Echolalia

I don't know about you, but I'm holding Zetterberg to a higher standard than what he has shown us this year. 6 points isn't necessarily bad, but he's still a - player and the majority of his points are coming on the powerplay (prior to last game he only had two even strength points). I also expect him to be more of a goal scorer, and he has only put the puck in the net once this year. Despite his point count I feel I'm justified in saying his play has been disappointing. Granted he is coming off injury, but that's beside the point I was trying to make in the last post.

I have noticed brief flashes of potential him since we called him up. You can tell by his style of play that he plays more like a scorer and less like a grinder, but he still plays really tentative out there it seems. He needs to build some confidence back up and work his way back to a zone that he is ideal to compete in from a grinder's level. If he can do that he'll be fine in our system.

I imagine its quite possible that they're going extra cautious with Dats. Its early in the season when we can still afford to not have him in the lineup. Best to take a couple extra days off now than have him get injured 2 games into the playoffs because of a nagging injury. Then again its purely speculation.

Everything is kind of backwards right now for the Wings. Maltby is a point per game player, Homer leads the team in goals (in fact he is in the top 25 league wide), and Ericsson has only trailed Rafalski for the lead on our team in terms of offensive production from defensman. Meanwhile Datsyuk Zetterberg and Lidstrom have been dissapointments (until last game, at least). But its an 82 game season for a reason. I'm not worried about our stars picking up the pace. Actually I'm more interested in whether players like Maltby, Homer, and Ericsson can continue their success for more than 6 games.

Wow a double news thread. When's the last time we had one of these?

Hal Gill was the seventh man, but he was in the penalty box until his penalty ended. That means with the penalty to the Habs, they still were able to get six guys out there once they pulled their goalie. They had too many men on the ice before Gill even left the box.

yes the person below me saw snow this morning

I'm having difficulty grasping the magnitude of a defensman performing that kind of feat in today's age. The showed a list of all the defensman with more points than him and many of them had the benefit of thriving in higher scoring eras. Granted Lids did play on a stellar team throughout his career, but perhaps the biggest reason why the Wings have been consistently at the top is because of him.

Ehhhhh I still think he can pick his game up a couple more levels (not to say that he's the next Lang or anything). He has been playing pretty well defensively, and created a couple opportunities, but there were a number of occasions where he gave the puck away, or seemed a bit out of place. Its not something that I think isn't fixable over a bit of time and more experience with some regular linemates, but I still think he can be better.

I think we need more diagrams to solve this conundrum.

Yeah the defense sucked, but to say that Osgood was solid would be pushing it. Even with the lack of support a couple of those goals were laughable.

Hell I'm willing to go ask Chelios if he wants a defensive coaching job right now.

Man is it going to be sweet looking back on all the adversity this year when the Wings win the Cup.

Haha does this have to do with being in spot 20?

Game over. Wonderful effort.

Tatar. I know you said we can't mention players currently on the team but I have high hopes for Leino. He reminds me a lot of Datsyuk/Zetterberg in their rookie seasons. I don't know if he has the same level of raw skill as those two, but he definitely has a lot and he knows how to use it at the nhl level. A couple nights ago he lost the puck in the offensive corner, and instead of giving up on the play he turned around and stripped the puck from the defensman and b-lined to the net with it. He ended up drawing a penalty. I really hope this kid can gain some size on him and develop a bit of a Datsyuk/Filppulla bite to him so he can hold on to the puck a bit longer (speaking of which, I love that Filppulla is getting stronger on the puck).

Don't know if this is necessarily hockey related enough to be in the general discussion, but it is hockey related so I put it here. http://www.sportsargumentwiki.com/index.php?title=NHL_Rink

If your expectations are of him getting back to a 20 goal season type player, then don't get too excited when you finally do see him play (at least right now). However, on the fourth line he has done pretty much everything we need of him and has started to see some pk time as well, so I'd say the signing has been a success (especially for that price).

He looked fine to me.

I never even mentioned anything you brought up. I just said tonight's game probably doesn't sit well with someone who affectionately refers to Homer as Ninety-Sux, and claims that Homer's lack of soft hands are why he is incapable of being able to "see the corners and pot the puck from 30 feet in not matter what position you're in". I mean, that's exactly why the game was won, right?

nice

I bet tonight's game really doesn't sit well with you, JakeRyan.

You're overestimating Zetterberg/Datsyuk's energy.

My old hockey coach was close with Shawn Burr and created a drill and named it after him that I will forever hate. For a two year period whenever I heard Shawn Burr's name it meant pain, nausea, and exhaustion, until one day Coach told us that Mr. Burr would be joining us for a couple practices to help us get prepared for the playoffs. There was about a two week period where Burr would show up to every practice, lace em up, and take to the ice with our team. Especially exciting was the fact that Burr was assigned to be on my line for when we practiced plays. We had good chemistry, until he ripped a shot from the top of the circle and everyone dove out of the way. Anyway, sucks to hear that Franzen is out.

I stole Semin late in my fantasy draft. He's tearing it up for me.