The Overreaction Thread

[Panic In Detroit 12]

Red Wings fans have to be the most spoiled fans in all of sport.

[Datsyukian-Deke 722]

The problem is the fans here see easy low risk fixes to help this team and there is nothing we can do about it. Signing players like Cleary (if he does get resigned) over throwing a little more money at a Clarkson or a Horton is the dumbest thing imaginable. That's where our frustrations lay. Easy decision that for some reason not being made.

[esteef 2,679]

Red Wings fans have to be the most spoiled fans in all of sport.

This is about as overused of a cliche here as "We like our team". -1 for you sir.

esteef

[Wheelchairsuperhero 1,453]

First I want to say that I understand where a lot of the Kenny critics are coming from. But at the same time how jaded have we become as a fan base? Kenny's not doing this or that that other gms are doing. To me that seems like he's not making the mistakes the other gms are making then. Have they made the playoffs for 20 consecutive years? Hell look at how excited Columbus fans got last season that their team ALMOST made the playoffs where the wings just keep doing it year after year despite Kenny's apparent failings, and I kind of think we take it for granted. I'm not saying KH is perfect of course, I just wish we appreciated that no team can boast the same consistency as the wings, who always find a way to win. Other teams have huge ups and downs. Great a few years only to be terrible the next 5. Until we stop making the post season (which I know can happen any year these days) and being cup contenders, because yes anyone who makes the playoffs is a cup contender these days, then I won't ***** just yet.

Sorry if that came off as a jumbled rant. I'm at work and had to type it up real quick lol.

Edit: and I don't want to sound like I'm calling all of us fans spoiled brats or anything. I think we've just become accustomed to a certain amount of success that other fan bases only wish they could experience. So until we miss the playoffs, every year is a good year!

Edited July 3, 2013 by Wheelchairsuperhero

[Guest mjtm77]

I get Holland has not "screwed up" like many gm's making a horrible move. (thank god) But all you people defending him are just foolish. We have needed a top 6 forward for a while now and we have gotten nothing. Trade deadlines, free agency they come and go and we have gotten nothing. A great gm would find a way to do something and make it work. Now lets see if Holland actually does something... ( IMO, most likely will not)

My prediction as stated before is if we don't make any moves we will miss the playoffs. If we didn't have depth to replace Abby in the playoffs how on earth will we have depth to replace an injured Z or D for a period of time?

- Coach Babs must be pissed. We are no longer a top 6 forward away from competing for the cup. We are a top 6 forward away from making the playoffs......

Edited July 3, 2013 by mjtm77

[Datsyukian-Deke 722]

I think we will continue to see Holland play it safe until the Wings start missing the playoffs and his job becomes threatened. It will be like Joe Dumars this year. He realizes he is close to on his way out so all of a sudden he starts mixing things up and exploring big trades and free agents. The wings are going to have to fall before Holland tries to pick them up.

[amato 3,210]

Red Wings fans have to be the most spoiled fans in all of sport.

false, tigers fans.

[Jesusberg 1,256]

3. The point is simply that its better to pay Samuelsson to sit in the press box if we aren't going to spend the $10+ Million on THIS free agent class. Much like last year, we started and finished the season with a ton of cap space, so why waste our last buyout on a guy with one year left on his contract when Johan Franzen still has 7 left on his. Foolish to not see how he plays for one more season.

4. Cleary should not get a 3 year contract, but unfortunately I can see why he might. He was our third best player in the playoffs. He finished second in points, and played like a warrior most games. Moving to the eastern conference, he remains one of our ONLY players that plays the style of game you need to to get from most of your roster to battle in the east. Still more polished then ABBY and his point totals reflect that...

5. Next summer, while i know players will still be resigned the free agent class is still going to be MUCH better than this years, but the biggest wildcard will be the compliance buyouts. Next year, the window closes on any chance of cap relief for the remainder of this CBA. Names like Kovalchuk, Parise, Richards, Hossa, are already being talked about.

3. I guess that's a point of disagreement. I don't see anyone beyond Sammy who should be bought out. Do I think Mule is going to be effective in the last years of his contract? Probably not. I think we'd be a worse team in 2014-15 without him, though. Can you say the same about Samuelsson next year? Samuelsson being on the team is a hindrance to the future of this hockey club.

