Dabura

Guys, don't kid (pun) yourselves - the call-ups are on borrowed time. Andersson comes back and already that's one of Sheahan/Glendening gone. Thanks. I'm assuming he'll be back (pun) right away, but I could see him playing it safe, even if it's not that severe. Like you said, he's cleary been playing through something, hasn't been close to 100%. I can't imagine that's how he wants to go into the Olympics, especially as the captain of his squad.

Mrazek is up because Howard and Gustavsson are never healthy at the same time. That means there's a pretty decent chance that the third-stringer will need to see some action. With points at an absolute premium, I want that third-stringer to be the kid who's arguably ready to be a pretty good starter in this league. Coreau is fresh out of college. McCollum is McCollum.

Henrik Zetterberg Pavel Datsyuk Tomas Jurco Johan Franzen Stephen Weiss Gustav Nyquist Tomas Tatar Riley Sheahan Daniel Alfredsson Justin Abdelkader Darren Helm Jordin Tootoo (Re: Tootoo - Yes, I'm trolling.)

Went back and "watched the tape." Conclusion: this one's on the coaches. All of those ill-advised low-percentage passes through the hash marks in the o-zone, using four forwards on the PP - we weren't protecting our lead, we were trying to pad it, and we had opened up our play in order to do get it done. It was almost like we were the ones in comeback mode. "Well, we're up a goal/tied, so obviously we're gonna have to start being more aggressive and taking some chances if we want to get back in this thing." That's not how you work with a tenuous late lead in this league with the opposition pressing relentlessly. You do what we did to Montreal: you shut it down, take no chances, force the other side to open up its play. About Monster - I do think his record is somewhat misleading in that we seem to give him a lot more help in the goal-scoring department. For whatever reasons, playing in front of Jimmy Howard seems to suck something out of our attack. Also, Helm was a s*** show with the puck.

The call-ups are hanging on by a thread. That's not a knock on their performance, it's just the reality of the situation.

Is Zetterberg more or less done until (after) the Olympics?

Totally. Something no one has mentioned: he's on pace for a zero-point season. Zero goals, zero assists. And we're paying him how much money? smh. Amnesty buyout, without a doubt.

We will never be anything close to fully healthy, so I deem this moot. Hooray.

We keep blowing third-period leads and, ultimately, games. That's in no way a good thing. That's what I'm saying. I agree with everything you're saying. We're looking like a team. We're generating offense. Our youth is shining. We'll make the playoffs. But we can't be ok with continuing to collapse and blow two-goal leads. We can't be ok with not sealing the deal. We can't be ok with not beating teams we should beat. It's been an issue all season, and it looks like it continues to be an issue. That's frustrating, troubling.

As much as I like Ouellet and hate Quincey as a Red Wings defenseman (not a person. He actually seems like a really good guy), I wouldn't expect much of a difference from that trade off. If anything, I could see it being worse. XO's a stud, a future top-four defenseman in this league - but he's also a first-year AHLer. If he's gonna be in the top four (especially in high-pressure, high-stakes situations like tonight's third period, where the opposition is pressing relentlessly and forcing turnovers in our zone), I'd want him partnered with, well, Shea Weber. I'd say the real difference tonight was probably Brian Campbell. It wasn't necessarily obvious, but he really beared down in the third, quarterbacked the comeback. I wonder how much his familiarity with the Wings has helped the Panthers against us this season.

It really was, though. You can't blow several two-goal leads in the third period and give up a shorty late. No moral victories or rationalizations tonight. They blew a slam-dunk two points in an obscenely tight Eastern Conference playoff race. To which someone will say, "Eh, shake it off. It happens. Just got to be better next time," or something to that effect. Which is fine, I totally understand it. But, at the same time, we keep doing this to ourselves. Over and over and over and over and over again. What this game shows is we haven't really learned, haven't really fixed whatever the underlying problem is. I want to say tonight happened because we didn't have our ultimate leader and calming presence, but then, we've done this with Z and/or D in the lineup. He was pissed, for several reasons. It was beautiful.

It's not even the point, or anything to do with the Panthers themselves. It's the fact that we blew a virtually guaranteed win the way we did, and that we've done it ten times this season. Inexcusable.

We need an elite defenseman. We really, really do.

******* typical.

Helm can't handle the puck.

For the love of God.

We have such problems with this s***ty Panthers team. They're fast and they forecheck hard.

Sheahan with the assist?

My GameCenter cut out five seconds before Tatar's goal. I'm not even kidding. (You're welcome.)

Cleary is terrible.

GAHHH

My favorite young Wing. Totally official now. Lookin' sharp, Ozzie.

My GameCenter cuts out and dies and we score. You're welcome. Again. Can't believe I missed a Sheahan PP goal. Grrrr.

GameCenter is broken.