barabbas16

Sure. He isn't Jonas Gustavsson, though. He has missed 4 games and he isn't expected to be out much longer. The original post was a gross overreaction, imo.

Why are guys automatically considered worthless when they get hurt? This is a contact sport, I think. Injuries are going to happen. Not a waste of a trade at all. The moves for Cole and Zidlicky were pretty much exactly what should have happened. They are not at all the reason why this team is terrible now.

Mrazek did not have a decent third. He let in a ridiculously weak goal late in a tie game to lose the game for his team. That is not a part of any 'decent' period.

Helene St. James was right the first time. No correction needed... or did Rask have a laser pointer directed at Mrazek's eyes and that's why he shat himself and let in that pathetically weak goal to lose the game?

That last goal absolutely can never leak through. Ever. Let alone late in the 3rd period of a tie game at the end of the season with playoff implications. The whole of this loss is on Petr Mrazek, in my opinion. If all of the people who would hate on Howard after letting in that goal aren't saying the same things about Mrazek now, they are hypocrites.

5-8-2 for the month of March. And they probably wouldn't have won in Pittsburgh if the Penguins hadn't decided to do Detroit a huge favor and implode that day. Has there been a worse month of hockey for the Red Wings in recent history? Hopefully they can put 03/2015 behind them because they were straight up garbage.

Pure curiosity here.... would you rather have Andersson.... or Emmerton?

Lucky? It seemed like a pretty good play to me. The guy is far from integral, but let's give credit where it's due.Now, Jurco's last goal....THAT was lucky.

Crosby/Malkin/Hossa/J. Staal/Malone/Sykora/Talbot/Dupuis/Roberts/Kennedy/Ruutu/A. Hall/Gonchar/Letang/Scuderi/Orpik/Whitney/Gill/Fleury for PIT in 2008 Crosby/Malkin/Guerin/J. Staal/Kunitz/Sykora/Talbot/Dupuis/Fedotenko/Kennedy/Satan/Cooke/Gonchar/Letang/Scuderi/Orpik/Gill/Eaton/Fleury for PIT in 2009 I don't think "everyone knew" that Detroit had the best roster then. The argument could definitely have been made, though, I'll agree (and not as much so this year, probably). No, I don't see a cup contending team when I watch the Wings play right now. I see a team playing in the regular season. I'm actually going to wait and see what happens in the playoffs, though, myself.

Then you weren't listening. And the fact that the team only scored one goal combined in games 2 and 3 is completely irrelevant to the fact that Detroit lost those games. Not saying that Howard was lights out or anything... or that he should be in the net based on his play at present, but your statement/implication that he single-handedly lost those games is a false one. What percentage of the time do teams win when they score 1 goal? How about when they score zero goals?

This team sucks. Whoever keeps telling them to just let the other team score all the time every game needs to shut up and die.

He was a solid contributor on this team for 4 seasons. Second stint just didn't work out well, but it wasn't really his fault. I rooted for him even more than I would have normally as a result of the ridiculous amount of hate he got from the posters on this message board. Happy retirement Sammy!

They didn't deserve to win this game. What a complete and total embarrassment. Pulling a win out of that pile of garbage they turned in would distract from exactly how poor of a hockey team they really are right now... and they need to take a look in the mirror and realize that fact. Hey Red Wings, you just lost to this team... Martin Erat - Sam Gagner - Shane Doan C. Cunningham - C. Reider - David Moss Mark Acrobello - Kyle Chipchura - J. Szwarz Lauri Korpikoski - Joe Vitale - B.J. Crombeen Oliver Ekman-Larsson - Michael Stone Andrew Campbell - K. Dahlbeck John Moore - Connor Murphy Mike Smith Be ashamed.

Yeah, I agree with that. Unfortunately, he hasn't been even close to what anyone expected or hoped for. So far this season has been a complete bust for Jurco, I think. Perhaps I am judging him too hard based on that. Andersson has met my expectations so he doesn't seem as bad. Jurco has not even come close to my expectations (which I don't think were ridiculously high), so he seems worse... but that doesn't necessarily make him worse than Andersson... just more disappointing.

