haroldsnepsts

He came through in OT, but if you watched the game, it was mostly a very un-Datsyukian night. glad we got the two points. But it's still worrisome that you have to steal two points from an injured Edmonton team, partly due to an extremely fortunate deflection.

Salei just saved Kindl's bacon there. Then Modano too.

Right. so on paper it looks like there's no conflict of interest, but we're talking about Colin Campbell, the guy who was emailing the head of officials about calls made against his sons team, allegedly as a "passionate hockey dad," not as the league's disciplinarian.

Why do you want to know? So you can get a head start on writing a condescending, judgmental post about what we should be saying here? Agreed. I think they ultimately made a good call. I just wish they made it that way when it happened to the Wings. But that requires consistency in officiating, which apparently is an impossibility in the NHL.

Not a surprising call. No, it didn't look like he deflected it intentionally. The problem is if you let that go, you could have guys taking a lot of swings at the puck with their glove trying to redirect it, instead of using their stick.

But why wouldn't Gregory Campbell treat the Bruins the same as other teams? Sorry, I meant Colin Campbell. Greg is the bruins player. Colin is the the league's disciplinarian. I get those two names mixed up some time. Hmm, Colin campbell and Gregory Campbell, wonder if there's any relation?

Awful, awful call. The hysteria going on about headshots right now is ruining the game. Hopefully things will settle back down. Usually when people whine about it becoming the No Hit League it seems like a gross overreaction, but the league is definitely taking some steps in that direction. At the very least they're making the game safer for guys who skate with their head down.

I'm not sure one needs to ask. Of course they wouldn't have. They've been completely silent on much worse shots to the head until it happened to the Habs.

This. Talk about spot picking. Maybe Air Canada and Mario can go start a new league.

Well, now that the police are involved, this story made headlines again. Another shining moment for hockey. Thanks Montreal. You elevated an unfortunate borderline hit to the Bertuzzi incident, and once again hockey looks like a bunch of barbarians skating around braining one another without punishment.

This board is often all about extremes, and as is often the case, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. I wouldn't pin this loss on Howard. But I would also say he didn't have a particularly great game. Even when it didn't affect the play around him, he was giving up rebounds on what should be relatively easy shots to corral.

Agreed. In spite of how we react here after a loss, it's not like this team sucks. Far from it. It's just frustrating to watch a team with so much talent underperform and get outworked. The Kings have probably half the talent that the Wings do, but with the exception of the blowout in LA, they've outworked the Wings every time. Franzen had one shot on goal in over 17 minutes of icetime. And when he's not getting the puck on net, it's not like he's doing other great things out there, like hitting guys and grinding it out.

Honest no, I'm not. He was very good last season but had a shaky playoffs, and hasn't been able to return to form. So as we head into high pressure games, it definitely gives pause. But to be clear, I'm not pinning this loss entirely on Howard. He was okay, not great. For as much offensive talent as this team has, Helm shouldn't be the one with the best scoring chances. It's like with this team they can generate offense but then let it all hang out defensively. Or when they're pretty good defensively they can't score goals. They just can't get it together on both ends of the ice. This is not a "sky is falling" post. I think this is the Wings longest losing streak of the season, and they still came away with a couple of loser points. They're second in the west. But there's not a lot to instill confidence headed into the playoffs, other than hope that they flip the switch. Hell, that should be the playoff slogan, because otherwise the Wings likely won't go far.

I don't disagree with their sentiment, but they picked the wrong hit to get outraged about. There have been several more serious hits where the head was actually targeted.

I don't think they're waiting for him to play like Lundqvist. But it'd be good if he played like the Howard of last season.

Mule was annoying the crap out of me tonight. I'm so sick of watching him start things, mucking it up, then hiding behind the ref. Other than that I saw a lot of coasting around and just trying to reach out and get the puck with his stick instead of using his size. If someone fed him a nice pass then he'd look motivated for a few strides. I'm still wondering how Kindl and Ericsson ended up out there together for the first shift on the 4 on 4 in the first period. I though E had a decent game, though it seemed to tail off at the end. like he gets less focused as the game wears on and he moves his feet less. I think his great first pass is what's keeping him out there for now. And not to beat it to death, but he needs to use his size, particularly pinning guys to the boards. It's not just using his size, it honestly looks like a lack of technique. He just doesn't seem to know how to pin guys. Instead of watching Pronger (like I said in another thread). He needs to watch Matt Greene. Lidstrom was being more physical with Penner out in front of the net then practically any other defenseman.

Yup. I sure wouldn't equate Howard's performance with Quick's. Quick had a great game. Jimmy was giving up rebounds on weak shots that he should have swallowed. Z looked dominant out there in the first couple periods in terms of puck control, but it didn't lead to a ton of scoring chances. Helm was his usual awesome self.

That overhead angle shows Chara grabbing him with his free hand, probably trying to slow him down from getting to the puck so his defensive partner would have time to make a play. If not for the stantion it should've been two for interference. More than pro-enforcer or anti-enforcer (I don't consider myself either), two better categories to determine how people view this hit is probably "I dont like Chara" and "I like/have no opinion about Chara." Or maybe even "I'm bitter he won the Norris over Lidstrom."

