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KrazyGangsta

Stuart Re-Signs: 4-years @ $3.75m per

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I don't know, maybe I'm just trying to prescient but I believe Lilja to be a solid depth defenseman who catches a lot of flak for the occasional bonehead move. This is because his bonehead moves occur at the absolute worst time. We only had Stuart for a brief time compared to how long we've had Lils.

I hope I'm wrong. Certainly not the first time Stuart misses a check at center ice causing a two-on-one will he be berated, but those will build up. When the Wings go through their usual midseason doldrums, I think he will receive a lot of criticism.

Do you think he won't get slammed or do you think he won't ever provide fodder for detractors?

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He also made some great plays including, but not limited to, setting up the game 4 winner by tipping a bouncing puck to Hudler. For the most part, he made up for his mistakes.

No doubt he played and plays well. I'm just thinking he will make more than a few big mistakes and since his jersey numbers only add to five they won't be dismissed so easily.

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I agree that Stuart is a good defenseman, is definitely better than Lilja, and played well with Kronwall. There were more than a few gaffes in the playoffs, errant passes, running way out of position to make a hit only to miss, which will only accumulate during a long season.

It is this that will make him the next whipping boy.

Samuelsson and Lilja will always be the default whipping boys on here. Sad but true, and it's sad that there has to be any whipping boy at all.

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Samuelsson and Lilja will always be the default whipping boys on here. Sad but true, and it's sad that there has to be any whipping boy at all.

Pav is my favorite Wing and early in the playoffs he was my whipping boy because he wasn't doing very much.

I think everyone should be held accountable, but some players seem to get picked apart excessively.

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If Stuart was on another team he would be a top 2 D-man. Please name a 4th Defensman in the league that would be an "upgrade" over Stuart. Don't throw out guys that are in the top 2 on their team but find someone that is #4 on another team's depth chart who would be better than Stuart. The only team/player that even comes close is Anaheim and Francois Beauchemin. He plays behind Pronger/Niederwhiner/Schneider and from the rumours it looks like Anaheim might be shopping Schneids anyways so that comparison might be invalid by the time the season starts. I really believe that either of Lilja/Lebda could also crack about 1/2 of the teams top 4 too which gives us great depth without even mentioning Meech or Ericssson. Stuart will make his share of mistakes but every team would love to say he's their 4th D'man.

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Guest Dump-N-Thump
Stuart was a +8 with 6 points in the finals.

/end discussion.

People complain about his errant passes and moving out of position for a hit.

Passes/ Thats why he isnt a 1/2..

Hitting/ Why was the Kronner/Stewie Duo such a great combo? because they could both fly around and suprise guys with big hit.

--

Remember 2 years ago.. when we played Calgary in the playoffs and Stuart was tugging at Cleary like seriously yanking on him.. Kinda funny.

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We can't have six Lidstroms to play defense.

Fortunately, when it comes to the top 1 and 2 defensman, we have the best in the league. When it comes to the top 3 and 4 defensmen, we probably still have the best in the league.

When it comes to the top 5 and 6 defensemen, we probably don't have much argument, but were still in good position relatively speaking, and its a lot better to have an average 5-6 defensive lineup than an average 1-2 defensive lineup.

Essentially, for a number 4 spot, Stuart is about as good as it gets.

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You're right Stuart is a great top four defenseman and was a first-liner in LA. He had a good playoff run putting up big points and big hits.

For the record, I've never questioned that.

Do you think that over an entire season his errant passes and occasional poor positioning will move him from discussion board darling to whipping boy? Especially if Lilja is traded.

I see this as a potentiality. Not probable but possible.

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Guest Crymson
Pav is my favorite Wing and early in the playoffs he was my whipping boy because he wasn't doing very much.

I think everyone should be held accountable, but some players seem to get picked apart excessively.

At what point was Pavel 'not doing very much'?

Also, why bother predicting doom for Stuart? Sheesh.

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At what point was Pavel 'not doing very much'?

