Drake_Marcus

Eva's response is probably the more realistic. Here is my final analysis based on the games so far in the preseason as well as the games last season. Helm- he's a 3rd/4th line guy who's definitely an NHL player but should only be kept on the team if he's going to actually play each night- there's no point keeping a promising player that's this young and waiver exempt unless you're going to play him every night. It's a waste of develpment time to keep him on as the 13th forward. Bring him up from GR for injury replacements when the time comes. Leino- he's a top six forward in the making that's ready for NHL play. The problem is there aren't spots open from 1-12 up front. However, because he's able to go back home if he's not happy in GR (even though he said he's committed to waiting his turn, I'm just planning for the worse), I'd keep him up as the 13th forward unless the management can sell him on their happiness with him and get him to buy into waiting for an injury or trade. If he waits his turn it's a foregone conclusion that he'll make the team at some point. If Pavel, Holmer or Hossa feel like they shouldn't risk playing opening day with their nagging ailments I can easily see Helm going back to GR and Leino staying here to fill in on the top six. Downey- he'll have a spot on the Wings because he brings something they need. He's probably the 13th forward. McCarty- he's not the man he used to be... that's for sure. Hopefully more conditioning in GR is just what the doctor ordered.

In my opinion he looked like a high-end player who was playing at half-effort because it was the preseason. He definitely didn't look like he was taking the preseason seriously. That's fine with me- I only care about him taking the playoffs seriously Well it'd be nice if he took the regular season seriously too

If it were up to me I'd quietly advise Maltby to retire and offer him a position within the organization (so he can still be a locker room presense and friend/mentor to the team). I'd draw a sweet, kick-ass goodbye card with my crayons for Lebda and tell Quincey it's been nice having him around. Then I'd trade Quincey and Lebda for a bag of chicken feed and a pick, respectively. Meech and Ericsson would man the back line (oh noes! a rookie 3rd pairing!). Helm would play the 4th line in Maltby's place and the pk in his place as well. Leino would stay with the team as the 13th forward or even take Kopecky's spot. Of course- I'd do that because I like those four guys. I'm not sure that'd be best for the team... Kopecky could yet be worth something if he manages to stay un-injured.

Leino

Hahaha good point! I can't believe that person wrote that about Satan... and I'm even more shocked they think Hossa's not an elite defensive player!

Really!?! I'd rather have the top three forwards playing in the top six!

Hossa is an elite 2-way player. He's very very good defensively.

Ok, I reinstalled flash... sound works now.

Is anyone actually hearing an audio feed? Nothing is working for me... I can see that justin.tv feed, but I can't hear any of the stations or the tv feed.

Yeah- I'll give you that much. Crosby's never been bad on defense, but he certainly isn't good. He's an average defensive player, and a great deal of that's because he's a very, very high end skater. He's certainly better than Malkin defensively, but doesn't put the mental and physical effort into backchecking that he needs to. You can tell based on his body language that he sees his responsibility drop as the puck goes into the defensive zone. That's an attitude thing, so I can see why you'd argue he can be a much better defensive player. Certainly, if you threw Ken Hitchcock behind the Pens bench I'm sure Sid would suddenly be very energetic about backchecking. Regardless, it's not something any player should be immune to criticism of. I'm sure you're watching the Sens-Pens game right now, so you must've seen the interview with him during the last intermission. When asked what he wants to improve he said his shooting! I can confidently say that Crosby's shot is fine. It's not perfect, but certainly isn't his most flawed area. After watching Zetterberg and Pavel's superior defensive play, I was sure he was going to say defense. I will say that Pavel's gotten much better defensively year to year, and certainly Z has as well (but not quite as drastically as Pav). Still- you can't blame Red Wing players for coming later to the NHL when it's an organizational choice. Who knows if Z or Dats could've stepped in earlier. Last person to walk in as a kid on the Wings and blow everyone's face off was Feds.