4. I see where you're coming from with Cleary, and I've loved every thing the guy's brought during his time here... but I feel like that time is done. He's almost completely ineffective during the year. He's a playoff warrior, and that counts for a ton, but I'm not sure it's at the expense of healthier bodies. The physicality of the East is wildly overrated. Los Angeles, St. Louis, San Jose... those teams aren't physical? I would much rather see guys like Nyquist and Tatar given a fair shake.

5. I do see a much higher quality in the class of players next year. I just think a good portion of those guys will be tied up. The cap will bump up some, too... so maybe teams hang onto guys unless they're truly going to liabilities going forward. And I must sound like a prospect slappy here, but guys like Ferraro, Sheahan and Jurco are going to be knocking on the door soon. Depending on how they fare next year, Jarnkrok and Pulkkinen too, perhaps. Hadn't even heard of Parise's name in buyout discussions, but he would be an interesting one for sure. He's a game breaker worth spending the cash on.

[Mitchmac33 103]

It always looks better next year, right Kenny? Always next year...

esteef

maybe next year...

[Guest RedWingsDad]

Red Wings fans have to be the most spoiled fans in all of sport.

True that... spoiled by victory! It's not a bad thing... we expect the best because a high bar has been set in recent history.

[Dave 324]

Check out this lineup, WHOA!

FORWARDS
Johan Franzen ($3.955m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Justin Abdelkader ($1.800m)
Mikael Samuelsson ($3.000m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Todd Bertuzzi ($2.075m)
Gustav Nyquist ($2.501m) / Joakim Andersson ($1.250m) / Danny Cleary ($3.200m)
Tomas Tatar ($0.840m) / Cory Emmerton ($0.533m) / Drew Miller ($1.350m)
Jordin Tootoo ($1.900m) / Patrick Eaves ($1.200m)
DEFENSEMEN
Niklas Kronwall ($4.750m) / Jonathan Ericsson ($3.250m)
Kyle Quincey ($3.775m) / Brendan Smith ($1.200m)
Danny DeKeyser ($1.350m) / Jakub Kindl ($2.400m)
Brian Lashoff ($0.725m) /
GOALTENDERS
Jimmy Howard ($5.292m)
Jonas Gustavsson ($1.500m)

LTIR

Darren Helm ($2.125m)

------
CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled with the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $62,753,379; BONUSES: $1,010,000
CAP SPACE (24-man roster): $2,556,621

That top 6 is INCREDIBLE. Look out NHL, s***.just.got.real.

Edited July 3, 2013 by Dave

[RyanBarnes! 293]

The idea of the thread was also to look at the bigger picture. Living in Toronto, I can understand the frustration from fans who haven't seen there team in the playoffs in 9 years, or who sign Mike Komisarek, Jeff Finger, and Mikhail Grabovski to long term big money contracts. Or trade Tukka Rask for Andrew Raycroft, or how about Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton for Phil Kessel. These are moves that make it legitimate for a fan base to rally for a new GM.

In Detroit, we have been to the playoffs 22 years in a row. Won Cups and Presidents Trophies in both the non cap and salary cap eras and adapted from being a very good high spending team, to a very good cap strickened team. This year, in a "transition year" after losing Lidstrom, Stuart, Hudler and not cashing in last summer - we weren't supposed to make the playoffs. What happened? We took the Cup Champs to the brink and ran out of gas after two seven game series. Oh, and our farm team won the Calder Cup.

Not bad for a rebuild, I'm sure the Leafs fans would take that season after 9 of missing the playoffs and stockpiling draft picks every year. Which is another thing, how on earth have we been to the playoffs every year... Usually finishing with home ice advantage, while trading most of our 1st round picks, and somehow manage to draft a Calder Cup champion in the process? Probably our terrible GM....

yes, it was a great but unexpected run. No reason we cannot repeat but with a different outcome. One or two players could be difference makers here. And let's be honest here, the team looked rather lost for a significant portion of the regular season. I credit Babcock for making the team play like they did for the last month.

[chrisdetroit 189]

Excellent post. Somebody other than Kenny is using some loigic...

