Dabura

The Smith-Quincey pairing gives our team a chance to lose every night. Especially against the best team in the friggin' Conference.

I think you're right on the money (pun intended) with both points. Ideally, we give DeKeyser what I guess you could call an extended bridge contract. One that, as you said, seems like a total steal by the expiry. And I do think it was very important to sign Ericsson for six years, for the reason you mentioned. Gotta consider two things: 1) defensemen generally take a longer time to develop and peak, and 2) he made the switch to defense at a relatively late stage. Point being, he's probably heading into his prime right now. I'd expect the peak to last for 3-5 seasons before he starts declining, and generally you don't like to give raises to declining players.

This is kinda what I'm thinking. Ericsson has become a solid #2 for us. Should he get bumped down the depth chart (maybe DeKeyser surpasses him, maybe we add someone), he'll be a really solid #3 or #4. My issue with our defense is that we don't really have a top four. We have Kronwall, Ericsson, DeKeyser...and a big black hole. Hopefully Smith and Kindl can raise their games sooner rather than later. Even Kevin Weekes mentioned it - we don't have a great puck-moving defenseman, and it's hurting us. That hole has to be filled if we want to seriously compete for the Cup. But I wouldn't change anything about Ericsson right now. He's become one of my favorite active Red Wings. I guess he could be a little meaner, more physical - but it's pretty clear by now that that's just not his style. Can't force things like that. Gotta play your game, be yourself.

http://kuklaskorner.com/tmr/comments/red-wings-forward-pavel-datsyuk-out-vs.-bruins Fun fun fun.

Y'know, anything short of a Lemieux-on-Draper and I think I'm gonna have a hard time really hating the Bruins. The more I watch them and read about them, the more they remind me of the Wings when they were the class of the West. This is a really, really good team that doesn't f*** around.

Oh, I think I misread.

Wait, so Bergeron's also out tomorrow?

The fatal flaw in your plan: Franzen will be a Wing until he's 49. Deep down, we all know he's not going anywhere. Ever.

Saying, "Well, he's not perfect," is kinda missing the point, I think. He's a guy that any organization would love to have, and rightfully so. Infallible titan? No. Genius and legend who played a central role in creating and guiding our "dynasty" and winning us three Cups? Yes. Bowman >>> No Bowman

TBH, if I'm Paul McClean, I'm probably not at all happy with "the incident." He knows the Wings. He knows we only have one response to that kind of thing, and it's winning. Same with Julien, I imagine.

I just keep telling myself this is a good thing, in the big picture. We need, need, need guys not named Datsyuk or Zetterberg to step up, and now all of them have to, because Datsyuk is that important to the team. If we can beat the Bruins without Datsyuk's help, that's huge for us.

Monster is getting the job done, Jimmy isn't. I think that's the bottom line. Doesn't mean Jimmy isn't the better goalie, doesn't mean Jimmy isn't our true #1. Jimmy's just having a rough go of it this season, so Babs is playing the "hot hand," the guy who's getting it done, even if he does kinda suck and even if he is getting lucky. Message sent to Jimmy? Maybe, but I don't think that's really the point.

Analyzing Kyle Quincey [Winging It In Motown]

That it is. Especially because it likely means he's out for at least a week, in accordance with The Protocol. (I love that it's called "the protocol.") On the "bright" side: 1) he's old and could use the rest, and 2) he and Z have been carrying this team on their backs, so now everyone's gonna have to step up, no more freeloading, no more underachieving, no more sucking.

I love am thankful for the Mantha situation. The biggest knock against him is his "compete." How do you fix that? Tell him he'd get eaten alive in the NHL at this stage in his development, then watch him work his ass off to prove the doubters wrong.

I'm starting to think there might be some truth to the idea that he had a "hand transplant."

Also, Zetterberg - Datsyuk - Mantha? That is outrageos...ly awesome.

So you'd have him on the fourth line? Honest question, because Ironhook is the Wings prospect I'm most excited about, and I've wondered if it wouldn't be worth bringing him up to learn from Z and the rest of our Swedish National Team. He'd sort of have to be a regular and not a bench-warmer, right? Because, ultimately, it's about his development, and if he's gonna warm the bench here then he'd probably be better off getting good minutes down below.

