Dabura

Speaking of sad stuff...

Freddie Mercury in a Santa-themed sumo suit doing the Dramatic Chipmunk. Now that you see it, you shall never unsee it. Hopefully his soul found peace and he's rocking out in the afterlife with Keith Moon and Jimi Hendrix and Beethoven.

That's awesome that you got to meet him! Albeit in a really bittersweet way. It still hasn't really sunk him for me that he's gone. One of modern music's great talents and seemed to be a good person.

looooooooooooo LOL! I love that pic! Hope you had a great time! You missed a hell of a game! Wings played hard, fast hockey and it was pretty frking cool to see. Euphoria Morning is one of the most underappreciated albums of the '90s, imo. This frking song gives me chills every single time:

Here's the Button rankings that kip referenced: Craig's List: Hughes leads class heavy on American talent [TSN] tl;dr Jack Hughes Kaapo Kakko Vasili Podkolzin Trevor Zegras Bowen Byram Dylan Cozens Matthew Boldy Alex Turcotte Alex Kaliyev Cole Caufield As kip noted, the likes of Dach and Krebs have fallen out of Button's top 10. As kip also noted, this speaks to the depth of this draft class. I've said it before and I'll say it again: There's at least half a dozen players who I'd happily take @ 3rd overall, so if I'm picking in the 3-6 range, I might be looking to trade back. I agree that there's a good chance that at least a couple of high-profile players get Veleno'd. That could make the 2nd round especially interesting.

His loss.

And getting a franchise player is far more likely if you finish in the bottom three than if you finish 17th. If you wanna keep pointing out that we're not likely to get Hughes and that it's possible to get franchise players outside the top three picks, knock yourself out. But you're not really telling anyone anything they don't know. "I want Hughes or Kakko." "You're setting yourself up for disappointment." "Not really. I'm just excited about the possibility." "The odds of--" "I know. I still want Hughes or Kakko." "I'm just saying the odds--" "I know. I still want Hughes or Kakko." "I'm just saying it's possible to find franchise p--" "I know. I still want Hughes or Kakko." "You're setting yourself up for disappointment." "Not really. I'm just excited about the possibility." "So you admit that franchise p--" "It would be really cool if we could get Hughes or Kakko." "The odds--" "It would be really cool if we could get Hughes or Kakko." "Look, I'm just saying the odds aren't in our favor." "It would be really cool if we could get Hughes or Kakko." There, I saved everyone a day's worth of arguing.

That Vegas game made me realize how much I miss Red Wings playoff hockey.

I'd be lying if I said the recent wins don't sting a little. But that's in the context of the tank, which I consider separate from and entirely secondary to The Big Thing, which is winning. I think it's especially big for a team like ours. This team is increasingly young and the young players have spent this season learning what it takes to win NHL games on a consistent basis. We can sit in our armchairs and say, "It doesn't really matter; this team isn't going to be especially competitive until it gets some elite talent." And there's some truth to that. But that means nothing to the players and the coaches. They want to win, they hate losing, and they need to figure s*** out or else there's almost no point in adding a player like Jack Hughes or Kaapo Kakko or Alexis Lafrenière. You can buy the best seeds money can buy, but if you're a s*** gardener with s*** soil, you're likely going to produce s***. Larry Murphy said in one of the recent FS-D broadcasts that making the leap from losing tons of one-goal games to winning most of those games is a much more difficult task than most people think. It's like a prospect cutting his teeth in the AHL; just as a prospect has to face adversity and figure out how to grow as a player, a struggling team that seems "so close, yet so far" has to figure out how to get over the hump and become a better team. "Winningness" is learned, and you can't spell "learned" without "earned." Maybe wins like the New York ones don't really teach anyone anything. But wins like the Vegas one are huge. Huuuuuge. Young players need to learn from experience: if you play smart and "compete like crazy," you can -- and will -- win a lot of hockey games. (The opposite of this would be something akin to learned helplessness.) If your young players internalize this lesson and then you add a Hughes or a Kakko or a Lafrenière to the mix, then you're cooking with gas. tl;dr Winning is always good, never bad. The tank matters, but I'll never actively root for losses. (Note: I'm not trying to claim a moral high ground and say that other people are actively rooting for losses and are therefore stupid. I think we all want the same things, more or less.)

Goalies: How do they work?

"Hope for the best, anticipate the worst. Also, f*** the Sens." - Mark Twain

Hughes is lazy and he sucks. Kakko is so hot right now.

HYPE! LGRW!

The thought had crossed my mind, re: Hirose and Kuffner. I dunno. I go back and forth on those comments. One day I'll think he was alluding to offer sheets, the next day I'll think he was just BSing and PRing.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ http://www.mynhldraft.com/2018/NHL-Draft-Profiles/Filip-Zadina NHL Central Scouting: Steve Kournianos (SportingNews): https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/nhl/red-wings/2018/09/26/red-wings-jeff-blashill-hints-filip-zadina-start-grand-rapids/1431358002/ https://www.mlive.com/redwings/2019/02/red-wings-filip-zadina-seeks-ways-to-create-space-offense.html Etc.

I'm not even saying Zadina is a lock to be a superstar. It's entirely possible he doesn't become anything better than a Nyquist or a Tatar. But to be so convinced at this point in time that he's going to disappoint is, to me, dumb. I might be more inclined to see things your way if I felt like you'd actually watched a single Griffins/Wings game this season.

I dunno, I think we have a pretty good shot at 30th. Edmonton and Vancouver are both very winnable games for LA and LA also plays Anaheim one more time. Well, three wins in our past four (we were coming off a loss to St. Louis). But yeah, I hear ya. S***'s weird.

Trust The Process.

I mean, if you're not following the GDTs here and you're not reading any blogs and you're not following the Wings on any social media platforms and you're basically not communicating with any Wings fans on any level and you didn't see any of Zadina's NHL stint, I can maybe understand how the idea that Zadina had a pretty good nine games might strike you as crazy. Blashill has no problem with mentioning things a young prospect has to work on. He has no problem saying a prospect needs to work on his defensive game. That being said, Blashill's messaging about Zadina has been consistent and consistently positive: "His defensive game isn't a concern, his all-around game is pretty good, we just want him to work on being extremely dangerous offensively. And that's just a matter of him getting used to pro hockey." He says some variation on this every time he talks about Zadina. Every single time. I don't believe for one second that he's simply being kind to Zadina in public "because 6th overall." I've seen him with the Mooseheads. I've seen him with the Griffins. I watched every game of his nine-game stint with the Wings. I'm pretty familiar with this player. You seem to be basing everything on just his time with the Mooseheads. And you seem to be the one who's hung up on "his draft position and little else." I mean, that's why you keep calling him a bust, right? Because we drafted him 6th overall and you don't think he was worth the 6th overall pick. Right? No, I play it off like you have a half-baked impression of him based on some QMJHL viewings and you're going to cling to that impression no matter what, because you're that committed to your craft. That craft being trolling.

Mantha (19) OTG from Larkin (36) - Final score: DET 3, VGK 2 That was a gutsy, hard-fought, well-deserved win. I am genuinely proud of the team for this one. And now I'm going to bed, lol. Peace out!