Drake_Marcus

No it makes complete sense. He had one good playoff run then he was terrible from that point on. He was horrible when called up to the NHL, horrible in the preseason and horrible in GR after the 07 playoffs. Meech hugely outplayed him in all those situation, and although we all knew Quincey had a good playoff run before he was unable to show the Wings anything after that. You can't be terrible for more than a year and expect that you can rest on your laurels as a incoming rookie that had 14 strong NHL games in his career. As far as comparing him to Ericsson goes I wouldn't go that far. Ericsson was amazing in the playoffs, scored the only goal in game 7, got significant PK time and was paired with Lidstrom on the top pairing at various points. Quincey was played on the bottom pairing in the 07 playoffs.

I'd say Tatar as far as skaters go and Larsson for the goalies.

That was in the 06-07 playoffs. In the 07-08 training camp he was terrible. In the 07-08 GR year he was brutal. He was called up in February of 08 along with a handful of other prospects (Ericsson and Meech, I believe). Quincey was terrible and he was the first guy sent back down to GR, Meech being the second one sent down and Ericsson the last one sent back down. In the 07-08 playoffs he was a black ace but wasn't used. In the 08-09 training camp he was terrible. In the 08-09 preseason he was horrible. At every step of the game he was outplayed by Meech, even though Meech is pretty mediocre. Finally, having failed at every opportunity since the 06-07 playoffs, and having attracted zero trade offers, Quincey was placed on waivers. Later, after LA gave him more than 20 mins a night on the 1st pairing he blossomed into a good young d-man. However, in that same scenario maybe Meech would respond the same way. Who knows? Players develop differently when given 20 mins a night for a full season than they do when they play 10 mins a night 45 times a year. The point is this-- your sarcasm aside, Quincey failed his way out of the organization. He had one good playoff run as a third pairing rookie d-man where he didn't make mistakes and looked like he could be a good d-man in the future. However, every single game after that playoff run was a chance to prove himself worthy. He dropped the ball. Holland didn't. Quincey failed to beat out Meech of all people, even though Q had a huge size and strength advantage over Meech AND he had that good playoff run to his name as well. In the end it doesn't matter much. Ericsson is a better prospect than him and the last spot is only temporarily held by Meech. If Lilja can't come back and return to form expect Holland to pick a serviceable 3rd pairing d-man who provides what Lilja did (assuming Lebda continues to play terribly).

That's news to me. Quincey wasn't able to crack the top 7 D and was moved because he was wasting away as the #8 d-man and pointlessly taking up cap space. Holland told him he'd find a place for him to play if he couldn't make the Wings squad (in other words make the top 7) and he did just that.

Bingo.

I've got no problem with how they're winning games lately. Remember 07-08? The games were a lot more like this than they were like the ones in 08-09. I mean we still had those crazy 6-0 wins in 07-08 but there were lots more of these close games. If Ozzy lets in 2 goals every game we're golden. A 2.00 GAA is much better than the 8.69 GAA we had last year.

mmmm... I love me these lines!

Sweet! Good weekend

Oh really? The third highest scoring Russian, and second highest scoring Russian centre is going to be on the third line of the Russian team? Who's the best defensive forward in the NHL? Same guy, eh? Wow. I guess it seems retarded to put your best all around centre, best passer and hands down the second best scoring centre on the third line, doesn't it?

Oh yeah, but that's a trait he's had since the call-up last year... I'm really glad that it wasn't a fluke thing where he was playing over and above his average ability. But he's yet to disappoint, so I guess we can all be happy about him after all. He's tied for the lead in goals among rookies while only playing an average of 12:47 a night, which is huge. At this point he's being plugged into Hudler's role and he's filled it perfectly. The bonus is he seems more adept defensively and he plays a rugged game similar to Z's where he doesn't get pushed around or out battled for pucks. I've been big on this kid since they brought him in last year so I'm really hoping he makes me look smart.

Yeah, he seems to be taking fewer booming shots from the point. I wonder if it's his elbow or if he's hesitant for some other reason...

