barabbas16

Yeah, maybe he'd do better if all of the other team's shooters would just skate up and hand him the puck like ours do.

What a bunch of clowns. That was so pathetic..... if I didn't know better, I might think that Holland hates the shootout so much that he is demanding that they suck as much as possible at it to somehow help prove his point. Because that's what it looked like - freaking trying to lose... or at the VERY least, DEFINITELY not trying to win.

Lol. Here we go again. Somebody start playing the circus music so the guys in the red jerseys can all pack into their tiny car together.

Anyone who was monitoring the situation would have easily predicted this would happen, but I thought it was worth of mentioning anyway (I'm not sure if something like this has been posted previously or recently, but I didn't remember seeing anything on it.)..... Pavel Datsyuk began the season ranked 10th in career NHL scoring among Russian players with 767 points. He has since passed Sergei Zubov, Sergei Gonchar, Pavel Bure, and Alexei Yashin to move up to 6th place with 785 points. And, he is 31 points behind Ilya Kovalchuk (5th) and 68 points behind Slava Kozlov (4th). Player GP P Fedorov 1248 1179 Mogilny 990 1032 Kovalev 1316 1029 Kozlov 1182 853 Kovalchuk 816 816 Datsyuk 796 785 Yashin 850 781 Bure 702 779 Gonchar 1193 777 Zubov 1068 771 Ovechkin 615 754 Pav shouldn't have any problems passing Kovalchuk (since he was kind enough to "retire") this season.... but he'll have to finish with slightly better than a point per game (and stay healthy) to pass Kozlov this year. What are the chances he'll do it? And, where will he end up on this list when he's finished with the NHL? Also of note, Henrik Zetterberg began the season 13th overall in career NHL points for Swedish players with 672. He's passed Nichael Nylander and Kent Nilsson into 11th thus far this season with 690 points now. Player GP P Sundin 1346 1349 Lidstrom 1564 1142 Alfredsson 1195 1121 Forsberg 708 885 Naslund 1117 869 Sandstrom 983 856 T. Steen 950 817 H. Sedin 958 812 Salming 1148 787 D. Sedin 924 775 Zetterberg 731 690 It is unrealistic to expect that Zetterberg will pass anyone else this season. So, the only question here is - Where will Z end up on this list?

That's not true. Giving up 2 goals in 60 minutes, you should reasonably expect to be able to pull out a win.... you know... every once in a while. That said, why don't we just put a cardboard cutout in net during shootouts if that's what we're going to get from an actual goaltender. Also, all forwards not on the 1st line need to hang their heads in collective shame. They are an embarrassment.

I decided to check in just to make sure that Justin Abdelkader was sufficiently getting ripped a new one by the board collectively. I don't think you guys are doing a good enough job of it so I decided to help out. I don't care one way or the other whether you think the call should or shouldn't have been made. It was a position that you do not put yourself in when your team is up a goal with less than three minutes left. You make the possibility that you might COMPLETELY blast the opposing team's goaltender as small as possible. Abdelkader was an epic failure in his decision making there and lost the game for his team, imo. What a moron.

We did nothing better than they did in this game. A fully deserved loss.

I like Glendening fine, but he's going to need to do better than 2 out of 9 in the face-off circle to stick around for too long at center.

How much did you lose on that one?

4th line duties are clearly much different than top line duties. What role Tatar should be doing now with the Wings is somewhat up for debate, but ok. Your second sentence, however, is totally inaccurate in my opinion. Zetterberg is so much more of a complete player than Tatar is. The results would be anything but the same.

I think part of the point of signing Weiss was to retain the ability to keep Datsyuk and Zetterberg on the same line.

1. They will and they should. There's no getting around that we're green on the back end, but the only way to fix that is with experience. The more they get tested now, the better they'll be at the end of the season. Well, either that or we'll know we need to acquire a steady vet on D for the postseason, I guess.2. Seems like it is mostly Smith to me. He has been the worst D-Man thus far in my opinion. I'm not ready to sell Smith stock yet, but Quincey hasn't looked nearly as bad. 3 and 4, I'm starting to get on board with the youth movement. I definitely think Tatar should be playing. I don't care if a different guy sits for him every game. There are enough...we'll say 'grizzled veterans'... on this team that would probably be better off if they sat some games anyway. Plus, it's not like the current line combos or power play units are exactly working well enough that you wouldn't want to break them up. I'm afraid Nyquist playing will require more injuries, though. I'd also like to see Tootoo playing soon.... and I'm not a big Tootoo guy, but maybe he'll wake some people up. 5. Yeah.... I still feel optomistic that it will get better. At least we've only lost one game that we really should have won (on paper).

