Drake_Marcus

Lidstrom at age 45 will still be better than Stuart in his prime. He's still the best shut-down d-man in the league. The only guy you could argue this about would be Keith and even then I don't buy it.

That's just not true. The first 35-40 games of the season? Yes, Lidstrom wasn't great. The last 20-25 games have been great for him. Lidstrom's been a point per game player over the last 20 or 25 games. He's been excellent defensively all year (yes even when he wasn't putting offensive numbers up). Look at his +/- on this team. Right now the Wings have scored fewer goals than they've let in. Yet Lidstrom still has an excellent +/-. Lidstrom's the only Red Wing superstar that's played like he's supposed to lately.

Are you sure? I'm positive it's Morozov.

Man I hope my gf doesn't see this. She already think's Filppula's hot as it is.

And Kolosov's going to knock some people silly.

I lol'd.

pwned

Throwing a 4-chan face on the Wings symbol doesn't exactly make you a tough troll to spot. By the way, McCarty won 4 cups does that make him a first-class winger?

First of all, I have no idea why you'd have Zetterberg as the 1st line centre over Datsyuk. Next I'd shy away from two choices you made there: 1. Splitting Datsyuk and Zetterberg up. Neither is playing strong enough on their own to justify that yet (although I agree with the decision to split them up in principle). 2. Having Franzen and Holmstrom on the same line. I'd rather have those two split up and ask Franzen to play a Holmstrom-like role on a line. Here's how I'd play things: Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom Franzen-Filppula-Bertuzzi Miller-Williams-Cleary Draper-Helm-Eaves May Lidstrom-Kronwall Rafalski-Stuart Lilja-Ericsson Meech That's right-- I'd split Lidstrom-Rafalski up. I feel like Rafi plays more recklassly with Lidstrom there to back him up. I'd rather see him play a more conservative role on the 2nd pairing and split the top two pairings times evenly. If Lilja is shaky out there I'd break the pairing with Ericsson up and do this: Lidstrom-Rafalski Kronwall-Ericsson Stuart-Lilja That'd give each pairing a strong defensive presence and keep the weaker guys apart. Lilja will likely need a steady partner out there early on and that guy isn't Ericsson right now. On the other hand I do like the idea of an Ericsson-Lilja pairing next season when E could play an offensive role and be able to rely on Lilja to cover his up for his defensive mistakes as he learns when to pinch and nails down his NHL game. Right now Lebda just isn't that guy. At this point Ericsson's being forced to play a game that isn't his own. He really isn't a stay at home defenseman. When you ask a hockey player to play someone else's role you rarely see them play their best.

lol Fleury. Yeah his goaltending stats are outstanding.

Going 16-2-3 over our last 21 games does seem very unlikely. Sure I'd love to see that but damn... that's one very tall order. I do think that this team will be very well off if Franzen, Holmstrom and Zetterberg are all healthy from now on. Having those three as our top goal scorers would really make life easier. Franzen's scored 2 goals and 1 assist in 3 games since coming back from a major knee injury. There's no reason to believe he won't be a force over the last 21 games. Indeed, the last quarter of the season is when Franzen seems to be most dominant. The 2 week olympic break will be a huge advantage for Holmstrom. His body needs an extended rest and he's about to get a huge rest. Remember how Holmstrom tends to operate-- his play starts strong and tails off as the season goes on and his body begins to wear down. He's always hot out of the gates and that's because he plays much better when his body isn't held together by tape and cortisone shots. Datsyuk is about to centre the best player in the world (he's practicing between Ovechkin and Semin right now). You wanna see Pavel get his mojo back? I'm sure he'll be much more confident after playing along side a pair of guys who can actually do something with his slick passes. That's no slam against Zetterberg but you have to admit that something's off with Z's game when he's behind Dats in goal scoring. Lidstrom just needs to avoid getting hurt or worn down at the Olympics... he's returned to form since the Christmas break. Rafaslski needs to do the same and he needs to find his game again. Maybe being the go-to d-man for the US team will shake him out of his stupor. Zetterberg will end up with some slick line-mates and a huge role at the Olympics. Hopefully he can find his game again. We all know he plays better against top end talent so this is as good a time as any for him to step his game up. In the end I think Z just needs to have fun again. We need to see him smile out there. Kronwall needs to get past his knee injury and start playing his game again. Stuart? Well I think having to be the go-to defenseman for this team over the first 40 games really wore him down. This break will be huge for him.

