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betterREDthandead

Thoughts at the halfway mark

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The only two things I want from the second half of the season is...

1- Everyone to stay healthy.

2- Play better against the Central. If we don't, the last month of the season will gurt us. We play our last 11 games in the divion, and 13 out of 14. I think this will benefit us, as we will ratchet up the intensity and be ready and firing on all cylinders come the playoffs.

What I want from the postseason is another story all together...

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I just read that we set the record for the most wins in the first half of the season with 30. Pretty crazy. And all this is being done with Lidstrom's ice time down (recently anyway). The fresher he can be come playoff time obviously the better.

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I agree, the sign of an excellent team is when they play bad one night and can bounce back the next night and dominate someone. We don't have too many off nights but its nice to know that when we do have one the streak usually ends at 1.

I think Bill Clement, of all people, summed it up well on XM yesterday. He was talking about Ottawa's recent troubles, also mentioning the 7-game losing streak they had not too far back.

(paraphrasing)

"We shouldn't be surprised by this, though. All teams in the NHL have had their ups and downs during this season...except Detroit, though."

And he's right. We haven't endured any major losing streaks. We haven't endured any long periods where it's been win-one-lose-one-win-one-lose-one. That's not to say we haven't faced adversity already during the season - we have. We've come back from 2-goal deficits. We've overcome the loss of Zetterberg and Holmstrom. We've become worldbeaters when the refs refuse to let up on us. We're a great team this year, it's as simple as that.

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I just read that we set the record for the most wins in the first half of the season with 30. Pretty crazy. And all this is being done with Lidstrom's ice time down (recently anyway). The fresher he can be come playoff time obviously the better.

That stat IS a little biased in favor of the 2007-08 team, however. Keep in mind that the shootout wins that we have would instead have been ties for the 1995-96 team. With that in mind, we would only have 26 wins right now. Still, it's nothing to sneeze at.

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For me one of the biggest factors in the start this team has had resides not on the bench but behind it.

If the Wings maintain this pace (not likely, but who would've believed they would've maintained the pace through 41?) if Babock does not win the Jack Adams trophy it's a travesty. In my mind he is, hands down, the best coach in the NHL today.

It takes a special coach to have his players go 110% game in and game out from the top of the roster to the bottom and he's done just that. He's pushed the right buttons with certain players in order to get them to perform and has aced the handling of the goaltending tandem.

This team is absolutely unrelenting. It starts with the coaching staff, then the star players and then down to the Mark Hartigans and Aaron Downeys.

He has this team functioning as a machine.

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That stat IS a little biased in favor of the 2007-08 team, however. Keep in mind that the shootout wins that we have would instead have been ties for the 1995-96 team. With that in mind, we would only have 26 wins right now. Still, it's nothing to sneeze at.

Another thing overlooked with the "OMG they're ahead of the 1995-96 pace!" talk is the fact that while they've been better through 41 games this year.... that 1996 club lost 4 games -- FOUR! -- in the 2nd half of that season.

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I honestly don't care where we wind up in the standings. I'm just worried about the health of this team. This season reminds me of the '96, '04, or '06 season, where this team set all sorts of records, and I had a hard time envisioning how they could lose in the playoffs those years. Now that I'm convinced the regular season is meaningless for the Wings, I won't be satisfied till we win the Cup. This team looks like it'll finish with the most points in the league for 4 straight seasons. We know what happened the other 3 times.

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I did not realize how spoiled I am these days as a Red Wing fan until I was pouting to a friend after the New Years Eve loss and she said "you can't win 'em all" and I was astounded. It was like someone hit me over the head with one of Mickeys old Sherwoods!

"Can't win 'em all"?? What a concept.

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This team looks great to me. I am more excited for this years playoffs than any for the last 6 years. The Wings really have something going this year - looks like they found just the right chemistry.

I am loving this team right now.

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What I'm really looking forward to is the Wings dominating in the second half and then adding a Sundin or a Foote at the deadline as if it say, "And I did your mom last night." :thumbup:

Edit: And I'd like to agree with the comments about the record. It is a bit..."inflated."

Edited by Dabura

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What I'm really looking forward to is the Wings dominating in the second half and then adding a Sundin or a Foote at the deadline as if it say, "And I did your mom last night." :thumbup:

Edit: And I'd like to agree with the comments about the record. It is a bit..."inflated."

