haroldsnepsts

No, he isn't. Kindl is coming along nicely. But he's been playing about 5 minutes less per game than either Salei or Ericsson. He's just not asked to do as much as those two. That's not to say he won't be soon, but apparently Babcock feels he's not there yet.

Point taken. But when it's your first game back for concussing a guy by throwing a dirty elbow to the head (then yapping at him as he's down on the ice) and you do the same thing in your first game back, it sends a pretty clear signal you've not learned anything from your suspension.

The Clutterbuck hit was bad, but the player turned and it looks like he let up a bit. For as many hits as he throws, Clutterbuck is a pretty clean hitter. But it looks like Gillies threw another elbow to the jaw. I didn't even realize he was back from the first suspension. The guy's not even a hockey player, so I don't care how high the suspension goes, but I'd say start with 10 games. Of course, 20 would be great too.

Right. Because that rarely happens in the NHL. The lengths you'll go to avoid saying anything remotely critical of this team are comical. Weak penalty shot call, but as others have said, the Wings had plenty of chances to win this on the PP.

I'm guessing you're being sarcastic, but I'm being serious. Well done Big E. He should be doing exactly that, and more. Hopefully getting called for this won't discourage him. Blake dove. The ref from the corner way behind Ericsson made the call. Even the Ducks announcers said it was a bad call. I missed the first period, but holy hell the officiating has been a joke from what I saw in the second. Our defense overall had some gaffes in the second. Ericsson, Kindl, Stuart. Howard looked good though, at least in the second.

He got lost in front of his own net on the Simmonds goal, but otherwise I thought he looked great out there against the Kings. Poised, confident, somewhat physical. All good things.

I'm no Luongo fan, but their cap hit is actually 5.3 million, which isn't bad. He's somewhat overrated, but still a good goaltender.

Check the fight cards for the two teams and you'll see why.

The Kings beat the Wings 5-0 and 3-2 earlier this season, and I think split the regular season series with the Wings before that. Yes, the Kings have further to go compared to the Wings, but one 7-4 win to show that is cherrypicking their matchups a bit. I'd love for the Wings to make the defensive effort the Kings do game in and game out. Just like I'd like the Kings to have even half the offensive talent the Wings possess.

Agreed. He's already been fined $50k for shooting his mouth off. Apparently he didn't learn his lesson. That being said, there were some marginal calls that favored the Wings last night. The call on Greene was an absolutely awful one. He caught Homer with his head down on a great hit. Kindl dove on the trip by Clifford. Though Clifford was pretty clearly trying to trip him. and Stoll's hook against Dats was pretty soft too, but so was one of Hudler's penalties. There is no conspiracy by the league to give the Wings the benefit of the doubt, though I'd say they came out a little ahead in the calls last night. More than anything, Lombardi should shut his yap and find a better power play coach for the Kings. They don't have the skill level that the Wings do, but their PP shouldn't look as lame and disorganized as it often is.

The lapse at the end is a drag, but I wouldn't lump it in with their continued defensive struggles. This was a team up by a huge lead at the end of a game. Not a team that started slow and didn't lock it down defensively, which is their usual problem. Lidstrom played a little under 19 minutes, and Kindl played over 17. It looks like Babs was resting some players and rewarding other guys with more ice time than usual.

meh. good to have it over with I guess. time to start earning your contract now Jimmy.

Quick actually played well that game. They dominated the Avs for two plus periods, then fell asleep in the third. The only goal that was really his fault was when he misplayed the puck behind his own net. Quick is a very good goaltender, but has the puckhandling skills of Hasek.

Mine too. A wise-ass, Maltby type. And all heart.

By that reasoning though, Lidstrom is having a much worse season this year (-1) than last, when he finished +22. There's just too many other factors involved with +/- for it to be a very meaningful stat. Lids is clearly playing better this season, but as Drake pointed out the team defense and his pairings have changed considerably. Kronwall and E as our top pair absolutely puts the fear of god in me. Honestly I'm not totally convinced Kronwall can be a top pairing guy unless he's paired with a Lidstrom type player (maybe not that elite, but has great hockey sense). Because he's more of a Rafalski-type player in terms of his occasional awful defensive decisions. And E has shown progress, but I don't know that he's a top pairing guy either.

Agreed. Kindl looked good out there, but Salei and Ericsson are playing about 5 more minutes a game than him (last night E played 8 more mins), often against tougher lineups. So it's not exactly apples to apples like you can swap him for either of those two. Kindl is probably more useful on the PP than either of them, but certainly not on the PK. It's a typical LGW grass is always greener. Ericsson and Salei aren't setting the world on fire out there as bottom pairing guys, so the rookie must be way better than they are. He's not. But he does have potential.

Pretty much this. Two questionable plays, but they don't call for any suspensions or actions outside of this game.

Snow is a joke for not claiming Emery? Why didn't Holland claim him then? Is he a joke too? How does it make more sense to put in a request for Emery than Nabokov?? He needed a goaltender when he claimed Nabby. And Nabokov is a helluva lot more known commodity than Emery, and at a bargain price. Seriously, Wings fans need to get over the whole Nabokov thing. He was NEVER going to play for Detroit. If not the Isles, it would've been some other team. As for Emery, he's a good goalie who still has potential. Though he makes Hextall look even-tempered.

wtf was he thinking? The goalie covering the puck suddenly makes a guy fair game around the net?

Zetterberg isn't paid to be a playmaker? Why not? Franzen does need to shoot more and quit trying to pass to Bertuzzi. But what's going to bite the Wings in the ass is their inability to keep an opponent from scoring less than 4 goals. Red Wings Goals per game: 2nd overall Goals Against: 17th

Agreed. You know the team must be performing well, including Hudler, if Ericsson is back to being the whipping boy. He needs to play more physical and work on getting his slapshot off faster, but I think he's having a great sophomore season overall. Looks comfortable out there, great first pass most of the time. Yes, he still has brainfarts, but in his second full season in the NHL, I can live with that more than I can when Rafalski and Kronwall do it. Overall this season, Ericsson's development has been great.

He's not without talent. He's just without conscience.

It pains me to say this, but Go Pens! I would love for the Hawks to be another Cup team that misses the playoffs the next season.

I don't know that there's many here who actually hate Hudler. Sure, there's a few. For the first half of the season, most people were just saying he was awful, which he absolutely was. And hoped he would get better, which he did. Hopefully he'll keep playing the way he has lately and we'll never see the crappy incarnation of Hudler from the first part of the season again.

I can never keep it straight. Do we hate Ericsson now, or Kindl? Or Salei? Someone remind me who's the whipping boy on defense.