471 replies to this topic

[chrisdetroit]

Tatar had a really good game. Shame he was 'rewarded' with being demoted to the 3rd line. Guessing he'll be sent down while Cleary is put in the top 6? Lol. 

 

Zetterberg's back must be hurting from carrying around the team night after night. A Zetterberg shift is usually a good shift for us. Problem is the other 3 shifts suck, with the occasional good Datsyuk shift. In all honesty Dats should have had a goal or two on those 2 big chances he had, if either had gone in it could have been a different game.

 

Getting tired of special teams dragging us down. Can't keep letting in 2-3 PK goals per game. Can't keep taking stupid penalties. Cleary, Quincey, Kronwall, I'm looking at you guys. 

 

PP is still an embarressment. Fluke goal tonight off a broken play, but otherwise it's not even giving us momentum. 

 

Why didn't Babs play Mrazek tonight? I'm not blaming this one Howard, but the guy needs a rest already. Is there another goalie in the league that has played every game so far? It would be okay to play him every game if it was giving results, but right now there's no point riding Howie 'til he breaks down. 

 

Hoping for a better effort next time. 

Why is it a "fluke" goal when we score but not when the other team scores.  You need to be objective instead of just bashing the Wings.

Holland was quoted saying he'd give himself 20 games into the season before evaluating his team. So we are almost half point their and yet some things are obvious:

 

1. Wings need a bonafide top pairing defenseman

2. I want to see Datsyuk getting another cup before heading back to Russia

3. Should this team not be a playoff team by at the end of February time to bring in the youth and hope for a great pick to start off the rebuild.

 

Get well soon Helm, this team is needing you more than ever

1.  They have a couple of injuries on defense - Ericsson, White, Colo, Smith all missed multiple games.  So it would be irrational to make any conclusions about the D-men that we do have.

2.  agreed

3. The Wings will make the playoffs because they are still better than at least 8 other teams in the west.

[Euro_Twins]

Why is it a "fluke" goal when we score but not when the other team scores.  You need to be objective instead of just bashing the Wings.

 

Fluke goal or not, we need to get goals, I would be happier with 3-4 really ugly goals a game for us to win, instead of 1 highlight reel goal a game and losing... Too much cuteness out there, franzen should keep on crashing the net and everyone else just throw the puck at the net, too  much passing creates turnovers, odd man rushes and breakaways as we have seen. We got 35 shots a game last year, and we won a lot of games cause we were shooting!

[evilzyme]

Passing is a big problem with this team right now, but you need to use it when you don't have the speed to break through the neutral zone. They were just getting caught moving it TOO much before breaking into the offensive zone. Numerous times you would count off 5 passes before they even entered the zone. It shouldn't come down to that. We don't have the speed to outlet pass straight into the zone, so we need to run criss-crosses through the neutral zone. Unfortunately, when you have a big team that can close passing lanes like no other, you find yourself in some big trouble. Calgary did an outstanding job at boxing out the wings and keeping them on the outside, i mean... frickin the outside. we couldn't break inside and get their defense moving. they simply stayed in the hip pocket and stayed with everyone and gave them no space. we needed to spread the ice.

[Euro_Twins]

Passing is a big problem with this team right now, but you need to use it when you don't have the speed to break through the neutral zone. They were just getting caught moving it TOO much before breaking into the offensive zone. Numerous times you would count off 5 passes before they even entered the zone. It shouldn't come down to that. We don't have the speed to outlet pass straight into the zone, so we need to run criss-crosses through the neutral zone. Unfortunately, when you have a big team that can close passing lanes like no other, you find yourself in some big trouble. Calgary did an outstanding job at boxing out the wings and keeping them on the outside, i mean... frickin the outside. we couldn't break inside and get their defense moving. they simply stayed in the hip pocket and stayed with everyone and gave them no space. we needed to spread the ice.

 

There is a simple solution the wings REFUSE to adopt in these situations, dump and chase. I know we aren't fast but if we dump it and hit the boards right away we can snag the puck back when they try to clear it. 

