Dabura

Ideally, we'd tear it up the whole way through. But we already know that's out of the question, so I'm gonna agree with you here. Good TV drama. A feel-good story. Jonas Gustavsson shutting out his former team in the biggest hockey game ever played...

I like that this is right after the game.

Whoops, probably should've worded that better! I'm a big believer in Mrazek. In all honesty, I'd be ok if he was our #1. I'm just saying, there'd be that convenient "Well, we played our AHL goalie" excuse. Not that I'm a fan of our team making excuses, of course.

They're the could-probably-score-five-goals-while-playing-in-their-sleep Penguins. We're the currently-bumbling Wings, recent losers of a home-and-home with the Florida Panthers. On the whole, the Pens have been getting it done better than we have, and with - as you pointed out - an even worse injury list. And they have Crosby and Malkin, which is all a team really needs. And, unlike the Bruins, I think they'll really get up for their games against us, because of that SCF history. Just saying.

Valtteri Filppula was the heart and soul of this Wings team. He was being groomed for the captaincy. He is a lock for the Hall of Fame. And we kicked him out the door. He was all like, "But I wanna stay!" And we were all like, "Sorry, Flip, your four consecutive 40-goal seasons, and the one where you scored 70, do not impress us. We are going with a career AHLer in Stephen Weiss. No one's ever heard of him, and he has a terrible attitude, but his nickname was 'Weisserman' back in juniors. Get it? Like 'Yzerman,' but it's 'Weisserman.' Cuz that's his name. lawlz"

Actually, I had predicted we'd rout the Bruins. FWIW. And I actually want to see Mrazek get the start so we have an excuse if we lose. He'll score.

God help us.

Mike Babcock would kill Mike Green. Literally. He would punch him in the head repeatedly until he died. That's a match made in hockey hell. But, y'know, offensive defensemen are, by nature, frustrating for their coaches. Their job is to play defense, but their gift is...goal scoring, point production. Paul MacLean has, on more than one occasion, criticized Erik Karlsson for being a factor for both teams on the ice (the same thing Z said about Smith). Michele Therrien is not P. K. Subban's biggest fan. There's obvious tension between Adam Oates and Mike Green. Point being, Nick Lidstrom was a god.

Actually, I'm gonna go ahead and answer my own question: that would not be nearly enough to land us something really good. Unless maybe it's an Edler situation where the guy is really struggling and clearly needs a change of scenery and we have sort of the "inside track" on him because we consider him a big fish that got away from us on draft day and we've tried trading for him in the past. Heh, yeah, I realized how stupid it sounded immediately after I posted it.

I like Kindl. I think he's a sleeper, a late-bloomer. I think he's trying to figure himself out, become himself. Before last season, we all had him pegged as a defensive defenseman who doesn't use his size. Now we think of him as an offensive defenseman. Bottom line: he's 26. That's around the age when forwards tend to break out. It's typically a bit later for defensemen, 27 or 28 (see: Ericsson, Jonathan). So I'd hate to see us deal Kindl then watch him tear it up with some other team. On the other hand, I wonder if a package of Quincey, Kindl, Almqvist, and maybe a first-round pick or a promising forward prospect (Pulkkinen?) might be enough to fetch us something really good.

I dunno if I'd say he has "so much more to offer." He's fast, speedy, physical, aggressive, gritty. He's a good energy guy. But he'd get sheltered minutes and zone starts on the fourth line, he wouldn't play on the PP or PK or in any key situations, and he wouldn't be counted on to put up points or provide especially responsible defense or leadership. Not that I wouldn't take him over Cleary in a heartbeat. But let's not kid ourselves, Tootoo is a plug. An awesome plug, yes - but a plug nonetheless.

Sheahan, Ferraro, and Callahan are all fourth-line maybes in the NHL at this point in their careers, at least in the Wings' system. Granted, so is Glendening, but he had a solid training camp, he was the only Griffin who showed up to that orientation camp, he's a right-handed shot, all he does is win, and he's just a really likeable guy. With about 4,000 of our top centers out, he - a centerman - just makes that much more sense. Again, there isn't a huge difference between Glendening and the other three. But I think there's an enough to give him the edge at this point in time, in terms of comfort and reliability and the all-important Coach's Trust. Bring the other three up when things are more stable and we're not absolutely desperate for as many points as we can possibly win (the Atlantic race is ridiculously tight right now. Very, very, very little separation in the top 4-5) and we can get a better sense of what they'd look like on an actual Red Wings team (as opposed to one where Andersson could be the second-line center).

I like Glendening. I also like Eaves. So I'm cool with this.

Alfredsson, Bertuzzi, Datsyuk, DeKeyser, Eaves, Ericsson, Franzen, Gustavsson, Helm, Howard, Kronwall, Smith, Tootoo, Weiss, Zetterberg. All have been injured this season, some more than once, and it's only mid-December. Awesome.

Two guys I could see us targeting: Anton Stralman and Dustin Penner. Stralman because he's a 27-year-old Swedish defenseman who shoots right-handed and holds his own on a stacked Rangers blue line. A Quincey replacement/upgrade. Penner because we're extremely small up front and will likely be losing our biggest or second-biggest forward in Bertuzzi. A Bertuzzi replacement/upgrade.

That first point is not insignificant. It means we're really hard to beat in regulation. (And that's mostly without a totally healthy and humming lineup.) Which is encouraging. As for the second point - you're probably right! But I'd rather be 6-0 than 0-6. We'd be first in the league if we didn't absolutely suck at shootouts. That's a sobering thought.

I agree with what you're saying. But I'm just talking about the "skill" side of things. The shootout is basically a skills competition, and our big thing, or team identity, is that we kill with skill. How many opposing players and coaches have said, "...and they're a really good team, a lot of skill and talent. If you give them chances like that, they're going to bury them"? I mean, I realize that "skill" means more than just being able to score on a 1-on-1 with the goalie. But still.

A question: Can you lose eleven straight shootouts and still be considered a "skill team"?

I'll admit, I consciously overlooked him in making that point. But I don't expect them to go all Ken Holland on us now, especially with Mr. Big Mean North American Hockey Players himself becoming their interim GM.

LOL, this season is so bizarro-world. And yet, it's exactly what we've come to expect from the Wings.

Physics. Lots of physics.

This is all because Holland chose Franzen over Hossa. No, really. I saw the flash-sideways. Franzen/Hossa is our Flight 815.

Obviously this is for showcasing purposes. I'd say Yakupov is as good as ours.

Awesome if true. I have no complaints about #55. He's a great #1. He's not The Problem with our blue line. That would be the fact that there's a pretty big drop-off after Kronwall, Ericsson, DeKeyser.

Bittersweet.