Dabura

It's a shame he's not AHL-eligible, because that's really where he should be. Given the actual options, I'm 100% ok with him staying in Detroit.

*bladder

S*** just got real.

WOOO! I thought we played reasonably well overall. Bertuzzi's go-ahead goal was flukey, but it was either team's game at that point; neither team had significantly outplayed the other. I didn't see it for myself, but Mickey said Spezza and Seguin were arguing about something in front of their bench after Abby potted the ENG. I'm guessing Spezza a) was pissed that he lost the faceoff cleanly to Larkin and b) felt that Seguin didn't follow the plan for what to do if he lost the draw cleanly. Still, if they were in fact arguing in front of their bench...you don't see that very often. Kinda weird.

HYPE! LGRW!

Exactly. Especially the bold. I was gonna make that very point, but I didn't really want to get into it.

What was up with that?

You can't spell "Abdelkader" without "leader." Srsly tho. With 2 assists tonight, the REAL future captain (Larkin) has put up 4 goals and 9 points thru 11 games. That is one of the few positives we can take from these first 11 games.

That's no way to talk about our next captain.

Big win. Not for the standings, of course, but for morale and positivity and all that. Mantha and Bertuzzi break their scoring slumps. Mantha was our best player tonight, IMO. He looked really good. Rare Riggy goal, always welcome. Abby finally gets one and I doubt he cares that it was an empty-netter. Bernier was solid. Not spectacular, but he didn't really have to be -- which is itself a good thing. The most important thing: We won a game against a team that had Ben Bishop in net. Holy crap.

ABBY WITH THE ENG!!!! 4-2!!! Huge faceoff win for Larkin there to start that whole sequence. Beat Spezza -- the best faceoff guy in the league -- cleanly. RED WINGS WIN!!!!!! Abdelkader (1) from Daley (2) and Larkin (5)

Stars pull within one with the goalie pulled. 3-2.

Look at this HYPE!:

ERICSSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 3-1!!!!! whatishappening Have we settled on a nickname for Bertuzzi? Ericsson (1) from Larkin (4) and Vanek (2)

PMsssss BERTUZZI!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2-1! EAT IT BISHOP Bertuzzi (3) from Kronwall (1) and Glendening (3)

Check PMs yo. RAWK! Mantha's goal was an easy tap-in off a behind-the-net feed from Nyquist. He had a goal disallowed because he kicked it in, so it was nice to see him get it back.

14 SOG thru two periods. SOG isn't everything, and 14 thru 40 mins isn't terrible...but I'd still like to see the Wings shoot more -- and hit the net more. I get that Blashill focuses on scoring chances as opposed to shot metrics. And I get that he's preaching cycling, playmaking, and possession over "shoot, shoot, shoot." I get all that and I don't necessarily have a problem with it. Like, given that this is a team of low-percentage shooters, would it really make a difference if the team pushed its average SOG up into the 35-40 range? Probably not. On the other hand, if we're not putting many shots on net...and we're a low-percentage shooting team...we're not gonna score any goals...which is exactly what we're seeing. I guess there's a balance -- shoot-first mentality versus trying to learn to play high-level puck-possession hockey -- and I would say the Wings aren't finding that balance. And it's been this way for a long time now. tl;dr shoot moar

End of 2nd. 1-1. This is a winnable game.

Refs gift the Wings with a PP on an iffy too many men call against Dallas. A goal here would be huge. Aaaaaand the Wings give up a shorthanded breakaway and go to the box. Sigh.

Mantha (2) from Nyquist (7) and Green (1)

MANTHA! 1-1!

Pretty much. The Abdelkader contract is bad. It's one of several bad contracts on the books. I don't think these contracts have directly contributed to our downfall and I don't think they're really holding us back in any meaningful way right now, but I get why people hate on them. At the end of the day, it all comes down to drafting. We haven't been able to find another Datsyuk or Zetterberg in the later rounds and we went 500 years without picking in the top ten, so it's no surprise that we've become a basement team. I think it's fair to give the organization some grief for not finding, say, a John Klingberg (5th round), but that's in the past now. What matters now is the 2019 draft.

End of 1st. Wings trail 0-1. There is no way we don't finish 31st overall this season. Maybe that gets us Hughes, maybe it doesn't.