Drake_Marcus

Last year Holmstrom gave us all plenty to be concerned about. This year he's been excellent. 6 goals in 10 games is great production.

Positives so far: --> Neither Lebda nor Ericsson were on the ice for either goal. That's a nice change of pace. --> Howard's looked good so far. --> The PKers are pressuring the forwards very well and successfully clearing the puck when they have a chance (something they failed at far, far too often last year). --> Z-D-H just scored with all three getting points! Negatives so far: --> Rafalski is still struggling defensively --> Ozzy needed to be pulled 7 minutes in. *sigh* Come back strong Ozzy! Howard-- make him work for his starts (this is a but much to ask a rookie, but I'm going to say it out loud anyway)

For the sake of my sanity we need to win convincingly tonight. And Ericsson needs to have a strong defensive night, which means the Ericsson-Lebda pairing really needs to be split up.

That's a pretty safe prediction

Let's go guys-- tell me who has the worstest mask in the whole universe. Hand-painted minor league masks by children are eligible. I remember at one point that my brother asked me to airbrush his mask when we were kids just because I enjoyed painting toy soldiers (and still do-- 'cause I'm a NERD)... the problem? I'd never airbrushed anything before. We killed that little project at the design stage. We'll have a NHL category (prospects will count here too) and a minor category that lets us sneak some really goofy stuff in... like the next mask I found on a blog post about bad masks: WTF? Really? Politicians on your goalie mask? Unless that's Palin's daughter's mask it's just stupid. That is an excellent airbrush job by the artist, though, just a silly concept. And here's the scariest thing I found searching google images: Oh, and this one makes baby Jebus cry:

That makes your son Jesus! Quick-- put his hand in a glass of water and see if it gets you drunk!

Like another poster said last night, that first goal is Rafalski's fault for making such a poorly timed pass to Ericsson. He hung E out to dry with that pass. Ericsson's definitely had his share of brain farts this season, but I blame Rafalski more than him for the first goal-- a guy like Rafalski should never have made that pass.

Don't be a dick. Doc's right and I'll prove it: 06-07 Season (Rookie Season): 76 gp__15 g_10 a_25 pts__10:02 TOI/G 07-08 Season: 81 gp__13 g_29 a_42 pts__13:10 TOI/G 08-09 Season: 82 gp__23 g_34 a_57 pts__13:39 TOI/G (stats put him 30th overall amoung NHL centres-- literally proving him to be 1st line quality) Oh, and everyone above Hudler played at least 3 minutes a game more than him, with only one player listed that played less than 4 minutes more than Hudler. So there-- now your argument that Hudler can't play in the physical NHL is BUNK. Q.E.D.

Thanks The Wings aren't doing me any favours in that contest so far-- losing two weekends in a row. But they'll turn it around. That lockerroom is too talented and experienced not to. I see this as a similar situation as the Penguins were in right before Bylsma was hired.

Hell yeah. I'm assuming Lilja's seen the best concussion guys in the country. If not I hope he has an appointment.

If I had to guess I'd say it's some sort of political fundraiser or centerpiece of some sort and not an item designed to be worn on the ice. Unless the GOP have a shinny league.

Not to mention the fact that the big three numbers are very, very generous concessions on the part of the players. Kane's already acting like a diva outside the rink (being the inexplicable cover model for the NHL 10 game doesn't help deflate his ego), I have a hard time imagining him taking 5 million on a short term contract. Here's the thing-- these contracts are the first big money contracts for all three players-- no way their agent will tell them it's a bright idea to sign a long term contract when they're no where near their peak value. Signing a guy like Hossa who's in his prime to a 400 year deal is much easier than convincing a kid and his agent he won't get better. None of those three want to be huge cap bargains in 2 years, and they certainly don't want to pass their peak while playing on the discount contract. I'm not saying they'll get 7 million contracts because none of them are close to worth that aside from the possible exception of Keith (D like him are very well paid, plus look at how much his inferior teammate gets paid to turn pucks over to Samuelsson), but I do think more than one of them will expect 6 million a season.