Datsyuk looked awesome paired up against Ovechkin-- he shut him down so many times and stole the puck from him a hand full of time. The new top line is looking great. They were burdened by having to play such heavy defensive coverage against Ovi, but they were highly successful in that area so you can't complain. You can see the Datsyuk-Zetterberg chemistry starting to bubble to the surface again, especially on that series of offensive chances they set up during the PK. On the topic of shutting Ovi down, Lidstrom and Rafalski looked really good too-- both covered the top Washington line real well. Bertuzzi had a whale of a game-- he was skating really hard and made a couple of huge defensive plays out there. I'm really impressed with how he's made himself fit in the Red Wings mold. As far as offensive presence goes, Leino looked like the most dangerous forward out there for big chunks of time. He and Filppula look great on the 2nd line. Franzen's injury could be a blessing in disguise in that sense-- the Leino-Filppula-Williams line is really clicking well and proving they deserve prime time. I was impressed by all three players. Filppula had a golden chance early but held on to it too long so I guess he'll always be the Val we all love to tease about holding shots too long. He was great holding the puck and making life tough on Washington, though. He even came out looking the better man on an Ovechkin hit. Ozzy was red hot once again... he's really looking like the 07-08 Ozzy right now. The last two games make me much happier about our playoff chances than the early 08 games did when we couldn't stop a puck from going in our net but could score bunches of goals. All we need is to see some stronger PKing and life is good again. Once again, though, I'm loving these lines. The Dats-Zetterberg-Bertuzzi line will only get better as they start to gel better.

I'm with you 100% on these. Feds for sure, Konstantinov's removed from circulation and Chelios wasn't drafted here and didn't play in his prime here, so no.

He's a decade younger than Lidstrom. He hasn't even entered his prime (defenemen hit it later than forwards). How can the guy who thinks Rafalski, who's 3 years younger than Lids, was the replacement argue that Kronwall is too old to be?!?

False. Rafalski was signed to replace Schneider. He's 3 effing years younger than Lidstrom. It'd be legally retarded to sign someone virtually the same age as Lidstrom as his replacement. Furthermore, Rafalski's two-way play is lacking and everyone knows it. He's not horrible defensively, but he's far from being a PKer. Lidstrom's replacement, in addition to being a significantly younger than him has to fill the same role, which Rafalski does not. Because it's retarded? Again, you're wrong about why Rafalski was signed. Kronwall was 11th in defensive scoring last year, breaking the 50pt mark. He'd be a #1 d-man most teams. In 07-08 he was the team's assist leader and the highest scoring d-man in the league through the first round of the playoffs. He's not Lidstrom by any stretch of the imagination but he's certainly good enough to be our #1 in a few years. All depends on the severity of the tear. If the Red Wings released a time-line of 4 months (since you seem to have trouble reading the title of the frigging thread) the tear is obviously not severe. Markov wasn't given a prognosis of the entire season either, again you're bulls***ting. The Montreal Canadians released a statement saying he'd be out as long as 4 months. What's October plus four months? February. Guess when the season ends? The first week of April-- as in 2 months later. Nice try though. The Red Wings aren't going to say 4 months then only to have him sit for 8 months-- there's no reason to lie about it. If that's the time they said then that's the time the doctors and physiotherapists said. Period. When Morrow tore his MCL and ACL they said he was done for the season and likely playoffs- they didn't say 4 months only to have it change. You're completely misrepresenting the facts here.

Let's do some math... Last season: 289 goals scored -Hossa (40g) -Hudler (23g) -Samuelsson (19g) -Franzen (17g since he's gone for half the season) -Kopecky (6g) -Lilja (2g) +Leino (~20g) +Williams (19g) +Bertuzzi (15g) +Eaves (6g) +Ericsson (~10g) = 252 goals scored If we look at the list of goals scored last year that puts us 6th in the league, just ahead of the Sharks. If you eliminate the eastern teams that's good for 2nd. I didn't include Helm in the + list because the guys he'd be pushing aside (Maltby or Draper) aren't any less effective than he is offensively-- so he's a lateral move in terms of offense. In other words, this isn't as big of a deal as it's being made out to be. It's worth noting that last season was

Why? The only time you really see people stay out the whole season is if it's a very severe ACL tear and the post-op isn't as positive as expected (or physio takes much longer than expected) or when more than one ligament in the knee is torn (some combination of ACL, MCL, LCL and PCL).

