with defensive prospects isn't as strong as with other players. There's the whole Quincey debacle. Their fascination with Meech. Keeping Lebda around longer than they should've. Kindl is our highest defensive draft pick but it remains to be seen if he can work his way up from the bottom pairing. (He hasn't even played a full season in the NHL so he certainly still has time). Overhyping/overpaying of Ericsson. Smith has looked great for a rookie but they're likely going to have him play another season against inferior competition in the AHL. At the AHL level he'll play more minutes but it won't teach him how to adjust his offensive and defensive game for the speed of NHL. I know prospects are always a crapshoot. The Wings do a tremendous job in general. I just don't think they've done as well with their defenseman. In particular with Lidstrom potentially retiring at the end of the season, having a promising prospect like Smith play alongside him as much as possible seems worth the rookie mistakes.

I don't follow. He's got some pretty good passing skills, but no shot to speak of really. Doesn't pinch much. Plays more of a stay at home style. Gets zero time on the power play but is 3rd on the team in PK TOI. What about the way he plays the game makes him an offensive defenseman? The only thing that really fits is his first pass. To me a guy like Lebda fits that description much more than Ericsson. Lebda had good speed, decent puckhandling and would jump into the play and rush the puck up ice, usually only to panic and turn it over. He was an offensive defenseman who wasn't very good at it, and had weak defensive skills. I agree his slapshot is awful. It's something he could and should be working on, but has had zero improvement. Other than now at least he seems to realize how long it takes to get his slapshot off, so he takes it less.

According to who? Ericsson has never scored 40 points in his career, let alone doing it in the NHL. He's a converted forward, but I've not heard or seen any real expectations of him to be an offensive producer for the Wings. His potential is to be a big physical puck moving defenseman who can kill penalties and clear the crease. Ideally sort of like Stuart but with a better first pass.

How frustrating. Smith deserves to be up with the big club. If Holland has any weaknesses, it seems to be with handling and development of defensemen.

Good thing he's a defenseman. Seriously, if that's your knock against Ericsson, you're scraping the bottom of the barrel for things to ***** about. I mean, he may not be Kyle Quincey, but he's not as bad as you make him out to be. Who has ever argued that? He's got a good first pass, but he's not an offensive defenseman.

Weak fight. I'm a Thomas fan so I don't want it to happen, but if the Sabres want retribution, they should take a run at him. See if Shanny sticks with his goalies are fair game policy.

To me that looked like a relatively minor crosscheck that caught Oshie off guard and caused him to fall awkwardly. Oshie was moving mostly parallel to the boards, not headed towards them like the hit on Kronwall. I guess a fine isn't bad, but I thought the penalty was enough. Though I still don't see how Lucic walks away without even so much as a fine for running Miller.

I agree he needs to use his size better, but it's funny how much more grief he gets for it than Kindl, who never really fights (not counting getting tuned up by Benn recently) and is even less physical than E. Ericsson is 6'4" 221 lbs. Kindl is 6'3" 216. They both should be knocking guys around out there.

No, you're not. I'm sure it comes off like I love the guy but honestly I just don't think he sucks, which compared to the prevailing opinion here probably looks like worship. He's overpaid and likely won't improve enough to earn his contract this season, but he's been playing solid defense, stepped up his physical play, and has the occasional Rafalski-worthy breakout pass like he had to Bert the other night. He's taken a few bad penalties, but like I said in the GDT, when he took one the other night clearing the crease, I'm okay with it. At least half the time the refs would let that go. He's definitely using his size more and makes sure to step in between Howard and whatever forward is trying to get in his face at the end of the play. He still needs to figure out how to get his slapshot off quicker. And I'd love for him to start blocking shots, since almost no one on this team does these days. But that may be asking a bit much.

Let's settle for ten. It doesn't change that Hudler's lack of speed is a major drawback to having him on the blueline for the PP. I'm pretty sure other people said it, but I was definitely worried about his being on the point due to lack of speed. If anything happened or someone fired a shot into a players shin pads, it's off to the races. And if Huds is the only buy back there, it pretty much means it's gonna be a breakaway. The two sports cars analogy isn't relevant because there was only one sports car going after the puck. The other one was maybe a VW beetle. This part I agree with. If Hudler is on the PP (and if he's in the lineup, he should absolutely be on the PP), he needs to be down low where his creativity pays off. Putting him on the point does not play to his strengths.

Cleary was trying to poke the puck out to the point to win a faceoff. It's hardly all his fault. Richards my have been at top speed but you're also not mentioning the 20 foot head start Hudler had on Richards. When Babcock started using Hudler on the point, several people made comments about his ability to get back in time defensively if anything happened. The Richards play illustrated that exact weakness with Hudler on the point. There's no getting around the fact that he is slow. He never had a chance for that reason more than anything else. If he had better speed he would have had a much better chance of either getting to Cleary's pass before Richards, or at least chasing down the puck instead of having Richard's blow by him. Things are going to go bad on the power play, which is why you want guys like Lidstrom back there to prevent and contain them. Hudler isn't going to be very good in that area. Honestly I don't understand why he's on the point anyway. He's much more effective down low where he can make plays. On the point it's like the Wings are trying to play to his weaknesses. No foot speed and he never takes slapshots that far out.

They should totally have them wearing Cooperalls for the Winter Classic!

Well if the goal of this thread was to bait Eva, it worked.

That article still makes it sound uncertain, but there's a chance. I hope he can stay in the lineup. He's certainly played well enough to deserve the chance.

Babcock sits Hudler and his $2.85 million contract. If he thought Ericsson should be sitting, I'm guessing he would be. I hope you're right.

I'm pretty sure Franzen has even said as much himself. While I can understand that the season can be a grind, I can think of 4 million reasons why he should he give an honest effort anyway. Not to mention a couple more points in the regular season would've gotten them home ice against San Jose. Who knows what happens then...