Dabura

GREEN! AGAIN!

GREEN! If he were on a better team, he might be in the early-season conversation for the Norris.

Lashoff in for Sproul. Lashoff blows coverage on early goal against. Larkin centering Miller and Ott. Miller and Ott take penalties, give the Isles an early power play. I'm ready for a new head coach now.

This team does lack top-end talent -- but I don't think that fully accounts for this season's struggles. I think the Wings are compounding the talent problem by playing a stupid brand of hockey that 1) is inherently self-defeating and 2) doesn't suit the given personnel (making it that much more self-defeating, in this case). We have very skilled players in Zetterberg, Nyquist, Tatar, Larkin, Mantha, Athanasiou, Nielsen, Vanek, Jurco, Green...but Blashill clearly believes dump-and-chase is the way to go. We have a very suspect D group that has mobility issues and is prone to mental lapses in the d-zone...but Blashill clearly believes the most passive collapse defense ever employed by an NHL team is the way to go. We're dangerous on the rush, but the players are being conditioned to "just gain the red line with possession so you can dump the puck in, because we want to get to our skating game and be hard and fast on the forecheck." I'm not saying the players themselves don't have to be better. I'm not saying our passing game has gone to hell because of the coaching staff and the coaching staff alone. (No team struggles with routine passes like this Wings team does.) But I feel like when you de-emphasize a team's fundamental strengths and coach the team to play like a team of scrubs, it shouldn't be a surprise when the team performs like a team of scrubs. The Pens absolutely throttled the Wings last night. While, yes, there's a talent gap, there's also a systems/philosophy gap. When Mike Sullivan took over for Mike Johnston last season, he inherited a team that had been, essentially, neutered. Johnston was all about defending, winning games 2-1, playing "safe" and "responsible" hockey. Crosby wasn't scoring. No one was scoring. Sullivan said f*** that and flipped the script. He got the team to play a brand of hockey that puts the power in the players' hands, gives them greater control of their own fate. The Penguins under Sullivan play an aggressive, possession-centric game that's designed to overpower the other team. They own the puck. It's incredibly difficult to put and keep them on the defensive for more than a moment or two at a time. They believe the best defense is a good offense. The more you have the puck, the more the other team has to defend. The more the other team has to defend, the less you have to defend. The less you have to defend, the better. None of which is true of this Wings team (or, more accurately, the Wings' coaching staff. Or just Jeff Blashill.) The Wings are content to let the other team -- any and every team -- dictate the terms of the game. The Wings are content to withstand, endure, play without the puck and hope for the best. The Wings willingly give the opposition all kinds of time and space in the Wings' zone. The Wings are all-too-happy to dump (or pass-tip) the puck into the o-zone and get the opposition's breakout started for them. The Wings play self-defeating hockey. And it's killing them.

I'm just here for the free booze. I don't even like hockey.

Futility, thy name is Red Wings.

The Pens play the game the right way. In a word, aggressively. The Wings play the game the wrong way. In a word, passively. Safe is death.

Gotta love that collapse defense. I can't get enough of it.

If he wasn't on my s*** list before (he was), he is now.

Anyone catch the replay of that sequence where Ericsson appeared to be hurt? Hornqvist deliberately took out his skate. POS move.

We used the inept PP to lull the Pens into a false sense of security. >:)

LARKIN!

NIELSEN!

Z + Mantha = Magic

That sequence is why I f******* hate our collapse defense.

Stuck with the NHL Network feed, which I'm sure will be the ROOT feed.

I would argue that all of those players use(d) their size to their advantage. Like, Mantha doesn't throw his weight around aggressively, but we've seen him use his size to protect the puck, drive to the net, outmuscle smaller players, intercept the opposition's pass attempts with his long reach, etc.

It's definitely been a thing for at least the past three years. And, actually, as Mickey noted in one of the recent broadcasts, most teams are now coached to play some form of "box-out" defense, where you try to push the other team out to the perimeter and force them to settle for low-percentage shot attempts, usually from the point. The Wings, of course, take it to a ridiculous extreme and treat every d-zone situation like it's a desperate PK scenario. And this, I feel, is a big reason why our transition game is often nonexistent -- and why, in turn, we have such trouble generating offense and scoring goals. Like, collapsing down low and in tight makes some sense if you're only thinking about defending the net at all costs and swatting the puck out of the zone as soon as it touches your stick blade -- but what happens when you regain possession and you want to move up the ice with possession and force the other team back into their end? By collapsing and boxing out, you're kind of shooting your breakout/transition in the foot straightaway. You're deep in your zone. You've pushed at least two opposing players out to the perimeter, so they're in position to impede your progress when you try to break out and move through neutral ice. Your players are too close together, and they're probably tired (treating every d-zone situation like it's a PK), and they're probably all flat-footed. And this is the only team in the league that can't be counted on to complete simple tape-to-tape passes on a consistent basis. Ugh! The self-defeating "safeness" of it all! /rant

To me, a power forward is big and highly skilled and difficult to contain/defend against/play against (because of that combination of size and skill). So, for me, it's a broad spectrum. Gordie Howe. Mario Lemieux. Jaromir Jagr. Cam Neely. Clark Gillies. Rick Tocchet. Al Secord. Mark Messier. Eric Lindros. John LeClair. Wendel Clark. Keith Tkachuk. Brendan Shanahan. Sergei Fedorov. Todd Bertuzzi. Eric Staal. Rick Nash. Milan Lucic. Jarome Iginla. Thomas Vanek. Dustin Byfuglien (when he played forward). Brent Burns (when he played forward). Joe Thornton. Alex Ovechkin. Evgeni Malkin. Johan Franzen. Blake Wheeler. Jakub Voracek. Wayne Simmonds. Anze Kopitar. Jeff Carter. Chris Kreider. Jamie Benn. Jack Eichel. Patrick Laine. Anthony Mantha. Et al.

Hallelujah! I've taken to calling it "Pee-Pee Pants Uria." More thematically appropriate, IMHO.

There is no conflict. There is only Coreau.

In fairness to Kronwall, this team's d-zone strategy is basically "Collapse around the hash marks, front shots, pray." EDIT: Ah, didn't see BinMucker's post. Great minds...

I assume Lashoff getting the call means he's merely a backup plan/insurance policy, i.e. Kronwall is expected to play in both games this weekend. Nosek definitely deserves a look. I like him.

It's unlikely, sure. But with the way they've been playing so far this season, I don't think a bottom-five finish is out of the question. If you're routinely being outshot by a considerable margin and you straight-up can't score goals and your power play is a disaster and you're basically counting on your goaltender to steal all of your games...well, that doesn't bode well for the future.

I'm not so sure.