Drake_Marcus

Ericsson has 39 turnovers in 41 games played. By comparison Rafalski has 52 in 51 games played. Stuart has 40 in 55 games played, Lidstrom has 38 in 55 games and Kronwall has 22 in 25 games. In terms of turnovers per game you can't call Ericsson the turnover king.

As arguably his biggest fan on these boards I have one thing to say about this: Good. I hope this message gets across to him loud and clear and he gets his play back up to where it was in the playoffs. In fact, I hope he manages to improve on that play produce offensively like he did at the start of the year when he had a better than a 0.5 ppg average. To everyone who thinks this is the beginning of the end-- don't count on it. Luke Schenn has been scratched many times this year because of his terrible play. He's still a valuable piece in Toronto. The list of players who were scratched in their first year to send a message is long and even includes some elite players. This scratch is 100% about sending Ericsson a message and not about where he stands in the Wings' plans.

Well some people consider 1 ppg choking in the playoffs. Of course those people are crazy, so... yeah.

Watch Olympic hockey and do grad work.

That'd be my guess as well.

That's one of those clips even non-hockey sports fans know about.

Ozzy should at least get a shot at making his way above 400 wins. I'd like to see him get 420 before he retires. If that means keeping him around another year or two as a back-up so be it. He's still got hockey left in him. Plus we know Ozzy can get himself out of bad slumps but it takes big blocks of playing time to get him there. That's the big problem right now. Babs can't afford to give him time to get back into his groove.

I'd settle for the clip of him putting a creepy Vancouver clone through the glass (not like I haven't seen it a dozen times, though).

Good point. Now if only he could hit like Fisch did

lol Seriously? Wow. Maybe they were being sarcastic.

He wouldn't have been developed and have this high praise from within the organization were it not for his hockey sense. Ken Holland does not favour dumb hockey players. He's never had trouble thinking the game and his play in the AHL and in every NHL game previous to this year should show you that. He's having your typical rookie defenseman growing pains. In the NHL you have much, much less time to think about defensive decisions than other leagues. Call-ups often run on instinct and adrenaline more than they would as a full-time NHL player. Let's put it this way-- you're the first person I've heard question E's ability to think the game.

I'd rather have Ericsson for under a million than Phanuef for 6 million a year until 2014. Phanuef's contract is absolutely rotten. And it's what you get for signing a kid to a giant contract based on the numbers he put up in his rookie year... that's always a gamble (usually not a huge gamble, but still a gamble). Edit: Seriously-- he's a 2nd pairing d-man who gets paid 6 million and thinks the game at glacial speed! Yikes.

Another spam thread trying to get people to join a facebook pool. You do this every damn week. I'm shocked you haven't been banned. If I were Matt your IP address would be duly noted.

Ask Miller. (0pts in 14 games with Tampa)

I said no based on two factors: 1. His current play. Since Val returned from his injury only Datsyuk has scored more points among Red Wings forwards. If Filppula could stretch this level of play (~0.7ppg) out over a full season he'd put 57pts up. 57pts is just fine for a 3 million dollar player. Clearly I'm being generous by not accounting for the games before his injury but that generosity comes in to play because of reason #2. 2. He's young and still finding his way. Last season he was overpaid, no question, had he been healthy his play this season likely would've been good enough for his payscale. The wager you make with contracts like the one Val signed is that by the end of his contract you're getting a bargain and the average price you paid accross the contract is smaller than the player's average level of play warrants.

This road trip has the potential to be a turning point, but then again we though the last one was a turning point and it only lead to a bit less than a month of strong play then they turned back down this path of crappyness. On the plus side they've had enough time to adjust to the additions of Zetterberg (12+ games) and Kronwall (5 games), so this would be the perfect time to get their s*** together. If the Wings are going to start winning Zetterberg and Datsyuk need to be point per game players again. Datsyuk's been around 0.9 ppg over the past month but Zetterberg's been less than 0.7 ppg and his goal scoring has been minimal at best. The Wings won't go far in the playoffs without Z and Datsyuk producing like they normally do. We all saw in the playoffs what happens when one of them has a slump (or gets injured) and the other can't pick up the slack.

Wooo! 18 baby Finally things are looking up.

The defense was still helping Jimmy with the rebounds and second chances.

Wow... so Howard had a great game. The boys were good defensively but once again this team is anemic offensively.

Bizarre stuff... the Leafs desperately need scoring but they just shipped almost all of their scoring out of town. Clearly Burke intends to be a player this summer in the FA market.

Wow... the Leafs just got taken to the cleaners. Yikes. Ian White too? Burke you are such a tool.

Luckily the Wings won't have to face an elite goaltender until Tuesday so they can wait for Holmer to get back then.

I've always been an outspoken critic of Filppula if only because I felt he's been overrated by his fans... but looking at my apparent obsession with Ericsson I've begun to see it from your view-point. In the end I think some of us are underrating Val and some are overrating him (funny how almost everything in life ends up being in that gray area, eh?). As it stands right now Filppula is earning his 3 million dollars and that's all that matters.

I'm so damn biased when it comes to Ericsson that I find my disappointment in him pretty scary right now. I know he's still getting used to the NHL game and we have to expect growing pains in the first few years of an NHL d-man's career... but hey, I wanted him to be a star from day one. Good things come to those who wait? Worst case scenario he can be a Hall Gill type of guy and be valuable for his size and strength alone. God knows Gill's hockey sense isn't better than Lebda's.

Well that's the last time I side with you!