Man this is retarded logic. You think Howard's sv% is inflated by rebound control. Ok. Compared to whom? The rest of the league? Do you have a stat that shows me Howard's rebound control is poorer than the norm? Is it much worse? Quantify it. It's easy to quantify the impact a goalie has on their team. Let me show you: Jimmy Howard: 0.927 Sv% (5th in NHL, 2nd in the West) 2.28 GAA (6th in NHL, 2nd in the West) Chris Osgood: 0.891 Sv% (43rd in NHL, LAST in the West) 2.94 GAA (36th in NHL, 4th last in the West) Detroit Red Wings: 15th in the league by points 21st in wins 22nd in goals scored per game -5 goal differential 10th in place in Western standings Jimmy's literally keeping this team afloat. Osgood, while brilliant in the playoffs last year, s*** the bed again this season. We can't afford to give him 40 games to warm up to playing NHL quality goaltending. Sorry Ozzy. I want you to get to 400 wins and then some but this season isn't the time to gamble on a goalie who can't stop pucks right now. Back to your assertions... Go ahead. Say he's a bad rebounder. Guess what? He's frigging awesome at every thing else. I'll take Jimmy Howard with top 5 goaltending stats over some dude with great rebounding skill but s*** real world statistics. Jimmy's getting it done, rebounds or no. I know what you can't wait to say: Manny Legacy! Manny Legacy! This is a completely different situation. Jimmy's an NHL rookie who's been his team's MVP. Legacy was never the best player on the Wings during his short stint as a respectable NHL goalie.

And? Howard's stats tell the entire story there-- he gets the job done very well. Myers only has his +/- and anecdotal evidence to support his argument. I could give two s***s if Howard gives up huge rebounds when he's consistently a dominant force night in and night out.

12? Bummer.

2-4-4 in the most important stretch of the season. We don't deserve to make the playoffs if we're relying on other guys instead of making it ourselves.

I'd trade Filppula for someone like: Bobby Ryan Steven Stamkos Victor Hedman etc guys who'd be too good of a deal to pass up. But would I trade him for a player of comparable value? No. He fits perfectly in the Wings' system. He does every thing well and can play any roll you ask him to other than as a fighter. It'd be retarded to trade Filppula for anything other than a home-run type of guy. And we all know that won't happen.

We can't afford to lose the defensive depth right now. Rest assured Lebda won't be a Red Wing in October.

Friday: Montreal @ Philadelphia Nashville @ New Jersey Vancouver @ Columbus NY Rangers @ Pittsburgh Toronto @ St Louis Atlanta @ Minnesota Phoenix @ Colorado Saturday: Tampa Bay @ NY Islanders San Jose @ Buffalo Philadelphia @ Montreal New Jersey @ Carolina Boston @ Florida Ottawa @ Detroit Washington @ St Louis Dallas @ Phoenix Atlanta @ Chicago Anaheim @ Calgary Colorado @ Los Angeles Sunday: Tampa Bay @ NY Rangers Nashville @ Pittsburgh Vancouver @ Minnesota Ottawa @ NY Islanders Chicago @ Columbus Anaheim @ Edmonton x2 Edited to included x2 for the only game that hasn't started yet.

Cool. It's too bad but I really don't feel like it matters anymore.

lol So you wanted him to make a move just to give you something to chat about. I'm glad he doesn't make moves simply for the sake of making them.

Excellent rebuttal.

Excellent point. If we heard on here that he was being moved (even if Sutter did deny it later we still heard it) an NHL GM should've been well aware of the situation.

I'll reserve my applause for when Rask gets the bulk of the starts in Boston. He's looked great so far but hasn't played the starters roll either so it's hard to say he's a better Calder candidate than Howard. Historically goalies have had to post significant wins as well as great save and GAA numbers to win the Calder.

Spam. Please don't click the links. I can't figure out how the mods here continue to let this guy spam the boards to get players for his facebook game.