Echolalia

Don't forget Weiss missing the net from the top of the crease

Pulkkinen's shot is just scary

These shot totals wouldn't be so embarrassing if the Wings could hit the net.

St. Louis is really solid at taking away the strong-side the half-boards. Any breakout attempt the Wings have is to a winger suddenly surrounded by two Blues. They're doing an excellent job having their deep forward backcheck hard toward the strong side, too, to cut off the pass from our winger on the board to a center breaking out. Its fun to watch, unfortunately its against us.

What would be the benefit of trading Zetterberg and Datsyuk away? I just don't see how it would be worth it in the short term, or long term.

Or any league, for that matter

Mrazek has a .920 save percentage and a 2.16 goals against. Not only are those numbers solid for a #3 goalie, but they're on par with some excellent #1 goalies. Its tough to gauge exactly where he stands because NHL.com doesn't include Mrazek or a handful of others on the list of goalies they rank statistically (presumably because of limited starts), but there are only 5 goalies listed that have a better GAA than 2.16. The .920 save percentage is presently the same as Howard's, who is sitting at 12th in the league at that category. Mrazek is obviously a rookie goalie, and he's going to make rookie mistakes out there, whether that's being too aggressive, too passive, poor rebound control, whatever. But through the ten games that he's played this year, as well as the nine he played last year, Mrazek has proven to be a solid goalie that can be relied upon. The only question now is whether he can do it as a #1 goalie, and not a backup getting the occasional start.

Doesn't count cuz he's European, pal. Only North Americans can bring back Olde Time Hockey. And if we're talking Good Ol Boys Hockey, that's exclusively Canadian.

I think Babcock is going to do what he wants, regardless of who Holland gives him and what Holland prefers. I just don't think anyone wants to give up assets for a bottom-pairing defensman who keeps getting burned by most other teams' forwards.

+1 for Futurama

Weber is free to respond how he wants, but lets not pretend that fighting prevents cheap shots from happening. On the contrary, its been demonstrated repeatedly that higher rates of fights are associated with more violent acts and injuries, not less. I think Cooke of all players is a good example of this. He's been fed his lunch on several occasions in fights, and yet his suspension history for dangerous and illegal shots is still as long as anybody's.

No worries, everyone. Weber took care of that rat Cooke by fighting him, so Cooke will be on his best behavior now.

.916 save percentage would put Mrazek next to Jonathon Quick and Frederik Andersen for 18th-20th league wide, and the 2.29 GAA would put him with Jaroslav Halak around 12th in the league. Those are numbers that the Wings can win games with.

So what happens for the All-Star roster? As far as I can remember, all 30 teams are to be represented at these All-Star games, and with Jimmy down, the Wings are not on the squad and the East team is down a goalie. If they bring Datsyuk or Zetteberg in, the East is still one goalie short, and one skater too many (but then we're represented). If they bring in Halak or some other goalie who should be there, the East has their goalie quota and the right amount of skaters, but then there are no Red Wings. They could have Gustavson replace Howard, although witht the All-Star game a little less than two weeks away, Gus might not be ready. Not to mention he has only played three games this season so far... Mrazek is sitting at 9 games played, and he's about to get a few more. Could he potentially replace Howard at the All-Star game to satisfy the goalie/skater quota and having every team represented criteria (even though he's an AHL callup)? Or is it more feasible that the NHL just goes with some other NHL goalie and the Wings collectively get a break from the All Star game this year?

This analogy doesn't work. The only reason many of these enforcers are in the NHL is to put themselves at risk and fight. If they don't do that, they're going to lose their job to someone who can actually play hockey, or is willing to fight regularly. So the unsalted road comparison would be more accurate if we said enforcers could only live in our city if they drive recklessly on unsalted roads, and the rest of us can use the salted roads as we please. If they don't like it, they have to move to a different city.

Our goalie tandem has the worst groin against average in the league.

Keep an eye on how low the Caps forwards play in their zone here. Our defense has time and space to shoot at the expense of our forwards, who are being checked extra tight. We need an offensive defensman not only to score, but to pull those forwards up to open up some more space lower down. Granted, we're on a 6 on 5 so obvously Washington is going to play defensive, but this has been a theme all night, and all season.

life

What was Datsyuk thinking on that backcheck

I don't think anyone can tonight

What does the first one to not die get?

Zetterberg and Nyquist both gave up skating on that goal.

I gotta say I've been impressed with Pulkinnen defensively. Hes still adjusting to having less time and space to work with, but he looks like he has all the tools to be a game changer in the future.

Pulkinnen is a little spark plug out there when he's near the puck. I did notice when we had sustained pressure in the offensive zone, he was playing very high weak side/slot, not really in the play at all. I understand the idea behind hiding in a soft spot, but considering his linemates didn't have clean possession and were battling to protect the puck along the perimeter, I would prefer to see him give some more support in that situation. Although it may be how Blashill operates in GR, to have a forward play high for defensive purposes. I don't know, I haven't seen any GR games this year.

Pulkkinen might have just saved a goal there