I agree with you based on the opponents (except Boston). I was referring to the 3 games in 4 nights and three different cities followed by four days off before another game. Well, it seems stupid to me anyway..... we're all entitled to our own opinions.

I know who I wish Tatar had played instead of in that game and it isn't Cleary or Samuelsson. I didn't go through and read the thread, but if everyone is not ripping Daniel Alfredsson a new one after that absolutely horrendous display at the end where he repeatedly showed complete ineptitude.... I don't really know what to think. Also, lost two thirds of the face-offs.... so they won about 33% - I think that's about the percentage of passes made during that game by Detroit that weren't piss poor. Holy crap. I hope it was just the really stupid schedule that we got stuck with at the beginning of the season and not an indication of what is to be expected in the future.

Why does every thread have to turn into a different version of like 18 other threads?

I think I'd move a little further away if that was going on too.

Not really relevant.... but did anybody else think that the numbers on the back of Emmerton's jersey looked further down from his name then normal? Maybe I was just imagining it, but it seemed a little off...

I don't think Sammy will be sent down when Helm is healthy. I need to see the drawing, apparently. Please post it.

I'm stuck listening to these terrible Pittsburgh announcers. Pittsburgh has 10 or 12 NHL ready defensemen. Dupuis will score 40 goals this season. DeKeyser didn't get tripped up on Crosby's skates, "Sid left him in the dust" and "he looked like roadkill." Etc. Etc. Etc.

What teams would that be a second line on?

Yeah, just because you and others point it out, doesn't necessarily make it fact. I decided to take another look at it and judge for myself..... 4/30 - Jakub Kindl shot deflects off of Cleary into the net. Cleary did not purposefully deflect the shot, but he was in good position in front of the net. Just as "flukey" of a point for Kindl and Eaves. 5/2 - Dan Cleary has secondary assist on Nyquist's game-winning OT goal to beat the Ducks in Game 2. Good work in the corner to retrieve the puck and a nice pass to Filppula. Not a fluky point at all. We might not have won the game without it. 5/6 - Cleary has primary assist on Brendan Smith's goal. Good pass from the corner below the goal line to the point. Not fluky. 5/10 - Abdelkaer shot deflects off of Cleary into the net. Cleary is in perfect position screening the goaltender. I don't consider this fluky, as so many goals are scored this way in today's NHL, but some may..... they should also consider SO many Tomas Holmstrom goals "fluky" as well, though. 5/12 - Cleary has primary assist on (what ends up being) the GWG in game 7 by Flip. This one might be a little fluky as Cleary redirects the puck from Zetterberg to Flip and it is hard to tell if this is exactly what he meant to do. 5/18 - Cleary has secondary assist on Smith goal. Cleary passes the puck up the boards in the neutral zone to Z, who does most of the work. Not sure I'd call it fluky, as many assists are exactly this, but certainly not mind-blowing, 5/23 - Cleary seals win in Game 4 with the empty netter. No goaltender, obviously, but he does shoot it through Duncan Keith from the top of the circle. Certainly not a worthless goal in a 2-0 win with 40 seconds left. 5/25 - Cleary scores on a rebound from a Zetterberg shot. Doesn't seem fluky to me - quick reaction, pretty tough angle, Frolik trying to hook his hands. Cleary also started the play out passing the puck to Zetterberg entering the zone. 5/27 - Cleary has secondary assist on Brunner goal. Somewhat pedestrian pass to Zetterberg, who sets up Brunner's one timer. Again, nothing really special..... but not really fluky either. 5/29 - Cleary passes the puck off the boards, around a defender to Nyquist, who sets up Zetterberg's goal. Not fluky imo.... pretty solid play. Summary: Goals - One pretty fluky goal, although Cleary was in a good spot for good thing to happen, one deflection screening the goalie (excellent screen), one empty netter (an important one... not the easiest, not the hardest), one clearly solid goal. Assists - One potentially fluky assist, two somewhat pedestrian secondary assists, and three pretty solid assists. I was bored. Disagree if you like.

Niclas Wallin

Maybe. For the whole 1 game he might play in Detroit this season. I'm sure he'll get over it.

1. That's fine. We'll keep the team that signed an over 40 Modano and Alfredsson. You're more than welcome to cheer for someone else. 2. Actually, an idiot would say "And only an idiot would say 'Alfie gives us more leadership'," because Alfie does give us more leadership. He was the captain in Ottawa for like 13 seasons. It is a true statement. Whether the Wings needed more leadership or not, he provides more. There's nothing idiotic about truth. 3. Just because people don't think the way you do does not mean they are not thinking.

I'm not sure whether you are serious or not.... so I'll go ahead and ask... how did last season prove that Eaves is 'much more valuable than Cleary is'?