 

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

 

Babcock needs to see if they can't break into the zone and not lose the puck 2 seconds later, dump it in, change things up. Teams know how we operate, they study the videos, so if we do the same plays over and over, they are expecting it and are ready. We need to keep them on their toes, they shouldn't know what were doing before we do it, we need to keep them guessing, which is how you create space, open up lanes, by getting the dmen to second guess themselves and go the wrong way. Just my take on it though.

[evilzyme]

There is a simple solution the wings REFUSE to adopt in these situations, dump and chase. I know we aren't fast but if we dump it and hit the boards right away we can snag the puck back when they try to clear it. 

 

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

 

Babcock needs to see if they can't break into the zone and not lose the puck 2 seconds later, dump it in, change things up. Teams know how we operate, they study the videos, so if we do the same plays over and over, they are expecting it and are ready. We need to keep them on their toes, they shouldn't know what were doing before we do it, we need to keep them guessing, which is how you create space, open up lanes, by getting the dmen to second guess themselves and go the wrong way. Just my take on it though.

 

Absolutely they need to change it up within the game, and adopt to how the team is countering their attack. Hockey should never be a static strategy, never. You should always aim to adjust to how that team is playing, and exploit them where you find holes. Sadly though, this team isn't aimed towards a dump and chase either though. In order to dump and chase, you need speed and you need physicality. If you can't win the race to the puck, you better damn well have the body to come out on top when you get there. There needs to be more shooting, plain and simple. I don't care if it's from the perimeter or not, throw it on and crash it. Good things come out of broken, scrambled plays. When the defense is scrambled, and you're only going to scramble them if you get pucks loose and cause havok within the zone, you will reep the rewards. We need to throw them down low, get it in the shooting lanes, make the defense start moving, recover the pucks and reset. If you keep throwing the puck down, recovering and throwing it laterally you'll find numerous amounts of success. We're simply just getting beat to the puck, every, single, time. If you don't feel confident in getting to the puck first, staple gun that man to the glass and wait for your secondary to come help recover it for you, but don't allow them to flush the puck out of the zone.

[Wing-in-avs-town]

3. The Wings will make the playoffs because they are still better than at least 8 other teams in the west.

 

 

I used to think so too, but after the last 2 games, I'm not so sure

[RedWingsDad]

They looked pretty bad out there... dis-jointed would be the best way to describe it. It just looks like a team that is not gelling together at all, excluding Z and Attila the Brun. Hardly any of our passes are fluent, typically requiring the passee to slow down to get the puck, or struggle to get control of it, both of which disrupts the entire play and allows their D to gain position.

 

Even Datsyuk has looked really bad at puck handling, he just keeps giving it away over and over again while trying to make a move...

 

In the end, I think the biggest issue is that this team lost a lot of confidence for various reasons and has to find some way to get it back.

Edited by RedWingsDad, 06 February 2013 - 01:31 PM.

[kipwinger]

They looked pretty bad out there... dis-jointed would be the best way to describe it. It just looks like a team that is not gelling together at all, excluding Z and Attila the Brun. Hardly any of our passes are fluent, typically requiring the passee to slow down to get the puck, or struggle to get control of it, both of which disrupts the entire play and allows their D to gain position.

 

Even Datsyuk has looked really bad at puck handling, he just keeps giving it away over and over again while trying to make a move...

 

In the end, I think the biggest issue is that this team lost a lot of confidence for various reasons and has to find some way to get it back.

 

I noticed both of these things too.  Passing was horrid last night, just absolutely half assed.  Which is exactly the same set of adverbs I would use to describe Pavel's play for at least the last two games.  The one guy on the team capable of taking over a game all by himself is notoriously absent right now. 

[evilzyme]

I noticed both of these things too.  Passing was horrid last night, just absolutely half assed.  Which is exactly the same set of adverbs I would use to describe Pavel's play for at least the last two games.  The one guy on the team capable of taking over a game all by himself is notoriously absent right now. 

