Who will be the whipping boys for '10-'11?

[Carman 387]

My guesses.

1. Refs

2. Bettman

3. Howard

4. Filpulla

5. Bertuzzi

6. Babcock

[Zetts 236]

My guesses.

1. Refs

2. Bettman

3. Howard

4. Filpulla

5. Bertuzzi

6. Babcock

Number one should have been Crosby.

[Carman 387]

Number one should have been Crosby.

I'm not referring to the best players in history sorry.

[VM1138 1,921]

I'm going to get creative and say Salei.

He struggled last year, and no matter how good he plays this year he will still have bad games (everyone does.) And Wings fans are good at turning the occasional bad game into some catastrophic pattern of suck.

More obvious? Bertuzzi, Ericsson, Kindl.

[cjm502 165]

Salei was pretty good when he actually played last year. The fact that he barely played is what hurt him.

[MulesWillFly93 199]

Ericsson, Bertuzzi, Salei, and Howard. Salei and Howard we'll really have to wait and see, but if they don't do well, they'll be prime candidates for the post. I do have ideas about how I think the two of them will do, but I'm trying to stop them from becoming expectations because there's no telling how they'll develop until the season actually starts.

[Guest CaliWingsNut]

Bertuzzi is lazy and sucks.

So annoyed he's still on the roster.

[miller76 463]

McCrimmon

[Nev 1,085]

I think Rafalski is my favourite. The last few years he's shown flashes of what he's capable, I think this could be his breakout year.

[titanium2 867]

No one, as long as everybody does their job. They know their assignments.

I was waiting for someone to say this.

Looking at the roster I feel like there's no one on there that will get dogpiled on as badly as Lebda/Willy/etc. I mean, yeah, Hudler used to get it pretty bad but I think the days of "Hudler is lazy and he sucks" are pretty much over. Now the worst thing that comes about in regards to him is "He's alright, gives his points, nothing more." I think the good majority of people on here are rooting for him.

Of course when I say whipping boys, I mean players who receive a relative clear majority of negative criticisms. If mostly everybody does their job, numbers wise, the worst I can imagine is around 50-55 percent for a few individuals as I look at the roster. Willy and Lebda were probably in the overwhelming 80s or 90s.

[hooon 1,089]

My guesses.

1. Refs

2. Bettman

3. Howard

4. Filpulla

5. Bertuzzi

6. Babcock

I'm not referring to the best players in history sorry.

1. Carman

[55fan 5,133]

It will be whoever turns over the puck/pinches/breaks a stick/misses an assignment/ices the puck/sends it out of bounds/takes any penalty not called "five for fighting"/misses the net/knocks the puck in the wrong net/allows the puck by him on the way to the net at the most recent inopportune moment.

If this person scores a goal during the game, he will be restored to demigod status, and the 1/4 of the board (or at least those in the GDT) who did not dogpile him will be crowing and telling the rest of the people to eat crow (which is a bad mental picture in and of itself).

That said, my money's on Huds again.

[wingnut40 176]

It will be whoever turns over the puck/pinches/breaks a stick/misses an assignment/ices the puck/sends it out of bounds/takes any penalty not called "five for fighting"/misses the net/knocks the puck in the wrong net/allows the puck by him on the way to the net at the most recent inopportune moment.

So basically Brad Stuart. I'm sorry I have yet to forgive him!!

[dirtydangles 1,328]

ericsson

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

SouthernWingsFan

[titanium2 867]

Ideally we'd like to see a really good year and no clear cut whipping boys. Is that really possible? I think so. Of course, you have your players that you tend to criticize more often than not but it may not be so bad as when we had Lebda and Williams here where nearly everybody seemed to dogpile on them.

[Nev 1,085]

Is that possible? Remember 2008 when we were simply awesome in the regular season, arguably better than in 96? Lilja was a bum, Filpulla & Hudler would never be NHLers, Drake was a waste of a roster spot....and who can forget the Ozzie/Hasek flame wars?

I think you overestimate the maturity of the average interwebz user.

[Wings_Dynasty 267]

Pretty good chance that Rafalski will be it. I can see Salei as well. That's for defense.

For forwards, probably Hudler and the other lower level guys, Eaves and Helm come to mind. It would take a lot for Pavel or Hank to get to the Sammy level of scapegoatery. But Franzen is the more realistic high-level forward to catch the heat from this forum. Bertuzzi is definitely going to get the most "boos" from this place, he could lead the league in hits, fights, and goals and people would still complain about his speed and grittiness not being what it was in VAN.

Also, Ozzie will get it as a backup because, well, he always gets heat unless he leads us to the finals.

[Guest CaliWingsNut]

Ideally we'd like to see a really good year and no clear cut whipping boys. Is that really possible? I think so. Of course, you have your players that you tend to criticize more often than not but it may not be so bad as when we had Lebda and Williams here where nearly everybody seemed to dogpile on them.

Unless we go undefeated... there will be a whipping boy. It maybe Jimmy (the goaltender is always a scapegoat). Once again, my vote goes to Bertuzzi. I hope he trained using 2 hands this off season.

[Guest mindfly]

Hmm Ericsson and Kindl most likely (if he gets the chance) because they will make so many mistakes and turnovers, the turnovers is the biggest factor when you're talking about whipping boys' in hockey.

Howard mostly because of his rebound control.

So potentially 3 guys could share the whipping boy position imo.

Edited September 18, 2010 by mindfly

[Broken 16 381]

Hitchcock?

[dat's sick 1,002]

Bertuzzi, maybe Modano (hopefully not), Howard if his rebound control hasn't improved, Ericsson, Kindl, Salei, Hudler, Filppula, Homer, Zetterberg, Rafalski, Datsyuk, Kronwall, Stuart, Draper, Abdelkader etc.

Basically everyone except Lidstrom.

[Broken 16 381]

Bertuzzi, maybe Modano (hopefully not), Howard if his rebound control hasn't improved, Ericsson, Kindl, Salei, Hudler, Filppula, Homer, Zetterberg, Rafalski, Datsyuk, Kronwall, Stuart, Draper, Abdelkader etc.

Basically everyone except Lidstrom.

Helm gets a lot of free passes too. Because he always works so damn hard!

[RedWingsFan13 0]

It will be Bert. In fact WTF is with bert, he has not scored a goal in forever. He should have at least 346 goals this season by now. what a scrub.

[Guest mjtm77]

Iam going with Cleary

Wait and see