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Motown4013

Watching Ericsson mature

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Most #1 Dmen are #1 cause they have a #2 like Ericsson.

Keith and Seabrook. Leddy and Hjalmarsson.

Seidenberg in Boston comes to mind, as well as Boychuk.

The Kings have guys like Scuderi, Mitchell and Greene that fill that role.

We have Ericsson, Lashoff and DeKeyser to compliment Kronwall, Smith and Kindl. I still don't know what exactly Quincey is, but it's not necessary.

Well said Z winged

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The more he plays against such elite talent and thrives, the more convinced I am he is not only solid but actually good. He's turning into a legit top pairing defenseman.

Yes E has played well. But Kronwall has played poorly this year from a defensive stand point, which makes E look even better. He is playing on a top pair, but he really is a 3/4 not a 1/2 Dman.

The real question with E is, can we afford to keep him. He is a UFA after next season, and the market is 5 million per year. Is E worth it? That one is a tough choice. We do have 4/5 young Dman pushing for time: Kindl, Dekeyser, Lashoff, Smith, and Sproul. Maybe this summer is the time to flip him for a top 2 line forward-something we don't have.

The fact that E looks good while Kronwall struggles means he is really food, not that he's a second pairing guy at best. If your partner struggles, usually you do, too. And E is thriving.

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I will admit I was wrong about E, I thought he peaked 2 seasons ago. At times especially down the stretch he has been our best Defenseman. Its nice to see the great growth internally of E, Smitty, Kroner,Kindl, I think the foundation is well set for more playoff pushes. Now lets wok on the front end.

Ill admit I was wrong too. I won't admit that he hadn't always proved me right until this year though. Part of why its so amazing that he's this good now is because of juat how useless he's looked for years. He just looked lost out there to me. Was terrible, yes terrible, positionally. Didn't use his stick, body, or brains consistently to ever prove any confidance he team had in him to me. But man has he been different. He's usuing his body (although he has the potential to be much better physically) and he actually looks somewhat confidant out there. I'm impressed. Kindl too...his transformation has been nearly as shocking.

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The more he plays against such elite talent and thrives, the more convinced I am he is not only solid but actually good. He's turning into a legit top pairing defenseman..

I still can't concede this though. Ericsson is playing like a #3 to me. That said, I have high standards for top pairing guys. If a #1 is a franchise, elite guy...a #2 is a Rafalski/Kronwall type skill level and Ericsson arguably doesn't have that skill level to begin with and he hasn't proved consistently that he has become at that level.

I think Fischer was better than E and Fischer wasn't quite a top guy...although I believe he would have been.

Edited by achildr1

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Ill admit I was wrong too. I won't admit that he hadn't always proved me right until this year though. Part of why its so amazing that he's this good now is because of juat how useless he's looked for years. He just looked lost out there to me. Was terrible, yes terrible, positionally. Didn't use his stick, body, or brains consistently to ever prove any confidance he team had in him to me. But man has he been different. He's usuing his body (although he has the potential to be much better physically) and he actually looks somewhat confidant out there. I'm impressed. Kindl too...his transformation has been nearly as shocking.

He was much improved last year too, especially later in the season.

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I am actually surprised, given the match-ups that he and Perry havent dropped the gloves....I called it in game 1...perhaps we may see it in game 6. He's startng to piss some of thos boys off which I LOVE!!! :yahoo:

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As far as I'm concerned, the reason Detroit won on Saturday was the suffocating play of Jonathan Ericsson and Nicklas Kronwall. Tough to imagine the Tre Kronor not taking both of them and making them the second pairing at Sochi (behind Karlsson and Ekman-Larrson). The Ericsson/Kronwall pairing were dominant on Saturday playing nearly ten minutes of shutdown hockey against the Jonathan Toews line. I'm so impressed by Ericsson's play in particular, his stretch pass to set up Johan Franzen's game sealing goal was icing on the cake of a lights-out two-way performance. Ericsson has come an awful long way as a defenceman this season.

