Drake_Marcus

Agreed. It'd be retarded to say "hey our very promising young forward's been cold for 6 games... let's dump him." Leino's here to stay guys. He's a frigging rookie-- he'll float from looking great to looking poor throughout the season because that's what rookies do. Anyone who's given up on him at this point or even started to think about that just doesn't know hockey. It's tough to find soft hands or great vision-- Leino has both. Regardless, Leino should be up with Dats or Z for an extended period to get him going. He just needs to get a goal and he'll heat up again. Confidence is a huge factor for NHL rookies.

I agree. Things are looking more ominous every day, though.

True. But it's not like we've got much more to lose.

His passing has gotten much better in the last year, there's no question there. I'm really hoping this injury won't derail his progress. Hopefully he'll come back hungry and won't have lingering issues with his wrist. Luckily he almost never shoots so the injury won't hurt his wrist shot. This is a terrible break for the team and for Val... but maybe someone else will do something with Val's minutes and we'll end up stronger in the long run.

It's tough to say what the Wings will do. Recently Holland said he's recieved calls from other teams offering him trade help, but told them no thanks and said he won't make short term deals that hurt the team's future just to try and replace temporarily replace Franzen. He wants to give the kids a shot to show him their stuff.

In other news Tatar had a great night tonight-- posting his first AHL goal. He's 1-1-2 in 4 AHL games so far. That's pretty good for an 18 kid playing against men.

I'm thinking Ritola might get a shot. He's been strong in GR so far and is an excellent PKer.

What? F.M.L. Time for the kids to step up HUGE. Ritola might get a call-up after all... *sigh* We did not need this news.

WHAT? Please be joking. Please be joking. PLEASE BE JOKING. Now we know what the Dallas Stars felt like last season

After going down 4-0 I'm happy we could walk out of this game with a point. Ericsson had a great night, aside from one bad turnover that didn't result in a goal but could have. Another 1 g 1 a night for Big E. He was a +2, scored the momentum generating 3rd goal and assisted on the game tieing goal. So far this year he's: 3G 5A 8pts -3 in only 11 games. He's also leading the defense in points while playing the 5th least time on the back end and having played 1 second of PP time all year. With how terrible the Rafalski-Stuart pair was tonight I'm thinking we'll see Ericsson get top 4 minutes early in the Calgary game, with Babs giving him more top 4 minutes depending on how well he response in-game. So in conclusion-- this was a game that started brutally with every player playing like horses*** and ended very strongly. Again, just walking away with a point is huge. So far we have 4 pts on this road trip. Holland said going in that the goal was to come home with 5 pts, so a victory in Calgary will salvage the trip.

Filppula's been terrible on the PK lately. He was on the ice for both PP goals against tonight. He was on the ice for 4 of the first 5 EDM goals tonight too. So I'd say he didn't exactly have a night that qualifies for "best player". His +/- so far? -6. Val needs to tighten up defensively because he's one of the most important defensive forwards on this team. Yeah we all appreciate his offense, but he's known for his defense and can't start sacrificing it. Futhermore, the following forwards are outscoring him: --> Zetterberg --> Datsyuk --> Holmstrom --> Williams So yeah, he was great early on-- definitely the best forward through the first 5 games. But now is he the best player? Not a chance.

Thanks for leaving Horcroff to do whatever he wanted out there Filppula. Jesus Val's been brutal defensively. I miss the Filppula who did everything well instead of the one that just does the offensive side of the game well

Notes so far: --> Helm with a spirit lifting goal-- the lesson he should take away from it? Shoot shoot shoot. When in doubt shoot! Actually, I hope everyone takes that lesson away from that goal. --> Rafalski's been BRUTAL defensively. The Rafalski-Stuart pairing's been on the ice for every single even strength goal against tonight. I have no idea why they're still out there together. Demote Rafi to the 3rd pairing and make him understand how unacceptable this is. --> Howard looks like a minor league goalie right now. He looks completely unsure of himself and seems to have less than zero confidence. I'd give Larsson the next home start. If Larsson can't cut it give McCollum a shot. One of the three kids can be the backup. Given how well Howard played last game, I wouldn't throw him out the door on his 3rd start ... I'm just saying we don't have the points right now to allow us to f*** around with goaltending. --> Ericsson's looking much better defensively than he did earlier in the season.

Where's our favourite poster and his NINETY-SUX posts now? He seems to shrink away when Homer scores

Everyone and everything has a price. People say they don't until the cheque is in their hands.

Not even close. Datsyuk tied the game THEN he put us ahead. I don't care how many good passes Fil made-- Datsyuk tied it with one goal then followed that up with another marker that put the team ahead. Plus, if we just count pretty passes Datsyuk's worst game is still better than Filppula's best. Why? Datsyuk is one of the best passers in the league who has only a handful of peers. It's not even fair to Fil to compare the two.

Whatever he intended to do, you're right that it was reckless and nearly bit us in the ass. I'm just glad we're on a winning streak again!

A pretty inspiring story... I'll be honest-- if something happened to me that eliminated my ability to do what I'm passionate about I doubt I'd be strong enough to keep going and fighting like he did.

Agreed. He's not playing enough minutes up here or any really significant minutes (last mins in a one goal lead, ties, critical PKs, etc). Put him in GR and let him play 20+ mins for at least a few more months. Save Abs for call-ups. It's not like he can't afford to wait another season to be a full time guy!

Leino was dangerous at times, but not as dangerous as he was on Filppula's wing. How's this look: Bertuzzi-Filppula-Leino Gives you a distributor/playmaker, a crasher/shooter and a shooter/playmaker. Cleary looked off tonight, as others said and to be honest he's scored 20+20 a few times as a 3rd line guy anyway, so it's not like he won't be useful on the 3rd.

Hard to tell the perspective from that photo-- the elbow doesn't have to be in contact with the head based on that photo. It's kind of like trying to analyze the Zapruder film, though.

He's right either way-- the "it" could be the head or the wall. Either way one is going to go through the other.

Everything is a joke after Richards got away with destroying another player's head on a ridiculously dangerous play. Honestly that check was the most dangerous thing I've seen on the ice in a long time. He could've been paralyzed on a hit like that. This two tier penalty system is an absolute joke. Stars shouldn't have the right to target the brains of other players.

That line didn't struggle to get scoring chances they struggled to get goals (after the first 4 games... before then they were scoring just fine).