Heroes of Hockeytown

Edmonton was completely terrible, but the Wings clearly were up for the Pittsburgh game, and didn't blow it like last time. Better play across the board, but especially goaltending. I assume the next time the Wings drop two in a row things will get back to normal, don't you worry.

May as well have been a replay of Game 1. Two solid efforts in a row... What's happening to my Wings?

A seemingly innocuous little tidbit at the end of a story detailing Hossa and Franzen's interests in re-signing is this: No quotes, but Ansar Khan is very much a reliable source.

Seriously? The f*** kinda statement is that? I wouldn't make that declaration about the 2007 Patriots. Not that kinda team... who says that? To lose more than two in a row. That's got to be the most preposterous thing I've ever heard. I'm totally baffled that someone would say that. EDIT: Really. Has any team in history gone a season without 3 L's in a row? Like, even the '96 Wings or '77 Habs?

I've never played competitive hockey and I know f***all about coaching, but I'll be damned if Hudler isn't being under utilized by Babcock.

Well, no matter, he was born wrong-handed, too short, and not Swedish enough to convince Mike.

Didn't he do that for the Griffs?

In the parallel universe where we didn't trade away our pick that got this guy for Lang, there's no guarantee we would have drafted him anyways. Gaudy numbers, but I wonder if he can actually play D? It doesn't matter much now, but in the playoffs he'll get killed being a fourth forward. You'll have to tell me, I've seen one Caps game this year.

Yeah, well if it comes down to Homer vs X then we'll see, but there are enough factors in play where I think we've got enough room for one old guy, but not four or five. Trust me, I'm with you. Loyalty will only get you so far. I think Kenny's juuust about ready to let go of Cheli, and he's 47.

I'm not worried about loyalty at all, but 60 of 80 ain't bad for all the work that he does. Yeah, he won't be around in 5 years but he's only making $2.250M right now. He could conceivably take even less for another say, 2 year contract after that. He's not breaking the bank for what he does. As far as I'm concerned he's not in the same ballpark as Maltby and Draper. Sample size brah. Welcome to Unsupported Claim Theater! Maybe though, given how Mike likes to dole out ice time.

What's all this nonsense here.

Oh please, +/- is far from being a good indicator of defensive play. Watch the game, Kopecky and his accomplices Draper and Maltby spend most of their time pinned in their own zone against good opposition, and are lucky to get out of there without getting scored on or taking a penalty (the latter of which you won't find on any stats sheet). Then he gets inexplicably promoted to the top line with Datsyuk, where he still can't contribute in the slightest but porbably got his hella important +/- padded a little. Yeah, Helm is a little raw, Kopecky's got, what, 150 more NHL games under his belt? Helm's got great wheels, good instincts, and brings energy.

You're basically saying he has a pulse. You can stick him anywhere where he can do nothing of note. What's more, Helm was put as third line center because that's what he specializes at, something that Kopecky doesn't possess. He specializes at nothing. You could put Helm on the top two lines as a winger and he could use his speed and create at least as much as Kopecky has. Better to let him go and find more guys from within that specialize in something than one guy that can do nothing everywhere.

Edmonton played sufficiently terrible so I don't know how much this performance really shows, but the Wings put away a bad team thoroughly so I'm satisfied. Fell asleep a bit in the third but I can understand that. I'm much more interested in seeing how this game translates into tomorrow's tilt.

f*** yeah Leino!

Brutal pass, good jump by Sammy.

Wings still got another one-goal win in their pockets.

There ya go. Time to wake up, gang.

I was looking forward to saying that the Wings didn't give up a breakaway today, but now I cannot.

Went in clean the whole way, Nick from Nik and Val.

Settin' 'em up and knockin' 'em down.

I could be goaltending for the Wings right now, this is brutal.

Yeah, I'm kind of dampening my excitement about this play, the Oil might be one of the worst teams in the league right now.

Lilja's gettin' rung up for that one.

Hank and Pavel have to stay together.