Secondary Scoring Slump issue.

[ruarc' 2]

if i remember correctly, the 2007 postseason was flips coming out party.

as i've stated before, no team can ever have enough depth. and, i'm all for adding that depth so long as we don't sacrifice anything significant. in order for triggers to be pulled, everythings gotta add up. and believe me they will.

not trying to stir anything up here Dabura, but who might you have in mind? i'm onboard, i'm just having a difficult time justifying anything i come up with.

[kylee 727]

if i remember correctly, the 2007 postseason was flips coming out party.

good point. Filppula did have a good play off run - especially it being his 1st real go round in the playoffs.

although he was -2 he did have 3 goals and two assists.

[Yemack 1]

if i remember correctly, the 2007 postseason was flips coming out party.

as i've stated before, no team can ever have enough depth. and, i'm all for adding that depth so long as we don't sacrifice anything significant. in order for triggers to be pulled, everythings gotta add up. and believe me they will.

not trying to stir anything up here Dabura, but who might you have in mind? i'm onboard, i'm just having a difficult time justifying anything i come up with.

I agree, we have million reasons to add calibre players to our roster but the rental fee is going to kill us.

If you have a brilliant idea about this possible all star player, let's hear it.

[Sevumar 0]

The key phrase here is "all season." The regular season and postseason are two completely different worlds, as the Wings have beautifully illustrated over the last 10+ years. Hudler will be given absolutely no room (which he needs to score his goals), and if he keeps it up with those cocksure antics of his, someone will take him out. (And really, without Downey in the lineup, why wouldn't someone take a run at him?) Flip will also be hassled, forcing him to play the game he's supposed to play in the first place: that of a set-up man, not a goal-scorer. Franzen seems to thrive in the postseason atmosphere, so I'm not too worried about him. Sammy...is Sammy.

I have a lot of confidence in Cleary. But come on, let's be honest: this unit is sorely lacking a bona fide scorer. Sure, you can say this would cut it on other teams. But the Wings aren't the Blue Jackets or Blackhawks or the Flames or even the Sharks -- they're the Wings. If they want to make this The Year, they would be wise to not settle for saying, "Eh...well, I mean, if our guys try REALLY REALLY hard we'll probably be OK," and instead put that cash reserve to use and bring in a legitimate goal-scoring threat.

I'm not sure I believe in a magical transformation of teams and play styles once the post-season hits. It's natural for people to go all out when it really matters, but I doubt the difference is as large as you're making it out to be. Filppula's confidence has grown tremendously this year. I think he'll be fine. Hudler has cooled off a bit since earlier in the season, but I don't think it's impossible for him to find his legs again.

I'm not advocating leaving that $5.5 million unspent. I'm simply saying that we don't need to add a player like Forsberg or Fedorov to the roster when there's a host of younger talent we can pick up and develop for the long run. Honestly, I think adding Brunnstrom might be one of the moves the Wings can make. Paying too much for a player whose biggest asset is nostalgia won't add that much on the ice.

As it stands now, the core of the team is very good. The sum of the players the Wings put out there is more than the stats of any one would lead you to believe and that's what's going to serve the Wings in the playoffs.

[CopenhagenWing 38]

and as for Detroit #1 Fan, You read my mind.. Gratton is #1 on my wishlist

Gratton's name has surfaced when the deadline nears for the last 3 seasons on this site.

I doubt the Wings (are they even interested?) will get him.

[YoungGuns1340 1]

I just read a rumor on Spectors that said Detroit, along with 2 other teams, is in the front-running for Hossa. IDEALLY, we could get both Blake and Hossa, which is far-fetched of course, but with Blake going down it might now be possible. I can imagine that a lot of playoff teams who have interest in Blake want to trade for him and have him step in and contribute immediately to the team. Almost every team in the entire league is battling for playoff positioning while the Wings have the #1 seed all but locked up. With that in mind, other teams might not want to take a chance on having to wait for Blake should he take longer to return than expected, but for the Wings, thats really a non-issue. We don't need him immediately. Not to mention, given that he wants to come to the Wings (according to Cheli), maybe a cheap deal could be had which would allow us to turn around and offer up something decent in the bidding war for Hossa, although even still I think thats unlikely.

Realistically, an injured Rob Blake and a healthy Vaclav Prospal would probably be the best bang for our buck.