 

I wouldn't say absent, because you can tell he's getting frustrated. Easily within the first and 2nd periods, especially when Babcock was double shifting him with TooToo in the box for 5 minutes. The problem is, they think they can bait the defense to the outside and then cut within the middle on them and you can't always do that, especially when people tend to expect that out of you. Numerous times the past two games, they would simply pass downlow, throw it back to the point try to squeeze the defense out to expand their box but then throw it directly down the boards again. When you start pulling the defense to the outside and expanding them, you NEED to feed someone within the middle. We just didn't have ANYONE get inside their defense to feed to, we were OKAY with staying on the boards. We're getting too pressured, and we can't just expect to out-puck handle it. Last night I saw a lot of heart from Zetterberg (i've been seeing it all games) which is expected due to him being the captain, he's been playing lights out having his team emulate his heart. Pavel was trying hard, but he just couldn't get anything going. It's not everyday you see Pasha mishandle the puck, not beable to grab passes, etc, but my god the puck was bouncing all over and he just couldn't get into his flow. Brunner surprisingly has been getting better and better each game, you can tell he's getting more comfortable. Bert was playing hard, and Clears had his best game this season. Lashoff sadly looked like our best defensemen.

[Euro_Twins]

I wouldn't say absent, because you can tell he's getting frustrated. Easily within the first and 2nd periods, especially when Babcock was double shifting him with TooToo in the box for 5 minutes. The problem is, they think they can bait the defense to the outside and then cut within the middle on them and you can't always do that, especially when people tend to expect that out of you. Numerous times the past two games, they would simply pass downlow, throw it back to the point try to squeeze the defense out to expand their box but then throw it directly down the boards again. When you start pulling the defense to the outside and expanding them, you NEED to feed someone within the middle. We just didn't have ANYONE get inside their defense to feed to, we were OKAY with staying on the boards. We're getting too pressured, and we can't just expect to out-puck handle it. Last night I saw a lot of heart from Zetterberg (i've been seeing it all games) which is expected due to him being the captain, he's been playing lights out having his team emulate his heart. Pavel was trying hard, but he just couldn't get anything going. It's not everyday you see Pasha mishandle the puck, not beable to grab passes, etc, but my god the puck was bouncing all over and he just couldn't get into his flow. Brunner surprisingly has been getting better and better each game, you can tell he's getting more comfortable. Bert was playing hard, and Clears had his best game this season. Lashoff sadly looked like our best defensemen.

 

sadly? He was our best defenseman from the moment he got called up. I wouldn't mind seeing another one of our ahl dmen out there (don't say they aren't "nhl ready" yet, because Lashoff wasn't "nhl ready" and look how great he turned out, and he wasn't even our 3rd best prospect on d

[evilzyme]

sadly? He was our best defenseman from the moment he got called up. I wouldn't mind seeing another one of our ahl dmen out there (don't say they aren't "nhl ready" yet, because Lashoff wasn't "nhl ready" and look how great he turned out, and he wasn't even our 3rd best prospect on d

 

I say sadly because he certainly should NOT be our best defensemen. Plain and simple. If Lashoff is our best defensemen, that's just sad. I love the guy, and I think his play has been outstanding. That's exactly why I brought him up, but it is a sad fact when he's our #1D right now. Kronner has looked absolutely AWFUL this season. You can see that he's scared to even attempt to hit due to everything being called, and he looks like a lost duck out there. Right now, he can't be our #1D. He simply isn't shutting down any top lines right now. Ericsson is clearing the crease more than damn Kronner (which i'm loving seeing Ericsson actually moving people). Hell, Quincey has used his body more in the crease than Kronner. There was no excuse to rest your back against Iginla last night. You should NEVER have a forward inbetween you and your tender, you need to be the middle ground. The sad part was, he sat there back against him for a solid 5+ seconds. 

[RedWingsDad]

I won't lie, I had fleeting feelings of lamenting Hudler's departure last night... hey! back off... they were just fleeting feelings, OK?

 

He was really moving the puck well from the corner on their PP... that one PP shift by the Flames that I am thinking of eclipsed any one effort from the Wings I can think of recently, even the ones we scored on. They were making tight passes and getting good opportunities... though part of the reason for that may be because our PK wasn't pressuring anyone, but just maintaining their box in the middle of the zone.

Edited by RedWingsDad, 06 February 2013 - 04:06 PM.