Dabura

sigh

NVM BERT SCORED WE WANT THE CUP

why is this team so dumb

End of 2nd. Wings lead 2-0. Wings are playing well and nothing makes sense anymore.

End of 1st. Wings lead 2-0. O Captain! My Captain!

HOLY S*** BUZZER BEATER GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

No goal? Yay?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand there's the equalizer. Clockwork.

WE SCORED A GOAL

I will be kinda half-watching this one as I do some chores. Y'know what'd be really cool? A win. Just one measly win. Please? Bueller? Bueller? EDIT: >Kenny Albert and Pierre Y'know what, maybe I'll just skip this one altogether...

[maniacal laughter]

It's great to hear he'll be back soon. It's even better to hear the problem was a one-and-done kind of thing + the flu, as opposed to something that could have lasting effects and whatnot (e.g. concussion, leg breakage). HYPE!

I'm not super-high on him either. At the same time, though, we're definitely learning the true value of steady, dependable two-way defensemen this season. Hopefully he can be that kind of guy for us in this callup, or at least show signs that he's capable of being that kind of guy next season.

I'll be pretty amazed if it's Babcock; I think that ship has sailed.

Yzerman called it in the summer: We have some good young talent in the system, but we don't have enough of it. That's it. That's the situation. Everything else is noise. "But this team is historically awful. Surely that speaks to the sheer hopelessness of the situation." I hear that. But, I mean, while it's easy to complain and doom-'n'-gloom about the situation (God knows I've done my fair share of that this season), I'm honestly not sure there's a meaningful difference between finishing the season with a -50 goal differential and finishing the season with a -150 goal differential. If you're finishing -50, you're a really bad team. The Devils are currently at -49. If you're finishing -150, you're a really bad team ravaged by a perfect storm of suck. The Wings are currently at -96. IMO, the Wings are a really bad team that's been ravaged by a perfect storm of suck. Part of me feels that we as fans should treat this season the way players treat unbelievably awful losses: dump it from memory, move on. I know we need to be angry. I know we need to be sad. I know we need to point fingers and cast aspersions. I know some people will have to pay a price. I get all that. What I'd caution against is trying to draw lots of major conclusions from a season that's only been a disaster in the sense that it's executing Yzerman's vision too well. This team was built to fail this season. The team's just being "extra" about it. What to do? Well, I think Blashill probably has to go and I think that could be simple addition by subtraction (and that's not factoring in the potential New Coach Boost). This team shoots the puck only as a measure of last resort, and we have precious few high-percentage shooters even with Mantha and Athanasiou in the lineup on a regular basis, so it should come as no surprise that the goals aren't coming. This team surrenders both the middle and the top of the D-zone and our D group isn't particularly good at blocking shots and our D group isn't physically capable of consistently clearing out the crease, so it should come as no surprise that we're getting lit the f*** up on a nightly basis. So Blashill is probably gone and that's probably good. Additionally, we'll be shedding some zombie veterans around trade deadline time and in the summer. And we'll be getting at least one "elite, elite" prospect in the draft. So I'm not all that worried about the state of things. Push the original rebuild timeline back a year or two or three and let's continue to acquire young talent and shed old talent and see where we are in a year or two or three.

HYPE! LGRW!

I dunno but we're gonna beat it.

The one positive of this season. Get rekt, Frenchies.

This season there's EXTRA Parity™ because the Wings are doing the suck job of roughly three basement teams combined. It's almost kind of noble.

The dark secret of Parity™ is that there isn't true parity, it's just a couple really bad teams handing out 2 points left and right. Change my mind.

I think Yzerman's gonna quit this summer. Just hold a quick presser and be all "Nah man. Later."