GDT 1/19: Red Wings 0 at St. Louis Blues 6

[Dabura 12,206]

It's the $60 million question really.

As I said before, for years the Wings made up for their lack of size and could beat a strong forecheck by superior skill. But that skill has been declining season after season so their ability to beat it through puck possession and outlet passes has gone away season after season as well. Lids retiring was certainly the biggest hit to that puck possession style.

So now what exactly is the system?

You're my favorite LGWer, Sir Snepsts.

I think we're coming up on an identity crisis.

I've beaten this horse to its bones. Now I'm gonna pick and grind those bones:

Skill. We've been blessed with oceans of it. This has allowed us to be a kill-with-skill (and only skill) team of frail little Euro-ninja assassin specialists. Beyond skill, we suck. At everything. Always have. So what happens when you take that skill away? Even Homer - he was the "ugliest" player ever, but damn if his one big asset made him uniquely valuable and effective in that one area of the game. Now? The skill is watered-down, worn-down. In a big-picture sense, the skill level that we've come to expect is altogether gone; it's just not there anymore. It's Datsyuk Zetterberg, maybe Kronwall. Maybe Brunner. Franzen has golden hands, but his heart is a cheeseburger and his brain is a coconut. So we've padded things with some garbage grinder types who don't actually do a whole lot of garbage grinding, and who certainly don't score a whole hell of a lot. And we're caling this...?

I mean, we can keep doing the whole puck-possession dealy. There's no law against it. But to be really effective at it, and successful with it, (never mind challenging for the Cup), (never mind winning the Cup), you need a requisite skill level. And we don't have it anymore. And we're certainly not getting it back, unless we make, like, two huge trades and two major UFA signings. Because, think about it: how many other teams do the kill-with-skill puck-possession thing? How many teams have done it really effectively? How many teams have won the Cup with it? The answer is, None. It was our thing. And now it's pretty much dead. And so, the brain trust really has to be asking the $60 million question.

I actually have a bit of a hard time giving the players crap for this problem. You could say Babs could be smarter about the lines or whatever. Ultimately, though, I think if this develops into a full-blown Thing, it's on Holland to try to turn it around.

Which reminds me: "We may not make the playoffs this year" = "We're really not very good at all."

[esteef 2,679]

Franzen has golden hands, but his heart is a cheeseburger and his brain is a coconut.

esteef

[DyingAlive 27]

I am not trying to excuse this loss away, but does any one think that the Red vs. White scrimmage should have been a Wings vs. Griffins scrimmage? Wouldn't this have given the lines more time to 'gel'? I know at the end it is just a scrimmage, but everyone just seemed completely out of sync with each other the entire night.

[wings_fanatic 677]

I got stuck watching the Blues feed last night. Those guys are horrible to listen to.

My thoughts,questions and comments on the game (in no particular order):

-The Wings have games like that every year, but they sure didn't give us any glimpse of hope for this year, did they?

-The Blues continue to win by out working their opponent. This seems to be the way to win in the new NHL. The Wings can't rely on their experience and veteran savvy to win games anymore. You gotta work for it too.

-Are we still supposed to be a puck possession team? What type of team are we supposed to be?

-Abdelkader, Miller and Ericsson played their usual games and were the best looking Wings out there.

-Quincy got embarrassed, twice, by a rookie. Speaking of which, how many times a year does a guy score his first NHL goal against us? it seems like it happens quite often. By the end of the game I found myself cheering for a Tarasenko hat trick.

-The special teams picked right up where they left off last year: *******, embarrassingly awful.

-The first shift was the best shift of the game.

-Franzen worked hard,and finished his checks for his first few shifts.

-The Blues knew that the Wings planned to have "active" defenceman and exploited the hell out of it.

-Jimmy didn't stop one break away.

-The Wings passing was very sloppy.

-SNL had a few good skits last night. It's a pretty rare night, when the Wings are more disappointing than Saturday Night Live. I still haven't seen a good band on there in a while, though. (probably cause I'm in my 30s now)

that's not all, just everything I can think of right now.

I got stuck watching the Blues feed last night. Those guys are horrible to listen to.

My thoughts,questions and comments on the game (in no particular order):

-The Wings have games like that every year, but they sure didn't give us any glimpse of hope for this year, did they?

-The Blues continue to win by out working their opponent. This seems to be the way to win in the new NHL. The Wings can't rely on their experience and veteran savvy to win games anymore. You gotta work for it too.

-Are we still supposed to be a puck possession team? What type of team are we supposed to be?

-Abdelkader, Miller and Ericsson played their usual games and were the best looking Wings out there.

-Quincy got embarrassed, twice, by a rookie. Speaking of which, how many times a year does a guy score his first NHL goal against us? it seems like it happens quite often. By the end of the game I found myself cheering for a Tarasenko hat trick.

