19 goals in 3 then 5 in 5?

[Pavel Hossyukstrom 2]

In our last 8 games if you divide them up where we were winning since beating the s*** out of Columbus we have a weird and huge offensive divide that's puzzling if not downright almost an impossibilty. How can a team that was on such an offensive tear all of a sudden become a dud, a former shell of itself in just a few days? It's like I don't expect us to score 9 goals or even 7 like against the ducks every game from now on but only score 5 goals in your next 5 games??? Come ON!! How much more inconsistent can this team be?? And that trend started before Kronwall got injured. Now I'm starting to think the Kronwall injury might just be the final blow to this team. He was our highest scoring Dman and playing at his best right now. What does everyone think?

[Miller Brew 0]

Losing Kronwall may have hit the morale of the team. But I don't blame the scoring drought on losing him completely. I PK and PP took a hit, for sure. (our injuries has really hindered this team, but not to the point where they can't score/win)

Wings had 40 shots and 20 solid scoring chances tonight. That's just bad puck luck and unlucky, good puck luck and lucky for the Thrashers. All good teams go through this.... Wings don't see it as long because they usually have Franzen's, Fillipula's and William's to get that one clutch goal to spark the team.

I'm blaming this on a scoring drought and the team just needs to keep working hard and continue to play through it. It's Babcock's job to keep the team ignighted by switching up the lines. You can see the holes, but I still think this team is good enough to win a lot of games we lost. We're still outplaying opposition for majority of the game and getting chances. They just need to keep working hard.

Wings' confidence looked down in the 3rd period tonight. They lost that spark and hunger to win. I think they were feeling like it was hopeless.... That bothers me more.

Edited November 26, 2009 by Miller Brew

[Theophany 110]

Some teams have bad days, and some goalies have great games. Howard has had a few for us thus far, and Pavelec really stole the game for the Thrashers tonight.

The Preds have been hot in their last 7 games (winning all of them, including beating the Avs tonight), and against the Stars we just had too many giveaways and couldn't put anything in net. The Panthers was a terrible goal let in by Ozzie, but we shouldn't have needed OT anyway.

This really needs to be a wake-up for the Wings; I think a lot of the guys (pretty much everyone outside of Lidstrom, Draper, Maltby, and maybe Ozzie) take for granted how good this team has been for the past 10 years. Never once has it even been in doubt that we'd not make the playoffs.

We're now just like any other team, and if we don't start actually working every game, we're going to end up in 9th or 10th and be golfing come middle of April.

[brett 1,029]

im saying were just getting no luck at all and goalies/teams has been hot.

the chances and shots are there just no luck no breaks

Edited November 26, 2009 by brett

[Pavel Hossyukstrom 2]

im saying were just getting no luck at all and goalies/teams has been hot.

the chances and shots are there just no luck no breaks

yeah it's only when they're playing against us dude. these aren't great goalies. when it becomes this bad and this many times in a row it's obviously the Wings problem almost wholeheartedly. Any other team would snap out of it and score against any one of these goalies, Auld, Clemmensen,Halak, Pavelec etc etc. Rinne was an exception. We even sucked against Gustavson who was coming back from injury in the Leafs game.

[Theophany 110]

yeah it's only when they're playing against us dude. these aren't great goalies. when it becomes this bad and this many times in a row it's obviously the Wings problem almost wholeheartedly. Any other team would snap out of it and score against any one of these goalies, Auld, Clemmensen,Halak, Pavelec etc etc. Rinne was an exception. We even sucked against Gustavson who was coming back from injury in the Leafs game.

You obviously haven't been watching Pavelec this year.

[skyphoenix 153]

Henrik Zetterberg can't do everything every night

[b.shanafan14 733]

This teams confidence is rattled big time. The Wings have always had a disgusting amount of depth, now they literally have two players creating offense and no one potting goals. You can't rely on Pav and Hank to do everything every night with no help, which is what they are getting. Besides Williams, the injuries have hit a player like Franzen with a good finish in a year that was hopefully going to see him in a starring role, Filppula who up until the injury was the best Wing forward and really starting to play confidently, and Kronwall who was really coming into his own as a extremely dynamic player.

I think the Kronwall injury was really the last straw and until

one of the secondary players that were supposed to step up this season do, this is going to be a very tough stretch to watch.

[Z and D for the C 712]

The silver lining is that the Wings are getting their chances, it's not like they're complete flops offensively. If they keep playing like that have I think we'll be fine.

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

I'm really disappointed in Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Lidstrom.

I know that even star players need help around them, but it'd sure be good to see them be more consistent offensively and to carry us through some of these games. Instead, Lidstrom has had a bad year offensively and Pavel and Hank go on stretches where they disappear on the scoresheet entirely.

Before we start blaming Cleary, Bertuzzi, Homer and whoever else has been stinking it up lately, we have to point the finger at those guys first and foremost.