Howard's had two games this season. One was bad one was very good. I think we owe him some more shots at the pot. f*** the people who say "blah blah blah hasn't won since 05 blah blah blah". He lost two games during the 07-08 February s*** show when Lebda was the #1 d-man due to injuries. And in one of those games he was one of the 3 stars. Howard's on the knife's edge right now, yeah, but he's not irredeemably terrible or a worthless commodity. He's still very talented, he just has to put it all together (that's been his story for 5 years now). I do think he'll be out the door or at least in the 3rd spot if he doesn't show something impressive by the time January is over. As far as the 6th d-man goes I agree with you 100%

17 of 21? Jesus. That's 81%.

Crap I'm going to slide down the list, aren't I?

Kindl's got 3 assists in 7 games (two of which came tonight, so I was more astute when I first posted it) so far. He's a -3 too. It's not that I've written him off, it's just that Horton is a 3rd overall pick who's 24 years old. In the NHL he's scored: 14, 28, 31, 27, and 22 goals in each season of his career. His points situation is: 22, 47, 62, 62, and 45, so he's no slouch in any department really. The thing is he did all that on the Panthers as a winger. Give him a capable centre and I'm sure his numbers could be even better. Over his career he's a 0.66 ppg player, so that's impressive enough for a young guy. Kindl's only two years younger than Horton, so it's not like we'd be gambling much in terms of age. The only problem is Horton makes 4 million a year... That only makes sense to the Wings when Franzen is out since they make essentially the same . Horton's 6'2" 229lbs and shoots right... I think he could step in and fill Franzen's place here. Then again, it'd be a s***-show once Franzen is back. I do like Kindl and think he has lots of potential, I just don't like that he has to hit the NHL next season and he's not even close to being ready EDIT: If anything, the fact that I think you could get a guy like Horton for Kindl speaks to how good Kindl can be. If they shop Kindl I think they could get someone better than Horton if they really look for it. Some sort of package involving Kindl for Halak would be sweet too.

That's not exactly what Aussi_Wing said, though. He was considering having a seperate category for best winning percentage. The best total number of correct predictions would still be the winner of the overall title.

Woh-- the Hollywood one and NASCAR ones look terrible to me. Yikes.

Grigorenko's problem was he almost died due to complications related to a car accident that also destroyed one of his legs. After that he was a different player... One could argue that part of his motivation issues was owing to that.

Exactly. Franzen was so key because he had that 1st tier game breaking ability some nights, but he didn't put up 1st tier regular season numbers so he cost a hair under 4 million to keep. Another important point is that Franzen is really key when Dats and Z are cold (as in a combined 1 goal in 9 games ). Given the scores in the last few losses and the relative contributions of Dats and Z it's apparent that the Wings can turn things around right away if Dats or Z just get back to their usual offensive production. Still, in an 82 game season we'll need more than two guys who can do that. The other option is Frolov, but LA won't make a move until they know where they stand-- in other words Franzen will likely be back by the time Frolov is on the block. Is there anyone in Tampa we could use? They've got more payroll than they usually like to carry and the rumour is that management wants to cut back on payroll because of slow ticket sales. Malone could be good, but he's overpaid...

Dude-- I'd give Kindl up for Horton in a heart-beat. Kindl's out of AHL options at the end of this year and he is no where near ready to make the jump to the NHL on this team. He still struggles defensively in the AHL... that translates to serious NHL defensive woes. I'm not saying they should give up on Kindl, but if they get a chance to trade him for a kid of nearly the same age who is already successful in the NHL... why not? Kindl's not looking like Lidstrom's heir, despite their hope that he would be.

Those two statements conflict with each other.

I'd love to have Horton here-- he could be a star in Detroit. At this point I don't think our D needs as much help as our offense, though. In the last four games the D has been really strong, while the offense has been anemic. Clearly this is a tiny sample size, but if we're talking about addressing one concern I'd say it'd be to get a stud top 6 guy who can be the #3 forward on this club. Right now the drop off between the second best and third best guy is way too big.

The big question mark right now is Lilja. If Holland thinks he'll be ready in the next few months he might stand pat. Otherwise I imagine he'll make a move to pick up a Lilja-like guy to pair with Ericsson. E's obviously got the offensive talent to be the shooter/playmaker on the pairing, so like you said-- we need a stay at home guy to throw in beside Ericsson. Plus, switching the Lebda/Meech spot for another guy who can PK, block shots and hit can only help the Wings. With Ericsson there they don't need a second puck mover on that pairing anyway.

I agree, I'm just defending him against your accusation that he's majorly overrated.