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Hockeytown0001

11/3 GDT: Flames 4 at Red Wings 1

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I wish I could blame the Refs for this lose....but not even bad calls could explain this one. The Wings look like a team that is 23 and 40 near the end of the season. From the body language I seen, it looks like they just gave up after going down 3-1. Plenty of time to catch up, but why bother it seems. No retaliation for the Hudler hit? Not even a scrum? You can make all the line changes, trades, or bring in players from the minors. But you cant give players back their heart. That is what we are missing right now. For the next games, let the Griffins play the Ducks. I know the Minor League players would show some heart.

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Goons are not going to help us win games. Scoring goals will help us win games.

This....

The Wings will play better. They have too much talent on this team not to play better. Keep the faith everyone.

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Thing is, this team peaked in 2008. Period. The players who are here now that weren't here then just aren't skilled enough to make a difference. If this is the way our "core" is going to play, we have about 20 more years of this mess with all those "lifetime" contract Holland handed out. Although I am sure Holland didn't think that they were going to start diminishing after a couple of seasons...If we are stuck with THIS Franzen and THIS Zetterberg and THIS Kronwall or worse until their contracts are up.....sheesh! Well at least we may see a top 5 draft pick every year for a bit, eh?

Seriously though, this team needs to find their identity and search quickly. If they get buried too deep in the standings too early, there wont be any coming back. They got to win at least 6 out of the next 9 if not more in order to save their first 20 games and keep pace for a playoff spot. If they only win 1 or 2 of the next 9, there may be no saving the season...maybe. They'd have to go on a hellacious winning streak if they wanted to get back to the top.

Where are you Wings? Please come home!

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Note: in any other year since the cap, I would never start thinking that we might see a trade this early on even with the uncharacteristic losing streak, but what makes this year different is that Holland has been open about the fact that he didn't get what he wanted this summer, he's got a lot of cap space for a change and he's got some guys he could move that will be free agents next summer. I really can't help but think that if we continue to lose or if we simply continue to struggle to win the majority of our next 5-10 games, Holland will do something. And if in that span of time Flip doesn't score himself out of the talks given that we're in desperate times when it comes to scoring, I think he'll be packaged up and sent out. Not singling out his overall play so much as the fact that he's the guy that will have to be in a package to get anyone worthwhile and thus far, it's same old same old for him. Quick hot streak followed by a longer dry streak. Not trying to single him out as Dats, Z and Franzen aren't scoring either and they're paid far more to do so, but none of those guys are going to get traded.

Hopefully they can just work this out sooner rather than later. I don't think we're as good of a team as we've been the last few years, but we should be far better than a 5-5-1 team that's lost 6 straight this early on without any major injuries to blame it on.

Thank goodness Howard has figured out how to play better in the regular season again otherwise this could be even uglier.

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I don't know if the rest of the league has the Wings figured out and they're too stupid to change, or whether the players are just not working hard enough, but it sure seemed like every Wings player was being double-teamed tonight. Even on the power play, they had absolutely no room to move the puck around. Really sick to watch.

As far as the crowd at the Joe booing them off the ice. I'm sure that the 10 or 20 people still there at the end were doing that. Just kind of hard to hear that small a number.

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Thing is, this team peaked in 2008. Period. The players who are here now that weren't here then just aren't skilled enough to make a difference. If this is the way our "core" is going to play, we have about 20 more years of this mess with all those "lifetime" contract Holland handed out. Although I am sure Holland didn't think that they were going to start diminishing after a couple of seasons...If we are stuck with THIS Franzen and THIS Zetterberg and THIS Kronwall or worse until their contracts are up.....sheesh! Well at least we may see a top 5 draft pick every year for a bit, eh?

Seriously though, this team needs to find their identity and search quickly. If they get buried too deep in the standings too early, there wont be any coming back. They got to win at least 6 out of the next 9 if not more in order to save their first 20 games and keep pace for a playoff spot. If they only win 1 or 2 of the next 9, there may be no saving the season...maybe. They'd have to go on a hellacious winning streak if they wanted to get back to the top.

Where are you Wings? Please come home!

I'm not worried at all about Datsyuk and Kronwall. Datsyuk tends to start a bit slower and heat up and Kronwall will pick it up down the stretch. My concerns lie with Zetterberg and Franzen. I'm wondering if Zetterberg's ongoing back issues will inhibit him from being as good as he should be more each passing year. I'm also worried that Franzen has the mental ability to be a consistent goal scorer. He's got the technical tools, but as time's gone on, he seems to struggle more and more with the mental toughness that allows for consistent play.