They're the star players and they need to play like it every game with these injuries.

[eva unit zero 271]

I'm really disappointed in Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Lidstrom.

I know that even star players need help around them, but it'd sure be good to see them be more consistent offensively and to carry us through some of these games. Instead, Lidstrom has had a bad year offensively and Pavel and Hank go on stretches where they disappear on the scoresheet entirely.

Before we start blaming Cleary, Bertuzzi, Homer and whoever else has been stinking it up lately, we have to point the finger at those guys first and foremost.

They're the star players and they need to play like it every game with these injuries.

You are wrong to point the finger at Zetterberg, bud. The last three games feature the first time Zetterberg has been held off the scoresheet in consecutive games this season. He has been carrying the team offensively all season; you choose now to call him out for not carrying the team because suddenly nobody can score if Z isn't the one creating the offense?

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

You are wrong to point the finger at Zetterberg, bud. The last three games feature the first time Zetterberg has been held off the scoresheet in consecutive games this season. He has been carrying the team offensively all season; you choose now to call him out for not carrying the team because suddenly nobody can score if Z isn't the one creating the offense?

I'm calling out all our superstars. They can't afford to be off the scoresheet even for several games, because there's no one else who can score right now. This is exactly the time when star players have to step up and carry the team night in and night out.

Zetterberg has been better than Lidstrom, Datsyuk or Rafalski, so I'll give you that. But I'm still disappointed by the superstar players as a whole, especially in the leadership department. This team looks dead and unmotivated on too many nights. Even with all these injuries, there should still be enough on this roster not to lose to a team like Atlanta at home. Or even to Nasvhille.

[stuck in socal 56]

How - Look at WHO we lost in the offseason. Throw in the fact we lost Mule who was supposed to get around 40. Add in Filpulla who WAS probably going to have a career year. (I liked the way he was playing before he got injured) And throw in the fact that people thought Leino and Bertuzzi would be scoring because they play with Zetterberg and Datsyuk and you get low goal scoring. Cleary has been relatively quiet. Holmstrom was on a tear in the beginning and he has contributed enough. Give Helm Or Abdelkader a SHOT on the first line.

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

In our last 8 games if you divide them up where we were winning since beating the s*** out of Columbus we have a weird and huge offensive divide that's puzzling if not downright almost an impossibilty. How can a team that was on such an offensive tear all of a sudden become a dud, a former shell of itself in just a few days? It's like I don't expect us to score 9 goals or even 7 like against the ducks every game from now on but only score 5 goals in your next 5 games??? Come ON!! How much more inconsistent can this team be?? And that trend started before Kronwall got injured. Now I'm starting to think the Kronwall injury might just be the final blow to this team. He was our highest scoring Dman and playing at his best right now. What does everyone think?

Teams go on hot/cold streaks all the time. There's nothing really to explain.

[Yellowknife Redwing 57]

You can add up the shot count til the cows come home but the bottom line is that Detroit hasn't been taking enough quality shots. They need to rework the offensive zone cycle and powerplay so the primary objective because a wrist shot or one-timer from the slot as opposed to the big boomer from the point. There have been far too many shots from the outside that the goalie can see all the way and manage easily.

[Pavel Hossyukstrom 2]

You obviously haven't been watching Pavelec this year.

yeah wasn't he the one who was score upon all the way from the other side of the ice this year. c'mon dude Anderson looked like he was gonna runaway with the Vezina in October but now just looks avg like he's suppose to be. Pavelec must be on a lucky hot streak.

[Learn2LuvIt 252]

You can add up the shot count til the cows come home but the bottom line is that Detroit hasn't been taking enough quality shots. They need to rework the offensive zone cycle and powerplay so the primary objective because a wrist shot or one-timer from the slot as opposed to the big boomer from the point. There have been far too many shots from the outside that the goalie can see all the way and manage easily.

Too many point shots that a) aren't making it through traffic and on net b) goalie see's the puck all the way. My buddy and I were just talking about this last night...way too many of our shots are being blocked and not getting through traffic. It seems like other teams have a "book" out on our current offensive strategy...other teams are collapsing their D men to the front of the net, playing one guy at the point to cover both our D men, and two forwards mid-circle front of the net to take away all lanes and angles from the point shot. The point shot becomes a lower percentage shot in this scenario because the virtually every angle/lane for the point shot is covered. In addition, this collapsing makes the side-to-side D pass less effective in opening up lanes since the other teams forwards down low aren't having to make major position adjustments to cover. And finally on this point, I had an old coach tell me that 70% of blocked shots from the point - go the other way (meaning the offense looses possesion). Obviously coaches "speak" and no exact measurement if this % is accurate...but the more I looked at it and watched, the more apparent it became that he was right.

We need to work the puck better down low and through the middle (by down low I mean face-off dot and below)...make them pay. I'd also like to see our off-side D cheat up more into the play when possible.