No way Datsyuk would be a winger on the second line I'll have to assume you meant to put him on the top line as the centre. Forsberg is a good choice but he's shown strong resistance in the past to signing with the Wings. He's a similar situation to Sundin-- a guy Holland's taken a run at signing in the past that didn't want to move to the Wings for some reason or another (although it's not quite as cut and dry as Sundin-- who rejected a trade to the Wings in 07-08 at the deadline). Plus Forsberg is healing a stress-fracture on his bad foot that he was playing through in the Swedish Elite League. He won't be ready to play in the NHL for some time. If I had to guess I'd say he'd be ready some time around Christmas... But let's say Holland signed Forsberg for 2-2.5 million (either straight up or prorated to the time he actually joins the Wings). There'd be some serious maneuvering needed to fit him under the cap when Franzen returns, assuming he's back withing 4 months. In that scenario the longer Franzen was out the better it'd be for the cap (but the tougher it'd be to get him back to his old self). EDIT: Also, your lines don't make much sense with Helm on the third and Abdelkader on the fourth. Abdelkader has actual scoring upside, unlike Helm, so it makes no sense to put him below Helm on the lines. Plus, one of Helm's most important skills is his face-off skill, so it makes no sense to put him on the wing at this point.

I doubt it. Shanny was cut by the Devils because he didn't want to play on their fourth line. If he can't make the top six on a team as offensively starved as the Devils he's got no chance here. I love the Shanny that played in Detroit, but the current guy is an elderly shadow of his former self. I'd have no problem signing him as a depth guy on the bottom two lines, but it seems that he's not happy playing that role.

At this point I'm not sure it's worth the loss in assets to trade for someone to replace Franzen. Unless he comes back and isn't himself, in which case they could take a run at someone at the trade deadline. This injury is a huge opportunity for two players-- Leino and Abdelkader. Leino gets to play in the top six for 4 months and make himself indispensable. Abdelkader gets to play on the third line and prove that his excellent rookie season in GR can translate to a good rookie season in the NHL. Time for Abdelkader to prove he's got the NHL scoring touch. We're just lucky the Wings have the depth to recover from this sort of thing.

Franzen's hardly a bad skater. I'd put him slightly above average, especially compared to other guys his size. I'm just thinking out loud here, but now that we're short one bullish powerforward maybe Babs will play Ericsson as a forward on the 2nd PP? In Grand Rapids they played Ericsson as a forward on the PP quite a bit during his first few seasons there. It's not an ideal solution, but he was a valuable presence around the net-- especially as a screen. Of course this would be a rare thing since the PP depth is still strong. I only really think we'd see it if Z and Dats were split on the PP... and even then it'd be one of those once in a few games experiments.

Jesus. Wow. What horrible news to come home to At least he'll be back quick enough to get a his timing back for the playoffs. One thing we do know is that Franzen's always quicker to recover from injuries than average, so hopefully his physio and recovery time is accelerated. This is a huge oppertunity for one of our youngsters-- more specifically for Leino. Leino's the only guy with bonefide top six credentials (aside from Filppula, who is a centre and will be needed to maintain offensive and defensive depth down the middle). It's also a good chance for Abdelkader to prove he's got a good enough scoring touch to play effectively on the third line... New lines assuming Babs keeps Datsyuk and Zetterberg split: Leino-Datsyuk-Holmstrom Bertuzzi-Zetterberg-Cleary Williams-Filppula-Abdelkader Draper-Helm-Maltby/Eaves/May

Maybe he graduated from the Chelios and Shanny school of padding?

No no-- it makes him extra tough because the injury was just that bad.

Ericsson's tough as nails. This is the second night so far he's blocked a shot and been injured enough not to play the rest of the game then is ready to play the next games. Gotta love this kid