b.shanafan14

s***ting the bed again.

Damnit Bert... You had to have an injury when Cleary was finally going to be scratched.

This. Same reason why Lidstrom was never considered, and neither Pavel or Hank were considered in some of their most outstanding seasons. Granted even in 2007-2008, Pav and Z were only as high as 4th and 6th in scoring at the end of the year, though both Selke finalists with Datsyuk winning. But who cares about defense, right Ovi? (On a side note: its easy to forget how dominant Iginla was during that period. 3rd in points wit 50 goals in '07-'08 following 94pts in 70 games the previous season) Great point, actually. So who knows. All comes down to where they stand at the end of the season. Z has been in this position before, leading the league after the first stretch. Its hard to maintain, especially when you have to kill penalties and play with inconsistent (read: unreliable) linemates.

To clarify, we will never waive Tatar. I just meant if someone needs to be scratched, I wouldn't be surprised if Babcock benches Tatar over his crush Cleary.

Won't be surprised if Nyquist takes Tatar's spot instead of Cleary or Sammy.

Please, God, let Nyquist score an empty net.

Gooooooooooooose!

Can we still call them "bad breaks" when we consistently do it to ourselves? Is Cleary losing a stick on the PK a problem or an improvement?

... And smothers him with a pillow.

Maybe there are subtlies to Cleary's game that are so subtle only a finely seasoned eye like Babcock can pick them up. Like maybe he looks like the worst forward on the team because he makes ALL of his teammates better. Think about it...

Accurate statement is accurate... It makes me feel insane.

Great kill from Pavel. Must help not having Cleary tethered to you.

Couldn't have drawn it up better myself, Ericsson.

Calling go-ahead powerplay goal for Canes with a minute left in the period. (I know, low hanging fruit)

Dan Cleary is Datsyuk kryponite

Ladies and gentlemen: Dan Cleary is now -2 tonight.

I took Viagra and ended up having an erection lasting longer than 4 hours. I called the number and they prescribed watching Dan Cleary play on the first line. The erection was gone in two minutes and I haven't had one since.

Late coming but.... THE GOOSE IS LOOSE!

I accept that we aren't the team that is going to blow teams out anymore, or skate with the puck the majority of the night, but there are certain things that could have and should have been done differently to put us in a better spot. There is no reason whatsoever to be paying Tootoo, Quincey, Cleary, and Samuelsson, a combined $10.5M of our salary cap, keeping Nyquist in the minors and Tatar being treated like a faster, younger, more talented (not necessarily better yet, mind you) Hudler with limited minutes. In a few years, the Wings may return to the style of play to which we are accustom, but in the meantime, they could at the very least not suck so intentionally. Holland needs to be better, Babcock needs to be better, and the individual players need to be better.

I'm never sure how to feel about that. They have had some nights where they played great and still lost, but most nights lately they deserve to lose. So are their good efforts in losses a sign things will turn around, or a sign that even our best these days isn't good enough? DeKeyser being out hurts. Howard hasn't looked solid this year. We get good scoring from Pav and Z, but then we split them up. We finally give Tatar a shot, he looks good, and again we replace him with Cleary in the top-six. We finally have a chance to bring up Nyquist and all we hear is how "kids aren't the answer in a man's league". Its like we know certain recipes don't work and yet we feel better justifying why they are still better than the alternative.

I think it is exactly as bleak as LGW makes it out to be. I think too often Ken and Mick will make the argument that they aren't THAT far off, but despite how everyone else is underachieving in the East, the Red Wings are still playing at a new level of suck lately. "Winless in 7"? Let's call it what it is, 7 straight losses. On one hand we'll complain about the defense, another the goal-scoring. We still haven't had a night where Howard has outplayed the opposition goaltender, despite lack of goal support. The Red Wings should be in a much, much worst place than they are, and would be if they were still in the West. There, our 25 points in 22 games would have us 5 points out of a playoff spot and that's having played 2 more games than the 8th place team. We can't count on everyone else to out-suck us forever. Eventually we need to trust guys like Tatar and hopefully Nyquist, and give up on the plethora of plugs we've accumulated. We aren't going to Dan Cleary ourselves out of this slump, that's for sure

Everytime I read Cleary's name, I feel sincere anger, no more so than when I read he is skating on the first line with our best centerman. I'd prefer Holland just pulls off the bandaid already, keeps Nyquist in the lineup for two games and forces himself to trade (read: waive) one of his half-dozen plugs.

I had a feeling something like this would happen. Seems like whenever the Wings have someone on the verge of breaking out, injury strikes. DD has been crazy solid all year, really I'd put him with Pav and Z as the only consistent elements on this team. In this last stretch he even started getting on the scoresheet regularly. Huge hit to take with things circling the drain like they are...

90% of the time Pavel goes backhand to forehand. Goaltenders would be stupid not to expect it, and they do. Changing to just about anything will yield more results at this point, if not catch them cheating on his go-to move. Remember how automatic him and Z were the first few years after the shootout was introduced, always doing something different? Now Z is oh-fer-a-thousand and Pavel is predictable. That's right folks, things are so bad that Pavel Valerievich Datsyuk is PREDICTABLE. Yikes...

Am I drunk, or did you just equate Weiss returning to an improvement in our depth?