Dabura

End of 1st. Wings lead 1-0. I mean, I'll take it.

PK

Bernier denies Aho on a breakaway!

Kronwall (2) PPG, unassisted - DET 1, CAR 0

You're good luck! (Howard's backing up. I guess he can play if he absolutely has to, but he's not 100%.)

Wings have a power play goal in three straight games. Somehow.

KRONWALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PP Staal hits iron on a shorthanded breakaway.

He's definitely been quiet. Then again, he was probably overachieving a bit pre-suspension.

Our strategy tonight is to never have the puck. Bold strategy, let's see if it pays off for us.

Last I heard, it was 3-5 weeks. And that was about a week ago.

LET'S GOOOOOOOO

[Yearly reminder that the last time the Wings won a Cup without Brett Lebda was 2002, just saying]

Assorted links: 2019 NHL Draft Rankings - November 2018 Edition [DobberProspects] Sportsnet's 2019 NHL Draft Prospect Rankings: December [Sportsnet] 2019 NHL Draft: Fisher's Top 186 for December [The Hockey Writers] Hughes, Kakko among top 2019 NHL Draft prospects to watch at WJC [NHL.com] The hype about Jack Hughes: U.S. NTDP's latest star product has the NHL's attention [Sporting News] From that Sporting News piece on Hughes:

Bearback Army

Our long national nightmare is over.

yes plz

I haven't seen much of him (incidentally, yay streaming sites!), so I don't have a strong opinion on him. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on him and anyone else. I'm hoping there'll be streams available for all of the tournament games, or at least the bigger ones. So, yeah. If we're looking for a big, right-shot scoring center / winger of the high-end variety, Leason probably isn't our guy. Or maybe he is. (Probably not.) In any case, Dach and Cozens and Lavoie are the big names in the big-bodied RH C/W category and they're all great young players, as you know. Hughes and Kakko are still my #1 and #2, respectively, but there are, like, six(ish) non-Hughes/Kakko forwards who I view as equal to or better than 2013-14 Dylan Larkin. But that's just one man's take.

I guess it comes down to exactly how much you attribute his current dominance to the age factor. The safe bet is probably "It's entirely because of the age factor." But if our amateur scouts think he's a genuine late-bloomer and we take him in the first half of the draft, I wouldn't complain (provided we have lots of picks across the first half of the draft). Franzen was in his mid-20s when we drafted him out of the SEL and he projected as a checking center with limited scoring ability. Granted, that's not a perfect comparable/precedent for Leason, but the point is that good talent can and does slip through the cracks.

Here's a pretty good piece on this very topic: Brett Leason and the 2019 NHL Draft's Overage Puzzle [The Hockey Writers] His numbers are impressive and you have to like his size. On the other hand, he's bigger and older than most of his peers, which does take a bit of the shine off what he's been able to accomplish this season. Still, I think he could be a worthwhile 2nd-round selection. I'd feel pretty good about us taking him in the 2nd round if we go into this draft with, say, 4 picks spread across the first two rounds (like our 2018 draft).

Same.

Points update: Cholowski (1G) - 6 goals and 14 points thru 33 games Nyquist (1A) - 9 goals and 31 points thru 35 games Larkin (1A) - 14 goals and 33 points thru 35 games Larkin extended his point streak to 8 games. Goin' to bed now. Night, fam.