-The special teams picked right up where they left off last year: *******, embarrassingly awful.

-The first shift was the best shift of the game.

-Franzen worked hard,and finished his checks for his first few shifts.

-The Blues knew that the Wings planned to have "active" defenceman and exploited the hell out of it.

-Jimmy didn't stop one break away.

-The Wings passing was very sloppy.

-SNL had a few good skits last night. It's a pretty rare night, when the Wings are more disappointing than Saturday Night Live. I still haven't seen a good band on there in a while, though. (probably cause I'm in my 30s now)

that's not all, just everything I can think of right now.

- Ericsson was not good last night... he looks like a lost puppy out there. He follows the puck too often and leaves his position. There were at least 3 different times last night where he followed Kronners into the corner to get the puck, before realizing that that is Kronner's side.

- I hate Babcock's new philosophy of spreading out the minutes among our Dmen... Kronners over played 20 minutes last night... that is what Pavel played and he is a forward!!! Quincy and Ericsson continue to be pylons out there and I think Babcock needs to establish Kronners as our CLEAR number 1 dman because he can handle it. Kronners should be averaging 26-27 minutes a game like Lidstrom and Rafi used to as our top pairing guys.

- With that said, Babcock also needs to play Datsyuk and Zetterberg more... they are our top guys... rolling the 4 lines is not going to get us into the playoffs... we need our top guys to play.

- Each of the Dmen combos sucked. Ericsson should not play on the top pairing with Kronners. I want the pairings to be:

Kronners- Smith (Smith had a great game and we all know about Kronners... this can turn out to be great)

Ericsson- White

Carlo- Quincy

Other than this I would say simply the Wings were not engaged last night and that is bound to happen when a team has not played together since April. Sure the Blues looked great last night, but any team will look great when they are 100% on and the other team is nowhere to be found. My guess is we see a much more familiar Red Wings on Monday night.

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

- Ericsson was not good last night... he looks like a lost puppy out there. He follows the puck too often and leaves his position. There were at least 3 different times last night where he followed Kronners into the corner to get the puck, before realizing that that is Kronner's side.

- I hate Babcock's new philosophy of spreading out the minutes among our Dmen... Kronners over played 20 minutes last night... that is what Pavel played and he is a forward!!! Quincy and Ericsson continue to be pylons out there and I think Babcock needs to establish Kronners as our CLEAR number 1 dman because he can handle it. Kronners should be averaging 26-27 minutes a game like Lidstrom and Rafi used to as our top pairing guys.

- With that said, Babcock also needs to play Datsyuk and Zetterberg more... they are our top guys... rolling the 4 lines is not going to get us into the playoffs... we need our top guys to play.

- Each of the Dmen combos sucked. Ericsson should not play on the top pairing with Kronners. I want the pairings to be:

Kronners- Smith (Smith had a great game and we all know about Kronners... this can turn out to be great)

Ericsson- White

Carlo- Quincy

Other than this I would say simply the Wings were not engaged last night and that is bound to happen when a team has not played together since April. Sure the Blues looked great last night, but any team will look great when they are 100% on and the other team is nowhere to be found. My guess is we see a much more familiar Red Wings on Monday night.

I guess Ericsson's not totally done being the whipping boy here?

Of the ways the Wings sucked last night, Ericsson was not even top 10. I really don't understand picking him out as specific problem last night other than old habits die hard.

It was Kronners and Smith by the way who let two guys get behind them on the friggin PK on Stewart's goal. That should never happen with Kronwall even strength but is even more embarrassing on the penalty kill.

Smith overall did have a very good game though, especially considering he's a rookie.

[LeftWinger 4,934]

Ok, considering our D, last nights performance was no better than if we had three rookies in the lineup. I say lets get these rookies up here and get them established now...

Kronwall - White

Smith - Colaiacovo

Ouellet - Sproul

They cannot do any worse, and they would probably do better...

[joesuffP 1,746]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="LeftWinger" data-cid="2342763" data-time="1358716406"><p>

Ok, considering our D, last nights performance was no better than if we had three rookies in the lineup. I say lets get these rookies up here and get them established now...<br />

<br />

Kronwall - White<br />

Smith - Colaiacovo<br />

Ouellet - Sproul<br />

<br />

They cannot do any worse, and they would probably do better...</p></blockquote>

Ericsson was our best defenseman last night colo was brutal. If we wanna go by last nights performance better scratch Kronwall he gave no f***s last night

When a team is completely out of sync, nobody is thinking fast enough to make a play and you don't make any adjustments while being dominated thoroughly you gotta blame the coaching staff a lot

[LeftWinger 4,934]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="LeftWinger" data-cid="2342763" data-time="1358716406"><p>

Ok, considering our D, last nights performance was no better than if we had three rookies in the lineup. I say lets get these rookies up here and get them established now...<br />

<br />

Kronwall - White<br />

Smith - Colaiacovo<br />

Ouellet - Sproul<br />

<br />

They cannot do any worse, and they would probably do better...</p></blockquote>

Ericsson was our best defenseman last night colo was brutal. If we wanna go by last nights performance better scratch Kronwall he gave no f***s last night

At this point, whatever works. I was just keeping Kronner in there because we know he is better, we don't know that of Ericsson. If we had another NHL ready defender other than Cola, sure he would be the 7th guy, but Kindl blows. Of course there is always the outside chance of acquiring Visnovsky...