As you are getting at… with a healthy lineup the PK could use Miller/Glendening and Helm/Sheahan or Helm/Adbelkader. That’s true and possible. However, Jurco and Andersson both have averaged around 11:35 per game this season. Neither has provided much offense to speak of at all. Neither plays on the Power Play. Only one plays on the Penalty Kill. So, would you rather have your 4th line winger playing 11.5 minutes at even strength and have your top nine forwards (that produce more offensively) play less at even strength and more on the PK? Or, would you rather have your 4th line winger eat those PK minutes up and allow your top nine forwards (that produce more offensively) to have more access to the minutes during which your team is more likely to score? I’d rather have the latter. Sure, you’d possibly be getting a point every 8 games from said 4th line winger instead of a point every 4 games. But, even that isn’t a fair comparison since Jurco has spent time this season playing with solid offensive forwards in offensive situations and Andersson has not had any such opportunities at all.

In my opinion, Weiss and Jurco haven't done anything to deserve a top 9 forward spot over Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Tatar, Nyquist, Abdelkader, Helm, Sheahan, Cole, and Pulkkinen (or Franzen if he ever comes back). And, they (Weiss and Jurco) do not fit as well or perform the necessary roles as well as Andersson does for the 4th line. I wish they did, because they obviously should provide more offense than the virtually none that Andersson brings.... but they don't. They haven't earned a top 9 spot and they don't fit on the 4th line. I wanted Weiss to turn back into the player he was in Florida too, but he hasn't. I wanted Jurco to grow as a player this year and build upon what he did last year too, but he hasn't.

They re-signed Gustavsson because, prior to this season, Mrazek had a total of 11 appearances in NHL games. And, this is a team that has historically leaned heavily toward the safer option of experience over the riskier option of potential. It is safer to sign Gustavsson (or some other backup with a decent amount of NHL experience) and risk paying him even though you don't need him than to not sign him and risk wishing you had.

OK well, I guess we just see it differently then. I think that handing the starting job to a rookie over a 30 year-old All-Star in the prime of his career is different that handing the starting job to a rookie over a 37 year-old goaltender with injury issues in the twilight over his career.... and you think those are the same thing. I also think that whether or not a team feels good very much comes into play when gauging said team's ability to win the Stanley Cup. And, you think that feeling good doesn't matter at all. Agree to disagree, I suppose.

Um... the Red Wings organization is pretty much all about loyalty... if you have a problem with loyalty, you might be happier rooting for a different team. Also, "Play the better guy" is a hell of a lot different than "cut ties." I really like Mrazek too and I also see him as the goaltender of the future, but I don't like the idea of handing the reigns over to him this soon. I think maybe a 60-40 split for at least next season and perhaps the following one (depending on how next season goes).... then he gets the starting job based on his performance in the NHL with a reasonable sample size.

The age difference between Osgood then and Howard now make them somewhat different situations, don't you think?

All technically accurate points. Here are some others... Weiss sucks balls at hockey now. Babcock no longer considers Helm a center. So, that does still leave Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Sheahan, and Glendening... but not having Andersson in the lineup would restrict flexibility, which is something that Babcock clearly values (i.e. if Datsyuk and Zetterberg are both forced to play center, they can't be on the same line, etc.).

Pulkkinen doesn't kill penalties or play center. You aren't replacing like for like there.

I'm just glad they actually got somebody above 50 points on the season this year...

Sorry... forgive me for reading "Howard supporters" as 'people that support Howard' rather than 'some select/specific people that support Howard.'

I like backhandedly calling people hypocrites without any fact or evidence to support it as much as the next guy, but.... I forgot what else I was going to say. Oh well. Why do you seemingly carry this assumption that anyone who supports Howard automatically hates Mrazek?