Dabura

He tried to warn us.

>HOCKEY JOURNOS: "Ken Holland has lost his objectivity; he's too attached to his players." >ALSO HOCKEY JOURNOS: "Kyle Dubas believes in love. And, really, what's so wrong with that?" I'm reeeeeeally eager to see what Yzerman does with our RFAs this summer.

The Tavares signing shouldn't have had any impact on the RFA contracts. Though, I guess that's not necessarily true, as the RFA deals were always going to cover UFA years. Even so, it's Dubas's responsibility to tell his RFAs to sit their asses down if they get too uppity and they threaten to throw everything into chaos. Nylander absolutely should've been moved. Tavares, I can understand. Caving in to Nylander? Nope. Nope, nope, nope.

P.S. F*** the Leafs.

The real tragedy is it's actually a really good group. It's just, y'know, not quite ready to win a Cup. But it's Tronna, so they *have* to win the Cup *now*, because reasons. And so that's the position Dubas -- that visionary galaxy-brained boy-next-door nerd wizard who was going to show all the dinosaur GMs how to build a contender in the cap era -- has put the team in. Which is kind of an unfair spot for those young players to be in. Like I keep saying, those young players haven't been around long enough. They're babies. You're putting the weight of the world on the shoulders of youngsters who've had a bit of regular season success but are a long way from what I would consider battle-tested and battle-hardened. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), that D group could look completely different next season. Maybe Dubas has a plan there. And it's not like he can't trade any of his young forwards.

There's lots of blame to go around. Like I said over at the HFB, I think this is mostly a mess of Dubas's creation. I'm still not convinced the Tavares signing was necessary. I think he should've told Nylander to pound sand and then traded him for a defenseman. I think if he absolutely HAD to trade Kadri, he needed to get back someone who could provide the same kind of matchup prowess, be it a forward or a defenseman. I don't know how he looks at recent Cup-winners and says, "OK, so this is clearly a speed and skill league and so that's going to be our identity." Did he watch the Blues last season? Did he not see what Barry Trotz was able to do with the Caps? Does he understand how Mike Sullivan was able to get back-to-back Cups out of the Pens? Has he ever talked to a Red Wings fan about all the powerhouse Wings teams that got kicked in the teeth in the playoffs? Did he ever look over the roster that got Babcock his one and only Cup? Prob'ly not. Because Babcock was never His Guy. And I think that was the fundamental problem. Dubas wants someone who sees things the way he sees them, or at least someone who won't give him pushback on everything. Babcock doesn't see things the way Dubas does, and this is a man who'd "fight" with Ken Holland on a daily basis. So, a breakup was inevitable. I'm not saying Babcock is blameless. If Babcock is half the coach his trillion-dollar contract says he is, the Leafs are not out of the playoff picture right now. But, again, look at the makeup of recent Cup winners. For the most part, they were driven by highly experienced, battle-hardened players. Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Rielly -- they're still learning what it takes to win in this league. They haven't lost enough. They haven't suffered enough. They haven't had that "change or die" moment thrust upon them and consciously chosen to change. They don't have a Datsyuk. They don't have a Zetterberg. They don't have a Backstrom. They don't have an O'Reilly. They don't have an identity that's been forged in a crucible and has emerged organically. They just have a lot of scorers. Tavares = Elite, veteran scoring center with a weak D game who will probably never have an "Yzerman under Bowman" arch Matthews = Elite, baby-aged scoring center with a weak D game Marner = Elite, baby-aged scoring winger who's probably the closest thing they have to a (young!) Datsyuk/Zetterberg Nylander = Baby-aged top-six scorer, nothing terribly special, every good playoff team has at least two Kapanen = Baby-aged top-six/nine scoring winger, nothing terribly special, every good playoff team has at least two Johnson, Kerfoot (et al.?) = I'm sensing a pattern here Rielly = Solid, young 1D Muzzin = Solid, veteran top-four complementary defenseman who can play big minutes Barrie = High-end, veteran scoring defenseman who is either The Jesus of Good Hockey or a one-dimensional bottom-four guy, depending on who you ask Ceci = He exists Anderson = Probably deserves better Is there an unreal amount of talent on this roster? Absolutely. Is it weighted all wrong? If it's Cup-or-bust for them this season, yes, absolutely.

Tampa's probably the best fit, tbh. But I have no interest in Cooper. Laviolette, on the other hand, is a guy I've always really liked.

WE'RE BACK I MISSED YOU, FAM WINGS TAKE A 3-2 LEAD INTO THE THIRD HYPE! LGRW!

I don't see a fit. However, that doesn't necessarily mean Babcock's availability can't "work for us." Maybe Poile replaces Laviolette with Babcock...

DONE! SOLD! NO TAKE BACKS!

Tank job?

Can't sleep. lol Even if you're pro-tank, it should still be a concern (imo). TBH tho, the power play is probably a bigger demoralizer. That s*** is unbelievably broken.

I'm assuming Yzerman will let it play out. He has zero trade value and we don't have a better internal option, and, in Howard's defense (pun), he's playing behind literally an AHL-caliber D group, one that could've driven us to a win tonight but decided to play some of the laziest hockey I've ever seen at the NHL level. But I hear ya. A bad goalie can singlehandedly wreck a young team's development curve. ANYHOO I GOTTA GO 2 BED FAM. I'M GENUINELY STOKED THAT LGW IS BACK. WE SHALL TALK SOON. G'night!

I think the worst part of this, at least for me, is that I'm starting to get used to these brutal losses. In the past, a loss like this one would piss me the hell off and I'd have trouble getting to sleep because of it. Now? I stoically accept it as a sacrifice that the lotto gods demand. How about a middle ground: Veleno is lazy and he sucks.

It's easy to forget Zadina's still pretty young. (Turns 20 in a week.) If we remove the whole 6th overall pick thing, no one's complaining about him. In a way, getting selected that high might've been the worst thing that could've happened to him. I guess we'll see. I'm really trying to keep my expectations for Seider in check (i.e. the opposite of what I did with Zadina), but damn if he isn't looking like exactly the kind of player we desperately need on the back end. (We have one Hronek, which is great, but we need two or three Hroneks.) No one outside of Wings world is talking about it, but dude is playing big minutes and putting up points in the AHL as a just-drafted 18-year-old defenseman. That's extremely impressive.

If Zadina and Seider are ready to go straight out of next year's training camp *AND* we get Lafreniere or Byfield...all these brutal losses will have been worth it. Ahhh. I've missed LGW cope posting. I'm ready for the Howard era to be over. He's been a good soldier for the past decade, but it's been a long decade and it's time to turn the page.

HYPE! LGRW!

Hronek's a beaut. All this losing sucks, but there are some bright spots. Hronek. Fabbri. Top line is still good, though I think the workload is starting to wear them down. Zadina and Seider have been producing...

For future reference, the formula is "Give up dagger goal that ensures the 6-on-5 goal you're gonna score isn't going to be enough, which will leave you saying, 'Man, if only we hadn't given up that really stupid dagger goal.'"

sigh

Wings pull within one. WHY DO YOU BUILD ME UP BUTTERCUP

There was that postponed game against Carolina a few years ago. But, yeah, prob'ly.

True. Also, Jackets scored again.

We deserve to lose this one, tbh. Atrocrious effort, aside from maybe five minutes.

Jackets take the lead. SHUT IT DOWN, MATT!