b.shanafan14

He has 3 cup rings?

Its too easy to dismiss opinions that differ from your own as player favoritism or being a homer. Less thought needed that way.

Based on Osgood's January start or his December start? Does anyone disagree that Howard isn't winning us the games he has a chance to and that we would be better off, not with Osgood as the starter, but with two goaltenders instead of one who can't win a game no matter what he does.

Watch how Howard plays. Instead of freezing the puck when the pressure is on and the defense is tanked he continues to kick out rebounds allowing the attack to continue. Happened several times last night as with all games. Howard has played great, but he hasn't been all good. The team needs to score more obviously, but Howard is unable to win the 50-50 games for his team. I'm not saying Osgood would be better, I'm saying the playing styles are different and where Osgood would have seen 25-30 shots because he is able to freeze the puck, Howard sees 40+ because he allows the opposition to reload.

Too true. At the end of the day, the only stats that matters is W-L-OTL and he has not been able to win the Wings those 50-50 games. His save percentage is great, but watch his rebound control and how fast the shots on goal accumulate as he squirts out rebound after rebound. In the games where he is upwards of 40 shots (unheard of for the Wings) he usually sees 4-5 in the span of a few seconds because he bobbles it outside the crease and the opposition bangs at it 3-4 more times before he finally squashes it or it goes in. Howard has been very lucky with most of the rebounds he's let out this season, last night there were 5 or 6 instances where the rebound was in a perfect position for the opposition to score in an empty net and it either went between a Blue's skates or was checked off by a defenseman. Howard has been good, but I think his lack of rebound control is a huge issue, which attributes to his grossly inflated SOG totals and helps boost his SV%, while at the same time the Wings are still unable to win even the games they should. Not to mention in the shootout he is absolutely horrible. Thanks to Babcock essentially retiring Osgood prematurely this season, all we can do is speculate as to the position of the team if we had two goaltenders. Say what you want about Osgood, he has always known how to win, even in his stint away from Detroit. It hasn't always been pretty, but Osgood knows how to slow down a game and get a stable faceoff in the situations that Howard kicks out rebound after rebound, at best keeping the puck in the attacking zone with no chance for a Wings line change and at worst giving up soft rebound goals.

I agree, they lose in ways that defy logic. Whenever they are up by 2 goals with about 5 minutes left in the game I used to feel confident, now I just wait to see how bad they s*** the bed and whether they'll lose in OT or shootout. I've completely learned to hate the shootout. Chances are if we're there, Pav might score and everyone else will just blow a shot or deke while our goaltender stands perfectly still and gets beat with every shot.

He wanted more money and term than the Wings or any other team were willing to give him so he went back to Russia. I liked him in his short stint with the Wings, good stay-at-home presence and decently physical, still wouldn't have given him what he was asking for at the time, I think somewhere around $4mil a season if I remember right?

I agree. The whole "must-win" games thing has been in effect for some time now and it has mattered squat in the Wings ability to win. And not only do they lose games they have to win and should win, they are losing games they have all but won in spectacularly horrible ways. Either Babcock starts kicking people in the ass or we are f***ed. Much as I like Babcock, he hasn't coached the team well in my opinion this season, too much of this "played good enough to win" and "keep doing what you're doing" bulls*** that worked best when the team was in a slump but still first in the division. And don't even get me started about how we are riding a young rookie goaltender who is looking very mortal because we have no other choice after benching our 37 year old starter for most of the season. And "verse" isn't ever a substitute of "versus" , but yeah, shut out used to be a rare instance in Detroit, now its a possibility every night.

Please God let Franzen be ready. Not like Kronwall coming back early just to reinjure things.

I think its an interesting rule that definitely has its flaws. The biggest flaw lying in the reopening of a cut that draws blood. I can't remember if it was last playoff run or the year before, but I remember an incident where I think Hudler high sticked someone who had caught a puck to the chops or something earlier and just by nicking him in the face, they deemed he had drawn blood and it was a 4 minute penalty. Does anyone else remember this or am I making it up? Wait.... was it in the triple OT loss Game 5 vs. Pitt in 2008?

Chuckled, laughed, then nearly lost it when it got to the part: Wayne Gretzky: "You still owe me millions. No rush, but a friend of mine may be contacting you about it" Dave Semenko: "Hey Gary, I think you and me better go for a canoe ride..."

Nothing will ever come nearly close to how bad the Avs announcer calling fights used to be. He would lose his damn mind. "Another right, another right, another right, uppercut, another right, left, uppercut, super combo, ultra combo, finish him, FATALITY!" when the fight was two punches and takedown.