[Drake_Marcus 890]

i've been concerned as well, but it's not like they haven't had chances

Indeed- Hudler's been playing really well. He's made some great plays that haven't materialised for whatever reason. To be honest, it looks like Hudler's become the second line playmaker and not the second line sniper. He either needs a playmaking centre (a role Filppula's apparently switched away from to become a winger/shut-down-centre) to feed him pucks or a sniper to finish (Filppula still seems to wiff far too often on open nets).

EDIT:

That's not to say Filp's been playing poorly. He's been fantastic lately, just not the playmaker as much as the scorer (and the relative stats of each member of the second line seem to back my story up).

Edited February 4, 2008 by Drake_Marcus

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

Gratton's name has surfaced when the deadline nears for the last 3 seasons on this site.

I doubt the Wings (are they even interested?) will get him.

Are we talking about Chris Gratton here or am I missing something?

How is he going to help our 2nd line offensive problems? I thought the guy was pretty much a grinding forward these days. He has 9 goals in 50 games, which means he has about the same offensive output as Draper and Franzen.

EDIT: I realize Tampa Bay is awful this year. I think of Gratton as a fairly physical guy who can score a few. Still, if the Wings are going to pay the price to bring someone in for the 2nd line, we need someone with a little more of a scoring touch.

Edited February 4, 2008 by haroldsnepsts

[CopenhagenWing 38]

^ Your 2nd sentence of the edited part is why some people think he's the saviour, Harold.

A few people here have him high on their wish lists. It was mentioned in this thread as well as in others. I was merely asking if the Wings have ever shown interest in him.

[Dabura 12,232]

I'm not sure I believe in a magical transformation of teams and play styles once the post-season hits.

It's not a "magical" transformation. Players play harder and coaches coach harder, making life harder for an undersized puck-possession team that relies on two players to account for 98% of its offensive production. How many times over the last decade or so have we seen the Wings dominate the league in the regular season only to get their asses handed to them by a hungry young team that wanted it more and played like it?

A few posts back, someone said something like "What's your brilliant idea?"

Um, guys: NO BRILLIANT IDEA NECESSARY! The Wings simply need another goal-scorer (which would give them a grand total of two, as Datsyuk is not a scorer by trade). Injury concerns alone make the "Stick with what we have" idea a dumb one -- like I said, if we lose one of Hank or Dats and/or one or two of our "secondary scorers," we're going to be in trouble.

But to be fair, I can totally see myself watching Hossa in a Wings uniform barreling down the boards and beating Pronger wide, one singular thought ringing through my head:

"BOY I SURE DO WISH WE'D KEPT HUDLER."

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

^ Your 2nd sentence of the edited part is why some people think he's the saviour, Harold.

A few people here have him high on their wish lists. It was mentioned in this thread as well as in others. I was merely asking if the Wings have ever shown interest in him.

My post wasn't really a direct response to yours (so I probably shouldn't have quoted you. ). It was a more a general comment about why all the Gratton love?

I haven't seen him play a lot lately, but like I said, he struck me more as a guy to grind it out than one to put the puck in the net.

[Opie 308]

I will go out on a limb and say Samuelsson is the problem. He makes no effective plays. He doesn't control the puck, he doesn't work along the boards, he has no idea where he's passing, he turns the puck over... his shot is worse than ever.

Hurry up, Brunnstrom! Or McCarty.

Ok so lets look at this, the second part of this is what discredits the first part.

Say what you want about sammy that is your opinion, however when you say things like "Hurry up Brunnstrom" who cannot play for any other club until April, and then you want D-mac who never was a lamp lighter (sure he scored a few HUGE goals, but never was a torrid scorer when he was 10 years younger let alone now) to replace a guy who the last two years has been top 10 on this team in scoring.

Can you see why now the first part of your thread is discredited.

D-mac has an outside chance at making a NHL roster, Sammy could be a top 6 forward on almost all teams in the league, yet a D-mac who is doing well at an IHL level is going to help the team in scoring slump issues.

Damn if you thought sammy was the issue for the secondary scoring slump what good will D-mac do to that, or Brunnstrom who could be the next Forsberg or could be the next Grigs.

But I am sure those were just oversights and that the Sammy part of your thread is the god's honest truth!

[Inultus 12]

IDEALLY, we could get both Blake and Hossa, which is far-fetched of course, but with Blake going down it might now be possible.

When Blake said he would like to play for Detroit I really think it was more of a reflective question than a realistic one. In the most recent interview he talks about how he wants to stay in LA and build a good team there, so I doubt he's going anywhere.