You know what bugs me? This mentality that Holland is, essentially, infallible, and that anyone who criticizes him and/or the Wings at large is smoking crack, or spoiled, or insane, etc. I like Holland as much as the next guy. No, really, I do. But, objectively? We're in a hole. A big one. And if there's anyone to blame, it's Holland. Now, in saying that, am I calling for Holland's head? No. Am I saying the sky is falling? No. Am I "hating" this team and being a "fairweather fan"? No. Am I disregarding his career accomplishments? No. Am I saying he's anything less than the best GM in the league? No. I'm saying he has s*** the bed, and it bothers me. One of the main reasons why it bothers me is that I do like Holland as much as the next guy, and I do respect and appreciate him and the work he has done (and does on a mostly daily basis). So, for me to look at where things are now and try to reconcile that with "Best GM Ever, Man With The Plan"...it's troubling. I'm all for cutting him slack, and believing in a Master Plan which subsumes all of these smaller "failures." But at the same time - GMing 101, man! We've had trouble scoring in the postseason for how long? Our bottom-6 has been too small and short on secondary scoring threats for how long? Our D - everyone knew Stuart would be leaving and that Nick would be gone any offseason now, very possibly even this offseason. So where are the moves? Where are the steps taken to rectify, or at least seriously address, (or hell, even just acknowledge), these problems? Why is Kyle Quincey our one new-blood on the back end? Why is Ian White our #2 defenseman? Why is our top-6 literally all "skilled" Euros, when our whole problem with scoring in the postseason is we're easily pushed out to the perimeter in the offensive zone (as we've seen happen in the postseason about 90 times)? The top-6 is a real sore point for me. We need new ingredients in the top-6, new dimensions, new looks we can throw, new ways we can hurt. What we've added this offseason is a retread who may not even be a regular in the top-6, a guy who's never played a single game in the NHL, and Nyquist. And we're calling it a Youth Movement - when, in fact, it's really more of a "s***, what else can we do?" indirect admission of failure. Holland is great largely because he's always found a way to keep us from falling into exactly this sort of black hole of "necessary mediocrity" (i.e. having only 2-3 trade assets, losing luster as a FA destination, etc.) What do we do if we lose three key players to injury and they're out all at the same time? We realize this forward "depth" people keep bragging about is really more a matter of quantity than one of quality.
Ugh.
It's a very difficult thing to keep a team a Stanley Cup contender for your entire time as a General Manager. Maybe this current situation was just unavoidable? Why does it have to be Holland failed to make the right moves, when it could very well be there was no moves to be made? Why do people have to attribute blame to someone for a situation they couldn't even begin to understand?
If you want to blame Holland for going after Quincey, that's understandable. It was a move that was documented and can be looked back on. Quincey was had for a non-roster player, and has shown glimpses of being a very good top 4 dman in the past. He's got size, speed, and puck skills just a matter of him understanding and getting comfortable in the system.
What moves did you want him to do to replace Lidstrom? There hasn't been a defenseman moved the past 5 years that can even be considered a top 10 defenseman? What ass do you want Holland to place his hand up to find one? Ian White was great signing this past year
Hard to change your top 6 through trade. Especially a top 6 that is intact of being Stanley Cup champions and helping the team make the playoff year in year out. Sure it would be nice to change it up, they've struggled the past few playoffs. But Nash wasn't an option, and personally I'm not sold on him. Semin would be a rental and I don't believe would ever help you win a Stanley Cup, and I'd rather give Nyquist/Brunner and shot at the top 6 than Semin. Just so we can see what we have and if we need to move on or what.
A game hasn't even been played, all of this is based on paper. On paper what if Datsyuk/Zetterberg go back to 90+ points, Filpulla reproduces 60, Quincey goes back to 09 and gets .7 ppg, Kronwall has a 50 point season, Howard continues to prove to be a top 10 goalie, Smith/Nyquist has a Calder caliber season, Sammy gives you 50 points, Bertuzzi, gives you 40. Things don't have to be all negative, these are all possibilities as each player has proved to do this(Smith/Nyquist may be a leap of faith, but they've proved to be very very good AHLers at a young age and that trends positively to their production in the NHL),
Then maybe players that have yet to prove themselves will, Ericsson could finally learn to block a shot, Kindl may figure out the NHL and use his talent, Helm might learn how to hit a corner and stickhandle, Abdelkader/Tootoo can feed off of each other and really make that 4th line into a force that helps the entire team, Franzen may decide to play 80 games at full speed.
It doesn't have to be negative, this situation isn't all bad, and saying our prospect pool is not good just proves that you are trying to find disappointment, and if that's the case you don't have to look hard at any team's situation.
Edited by Carman, 30 July 2012 - 02:37 PM.
