Dabura

Pettersson is definitely a stud. Hate to say it, but he seems to have the makings of a really special player, like a Zetterbergy or a Datsyuk. The Canucks don't deserve him, but they just lost the Sedins, so I guess I can kind of accept it as cosmic justice.

I'm just trying to help out your cause. If you're gonna make pointed arguments about specific aspects of the situation, the whole "I don't watch the games" thing kinda sinks your credibility. I'm not critcizing you for being a "bad fun" or whatever. No elitism here. I'm just saying. Team isn't winning, which sucks. But there are some bright spots and signs that this sucking is more a talent issue than a coaching issue. Larkin is blossoming into a really good NHLer and a really good leader. The other kids are doing their best and, for the most part, putting up good numbers. Bertuzzi's really showing well this season. A year or two ago I was just about ready to write him off as a fringe NHLer or a career fourth-liner and now I can't imagine our team without him. We've had some ugly losses this season. Very much a "When it rains, it pours" thing. But I'd say most of our 10 losses came down to us simply being outgunned by teams with more talent. We don't have that top-end talent that most teams do, which means we don't have much depth, which means we're going to lose a lot of games. McDavid shredded us on Saturday night, making Larkin -- out best player -- look stupid. That's just the way it goes. The best revenge is getting a superstar or two of our own, and the path to that reality runs through the draft. To be completely honest, I'm kinda surprised that the games have been as close as they've been. I believe Blashill is doing an overall good job with the troops he has at his disposal. Every night he does something that I'll disagree with, but it's rare that I want to hang the loss squarely on him. Like, for a long time now I've been of two opposed minds on Blashill's obsession with the o-zone cycle and his belief that scoring chances are more important than your basic shot counts/metrics. On the one hand, it drives me nuts to see the team pass up the kinds of shooting opportunities that they pass up every night. On the other hand, I understand and appreciate -- and, at the end of the day, approve of -- his effort to get the younger players to focus on the actual *possession* element of puck possession. Blashill's trying to teach these kids that registering 40+ shots on goal every night is a simple man's game, that one of the things that made a team like the 2008 Red Wings so good, beyond the sheer talent level at the top of the depth chart, was the players' ability to make plays. They could pass the puck around in the o-zone, spread out the zone, spread out the opposing D -- work the opposing team into the ground. They owned the puck and they challenged the opposing team to take it from them by force. It's an important lesson and I give Blashill a lot of credit for not backing away from it. This team badly wants to be a team that lives and dies by the rush and Blashill has very clearly been pushing back against that for some time now. Like I said, drives me crazy, but I also think it's the right call.

But no free butt pats 4 ever. SAD!

I recommend watching some Wings games. Then, when you say, "This is a crap poduct that I find unwatchable," your complaint will carry more weight.

Quenneville is not necessarily a better option, all things considered. And that's assuming he even wants to come here, which I'm assuming is not the case. Why not fire Blashill? Because he's giving you what you want, more or less. Holland has all but said this was always going to be a season of pain and that he's looking at next season as the season where we begin to turn things around. Blashill's being a good soldier. He's performing a largely thankless job and, despite what some people would have you believe, he's doing a pretty good job of bringing the kids along. Kicking him to the curb for a high-profile name might be justifiable in some cases. In this case? I think it would be a dick move and would only serve to make prospective head coaches more cautious about taking the Detroit job in the future.

I kinda think you're complaining just to complain. You hate losing, I get it. We all do. Fair enough. Personally, I feel we're a couple of really good pieces away from being a respectable playoff team and maybe a contender. Those pieces will probably come to us through the draft or through trades that we're able to make because we've amassed so many good assets through the draft. I'm content to wait a couple of years for those pieces. In the meantime, Blashill can keep doing his thing. Holland has pretty much said this is the plan. When we get to a point where we can point to a core group of high-end guys and say, "OK, we have our core. Now is the time for us to be competing for Cups," then maybe you move on from Blashill. I just don't think that time is right now. I don't look at this team and think to myself, "This team should be doing way better than it is." This team is exactly where it deserves (and needs) to be: in the basement.

I mean, I'm not interested in defending Blashill's honor and arguing that it HAS to be him at the helm. There are nights where I think maybe Blashill just isn't the right guy. But then I think about alternatives and nothing really jumps out at me as really plausible or so tempting that Holland would be totally justified in calling him up and saying, "Hey, [insert coach] is available, so we're firing you. Peace."

Prolly.

Babcock is an outstanding coach who specializes in getting the most out of what he's given (unless that entails winning the Cup, in which case he's mostly just a master of the choke job). I've no doubt the team would be performing better under Babcock. But here's the thing (*AGAIN*): I don't want better performance. At least, not at the team level. Babcock dragging this team into the playoff picture does nothing for us, at least not in a material way. If we get a "Coach Q" and we finish just outside/inside the playoff picture for the next three years, everyone will go from complaining about Blashill's "terrible coaching" to complaining about how the Wings are stuck in No Man's Land and aren't rebuilding properly.

Honestly, I'm kinda hoping Ken Holland lurks on LGW and he sees how awesome I am and he hires me for a cushy front office job and I marry Carley Johnston and we ride off into the sunset together.

Those teams were better than this team. In the absence of elite insulation, those players -- DeKeyser, Helm, et al. -- are now being forced to take on tougher roles. The result: They're being exposed as thoroughly mediocre players.

They should've assumed they were being recorded, or at least asked if they were. Players are schooled on how to conduct themselves. How to handle themselves in interviews, how to handle themselves on social media, how to not be a dingus. If they get caught like these guys, they only have themselves to blame. They were supremely stupid/naive/careless.

POLITICS!!! If I were a junior mod, I would...write a sternly worded letter to Mabus about your politicking. Zero effs given. That's how I roll. *sips choco milk thru a crazy straw*

Quenneville was fired because he couldn't do anything with a team that's more talented than our team. What makes anyone think he's a great coach for kids? What makes anyone think he wants any part of a rebuilding team that's bereft of elite talent? Literally the only thing that matters is how our kids are doing -- and, again, our kids are doing fine. Larkin's a point-per-game 1C right now and he's going to be the next captain. Bertuzzi is scoring. AA is scoring. Mantha's in a funk, but he scored 24 goals last season. Cholowski is a revelation. Rasmussen's developing. Veteran and top trade chip Nyquist is scoring at almost a point-per-game clip. Our record sucks because our team sucks. Which is fine, because our team needs to suck. Sucking for an extended period of time is the only way out of this hole. Blashill is delivering on the sucking part of the equation and I see no solid evidence that he's hurting players' development. And, again, most available coaches probably wouldn't want to come to Detroit anyway, especially with a GM change probably coming soon. (New GM probably gets to pick his coach.)

vote 4 me free butt pats 4 ever

BTW, I don't wanna monopolize the GDTs or anything. If someone wants to run some GDTs, go for it!

It's a living.

I'm hoping this is a good omen!

The kids are doing fine under Blashill. Quenneville's not gonna want to come to Detroit. We are a bad team because we have almost zero high-end talent.

Rookie watch: Cholowski coming on strong for Red Wings [NHL.com]

The only shocking thing about this is that the players were stupid enough to get caught like this.

WE SHOULD HIRE SCOTTY BOWMAN THERE'S A MAN THAT KNOWS HOW TO WIN SMASH THAT LIKE BUTTON AND BE SURE TO CLICK THE BELL FOR NOTIFICATIONS

And they're all hot moms.

Filip Zadina? More like FiLAZYna lmao send tweet

Maybe the real Mabus is the friends we made along the way.