Echolalia

Seems pretty speculative, but if the stars align the Wings could see themselves with Smith, Dekeyser, and Schultz, which is a hell of a lot of young talent on the back end.

I wonder if Babs is shielding Nashville from Howard, so they don't have an in-game refresher on his strengths and weaknesses so close to playoffs. You also don't want to let your potential 1st round opponent get confident against your goalie because they lit him up one game removed from injury. Hell, Babs might be worried about them taking runs at Howard trying to reaggrivate whatever was bugging him. Who knows.

I'm ready to sit him until the postseason. Give his ailments a little time to ease up, and maybe we can get a playoff round of good Cleary hockey outta him before his knee goes again.

Is it playoffs yet? Just get these games over with injury free and let the real season begin

The West seems more diluted this year compared to the past decade or so. I'm not overwhelmed by any team over here, Vancouver and Detroit included. I can see any seed getting to the Finals this year, and frankly I think every seed has about an equal chance of getting there.

Smith is better offensively than both Ericsson and Kindl, but he is most definitely NOT better defensively than either player, or anyone else on that side of the bench. The kid has a lot of talent and he sees the ice phenomenally, but he's also underestimated the speed of oncoming forwards and has been beaten plenty of times in his short stint up. He has a lot to learn and a lot to get accustom to before he is equal defensively to either Kindl or Ericsson. I'm not saying he doesn't have that potential, but if we need to preserve a one goal lead late in the third, I'm sending any defenseman out there before Smith. In two years that will likely change. But not today.

Wow that last one hit home hard.

It's difficult to sift through the bandwagon fans and the true bleed-hockey type, when their team is "up and coming" or just made it to the top. Usually, though, it's the classless arrogant pricks that are bandwagoners, and they happen to devour much more media attention than the true fans; the humble folks who enjoy their team's success, but also show respect for the game, their opponents, and opposing fan bases. After all, every true fan has experienced their fair share of painful eras full of failure, and that stuff keeps you humble. Bandwagoners move on the moment adversity hits. The individual who wrote the above paragraphs speaks the way a true fan would. Hell, he even recalled some bruisings done by the Wings during Chicago's darkest era. The gaggle of drunken idiots who belch out Detroit sucks at a Cup parade that had absolutely nothing to do with Detroit, even as an opponent are most certainly bandwagoners.

I was thinking the same thing, but at the very least he has the spunk to race into the dirty areas and fight for the hard to get pucks. Once he adds a little muscle to him that part of his game should really stand out, especially considering his flair for stick-handling in tight areas.

I wonder if Radulov is familiar with what Kronwall had been up to since he left for the KHL

Not NHL Conklin!

I just want to say this kid has blown my expectations out of the water. I was hoping for at best a quiet, not noticeable player (ie Quincey when we called him up in the playoffs from GR several years ago). He's got a lot of confidence and he sees the ice and what's available so freaking well. 7 points in his first 13 NHL games is phenomenal, especially if you consider he's a defenseman. The +3 ain't too shabby either, considering how s***ty the Wings collectively have been playing. I will temper my love of this kid by saying he obviously won't replace Lidstrom, or what he means to the team. But I'm comfortable going as far to say he can effectively replace Rafalski, and even surpass him if he stays humble and physical (and tightens up some loose knots in his own zone). In any event this kid was a wonderful draft acquisition. He certainly appears to be the best we've drafted in a while.

Defense isn't flashy

Where did they find this narrator, hung over on the front lawn of a frat house?

I was kind of hopIng Conklin would've been claimed, just to see the media and forum response. That and I'm still too emotionally scarred from the last time Conklin was with the team.

As much as I love watching guys pummel each other, this was a circus act. I'm all for keeping fights in the game, but not staged fights like this.

This is better news than I thought. I was expecting much longer than a month or so. In any event it will be a good boost to get that type of energy in the midst of the playoffs.

I wouldn't change the outcome of the series, but I would've given the Flyers a little more adversity in the rounds leading up to the 97 SCF. Maybe they would've been more prepared to handle the Wings, go on to win the Cup and Vladdy and Sergei Manotzokonov (sp?) never get into the limo that changed their lives. Then again, the driver would have kept his license and perhaps injured or killed somebody else...

If anything should happen the year the Wings are to host the winter classic and presumably participate in 24/7, heads are gonna fly. That's all I'm saying.

Special teams have always been a point of concern this year and it is something that the Wings will have to work on, but they can't do much in the state they're currently in. Injuries absolutely play a role in the play we have witnessed, and I think a much larger role than a lot of folks may realize. When a player goes down, you aren't just losing his point total. You lose the chemistry that he has with his teammates, you lose the attention that he gets from the opposition, you lose the special skill set that your team has been designed to compliment. Datsyuk and lidstrom are obviously huge losses for the Wings, but Bertuzzi, Kindl, Eriksson, etc are all significant losses too, based on the above. They're being replaced with guys with capable skill, but little to no experience with the team, their linemates, or the system. That pulls down the play of everyone. I'm seeing a lot of bad passes and a lot more miscommunication, and it has resulted directly into shorthanded goals against, even strength goals against, power play goals against, prevented us from establishing the offensive zone (the only line that seems comfortable with neutral zone passing is Zetterberg's line), prevented us from even getting scoring opportunities. When guys start returning, these problems should disappear, and they can get back to focusing on road wins, power plays, penalty kills, and whatever else plagued them when they were healthy. Babs and co will say they're working on it now, but with the lineup they have it's just not possible, and none of these issues will be fixed until our lineup starts to resemble what it was a month ago.

I feel like this is going to end up being one of those situations where everyone thinks Holland has to have a trick up his sleeve, but reality is that he was just doing Commodore a favor, not expecting half our defensive lineup to fall to injuries. I do want this kid in a Wings' sweater, though.

Not to discredit your opinion because I think it's a good point to bring up, but I remember when everyone was saying the same stuff about bryzgalov when we took on the coyotes last year. Datsyuk absolutely abused that guy and Bryz still hasn't recovered.

Well excuuuuuuuuse me. The front office knew the potential for Dats and Z we're quite high, then.

The front office knew what they had in both Dats and Z. Days was able to be drafted so low because the Wings were the only organization that knew about him. Those picks are much more difficult to make because scouting league-wide is so much better than it was a decade or two ago. Overseas leagues advertise their top players better also. In any event, it would be awesome to get some more deep draft pick steals but I wouldn't give the wings' prospect pool a better grade on the assumption that some of those 3rd or 4th rd picks turn out to be prodigies. Based on what we know about the kids today, their skill set, development, etc right now, the grade that tsn gave is fair, IMO. It's also to be expected, given we draft low year after year.

Eriksson will get the spot. Nobody will agree to it, but he brings more to the table than Kindl does, plays harder in the corners than anyone who isn't Stuart (which unfortunately doesn't speak well for our defense), and knows whats required in the playoffs in terms of upping your game. Smith hands down has a much higher potential, but he's still green and even with his superior skill set, Eriksson is the safer bet come playoffs. Next year, I don't know if that will be the case. Smith had really been impressive for the Wings.