Drake_Marcus

Don't you remember how many starts it took Ozzy to get back into a groove last season? The Wings could afford to then because they lead the league in scoring. What about now? They don't have the goal margins to devote games to warming a guy up.

So the guy with brain damage has the satisfaction of knowing the other guy will get his ass kicked? Assuming the players will self police this kind of hit away seems less effective than literally policing it away...

And just like the Richards hit it showed a blatant disregard for the other player's safety and was absolutely vicious. This type of hit is not good for hockey. There's a difference between finishing checks and playing recklessly.

And most importantly-- Z needs to take at least 6 shots a game. When he's shooting and generating chances he gets better and better. Z needs to take every shot he gets instead of thinking too much with the puck.

And I was saying that when you look deeper at the situation there's no reason to believe that the Lebda-Ericsson switch has to do with the difference in scores. Plus I wanted to make a magic joke.

And Campbell continues to send mixed messages to the league and fans. Headshots are bad (sometimes). Repeat offenders will be punished (sometimes).

Was he? Because unlike Rafalski, Lidstrom, Stuart and Kronwall he didn't have a minus... so he couldn't have been as damaging as you say. You're right. The Lilja-Ericsson pairing wasn't on the ice for any of the 4 goals against.

You're nuts. It looked ok before he was injured. If Williams had a full year I think it'd be a different situation.

Wow... where did you get these numbers?!? I'd love to have that kind of detail on the Wings' lines.

Meh.

Noooo. I hope he doesn't retire... he has so much hockey left in him.

I'd double check that cap hit value for Z... You've still got money to work with. I'll bet money that Lidstrom isn't done this season. He's going to hit at least 50 points. That isn't exactly a number that screams "retire!".

So we're both right That's my favourite resolution to internet disagreements.

So you've enjoyed watching our boys play this season? I definitely have felt more disappointment than joy so far. You'll have to forgive me for being disappointed in the Wings. I understand the situation they're in and why they're in it but that doesn't change the emotional toll these let-down games have had. As a Wings fan I've been spoiled by my team and I understand that. But I can't just emotionally detach myself from these losses because the Wings do mean a lot to me. That's just the nature of having an emotional investment in a sports franchise.

I thought he played with the good Sedin while the other clone was injured. No? I do remember seeing them together but I've also seen games with Burrows up there too.

Not wrong at all. He regularly plays with the Sedins. God forbid you preface something like goals scored by mentioning that he's playing alongside the second highest point getter in the league this season. I mean that's just absurd. No one is saying Sammy is s***. But saying his play hasn't been inflated at all by the Sedins is just as absurd.

He's playing with the Sedin twins. If he was playing with Datsyuk in Zetterberg all year in the 07-08 or 08-09 seasons he could've put at least that much up. Do you really think he's a better scorer than Hank? Don't be retarded. If you put Hank with the Sedins this year he'd have s***-tons of goals too. How'd they figure that out? Did they put him on the 1st line for a full year and force it out of him? No. He had a couple of games on the 2nd line to make an impression and immediately did. That speaks more to the power of confidence than anything else.

lol wut? Ericsson was better tonight than Lebda was in either game. The difference is our team s*** the bed in the 3rd. I think you're getting Brett Lebda confused with magic.

Zetterberg needs to score some damn goals. He doesn't get paid to make plays. Zetterberg's #1 job is to finish plays. When #40 is on pace for a 20 goal season it's clear that the Wings are boned.

Well at least the Lilja-Ericsson pairing wasn't on the ice for a single goal against tonight. Looks like we'll have to find a new goat.

Ericsson and Lilja looked fine out there tonight. Neither one of them got caught with their pants down, both cleared the zone quickly and tried to make the safe plays. I saw one rough give away from E but he recovered well and I can't fault a rookie for making a give away or two a game when they don't result in goals. Obviously I dont' want to see give aways but let's take this s*** in small steps. So overall I'd say the Lilja-Ericsson pairing was good tonight (especially since they were the only d-men without a minus tonight).

A Lilja-E pairing will let Ericsson play his game. It's time to stop asking him to be a shut-down defensive defenseman. He's always been an offensive d-man who moves the puck up the ice well and likes to pinch in. Pairing him with a defensive liability who's constantly out of position (Lebda) was a recipe for disaster, especially with how E's struggled in his rookie season.

Sure he did. He could've traded Howard while he still had blue-chip prospect status instead of taking a chance on him at the NHL level.

Lebda overplayed a puck last night and it directly lead to a goal in the first period. He wasn't great. He was good the game before that, though. But on the other hand, Ericsson had a good game against the Canucks. He was a +1 on a night when Lids was a -3, so he definitely doesn't deserve to be s*** on for that game. Ericsson is a big piece of this club's future on the back end. Anyone who thinks Kindl is a defensive upgrade over Ericsson is insane. Kindl's struggled to be an even +/- player in the AHL. Griffins fans constantly bemoan Kindl's turnovers and bad decisions with the puck. He was last in the entire AHL in +/- two years ago and has yet to be a + player as a pro. Compare that to Ericsson who was dominant in the AHL. There's zero reason to think Kindl won't struggle much worse than Ericsson has next year. I know Kindl looked good in his 2 game call up but Ericsson looked brilliant in the ~25 regular season and 25 playoff games he played prior to this season only to struggle with consistency in his first full season. It's all part of the difference between trying to earn a roster spot and knowing you have the job. That being said I think Kindl has the tools to be a great NHL player... he just needs to put it all together. I won't count him out based on his AHL play-- Howard had the same problem and look at him now.