RusDRW

Have you noticed their 1st D pairing? Werenski - Jones. Two top 2 D logging a lot of minutes. In my opinion, these two guys as well as Bobrovski are the reason they are playing so well,

which speech?

Ownership has nothing to do with the current situation. They provided Red Wings one of the highest payroll in the league, what else can they do? Inept management, basically, living from the past is what our real problem is.

There is nothing unrealistic in getting a trade done around a good winger and some additional pieces for a good defenseman. Also, one can always slightly overpay for a free agent to fill the most critical need. However, this is not going to happen with KH.

Well, it is kind of obvious that we are not going to get true #1 D in a trade, simple because we have no assets to trade for one... However, it does not mean we need to continue having Kronwall-Green as our first pairing, Try to land a Fowler type of defenseman in a trade for Tatar+ or Nyquist+. Try to sign Shattenkirk next summer. Keep Green and we are going to get something like Shattenkirk-Fowler Green - DeKeyser Sproul - Kronwall and this is much better than what we have now, a kind of D by committee (too offensive minded though). However, to do this you need a GM who is willing to work on the phone.

What is not so hot about Datsyuk? Last time I checked he had 23 points in 24 games. This is your usual point-per-game first line center.

We have two capable defensemen in DeKeyser and Green. And fans know we have a problem when Green is considered as a capable defensemen. Long season ahead.

Well, people are speaking top pair defs here... We are not getting them without offering Larkin++. Over the last few years there were few good defenseman available and traded. Petry, Myers, Bogosian are better than anyone we have currently perhaps, except for probably Kronwall. Now Canucks might be shopping Tanev. Holland had all the chances in the world to improve on D. Now we have Green and Ericsson signed to ridiculous contracts. It seems the problem with Holland is that he believes that only one trade for top defenseman is needed. There is another way I believe. Why not to build three solid pairings instead of trying to go for top pairing guy. Even now it is not too late. Buy out Ericsson, trade Mantha+pick for Tanev or Edler, work out one more trade for deferenseman similar to Bogosian or Mayers offering Pulkkinen+Jurco+pick (add Sproul or Marchenko maybe). Is it that hard? Yes, it wouldn't be a top-5 defense in the NHL but at least we will improve in this aspect. I'm not saying he needs to do exactly these trades, these are just examples... Instead he stays pat doing nothing and complaining to media that no one wants to trade us a top pairing D.

I would say he is already as important as Stamkos. The gap is only get wider in the coming years.

Well, I guessed Pat. Just forgot that the HOF standard for coaches is way lower than for players.

While I partially agree that we need to play home grown talent Matt Martin here is exception in my point of view. We really lack such kind of players.

Weak class? I have no idea who Quinn (Pat?) and Vachon were but Sergey Makarov is one of the best players in the history of hockey. Top 50 of all time easily. His NHL career was short but I'm sure that 40+ fans clearly remember Makarov dominating the best NHL's while playing for USSR. We all know who Lindros was as well. A unique forward dominating NHL in his prime.

well, Sheahan, is a third line player in NHL meaning that he is approximately top 400 at pro hockey worldwide out of let's say several thousands of pro hockey players. Are you sure you're top 10-20% at what you're doing?

what is the reason for discussing all these things? We need a major overhaul of this roster right now. Now. And there are no persons in this organization who have the balls. the last time I remember we had the balls is when Coffee and Primaue were traded. It was 20+ years ago.

Mrazek, Smith, Mantha, Jurco all should be in for game 3. But they won't. I don't remember the last time we were so helpless.

I hope he stays for that one year. He served very well for the Red Wings so I wouldn't be upset like many here if he decides to go to Russia.

Kenny was a part of the problem over the last several years. He still is. Babcock saved us and made competitive (up to some extent). Now in addition to incompetent GM we've got incompetent/young training stuff.

I want to believe AA won't be send down again. It is obvious he belongs to the main team. However, something tells me Holland will find a reason to send him to GR...

Also people underrate the line of Vyacheslav Bykov Andrei Khomutov Valeri Kamensky. Those three together were pure gold.

was that incompetent officiating or just biased? I don't honestly remember so many clear penalties not called since we played Anaheim and Pittsburgh in 2009... To win we had to be clearly better than Anaheim. Basically, stopped watching in the third. PS I don't like us starting Howard but this is probably the first game this season with Howard in net, where the loss is not on him.

No, it is not ok as well. I'm just saying that these days I rarely see unbiased things around professional sport. The outcome stings a bit as well, sorry.

I can understand him honestly. Marner did almost the same against Finns. In third periods of the last three games against Canada, Sweden and Russia Finns were magically given a plenty of PP opportunities.In these games PP time was 88-22 in favor of Finland. I've never seen such a lopsided officiating ay WJHCs in Europe.

Letting in few soft goals in the beginning of the games Howard affects the way the games are played further. Playing from behind is tough in this league, especially, when there is so much parity between the teams. I don't really have statistics to back up my words but something tells me that falling down by two goals is basically equals to loosing the game. And I'm not even talking about confidence of players who are well aware that each and every shot is a potential goal. Have you noticed how our defenseman try to block every 30ft shot if we have Howard in net? Completely different story with Mrazek in net. They just let him see these shots.

We are not Dallas Stars. For more than 10 years Detroit plays defense first game. We are supposed to win 3-2 and 2-1 not 7-5. You cannot win 3-2 if your goalie allows unscreened 30ft goals.

I'm surprised there is discussion in this thread. We have one goalie who consistently keeps us in games and another one who consistently allows 2-3 goals in less than 10 shots. We have no goalie tandem. It is Mrazek and his inconsistent 5M per year backup.