Agreed. When people talk about being able to tell he intentionally threw him into the stantion, I don't know quite what to say. He was trying to hit the guy, of course he's going to shove him. I really hope Pacioretty is okay, but this was a pretty common hockey hit in a really unlucky part of the rink. And for the record, I f-ing hate Chara. But if not for the injury, he probably doesn't even get a penalty, maybe 2 for interference. And off topic, but Turtle was absolutely a dirty player, even before the Draper incident.

You get that from one quote? He's not motivated because of his big contract? I think Zetterberg is overly optimistic in a lot of the quotes I read from him in the press, but in principle I agree with him. The Wings are a puck possession team. When that's working, being "fancy" is the right play. But when they're off, it suddenly seems cute and lazy. It's not that simple to just say they were being too cute with the puck. My main thing is when the puck possession isn't working, particularly when they're being aggressively forechecked, they need to be able to transition to a successful grinding game like Babcock is talking about. It's why in a lot of their off games, the 3rd and 4th lines ending up looking the best because they tend to play that style anyways. When the skill play isn't working, their persistence in trying to rely on talent does seem like they're not willing to compete highly to win.

Agreed. I expected some dropoff because of the younger guys in the lineup, but the Wings are 19th in GAA. That's about team defense and goaltending.

Way to ignore my point. I wasn't arguing that he doesn't usually play with Rafalski, or that defensive pairings don't tend to stay together. Of course they do. That's a pretty widely known concept. Keep a Dman with a regular partner. But the fact that defensive pairing usually stay together is not the same as saying Babcock is putting an inferior defenseman on the ice for 5 more minutes per game because he doesn't like to change pairings. You argued that Ericsson plays more than Kindl because Babcock doesn't like to change pairings. But Rafalski, Ericsson's usual partner, is out of the lineup. Babs already doesn't have his usual pairings. So since Kindl is better than Ericsson, why wouldn't he play Kindl for more minutes since he has to change pairings anyway? At the very least, Kindl's minutes should come up, since they're missing one of the Dmen who plays 20+ minutes a night. Yet last night Kindl took 15 shifts and played 9 minutes. Ericsson took 30 shifts and played over 21. Why? If Kindl was clearly as superior to Ericsson as you're arguing he is, Babcock would be an idiot to play Ericsson so much more per game. Are you really going to stick with "he doesn't like to change pairings" to explain away the substantial difference in TOI per game? Your hypothesis is absurd, because it requires that Babcock is an idiot. You say Ericsson was severely outplayed by Kindl again last night. Aside from the major flaw in why Babcock would utilize them the way he does when Kindl is clearly better, my other point is that difference in ice time means you're not really comparing apples to apples. Kindl was out there for 15 shifts. Ericsson was out for 30. Looking good on D for 9 minutes isn't nearly as hard as doing it for 21+ minutes. And resorting to +/- only shows the desperation of your argument (I'm not the only one who's pointed this out). Against San Jose Kindl was even, Ericsson was a -1, while Lidstrom was -2. I guess Kindl > Ericsson > Lidstrom.

That's my biggest beef with him. He's 6'5" 220 lbs, but doesn't use it to his advantage nearly enough. He needs to watch game tape of Pronger to model himself afer. Yes, I'm serious.

Actually, it already is. The sections you made up or are completely unsupported are highlighted in bold. The only actual evidence to support your case is a -1 difference in plus minus, which is an incredibly weak stat. What's Lidstrom's +/-? Yet you dismiss the 5 minutes difference in ice time out there between E, Salei, and Kindl. 5 minutes is a huge difference in TOI. You're seriously arguing that in spite of Kindl clearly outplaying Ericsson, Babcock is continuing to give 5 minutes more icetime to an inferior player and limit Kindl's TOI just because he likes to keep his pairings consistent? That's absurd. Your argument is weak. You have the opinion that Kindl is better than Ericsson. I have the opinion he isn't. The thing is, the games and evidence support my argument. And to be clear, I'm not in any way saying Kindl is bad. But he's not playing the same role as Ericsson, and he's not as far along. But he looks very promising and has a ton of potential. Hopefully he keeps it up. Agreed. Maybe it's because E's development seems to have stalled a bit, but I think Kindl does have the potential to be a better D man the Ericsson. He already seems to play more physical than Ericsson and is looking more and more comfortable out there.

Actually, he isn't. I know the grass is always greener here on LGW, but he is seriously not better than Ericsson. Yet. Kindl may be very soon, but he's not right now. You're not comparing apples to apples. Who cares what is asked of them?? Kindl is out there at least five fewer minutes per game than Ericsson or Salei. You don't think that's a significant difference? Let's assume what you're saying was true and Kindl is already clearly better than E. Why wouldn't Babcock give him more minutes? Why wouldn't he put him on the ice in OT? Why wouldn't he pair him with a partner where Kindl would show even more than he does now? I guess he doesn't want to utilize his players well. Or maybe he's bringing him along with minutes and situations that will help him succeed and help his development. No matter how many times you post that equation, it doesn't make it true.