Also, why bother predicting doom for Stuart? Sheesh.

Well, like I said Pav is my favorite Wing so I have higher expectations for him and he didn't dominate early in the Nashville series.

As for your second question, I'm not predicting doom for Stuart, I'm just properly identifying the player's abilities and tendencies.

Beyond that, I'm observing a discussion board phenomenon. If you go to the oldest threads on the board there is talk about how terrible Osgood was and how people (some who are still active) were regretting his return to Detroit. Now we're talking about him as a likely Hall of Famer.

Also, it's been noted that many people who bashed Pittsburgh fans for hating on Hossa because he didn't re-sign with them are now hoping against hope that he'll re-sign with us.

Discussion boards can be pretty bi-polar sometimes and I wonder if in all the pre-season excitement, we aren't setting our sights unrealistically high. There is no good reason for the failure of the '03 Wings who had pretty much the same talent. But they did and anything is possible.

Edited by Chunkylover

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Guest Crymson
Beyond that, I'm observing a discussion board phenomenon. If you go to the oldest threads on the board there is talk about how terrible Osgood was and how people (some who are still active) were regretting his return to Detroit. Now we're talking about him as a likely Hall of Famer.

Also, it's been noted that many people who bashed Pittsburgh fans for hating on Hossa because he didn't re-sign with them are now hoping against hope that he'll re-sign with us.

Discussion boards can be pretty bi-polar sometimes and I wonder if in all the pre-season excitement, we aren't setting our sights unrealistically high. There is no good reason for the failure of the '03 Wings who had pretty much the same talent. But they did and anything is possible.

Your point about Osgood is not valid. Osgood was unremarkable in his first two seasons back with the Wings, and he was downright awful at times in the '06-'07 series. He made some adjustments to his style of play last season, and they made him much more successful. That some people were ruing his return to Detroit when he was playing badly and then praising him when he was playing well is not 'bipolar.' It's pretty normal.

I agree that people on discussion boards can often have extremely short memories, but I don't feel that such is the case on this particular point about Stuart.

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Let me try it this way. Did Stuart make a few big mistakes?

During the long regular season, do bad plays tend to overshadow good plays?

Have there been forum posters who jump ship and condemn a player when he is struggling?

I don't want this to be the case. I'm just saying that there really isn't that much of a difference between some of the bonehead moves Stuart commited and, let's say Lilja's assist on the Selanne goal. Lilja's bad pass didn't lose the '07 WCF, it was the whole teams lack of focus in games four, five, and six that put them in the losing position.

I'm not, nor have I ever alleged that Stuart isn't good or I want him to fail. I'm just saying that with all the build-up and excitement surrounding the signings this year, there will be moments when we fans are let down and I fear that Stuart will become one of those scapegoats.

As for me, I'm happy that guys like Lilja, Lebda, and Samuelsson now have their name on the Cup. Can terrible players really get their name on the Stanley Cup?

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If Stuart was on another team he would be a top 2 D-man. Please name a 4th Defensman in the league that would be an "upgrade" over Stuart. Don't throw out guys that are in the top 2 on their team but find someone that is #4 on another team's depth chart who would be better than Stuart. The only team/player that even comes close is Anaheim and Francois Beauchemin.

No. Beauchemin is so overrated it's not funny. He went from a waiver pickup to playing opposite Scott Niedermayer, and got all kinds of praise lumped on him. He didn't do nearly as well this past season because Niedermayer sat out. He suddenly picked up his play when he got Nieds back. Reminds me more of Lilja when he played with Lidstrom than anything else.

He plays behind Pronger/Niederwhiner/Schneider and from the rumours it looks like Anaheim might be shopping Schneids anyways so that comparison might be invalid by the time the season starts. I really believe that either of Lilja/Lebda could also crack about 1/2 of the teams top 4 too which gives us great depth without even mentioning Meech or Ericssson. Stuart will make his share of mistakes but every team would love to say he's their 4th D'man.

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