Drake_Marcus

Fannnntastic.

Who'da thunk Sammy would be on pace to outscore Zetterberg?

That sums it up pretty nicely

Well with D-men you have to expect a significant number of secondary assists compared to primary simply by virtue of where they usually are when they touch the puck. And to be honest it's silly to say secondary assists are less significant than primary. The primary passer doesn't necessarily make a tougher or more important pass compared to the secondary passer. While I'd say primary assists are, in general, more important, there's a reason why two people can get assists on a goal. And there's a reason why both passers get equal credit. The order of the pass doesn't really tell you the importance of that pass to the overall play, wouldn't you agree? Anyway, I came into it agreeing with you man. I was surprised when Val didn't come out on top. But if you look at the stats his play hasn't risen (in terms of points per game) as much as Datsyuk's has fallen. Datsyuk's been a 1.18 ppg player over the last two seasons. Right now he's at about 0.8ppg. Filppula's elevated his play, no doubt, but not as much as Datsyuk's play has fallen off. Anyway, I think your argument that Filppula's been hot lately is good-- based on the last handful of games he has been red hot. However, the team needs to give Dats and Z every opportunity to break out of their slumps and that means giving them their regular ice time. Reducing Datsyuk's ice-time is not a long-term solution to our problems. Filppula's ice time has gone up so let him do with it what he can. I'd love for him to break out and be a star player. I've always been a nay-sayer when people compare him to Dats or say he's going to be a big point-producer in the future, but I'm a Wings fan first and foremost so I love being proven wrong when it comes to underestimating Wings players.

Thanks

Here's something interesting. I just opened, sorted, compiled and saved the last 14 Red Wings games in Excel. Took me about 45 mins, which seems like a waste of time, but I was genuinely interested in testing your theory (since I too feel like Val's been scoring the most). It seemed like you were right when I started with today's game and worked back through the last few games. Unfortunately your assertion did not hold. The top players in terms of points based completely on the games since Filppula returned are: 1. Lidstrom--14gm/2g/11a/13pts/+9 (that's right Lids has been a 0.93 points per game player over the last 14 games) 2. Datsyuk-- 14gm/3g/6a/9pts/+7 3. Filppula-- 14gm/2g/7a/9pts/+3 4. Bertuzzi-- 14gm/5g/3a/8pts/+2 5. Rafalski-- 14gm/2g/6a/8pts/+5 6. Helm-- 14gm/5g/2a/7pts/+1 (wtf?) 7. Cleary-- 9gm/3g/3a/6pts/+3 8. Zetterberg-- 10gm/3g/2a/5pts/+0 (note that he's a 0.5ppg... below Datsyuk's pace) 9. Miller-- 14gm/2g/3a/5pts/+2 10. Eaves-- 14gm/2g/2a/4pts/-8 The worst +/- values belonged to Eaves(-8), Meech(-5), then Abdelkader(-4). The worst forward pt total were those of Abdelakder (0) and Maltby (0). Also note that Lidstrom is the only player scoring at about a point per game (he's good for 0.93 points per game over this period), with Cleary coming in second with a ppg value of 0.67 then Dats/Filppula next at 0.64. Thus your assertion that Filppula has been the best forward is false any way you look at it: --> Cleary has the best ppg of all forwards over this period --> Datsyuk has superior numbers because he has one more goal than Filppula with the same point total --> Datsyuk's +/- blows Val's out of the water and is second only to Lidstrom --> Filppula is getting a ton of minutes including lots of PP time-- he hasn't played lower than 2nd line centre at any point since getting back. Q.E.D.

Someday I want to score 57pts and still have people say I don't help the team.

Tell me about it. I discovered I was born with neither the talent nor the hockey sense.

Actually, come to think of it I think it's something along those lines. Right now the Wings are set to make some tough decisions on this roster with so many guys about to come back in the next 2 weeks. Aside from Lilja this team will be healthy in about 2 weeks, right? So throwing Lilja into that mix just forces Holland's hand that much earlier. To me it makes more sense for Holland to wait until he has Kronwall's return date nailed down and knows he's healthy and back up to speed before he plays his hand with Lilja's status. Keep Lilja on the LTIR for as long as possible then send him to GR for a 2 week conditioning stint (I believe that's the max length). Basically, Holland will want to maximize his time to play around with the cap and roster decisions before he has to set things in stone and start trading/waiving. At this point it's a given that once all of the injured players are off LTIR Holland will have to trade or waive at least one player. EDIT: Also note that Lilja needed just 7 days without headaches to start contact practice and check if the start to come back. So that means we really wouldn't hear much about it until he's had at least that 7 day headache free period. The longest I heard of him going was 3-4 days and that was way back when he saw that chiropractor in Vancouver. It makes sense that Mickey might be talking to the guys and get more candid responses than what you'd get from the 'company line'. I just can't imagine Mickey pulling that 'back in 1 week' line out of his ass.

