16 replies to this topic

[rick zombo]

No team is perfect obviously. Of the 2011/2012 Detroit Red Wings' short list of weaknesses, which one scares you the most? Which one, if not addressed through trade or fixed internally will hurt this team the most come playoff time.

Not a panic or knee jerk thread by the way, just curious.

Edited by rick zombo, 07 February 2012 - 09:27 AM.

[Red Crazy]

I had to go with the powerplay. Although it was tempting to pick top 6 scorer. The powerplay has been bad. A good pp keeps other teams playing a bit more conservative and you have the ability to put teams away faster and it is huge for momentem.

[wings_fanatic]

A top 6 winger imo. The Red Wings are so good that they will work out their powerplay woes by season's end... they simply have too much talent. But we need a goal scorer to add to the mix and that will be the difference for us.

[Z and D for the C]

Top 6 scorer, easy. Poor powerplay is a result of not having one as well.

[Jeff6851]

Top six scoring winger

Getting a good sniper would not only help full strength but would help fix the power play as well. Power kill isn't too bad, it just seems more like the other team has the power play when they get penalized

[MCleveland89]

Our power play has sucked, but we're still finding ways to win games. Out of these choices, we need a better scorer. Or to get rid of Ericcson. I'll take either.

[Jeff6851]

As many others have said, I believe the problem with the PP is not that no one can find the back of the net, it's that no one wants to shoot, they seem to all want to give it to Lidstrom and all the other players can just line up in front of him. They also seem to have a problem with rebounds, when someone actually does shoot, no one is there to pick it back up, they've got three guys there already and easily get it out of the way

[haroldsnepsts]

The power play has been bad lately but the Wings are still middle of the pack. They're 25th in PK though.

All of the options in the poll are legitimate factors, but a PK that bad will kill them in the playoffs.

[hooon]

Gotta go with PP, though the other choices are certainly things to address as well.

I think the top 6 scorer would be an awesome luxury, but might be kind of unlikely and not the most important thing the team needs when they're already one of the top scoring teams in the league.

[Jeff6851]

Gotta go with PP, though the other choices are certainly things to address as well.

I think the top 6 scorer would be an awesome luxury, but might be kind of unlikely and not the most important thing the team needs when they're already one of the top scoring teams in the league.

I'm no expert, not even close but I would think that a top six scorer would fix the PP, add more goals to our already top 5 offense and help some of the guys slumping right now.

The goaltending can be fixed by Howard healing and getting rested and using JMac as our new backup.

PK is just a matter of what they're doing. A lot of the guys aren't aggressive and don't force awkward passes and some guys just clear it down the ice even if they have an opening to skate down and kill even more time.


And as absurd as it seems, I think Datsyuk needs a game or two off, not in succession of course and not against big teams.

[L3T5G0W1NG5]

How about not trading away Z before the rest of the league figures out that he isn't nearly as good as he is thought to be.

[VM1138]

A top 6 guy fixes the majority of our problems. Scoring, power play, and quite possibly PK (if the team is lucky enough). Ideally I'd like to see a top 6 scorer and a bottom line center/PKer. Helm, Abdelkader, Emmerton just aren't impressing. I know Helm and Abby play best in the playoffs, so I'm willing to give them benefit of the doubt, but Emmerton is going to be a massively weak link come playoff time. We need a strong center down there for depth and winning faceoffs.

[GMRwings1983]

These are all problems, but the lack of a great top 6 scorer is the biggest.

Special teams is a streaky thing anyway, and as others have pointed out, a sniper would improve our powerplay.

[13dangledangle]

These are all problems, but the lack of a great top 6 scorer is the biggest.

Special teams is a streaky thing anyway, and as others have pointed out, a sniper would improve our powerplay.

Right on the money. A little shake up will sure trigger porduction not to mention the obvious boost from the addition...whomever that may be??

[Buppy]

Not so sure adding a sniper would fix our PP. It should be a lot better than it is already. I think it's a system thing.

Playoffs are about capitalizing on your opportunities more than your opponent. I gave the PP a very slight edge over the PK, since you can also compensate for the bad PK by being more disciplined. Though I think we need to improve both a decent amount once the playoffs start.

[rick zombo]

Thanks for posting everyone.

It’s funny, because I think a rugged bottom six guy would help the PK the same way a top six forward would help the PP. The one thing that makes the PK better right away would be improving puck retrieval by winning more puck battles along the boards. Helm, Miller, Filpulla, and Eaves (when healthy) work hard but sometimes get outmuscled.

[Wings_Dynasty]

The Wings make their money on the PP. They have a very low PIM/game level in the play-offs and those PP goals add up against teams like VAN and SJ. The Wings don't need a top 6 winger producing 10 goals over the course of 20 games in the play-offs if they can keep their PP over 25%. Although a top 6 winger would help that percentage.

I think that another good option for this poll would have been the addition of another power forward that could finalize the top 6.

Franzen-Dats-Bert
XXXX-Z-Flip

The second line right now is too small and not gritty enough to thrive in the WC play-offs.