I agree. Osgood has no rhythm. But anyone who thinks its purely "Osgood sucks forever" and has nothing to do with sitting a professional goaltender for the past two months is a bit delusional. Osgood played like s*** tonite, but how great were the other players on the ice? I don't think Osgood is the guy anymore, but that is entirely Babcock's fault. Explaining it away as two terrible seasons when it was one bad season and one aborted season is silly. Look at the starts Osgood has gotten since the end of November, all of them were the second of back-to-backs with a team that hasn't played well, period, tired from the night before. How did Howard do in all of the first nights of the back-to-backs, the real night that HAS to be won? Losses. Osgood is no longer "the guy", but that is because of Babcock entirely. Who was the last 36yo goaltender to sit a month at a pop and come in and play stellar for a team who can't win with great goaltending, let alone despite it? Anyone?

hahahaha

When I was a kid I used to love to watch basketball, but now I can't stand it. When final scores are 102-105 its hard to see the first 3 quarters as anything other than useless filler. "Yay! I scored the first 2 points!" I have also always had the complaint about the last 2 minutes or so in basketball. In bound, foul, free throw, repeat for 15-20 minutes. Then again, I hate the feeling that nowadays in football basically any team can win the Super Bowl based on a good game or two. As a Lions fan, I've just learned to love good football, no matter who is playing, and games too often these days are won or lost on choke more than battle, battle, battle, time! Last nights game was a perfect example, the Vikings were the better team and they choked huge, take away one or two of their ridiculous amount of turn overs and that game is won in regulation and a good game. And don't even get me started on the "coin toss to see who gets to win in OT" system in the NFL. They should either switch to the college football system of OT or make it so you can't win on a field goal, have to go for a touchdown, especially since today's kicker is effective from 54+ yards. I love football and hockey, but there is a lot of problems with both. Basketball and baseball are a total loss to me.

Gotta love Torts haha. Larry Brooks seems like a huge tool, just an annoying little bug. He just loves to poke the bear with Torts, they've had a few good sound bites before with Tort's telling him to f*** off. I'm sure some in the press think he is the man for asserting himself, but to me he sounds like an idiot.

I think we are so desperate to get players back that we are being a bit too optimistic on return dates, leading to us rushing players back. I know the team is in dire straits right now, but when they first gave the prognosis for Kronwall's return after how the hit looked I was right away thinking no way. Now here we are saying "WTF, you're supposed to be healed by now, we told the fans you would be".

No, it says that January 2 he had his jersey retired, at the bottom it says January 13th is Yzerman day. I was confused about that at first too.

The saddest thing is, I do expect a fine coming to Burrows when in fact the ref should be the one fined and canned.

Saw this on TSN and was about to start a thread, luckily LGW is on it This is getting pathetic. The officiating has become a deciding factor in games before but this is just ridiculous. More and more I watch Burrow play I like the guy and he couldn't be more right. All of the calls on him were complete phantoms and in the end it turns out to be a personal vendetta for Burrow "making a ref look bad"? Note to NHL Refs: You make yourselves far look worse than any player could. You don't need help from Burrows to blow a call and look like a jackass. In fact, this is a prime example. Well done, Alex.

Its too easy to look at draft picks and value them by the player they were used to acquire. Its one thing if its a first or second overall and there is little doubt who the pick will be used on. But Mike Green was taken with the Wings' 29th overall pick. Its hard to say with any kind of certainty that the Wings would have taken Green. There is also no telling if he would have become what he is today in the Wings' system. Washington was able to get Green into the NHL a lot sooner than the Wings may have and the Wings usually require a level of defensive responsibility that Mike Green lacks. There is just as much chance that even IF the Wings had retained that pick AND actually used it to select Green, that he could have been better used as a top 2 defenseman, never realizing his potential or getting to play much for the Wings' given his inability to appear competent defensively enough to take someone else's job, eventually being waived as a spare part before realizing his true potential as a top defenseman elsewhere. Sound like someone we know?

I'm sure Cleary just coming back from missing 12 games with a bum shoulder had a lot to do with him not throwing punches. The last thing he needs when he isn't 100% is reinjuring something in a late-game scrap.

I believe they had made some kind of boot cover for Kronwall and said Stuart was going to try them out at one point. Seems like a no-brainer to me as long as the material doesn't impede skating, which may be an issue.

Darren Helm is my hero. Perhaps it would be fun to start some Helmisms (Chuck Norris facts, substituting Norris with Helm). I was bothering people in the HockeyStreams gamechat during the Kings-Wings game the other night with some, the Kings fans/Wings haters were getting pretty pissed, especially when he ended up scoring the game winner with 17 seconds left Best one is always: Darren Helm CAN believe its not butter!

Gotta love Ozzy