[IllinoisRedWingsFan 49]

I am back here now that the season has started. While I missed last night's game (out with friends) I will say this where was the Offense?

[joesuffP 1,746]

I thought Ericsson was solid. When you play the entire game in your own zone mistakes will be made there's no way around it.

[wings_fanatic 677]

I am back here now that the season has started. While I missed last night's game (out with friends) I will say this where was the Offense?

You are asking the wrong question... the rest of us are wondering where the team was.

[hillbillywingsfan 792]

Looks like it could be a long shortened season for y'all. And apparently CBJ is at least on par with Nashville so that's no longer a gimmie game... Then you have Dallas and Minnesota in a row.. They better figure it out pretty quick if playoffs are going to be remotely possible. Tough draw to start out with though. Probably one of the top 2 teams in the entire conference on the road is not a favorable matchup. Should be interesting to see where your season goes from here.

oh boy we get to see the borderline trolling of you again. How lovely. You do know it was just the first game right? We still have to get over the fact that the best D-man in hockey is no longer with us. Sort of hard to do that the first game of a shortened season after a lockout. Wings players are going to be figuring out their new role these first games. Not really worried yet but thank you for your genuine concern.

[atodaso 279]

well that was ugly.

when was the last time the wings were shutout in their first game of the regular season?

Saturday, October 11th, 1958. They lost 2-0 in Montreal. Sid Abel was our coach and we didn't make the playoffs that year

It also happened on November 18th, 1926 when the Detroit Cougars lost 2-0 to the Bruins in a game played in Windsor, ON. Also, November 15th, 1928 the Detroit Cougars lost 2-0 to the NYR in Detroit.

So, only the fourth time in franchise history and the second as the Red Wings.

Something else that's interesting... From 1940-41 to 1954-55, Detroit went 14-0-1 in season openers. But in franchise history, they are just a few games above .500.

[Dabura 12,206]

http://kuklaskorner.com/tmr/comments/its-an-new-day-tomorrow

“We have to be way more competitive than we were,'' Babcock said. “We didn’t have much structure and much battle in us. It was disappointing. It was pretty easy to see and it didn’t feel very good to be a player or a coach, a manager, probably an owner.''

Or a fan.

[Hockeymom1960 5,107]

http://kuklaskorner.com/tmr/comments/its-an-new-day-tomorrow

Or a fan.

Unfortunately, they tend to forget that often

[Euro_Twins 4,475]

Well, I missed the majority of the game, I worked until 10pm. I did catch the end and watched highlights. It seemed as though as bad as our defense was (which seems to be taking all the blame) what happened to our offense in this mess? We only had 14 shots, I love the wings and all but when was the last time we got less than 20 shots in a game? We are known for shooting a lot, and we just didn't shoot the puck enough, which is why we got shut out, Halak didn't even break a sweat.

[Dabura 12,206]

Well, I missed the majority of the game, I worked until 10pm. I did catch the end and watched highlights. It seemed as though as bad as our defense was (which seems to be taking all the blame) what happened to our offense in this mess? We only had 14 shots, I love the wings and all but when was the last time we got less than 20 shots in a game? We are known for shooting a lot, and we just didn't shoot the puck enough, which is why we got shut out, Halak didn't even break a sweat.

Ah, good timing. I had just come to ask: 17-2 after the first period? Really?

[Dabura 12,206]

...and Datsyuk & Zetterberg combined for a whopping 0 shots on goal.

Really hoping this game is not a sign of things to come.

[MabusIncarnate 5,344]

Today will be a better day. Waiting for the new GDT and pushing the first game of the season behind.

[Euro_Twins 4,475]

Today will be a better day. Waiting for the new GDT and pushing the first game of the season behind.

If Columbus smokes us too, then we should be worried. Remember last year? we won our first 5 games then the caps crushed us 7-1 which started a 6 game losing skid. We bounced back then, and we will bounce back again

[syntax 359]

Good to see these GDTs still going strong....49 pages!

[canadian wings fan 305]

Honestly that shot total is severely alarming. 14 shots and 0 from Datsyuk or Z? Can anybody here honestly remember a poorer effort from the Wings? Add to this the FIRST game back after a huge break god damn thats messed