b.shanafan14

And who could blame them, really.... (Wings fans)

True. The Wings look completely unprepared for the season. They look like 4th graders dickin' around in gym class with their sloppy passes off the back of eachothers legs, no one can clear the zone and its like they are all wearing those cones they put on dogs heads after they get surgery, cause no one can see two players sitting on either pipe waiting for a gimmee. Focus is an issue.... But also, the PK just regular, plain ol' sucks.

Bertuzzi is definitely Lazy and he Sucks. Say all you want about his salary, but maybe his salary is indicative of something else: he is lazy and he sucks. That doesn't mean throw him on the first line, it means skate him on the 3rd. Homer, poor old, beat up, slow Homer made Bertuzzi look like an AHLer when he finally got bumped back to the 1st line.

My biggest concern is the complete lack of interest and focus I've seen thus far. The only player that looks worth a damn and seems to be skating so far this season is Filppula, with Helm also looking good tonite in his first game back. I understand its 5 games into the season, but there is no way anyone can look at the effort of the Wings in those 5 games and think they came prepared to play this season. That and Bertuzzi is garbage on the first line, Homer is slow as molasses in January and he looks worlds better than Bert.

While I agree I would have preferred one of Meech or Lebda go when we lost Quincey, I disagree with the idea of him being as good for the Wings as he has been elsewhere. He lacked the versatility to be a lower pairing defenseman and his growth would have been stunted playing 7th dman for the Wings. We have to remember, when the Wings got rid of Quincey, they were giving him an opportunity elsewhere at a time when the ceiling for his growth as a defenseman was much lower, at the time we had Chelios, Lilja, and Lebda ahead of him in a 5 man race for 2 spots. Now Lilja is injured and Chelios is gone.

Certain players need lots of minutes to play to their potential, just as others can't handle a lot of minutes and flourish in limited roles (ie Hudler was better on the 3rd line than he ever was on the top two). Quincey was one of those players that needed a top pairing role which he was NEVER going to get with the Wings. I wish him the best of luck, I liked him when he was here, but the best thing that could have ever happened to him was leaving the Wings. Think Rafalski with 6th defenseman minutes, would probably look like Lebda at times, even though he is worlds more talented, thats how I see things happening with Quincey.

I read this yesterday, very interesting, if not blatantly obvious. Just finally a tangible representation of what everyone has known for years: Bettman must go and the NHL needs a TSN/CBC equivalent coverage-wise in the states. You know even if they do get on ESPN again in the states, they are never going to throw more than 30 second game recaps and 2 minutes of Barry Melrose a day if its the Cup Finals.

Barry Sanders was anything BUT a ******. I'm a Lions fan because of Barry and I didn't even blame how he went out. They were run into the ground by the Ford family and when Wayne Fontes got the boot Barry had just about enough. Anyways, I have no idea what to feel about Heatley either. He was clearly terrible about it, stringing the franchise along. But the franchise he wanted out of was garbage and its kind of good to see a guy who has so much potential and had started to stall a bit become his old self. Good for the league, yes. Feel good for Heatley, no.

So those 90 goals Franzen was supposed to help make up just became 120+ for the rest of the squad....

So the guy got canned for TWO bad games? Then whats O'Halloran still doing officiating? Were Warren's "phantom" calls called on the Pittsburgh Crosbies, cause that will definitely get you booted from this league

Shanahan should run the league, but I think he would be great for the NHLPA, too. He is smart and has a lot of pull with the players. Actually, that question was posed on TSN yesterday to Barnaby, and he said Shanahan shouldn't be the head of the NHLPA, said they need a lawyer

Goaltending has been vastly subpar, and I believe the special teams have looked clumsy too. They are definitely making the extra pass which makes for pretty plays that are also pretty useless. But at the end of the day, I'm terrible disappointed with the fact that outside of a few players here and there, it appears that the team as a whole hasn't shown up to play. Between injuries in the preseason probably caused by lack of preparation for the season and overall complacency, the Red Wings of the openning two games look nothing like the Wings we are accustom to. They need a severe kick in the ass, as now they sit 4 points back from both Chicago and St. Louis in what is going to be a tightly contested division. May seem irrelevant at this point in the season, but those 4 points are going to be pretty crucial come April and our guys have definitely not put their best foot forward. The reality that the regular season matters and has already begun has to sink in once they get back home.

wow... didn't see that coming, how depressing... similar to how he left Detroit, allowing the organization to move on instead of allowing himself to remain obsolete. I really hope he finds a place somewhere, hate to think of a league with Steve AND Shanny.

This is retarded. Judge Baum is spineless and doesn't want to set a precedent, just as other have already said. This has resolved nothing, wasted everyones time, money, and patience. Just give the damn team to Balsillie, the guy is desperate for a team, and knows where it can succeed. What a frustrating situation...

This is too bad. Strange, year before last him and Ozzy were both in the All-Star game, now Manny can't get a job in the league?

