Anyone else regretting signing Rafalski Long-term

[Guest EZBAKETHAGANGSTA]

Topic says it all. Feel free to ***** about other defensemen at all. When was the last time we gave 7 goals? The 6-8 loss to Anaheim? also feel free to treat this as an unoffical panic button thread.

Im not sure hes worth 6 million now, let alone when hes 37.

Edited November 12, 2008 by EZBAKETHAGANGSTA

[Dano33 41]

Not regretting it at all

[Guest EZBAKETHAGANGSTA]

Not regretting it at all

Even though his contracts gonna see him here till hes in his late 30's and he's allready had a notciable decline early in this season?

[adtthosa 5]

Bit of a knee jerk reaction, don't you think? He was bad tonight, but he's had a ton of great games for us.

[henrik40 76]

9-2-3 we're gonna be okay

[Aussie_Wing 354]

Yeh he's as overrated as they come. Nice to have an offence defenceman but his defence pretty much sucks. Turnovers galore, fumbles the puck, struggles to contain forwards, he's a Schneider clone.

[Dano33 41]

Even though his contracts gonna see him here till hes in his late 30's and he's allready had a notciable decline early in this season?

Noticable decline? or slump? He's fine, we have nothing to worry about right now.

[Systemfel 33]

Regretting? It's not like the fans signed him.

Stupid thread.

Edited November 12, 2008 by Systemfel

[HkyTwn 5]

no regrets, he's great. Everyone has some off games

[BigWinston 15]

Not in the slightest!

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

He's a great offensive player, and a subpar defensive player. You have to take the good with the bad with him.

With Lidstrom not playing up to his level this year, Rafalski has looked even worse than usual on defense.

[datsyukonethree 0]

We should trade Datsyuk for the boneheaded OT giveaway too.

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

Not regretting re-signing him at all.

In an 80+ game season, you are going to have a few defensive clunkers of a game, I don't care how good or bad your team is. That's hockey.

They have nearly 70 games to fix their defense before the playoffs start.

[Blueliner 69]

Everybody has looked horrible on defense this year. Even Lidstrom isn't playing that great. They need to fix this quickly. They can't score six goals every night to cover their asses.

Also, can this decline on defense be linked to the hiring of Brad McCrimmon?

[55fan 5,133]

Nope...

Next elephant, please.

[Yzermania 156]

Raffy has been playing poorly but he'l come around. I've really begin to like stewie though.

[Hockeytown Red Wings 245]

No.

[BeeRYCE 2]

It's threads like these that make me despise opinions of some Red Wing fans.

[Guest MrSandMan]

No.

[CenterIce 83]

Everybody has looked horrible on defense this year. Even Lidstrom isn't playing that great. They need to fix this quickly. They can't score six goals every night to cover their asses.

Also, can this decline on defense be linked to the hiring of Brad McCrimmon?

It is a team defensive decline. When the forwards don't back check well or they spread out too far from the defense, pressure is put on the defense. When they get pressured, they start to lose position and start to over commit. That puts pressure on the goalie.

The game was lost in the third period, when they sat on some leads and got trapped in their own end. It got so bad that you saw Datsyuk having uncharacteristic bad plays, leading to goals.

Speaking about Ralfalski individually, I do not regret that they got him. He was very important in the playoffs, allowing Lidstrom to concentrate on defense against the other teams top players. We knew going in that he is an offensive defenseman. He is not going to go into a game and shut down the other team.

Edited November 12, 2008 by CenterIce

[This Is Bida 0]

It's threads like these that make me despise opinions of some Red Wing fans.

Best reply I've seen. What I would like to know is who these people would rather have for the same amount of money?

[Guest MrSandMan]

Do you regret it?

[Aussie_Wing 354]

Let's be brutally honest though, playing alongside Lidstrom, receiving 25 minutes a night with 2-5 on the PP, he should be putting up big numbers. He does but his defence stinks a lot of the time.

[Yzerfan1999 81]

No.

Some people here are ******* demented. I am convinced. We fewer then 20 games into the season after winning the Stanley Cup and we are 2nd in the West only to San Jose.

Do us all a favour and stick your 2008 Red Wings Cup DVD in your DVD player and take a deep breath before you jump ship.

In the last 24 hours I have seen threads bashing Cleary, Babcock, and now Rafalski along with usual's for Lilja and Sammy.

Its these threads which are making the quality of this forum take a complete nose dive.

[Blueliner 69]

It is a team defensive decline. When the forwards don't back check well or they spread out too far from the defense, pressure is put on the defense. When they get pressured, they start to lose position and start to over commit. That puts pressure on the goalie.

I don't think it's the back checking. The wings backchecking is excellent and definitely better than any other in the NHL. Who knows what the problem is. We went from the best defensive team to one of the worst in just a few months.