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Guest The Axe

Before the season began, back when all the media types were beating the "Lidstrom is gone" horse to death, Babcock talked about how this year would be an opportunity for some guys to make a spot their own. We got pretty much the same or a little less from Kronwall and Quincey, and White and Smith underperformed expectations. But thanks to Ericsson, Kindl, Dekeyser, and Lashoff over performing, our defense is better than a year ago. Although, to be fair, Jimmy made them look real good far more often than he should have.

Have you noticed that the Quincey criticism has died off to almost just a mouse squeak now? Kenny's move is looking very good right about now. Q is playing some sound defensive hockey. Babcock likes good positioning. Once Smith gets that feel, our D will be TIGHT.

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Have you noticed that the Quincey criticism has died off to almost just a mouse squeak now? Kenny's move is looking very good right about now. Q is playing some sound defensive hockey. Babcock likes good positioning. Once Smith gets that feel, our D will be TIGHT.

I agree. My opinion of Quincey is that he is no where near as bad as ppl portray him. With the growth of the young players. Especially kindl smith dekeyser and ericssons (stud emergence) he could be great trade bait come next year. Barring continual growth and no injuries. Dekeyser provin he can play is huge for us and our back end is growing both in size (we r no longer tiny and slow) and maturity.

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Guest The Axe

I agree. My opinion of Quincey is that he is no where near as bad as ppl portray him. With the growth of the young players. Especially kindl smith dekeyser and ericssons (stud emergence) he could be great trade bait come next year. Barring continual growth and no injuries. Dekeyser provin he can play is huge for us and our back end is growing both in size (we r no longer tiny and slow) and maturity.

Thats why I keep hoping we move Smith and Rig up front and put Kronwall-Kindl, Quincey-Dekeyser, and Lashoff-Colo in the back. Hank-Dats-Ericsson = scary good.

Edited by The Axe

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Thats why I keep hoping we move Smith and Rig up front and put Kronwall-Kindl, Quincey-Dekeyser, and Lashoff-Colo in the back. Hank-Dats-Ericsson = scary good.

Blowing up our 1st pairing is a scary idea. Especially to move them to forward. I'd rather see us package Quincey and someone like colo or Lashoff for a good skatin power forward. Like abdlekater (can't believe that just came out of my mouth)

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Guest The Axe

Blowing up our 1st pairing is a scary idea. Especially to move them to forward. I'd rather see us package Quincey and someone like colo or Lashoff for a good skatin power forward. Like abdlekater (can't believe that just came out of my mouth)

I hear you. Regular season only!!

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Guest The Axe

0 penalty minutes for Rig and only 2 for Kronwall in 10 playoff games. Nice job by our top 2.

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A few years ago Babs described Ericsson as "like Pronger, but without the cross-checks". It pleases me to see that Ericsson has now added the cross-check to his game.

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Totally agree with the post, though he's been steady for much of the year to the point where it makes the observation almost seem obvious. Of course, when they signed him to his deal, it seemed anything but. The observation about some of our young D-men "hiding" behind Lidstrom or Kronwall is accurate - these guys realize nobody is going to do their jobs for them.

Ericsson has a great slapper, but he doesn't quite have the poise or puckhandling ability to become an elite offensive force. But his skating out of trouble in his own zone has been very impressive.

Kindl has also taken massive strides forward - I believe that he's been the biggest difference in the past 2 months (along with DeKeyser before he got hurt). There's a guy that couldn't even stay in a depleted lineup, and now he looks very steady. He actually has better hands and makes quicker decisions in the offensive zone, so I wouldn't rule out his offense continuing to improve with more time and confidence.

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I'm saying this as an actual really big Toews fan.

E has made Toews his little ***** in the series so far, and I'm pretty sure I saw Toews cry 4 or 5 times cause of the amount E is riding him. Z is apparently getting under Toews skin pretty bad too, but E is just giving it to him bad. I love it. Toews can't step up from the 1st round cause our boys are playing him too hard.

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Staying out of the box and playing solid hard nosed defense is critical. Lidstrom was so damned good at staying out of the box and we had our other d-men taking minors in big games. If these guys can keep playing physical without getting penalized we are going to continue playing for a few more weeks.

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