Dabura

The old "cold shoulder."

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Gahhh, want this win so badly. Everyone will speak to the contrary, but if the Sens win even one game of our season series, it will weigh on Alfie's mind and conscience, and probably make everyone else feel bad for letting him down. (OK, one game is probably fine. But two? THREE? No and NO.) Must win tonight! And by a wide margin! No bragging rights for Melynk! Grrrrrr!

I find it kinda weird that there's still so much interest and intrigue regarding Alfiegate. I mean, I understand the wounds and the love and attachment and all that, but in terms of logic and common sense and all that, the answer(s) to The Question ("Why, Alfie?") seems pretty clear: it wasn't just one thing, it was a number of things. He wants to win the Cup - his chances are better with the Wings. He wants money - he'll get more with the Wings. Not having the weight of the captaincy and the world on his shoulders. Being with fellow Swedes. New adventures (mid-life crisis). Go on down the list. Where's the mystery here? I mean, I'm not saying, "Well, the Wings are the best, so, duh!" That's not my point. My point is that the whole thing seems - to me, at least - pretty straightforward. Yeah, the guy's not going to go into all the details of everything, but I get the sense that what he's been saying, when you put it all together, what you have is in fact "The Answer." That he doesn't want to go over every detail for every reporter doesn't necessarily mean he's withholding something huge.

I like the Sens. They might be (an indescribably distant) #2 behind the Wings for me. But we need to crush them tonight. Statement game, IMHO.

I've little doubt that he's going to become a dominant defenseman in this league. My concern is the time it will take for him to get there relative to the time we have left with Z and D as true forces to be reckoned with. He is (or was) one of our more attractive assets outside the core group, and if he could be packaged away for, say, a defenseman who's already dominant, I might be very tempted to pull that trigger. That's my big thing in this discussion. Making it a bit easier to pull that trigger would be the depth of our blue line prospects pool. Sproul, Ouellet, Almqvist, The Rise of DeKeyser....

Rafalski-type? Almqvist. Pure offensive-type? Sproul.

Here

Yeah, I read somewhere, can't remember where (one of the usual places) that he didn't participate in drills. Which is sort of a big deal, isn't it?

(And here I was just saying that pairing DeKeyser with a good offensive defenseman might be magical.) On the bright side (if you can call it that)...I haven't been overly impressed with Ericsson thus far. He's steady, reliable, a great veteran presence (especially on the PK), but he still makes his fair share of mistakes. And I dunno if we're really gonna miss his size all that much. The Hockey Gods are doing all they can to earn DeKeyser a promotion. Maybe he really impresses on the top pairing and Ericsson returns a second-pairing guy. That might be good for our depth. I'm reaching, I know.

I BET HE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A WIFE/GIRLFRIEND

For the love of God.

I agree with most if not all of what you guys are saying. I almost feel like he was a gift from The Hockey Gods. Because, the way I remember it, our young, Lidsless blue line didn't really start to calm down and gel and click until DeKeyser stepped into the mix. That might've saved half a season of growing pains while we still have Z's and D's services (which, to me, is The Big Thing in pretty much any and every discussion of this sort). He plays defense the right way. He's a "coach's defenseman." Were he to be paired with a big point producer, a really offensive defenseman, that might be magical.

Babs on Tatar's performance: http://www.freep.com/article/20131022/SPORTS05/310220067/1053/sports05

Mick and Ken (well, mostly Ken, I guess) said he's the all-time leader in shootout goals, with 33. Right behind him: Parise, with 32.

tmmlol What is the story behind that pic? I've seen it so many times, and I've never thought to ask. Was he seriously just licking his stick? Or is it doctored? Gah, I hate the Penguins. Our offense starts with our defense. We've missed Kronwall the last couple of games, and Kronwall AND Ericsson in this game (against arguably the most imposing team in the league). And, overall, I think our D has been kinda off thus far. Like I've said (WARNING: dead horse ahead), we're missing a top defenseman with an excellent first pass. Hopefully 1) we get him, and whether we do or not, 2) the rest of our blue liners get more comfortable. Not saying we couldn't use a Vanek. But between Alfie being awesome, Weiss still having potential (the guy just needs more time), Helm coming back, Abby becoming a top-six player (if only out of necessity), and Tatar and Nyqist stepping up...I don't think we can realistically expect any significant additions up front this season. (And, unfortunately, the same is probably true re: our blue line.)

Also, our fourth line looked really good. I want Tootoo to stay.

We suck at the shootout. I'll never figure it out. I missed the first period. Overall, I liked what I saw in the second and third. Too much perimeter play on the forecheck, too little actual forechecking, and some serious derpitude in our zone at times, but I guess we should be pretty happy to get a point out of this, all things considered. XO looked really good.

Franzen + Smith (+ something?) for something good. Would you do that for, say, a really high-end defenseman? Maybe, say, an Ekman-Larsson? (The Coyotes need a goal-scorer like no one's business, and they're well aware of what Franzen can do.) Or would there have to be more coming back the other way, like a defenseman and a forward, e.g. Edler and Kassian? Discuss.

Losing Burns and Boyle doesn't make them any less formidable? I mean, don't get me wrong, if there's one team I don't want the Wings to face right now, it's the Sharks. But I think our chances improve with the aforementioned Sharks out of the lineup.

Y'know, scary though the Sharks are...if you take out Burns, their forward unit doesn't exactly jump off the paper and smack you in the face... Hertl Thornton Hamilton Kennedy Couture Marleau Nieto Pavelski Wingels Sheppard Desjardins McCarthy And they're also missing Boyle on the back end. So we should at least make a game of it tonight.

Is it true that Burns won't be in? If so, that's a big, big plus for our cause.

I can't believe it hasn't happened yet. Is Shanny really that busy?

Weiss as a third-line center makes perfect sense. Which sucks, but it is what it is. I guess we're basically trying to roll three scoring lines.

OH SURE RAIN ON MY PARADE On the one hand, this would make a lot of sense. On the other, Prust is a(n overrated) third-line grinder, and they were able to have a lot of success last season without Briere. Pacioretty is the big loss, but three weeks actually isn't all that long, so they'll probably just elevate the roles and responsibilities of their young guns, particularly Galchenyuk and Gallagher. They're a proud franchise, and Bergevin has a lot of faith in his troops. I just see them promoting from within instead of bringing in a guy from the outside (which they might consider a black eye) who may very well add a whole lot of nothing to the lineup (double black eye). I mean, certainly if they really, really struggle, something will have to be done. And I'm sure holland would make That Phone Call. But so far they're right up there with us in the standings. And, really, do we want Sammy to come back and haunt us? I'm not a huge believer in the Habs, but I think they might give us problems in a postseason series. Now, the Rags...that might be more realistic. Because, wow, they are incredibly terrible thus far.