:lol:!

Edited by Detroit # 1 Fan

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Another thing overlooked with the "OMG they're ahead of the 1995-96 pace!" talk is the fact that while they've been better through 41 games this year.... that 1996 club lost 4 games -- FOUR! -- in the 2nd half of that season.

The also lost multiple games to only one opponent; Winnipeg. That's over the whole season. This year's team has already failed in that respect.

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Apologize if I type over anybody's thoughts already but here's my info...

While I wish the Wings could have performed better against their own division so far, in the overall perspective so far this season we still couldn't ask for much/anything more. In the grand scheme of things, the Wings have been ridiculously good.

The Wings have added some more toughness and guys willing to stand up for players in a more primary role in Drake and Downey. Perhaps not the greatest and elite and doing such things but the way people have moaned and yelled about this forever, whether it's legit or overdramatized, it's definitely better than nothing.

The big three on offense have been performing splendidly, same as Lidstrom.

Albeit from a brainfart pass every now and again, Rafalski has definitely been worth the signing, espeically on the powerplay.

Secondary scoring took a while, but it's going really well now in Rex and Flipper and Cleary now Franzen a bit. Hopefully this can keep up and Samuelsson can get himself going more consistently and they will be really tough to be offensively.

Osgood has performed phenomenal when Hasek was struggling early and hasn't dropped his play at all. And Hasek has gotten going recently as well. They have two very capable goaltenders presently that can play a major part in determining the Wings success in the postseason (much more positively than negatively I think).

Overall, I'm fairly content with the defense, but it wouldn't hurt to not necessarily add a bruiser, but somewhere from a 3rd - 5th guy on defense who isn't afraid to throw his body around (if realisitc within the salary cap and such, sorry I'm not good with names and suggestions).

They have the same mojo as last year's team late in the season and playoffs I think. A team that won't necessarily dominate you physically or continously initiate contact and checks, but they bust their behinds off and skate hard, and will not back down from anybody and aren't afraid to match people in the checking/physical department.

The roster does not need to be tinkered with all that much, if at all. It wouldn't hurt to add a defenseman as I stated above or another guy who is fit to score goals every now and again in a 2nd/3rd line role. Again though, not much (if any) patchwork needs to be done on the roster.

The only thing I worry about in the playoffs is running into the hot goalie syndrome, because at least for now (sorry if I sound too confident or arrogant) think it would be difficult to pick 1 team to beat the Red Wings consistently in a 7-game series. Obviously though much still needs to be determined on the ice and I cautiously am optimistic.

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So far, this season has been great!

The only thing that's hacked me off was that three-game mini slump in November.

I'm still cautiously optimistic. The way the NHL is anything can happen in the second half and the post-season.

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I worry greatly about the Central division record. IF the wings were to draw The Blues or The Blackhawks in the post season I would be very worried.

I know that multiple game series is different than once here and once there. But still, as stated before, they have 14 games down the stretch against the central, and as it is right now they have a horrendous record against the south.

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If the Wings maintain this pace (not likely, but who would've believed they would've maintained the pace through 41?) if Babcock does not win the Jack Adams trophy it's a travesty. In my mind he is, hands down, the best coach in the NHL today.

Logically, Babcock is the only choice.

Although, I have a feeling that if the Ducks make the playoffs, the league will decide to award Randy Carlyle with the Jack Adams. <_<

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Absolutely an excellent post! :clap: What more could be said about this team. This team IS a machine right now, and has all the fixins for a great post-season. I'd be cautious to add anyone to this line up, sometimes the best moves are the ones we don't make. I firmly believe adding "Bert' last season did more harm than good, I'd hate to mess up chemistry for the sake of adding a name.

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Great post, I gotta agree with pretty much everything said. And what Matt said was right, if Babs does not win the Jack Adams trophy, it would be a travesty.

The Wings have really surprised me thus far. If you look at their starting line up (when everyone is healthy), you would say "Zetterberg should have a break out year... Datsyuk is pretty good... Homer is big on the powerplay... Lids is well, the best... Hasek is the dominator... Osgood is a solid backup... Huds/Flip is alright..." and thats about it. We really dont have a star-studded line up like we have in the past. But everybody is stepping their game up, and everybody looks hungry. I see more hustle out of this team than any other before.

Heres to a great second half of the year boys. :beerbuddy:

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