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lol @ Cleary "getting it going" because a puck bounced off his chest.

I have him in my hockey pool only bright spot of today, and oh ya my opponent has Howard... double winning

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Guest stinky fish taco

If we are stuck with THIS Franzen and THIS Zetterberg and THIS Kronwall or worse until their contracts are up.....sheesh!

frightening stuff.

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we have no tradeable players right now. that ain't gonna happen. plus holland has no balls anyway.

i'm not gonna say this is all datsyuk's fault but it is.

his level of play and creativity could be masking these losses with a goal here or there. without him at his normal top level of play this team is s***. he needs to be better.

he's either injured or just ******* hates babcock.

Dats starts slow, but he'll pick it up. I guarantee you that.

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No, there isn't. If you're not furious with this team right now, then I question whether or not you're a "real fan". Just because you think it's hip to call yourself a fan and watch wings games doesn't make you a fan. Saying "Bummer, oh well, on to the next one!" when they're 5-5-1 is the mark of someone who doesn't give a s***. Real fans give a s***.

I'm as pissed as someone who's utterly and completely underwhelmed and flummoxed can be. Actually, I'm just flummoxed. I can't get pissed or panic over the start of this season because I just can't take this team that seriously right now. It's not that I don't love them as much as I have since I can remember, but what do you really say about this team so far? It still feels like a pre-season team, and I don't mean that in a positive or optimistic way at all. It just feels like a patched together team that's lacking character at this early stage.

And like him or not, losing a guy like Rafalski was definitely a bigger deal than many would like to make it out to be. Ian White was a good pickup for the money either way, but he's no Rafalski.

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Boy oh boy was that frustrating to watch.

Flip needs to grow a sack. Damn near every single play he made it was like he was scared to go into the slot area. He had chances to crash the net but all he did was pass it to someone on the outside. If he did try to go near the net it was on the outside with a quick skate by behind the net.

Same goes with Franzen. SHOOT THE ******* PUCK FFS!!!!!

Z got owned in the face-off department.

I swear from the time between the Flames second goal until we scored it looked like this team really did give up. In that 4 minute window you could see defeat on their faces.

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If they really don't win on Saturday, the playoffs are gone. It will be too late and the team confidence will be even lower than it is right now, especially after losing to Perry and co.

Really? Throwing in the towel in early November?

I can understand pessimism, but come on.

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If they really don't win on Saturday, the playoffs are gone. It will be too late and the team confidence will be even lower than it is right now, especially after losing to Perry and co.

This is silly, knee-jerk, panic-fueled malarky that has absolutely no relation whatsoever with reality. I don't care if we lose 5 more in a row, it's still early and this team is still too talented to not put up a fight down the stretch that will put them in playoff contention.

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Really? Throwing in the towel in early November?

I can understand pessimism, but come on.

I hear ya, but if they have less than 10 wins after 20 games....then it will be majorly difficult to gain enough to get into the playoffs. Unless they go on a 15 game winning streak, which is not entirely out of the question. I'd like to see at least 13 wins out of 20, but that would mean they need to start a streak right now...they best get going!

Edited by LeftWinger

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There is clearly something very wrong with the Red Wings, but the more I see of this losing streak, the more I believe other teams have figured the Wings out.

The Red Wings are at their best with the puck (a lot) and their ability to get their skilled players in open space to create scoring chances. It seems fairly obvious opponents realize this and are forcing the Red Wings into coughing the puck up by clogging the neutral zone or forcing low percentage shots from the perimeter. It blew my mind tonight how the Red Wings can't/won't dump the puck in and chase it when the Flames sat back with the lead. The only player on the team that is willing to forecheck hard and go after the puck in deep is Helm. Everyone else wants to make fancy passes and skate through five guys at the blueline.

The Wild and Flames were hardly making any attempt to put the pressure on the Red Wings. Take advantage of a couple mistakes and poor calls and let the Wings self-destruct with their inability to do the things that can end a scoring drought. There's too much talent on the Red Wings roster to just say all of them can't score goals now, a mere couple months after a regular season where they were second in the league in offense. They certainly need a legit sniper (or three), but at this time they need to make adjustments and work harder to score some goals.

I don't know what else can be said. They can keep doing what they have done expecting better or decide enough is enough and rally as a team quickly before it gets ugly where the playoffs are in serious jeopardy. There is no quick fix in the minors or via trade this early in the season. Work harder Saturday and turn this thing around.

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