"Every other Holland critic"? Really, Buppy? I expect better from you.
Look, we're all making this way more complicated than it needs to be, than it is.
I'll say it again: you lose Rafalski, Stuart, Lidstrom, you, at the very least, bring in a heavy. No way should Kronwall - Ericsson/Quincey/White/Smith/Huskins/Lashoff be our first pairing. Common sense, really. Why is it so hard to swallow/understand?
So many of us treat Holland as if he's utterly infallible, incapable of being in the wrong. "He mades a mistake? He dropped the ball? No, you're just a Holland critic. You're just spoiled." It's just as silly as The Holland Bashing.
Ken Holland is the best GM in the league. But the way he's handled our D corps (and, arguably, the team at large) lately borders, I think, on braindead. It's almost as if he really does want that first overall pick. I have no other explanation for the sheer lack of those trademark Ken Holland Smarts (see, e.g., "Lets save money and sit on it, and then do it again next season, and then do it again! OH NO, NOW WE'RE IN TROUBLE! SALO! CARLE! SUTER! HEY, Y'KNOW WHAT'S GREAT? BUILDING FROM WITHIN!)
It's weird. Really, really weird. (To which someone will say, "No, it's called parity/not having Nick Lidstrom/transition etc., and I need to adjust my expectations and reconcile them with Reality." To which I preemptively say: I know you, are but what am I?)
Yeah, I guess I forgot about that kid sitting outside the Joe with a box full of "heavies" and a sign saying, "Free to good home".
I'm not saying he's infallible. I'm not even saying he hasn't made mistakes. I'm saying you can't expect him to be perfect and solve every problem. No doubt you'll say you don't expect that, but in practical terms that's what all the bashing amounts to. Like it's OK for Kenny to make mistakes, so long as they don't have any negative impact on the team.
You say he's made mistakes. I say, so what, everyone does. Get over it.
The only trap is the "name me this" homework that people try to assign thoe who disagree with them, likely because it's easier to criticize someone else's point than make their own.
Maybe spend less time telling me what I expect and more time making an actual point regarding Holland and the state of the current Red Wings defense.
Kronwall is basically our number on guy, which is a role he's never fulfilled. Then look down the blueline. It's a bunch of spare parts. White is a good d-man, though it'll be interesting to see how he plays without Lids. Plus he's a UFA at the end of this season and currently makes less then Kronwall, Quincey and Ericsson.
If this collection of players were on another team, I don't think people would really be complimenting the GM on a job well done. Just because Holland wasn't willing to give up enough for a trade or signing doesn't mean they couldn't ever have happened.
Again, I never said there was nothing that could have been done. Just that it isn't rational to expect someone to make all the right moves all the time. So he missed out on a few opportunities, and now the team is worse than it might otherwise have been. Do we really need to spend the better part of a year and a half whining about it every time there's a signing or trade around the league, or injury, or someone has a bad game, or someone we didn't get has a good game...