I strongly disagree. We have problems on the back end and up front, but we could potentially kill two birds with one stone by adding an elite offensive-minded puck-moving defenseman. The guys we're missing the most right now are Lidstrom and Rafalski, because, yes, they were good in their end, but also because our attack started with the blue line. And that's the way it's supposed to work. We could add a sniper, but if we don't have great puck movement and offense coming from our defense (that all-important great first pass that we had for years, etc.), we're probably not gonna score many more goals. So, that's what we need, IMHO. But I don't think it's what we get, unless Smith and/or DeKeyser take quantum leaps in their development. Which is probably what we're gonna bank on. Maybe we get really lucky in free agency and find an elite guy (not likely), or we find someone - through free agency or trade - who's maybe not so elite by reputation but fits perfectly in our system (probably more likely). All I know, regarding the availability of elite defensemen, especially the puck-moving kind, is that the demand is through the roof and the asking price for a trade is astronomical. And, frankly, I'm not sure any guy wants to be the one who's "supposed to come in and be Nick Lidstrom." But, ultimately, it all depends on how we finish the season, i.e. how deep we go into the playoffs. That will be the fundamental thing dictating where we are, what we can do about it, and what we might want to do about it. The way I see it is, basically, another exit in the first or second round will lead to another one of those kinds of summers we've grown so used to. Lots of cap space but very little change, because we have lots of youth and we're retooling and come on what retooling team even makes the playoffs and hey there's always the trade deadline and blah blah blah. But, if we can make it to the Conference Finals (not likely), or even the Cup finals (hahaha), I think that might sort of jolt this organization out of cruise control. It certainly coldn't hurt our image, re: free agents.

I've thought about this. (And there's even the possibiliity that our exit has a lot to do with the West improving, though that's a stretch, I think.) But I'm not sure I'm buying it. If you look at the way we've been playing, the mistakes we've been making, the main weaknesses teams have been exploiting...I think we lose like we've been losing whether we're in the East or West. I think it's more fundamental issues - of which the better West would probably be less forgiving - than it is a lack of familiarity with Eastern teams, especially when you consider we've only played three more Eastern teams than Western teams (if my math is correct), these being our conferences records (again, if I counted right): EAST: 7-3-4 WEST: 4-4-3 The West has "always" been better, but this year it's asburd. And it comes on the heels of a (half-)season in which we played only Western teams and finished in seventh in the West. If we play that same schedule for half of this season...I don't see a happy ending.

I know this has been mentioned and is pretty much a no-brainer, but I really am thankful we got out of the West and just in time. I think there's a very good chance we would've missed the playoffs by quite a few points, so we dodged a huge, huge bullet there.

Yes: our own goal.

frankgrimes, I'm liking where you're coming from lately. You touched on something in the Need thread and touched on it here as well. It's something I and at least a few others (e.g. haroldsnepsts) have harped on in the past. It's the notion that we are, arguably, deficient in many, if not most, categories. We're not skilled enough to play the kind of possession game we pioneered and perfected in the Yzerman Era, nor are we especially big or strong or mean or fast or quick or young or incredible on the PP and/or PK or strong in net. (OK, that last one might not be true. Jimmy is one of the best in the league - even if he hasn't been playing like it lately - and suddenly Monster is awesome.) I just think that's worth considering when talking about systems and such.

This is actually a really good idea. Someone get on this!

http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2013/11/22/report-hurricanes-offering-ruutu-and-tlusty-to-get-a-defenseman/ I don't think there's a chance we even kick the tires on this one; we already have too many forwards and too few defenseman, and what we really need is exactly what Carolina wants here, and that is a solid puck-moving defenseman, preferably an established veteran. Who do you think might bite on this? This could potentially be one of the bigger second-quarter/pre-deadline deals. Or maybe they just get a so-so defenseman and the whole thing is rather anticlimactic. Or maybe...nothing happens. (Boooo! More trades! More trades!) What say you? (P.S. Does this belong in the rumors section?)