WFT? Nice work getting my hopes up for nothing Mickey

That wasn't crazy when he made the statement. Leino was considered a top 3 Calder candidate coming into the season. His first 13 NHL games resulted in 5g and 4a. He was a ppg player in the preseason with only Datsyuk outscoring him over that period. Expectations for his rookie season were sky high. Of course it sounds crazy to say that now but I expected Leino to get around 40pts and certainly expected more than 15 goals. Right now he's still on pace to close on Filppula's 15pt rookie campaign. Edit: Waita go and partially retract your comment after I back ya up Gcom.

Lidstrom is still the best shut-down guy in the league. His defense is still Lidstrom quality. Has his offense dipped? Yeah, of course he's frigging 40 years old. He's on pace for about 40 points this season. That's great for a 40 year old defenseman. Just because he's the Captain doesn't mean he can't age. I wish his offense would step up but hey, if you look at his stats he's been roughly a ppg player over the last month and a half. I figure he'll end up around 50pts after 82 games. The fact that he's a +18 on one of the bottom 5 scoring teams in the league is evidence enough as to how strong he's been defensively. ***** at Dats and Z, but Lids is playing well within what Holland likely expected from him in October.

Honestly, why the hell can't we count on our top two offensive players for offense? How can the Wings win games and get caught up in the standings when Zetterberg and Datsyuk are both on pace for fewer than 25 goals? Hell, when was the last time Z scored fewer than 20 goals!?!? That's even more devistating when Franzen's only played 3 games through 51. So our second best scoring threat is out until roughly the 62nd game and our #1 scorer is on pace for his worst NHL scoring total ever. Zetterberg is on pace for 21 goals. (20.65 if you're being picky) He had 22 as a rookie and 15 as a sophomore. This season is looking like it'll be his second worst scoring total ever and worst since before the lockout. Zetterberg is expected to provide 40+ goals a season. If he doesn't the team is in huge trouble. Yeah Datsyuk is on pace for 18 goals, but he's a 30 goal guy and he's expected to be the playmaker. Is he deserving of some heat? Hell yes and he's getting heat-- there's been a few Newspaper articles focused purely on that. The scary thing for me, though, has to be that Zetterberg is on pace for 21 goals in 74 games. Think about that. That's less than half of what he scored in the same number of games in 07-08. And it's not like he's hit his peak and is crashing down to earth. I know people love saying s*** like "30? that's so old" but that's retarded. Star players do not start sliding when they turn 30, and certainly not players that bloomed as late as Dats and Z did. They're both having off years but it's not like this is the beginning of the end for either of them.

It's funny but you'd think a guy with Lebda's skating speed could recover a bit more when out of position, eh? *sigh* Anyone else here sick of Datsyuk and Zetterberg being as collectively dangerous as Miller and Eaves are in the offensive zone?

Ugggg... Ericsson passes the puck to Miller near the blue line, Miller doesn't quite get control of it and Kopitar takes off with it. But why did Miller give up on the puck so quickly? Did he really need to change that desperately?

Sweet! I hope it isn't too tough for him to get back in his groove.

Not good. The trait Holland prizes most is Hockey Sense. He wants intelligent hockey players who think the game well (where intelligence is hockey IQ not necessarily standard IQ). Hockey sense is one of the few things you can't train...

Hmmmm I could live with that.

Yes. I want every single Wings player to succeed. And I don't think it's time to give up on this kid (unless it means having to choose between him and someone better with more potential). He's good at creating scoring chances that don't lead to goals. I'll give him that much.

I think it's the Oil management that should get the boot. Nothing they've done has really done a lot to improve the club. They can only fail for so long before they have to man up and admit they steered the ship through some terrible waters, right?

Stop arguing guys... Lang told me the truth of the matter anyway: Filppula is lazy and he sucks

Congrats- you just failed "joke detection " class 101.

Hilarious.

I think it still works but not without some subtlety. And that interview with Lombardi was the pinnacle of "not subtle".

JJ: "Hey Mr. Lombardi, I'm having trouble getting beaten wide but I swear it feels like I'm playing the body correctly. What can I do to read the play better?" Dean: "Well Jack I think the problem is that your mother didn't raise you right and your father was a drunk." {Dean thinks to himself: "Good job, this will motivate the hell out of him."}