Great article. Its great to hear just how high of a standard the members of the Red Wings organization hold themselves to. I feel the same way as Cleary. The Cup belongs to the Wings, healthy there is no better team in the world. I loathe Pittsburgh. I loathe the fact that last year after a Wings win, all we saw was the Penguins glorious moments, most of them against the Wings, on every commercial, from CenterIce to Gatorade to Verizon, you name it. Luckily for the NHL, they won't have to spend much on advertising this season, just recycle last years ads and just edit in a clip of Sid holding the Cup. I really hope we see the Wings play like the team two years ago, like a team possessed. As much as it hurts us fans to think "what if Lidstrom had kept his last second shot on the ice?" among a million other What-ifs, it has to kill them even more.

Burnside is a hater, only Crosby pleases him. Funny that like 3 of his points deal with the Olympics.

-The Wings have looked mediocre at best, terrible at worst this preseason. Even when skating the whole regular season defense they are turnover artists and the goaltenders have been hung out to dry on many occasions. -Osgood and Howard have had up and down games, hard to gauge either's performance behind such a porous and clumsy team in front of them. -Have seen next to nothing from our second line, being that now apparently groin injuries are contagious. Pretty irritating to be honest, since you expect players to come decently ready to play at camp, and plenty more limber. -The top line of Franzen-Datsyuk-Holmstrom has really shined. Mule and Pasha both look to be in mid-season form. Pasha definitely looks like he'll pass 100pts and Mule is looking good for 40+ falling outta bed. The supposed third line has been spectacular at times. Filppula and Leino look like Datsyuk-Zetterberg redux. Both control the puck really well and Leino looks a bit quicker, as does Filppula surprisingly. -Free agent acquisitions haven't shown much of anything, which isn't very positive. Bertuzzi still seems slow, Williams still seems like Samuelsson's understudy, and outside of last night's game with Filppula and Leino, Eaves has been pretty much invisible. -Helm is hurt for a few weeks, bum shoulder, so that sucks a lot. Abdelkader has looked great. Ericsson has actually had a pretty rough preseason. -Brad May to me looks like he could POSSIBLY fill a Dallas Drake role. The guy has a great attitude, like mixing Downey with Shanahan. He can skate and looks better than Maltby out there, and he dropped the gloves with Rosehill and went toe-to-toe with him. I'm a bit worried, just because I was really expecting a focussed, prepared, and hungry Wings team to come to camp, and I really don't feel that was the case. I've really never seen so many turnovers in my life by the Wings. I've literally seen Wings setting up high-slot onetimers and skating the puck right onto the stick of the opponent. I'm just hoping that the combination of an AHL roster and veteran preseason complacency is all it is, and that come puck drop in Stockholm, the team is ready to bear down and get to work. There is really no definite way to tell until then.

I don't see May getting a roster spot. I want him too, bad, but the Wings have no space and I don't see them making an extra move to bring May into the fold. I would love to be wrong hear because to me he is a Dallas Drake type player, a banger who can play, not like Downey or Mac.

Fixed. FTW.

Good guy, good goaltender. Really don't know why he couldn't find a starting spot, I think he could still play (Wings backup?). I think the guy got a raw deal in the end.

I'm still not over it, for sure. Everytime I think about it, it sucks. ONE GOAL. Wings just were way too banged up to make it. Its unfortunate. Especially after Game 5, I thought the Wings were a lock. But they couldn't pull it off. I hate to conspiracy theorize, but lets face it, we all know Bettman and the NHL powers that be wanted the Penguins to beat the Wings, there is no doubt about that. As far as full out pulling strings, I doubt that highly, outside of the game Malkin was supposed to be AUTOMATICALLY suspended from. Other than that, it was just injuries and the Hal Gill factor, aka the ability to see every minor bump by a Red Wing while overlooking the mugging Gill threw on Wings players everytime they entered the zone. In the end, I'm still irritated the Wings lost it for themselves, but the NHL certainly greased the hinges for the Penguins.

For you perhaps. Foppa is a glassman, and has been forever. He also prefers the Avs over most any other team, and the opposite could be said about the Red Wings, who he battled for years. Forsberg's destination preference asside, the Wings would NEVER sign him, he is severely damaged goods, wouldn't play half the games, and the Wings have a glut of young talent waiting for a shot. Zetterberg and Forsberg on a line, meh. You're thinking '95 Foppa and Zetterberg.

I looks like its not televised anywhere, even HockeyStreams don't have it. Looks like only the radio feed, unfortunately, hockey doesn't translate as well to radio as football or baseball. And when the announcers go off on tangents talking about random crap as if they forgot they are your eyes. Last time on Philly radio it was basically: "yeah, anyways Delmore is crap. I'm not in the league anymore cause of him. Flyers scored by the way.... anyways, where was I?"

This list is terrible. Crosby above Malkin and Ovechkin? Lidstrom worse than 26 other players including Bouwmeester on D? Franzen better than Brodeur and so is Doan? Its just silly.