I don't buy the "this stage in their development" excuse with Crosby or Ovi anymore. They're both 3 year pros entering their 4th year having won an MVP and scoring title each. They've established that they've moved past the point of needing that excuse. Many players enter the NHL as defensively responsible. If you haven't worked on that aspect of the game then that's a choice- they've both played hockey nearly their entire lives, and elite hockey for a good half of that. Moreover- if you're going to laud Crosby, Malkin and Ovi for their scoring you HAVE to include the fact that they've forgone at least some defensive responsibility to rack up those points. You can't sit there and say Crosby is the Jesus Christ of scoring and in the same breath tell us he could be a great defensive player if he worked on it. If he wants to be an elite defensive player he'll have to play defense sometimes when he'd normally be saving energy for an offensive rush. There's a very real trade off. Datsyuk and Zetterberg could both have scored more points if they ignored some of their defensive responsibilities, no one could intelligently argue with that.

I miss Fisch too. Damn he was good. The Wings have lost far too many future defensive cornerstones to accidents (two is two too many!).

Great article. He should've told the truth about the Sid-Ovi debate, though. Ovi's better. Edit: But no one beats Zetter!

Oh he'll hold up well... he'll hold his stick up in the air when Z sends his pass into the net

Every expert blows Crosby as often and long as possible. Yet he's been outperformed by Ovechkin 2 out of 3 years. People say Crosby's got no where to go but up but don't say the exact same about Ovi?!? That's retarded. Ovi's potential to improve is equal to Crosby's. They're a year apart in age and zero years apart in NHL experience.

Only if you agree to moderate it like Holmstrom moderates a goalie's blood pressure....

I'd rather they played 82 But I'm a greedy bastard when it comes to ice time Man oh man that's a stupid name. Ulf. Still, beats the hell out of shoving a "G'" or "Ja" in front of a regular name and calling it a human name and not an insult to the English language.

You know what? I'm not a Sammy fan by any stretch but I'm going to just say this: Sammy's a great checking line player to have because he's defensively responsible, cheap as hell and inexplicably has multi-goal games. I just don't think Sammy should go before Maltby does.... I know Maltby is important as a partner for Draper on the pk, but I think that's just a chemistry thing. I'd replace Maltby with Helm or Leino... I really like Leino's performance so far (2 goals and 1 assist in 4 games), but Helm has been amazing so far and really creates something great out there when he gets into his high tempo game. And hell- is there anything sicker on the 4th line than Helm and Draper skating circles around the other team? They'd make a great pk line along with Cleary as well.

Yeah- Lilja definitely looks like a man playing for his job... god I wish he played like he was playing for his job every game. Inconsistency is definitely his failing. Quincey... well he wasn't as brutally bad as he was during the regular season call ups this year, but he didn't sparkle out there. I liked that he stood up for himself there in that mini-start of a fight. At times he seemed ok out there... but he had some real shaky points too. Lebda looks ok, though. Kronwall and Rafi looked fine out there- although it was especially painful to see Rafi robbed of that goal by superman's magic back-swinging stick!

Agreed- I almost felt like Hossa wasn't trying to win a spot in my heart. Like he already knew I loved him.... Helm on the other hand was trying to woo me like crazy. Wait... what were we talking about?

Well it's not like the Habs are bottom feeders guys... they probably will have a 100 pt season regardless of the preseason win tonight Doesn't mean they'll stop the Wings from repeating

Annnnd Leino's my new favourite forward prospect Great game from him tonight! Same goes for Helm!

Wow wow wow... Helm is knocking my socks off right now. He's really standing out right now! Greak PK, great regular play, great PP. Edit: Oh, and he's pretty much the king of the second effort

Ouch... that isn't good for Cheli... but I guess that spells one thing: a free extended stay for Ericsson (if they've made their decision on what to do with the D log jam and were going to send big E down as part of that solution) OR some extra time to decide who gets traded and wait out the "we're good without another D-man" times we'll see in early october.