[T.Low 1,011]

The idea of the thread was also to look at the bigger picture. Living in Toronto, I can understand the frustration from fans who haven't seen there team in the playoffs in 9 years, or who sign Mike Komisarek, Jeff Finger, and Mikhail Grabovski to long term big money contracts. Or trade Tukka Rask for Andrew Raycroft, or how about Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton for Phil Kessel. These are moves that make it legitimate for a fan base to rally for a new GM.

In Detroit, we have been to the playoffs 22 years in a row. Won Cups and Presidents Trophies in both the non cap and salary cap eras and adapted from being a very good high spending team, to a very good cap strickened team. This year, in a "transition year" after losing Lidstrom, Stuart, Hudler and not cashing in last summer - we weren't supposed to make the playoffs. What happened? We took the Cup Champs to the brink and ran out of gas after two seven game series. Oh, and our farm team won the Calder Cup.

Not bad for a rebuild, I'm sure the Leafs fans would take that season after 9 of missing the playoffs and stockpiling draft picks every year. Which is another thing, how on earth have we been to the playoffs every year... Usually finishing with home ice advantage, while trading most of our 1st round picks, and somehow manage to draft a Calder Cup champion in the process? Probably our terrible GM....

No doubt.

I live near Vancouver; let me tell you about a long list of bad GM's. It is a super difficult job,for sure, and performed in a super dynamic set of circumstances.

[joshy207 156]

I thought I would start a thread tonight for those fans who take the time to look at the big picture - rather than broadcast any anger towards one of the best GM's in the NHL just because it didn't go our way today. So before you elect Paul Holmgren as our next GM, consider that since 2007 he has signed 6 contracts to a combined 61 years and $374.5 Millon to players who are NOT currently playing for Philadelphia. (Shea Weber, Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Danny Briere, Ilya Bryzalov, and Chris Pronger) you can also add James Van Riemsdyk to that list.

Here are 5 overreaction's I have been exposed to since 10 AM this morning.

1. Vincent Lecavalier - I"ll admit I was intrigued by the possibility of him centering our second line next year...but that's about it. He is 33 years old, is already too slow, and now playing with house money for the duration of this ridiculous 5 year contract. My question is: How motivated is this Stanley Cup champ, who hasn't played more than 65 games or scored more than 25 goals since 09-10, and hasn't been a + player since 06-07 going to be for the next 5 years? Sadly enough, at the same age, Johan Franzen has actually put up better all around numbers since then and who on this site hasn't posted in a "trade Franzen" thread.

2. David Clarkson - Thank God. Why does anyone want this guy signed to a long term contract at 6+ Million per season. Those figures are entering Datsyuk range, and are already in Zetterberg range. Congratulatons on your one 30 goal season Dave, but considering that Hakan Loob, Stephane Richer, Jonathon Cheechoo, Wayne Babych and Dino Cicarelli all scored 50 once... No Thanks.

3. Buyouts - There are like 1 or 2 good centres left in this years free agent crop that 29 other teams have interest in, meaning we probably aren't going to get who we want (Stephen Weiss) because someone will overspend when it's the wrong thing to do (Philadelphia). Collatarally, this means that with 10+ million in the bank and very few targets to spend it on right now, why would we burn our last compliance buyout on either Sammy or Bert who both have 1 year remaining on their contracts, when we still have 4 players signed until at least 2019. The point is, we aren't spending 10 Mill this summer on free agents meaning there is no point in getting rid of any assets simply for cap relief.

4. Lack of Team Talent? - We played Chicago harder than anyone they met en route to winning the cup, and had 3 chances to eliminate them. As of right now, the team will be adding Helm, Bertuzzi, Dekeyser, and Tatar to next years full time roster and losing Filpulla and White for sure. Brunner and Cleary remain to be seen, but can someone tell me how next years team isn't better than last years based on injuries alone, and before you take into account the development of all of our rookies?

5. The Time Is Now - Has anyone seen next years free agent class? Before you erase Vincent Lecavalier from your CapGeek thread team, and visit nhltraderumours.com to pencil someone else into our top 6 while maintaining about $14,000 in Cap Space, consider the future.

I also agree with you on Lecavalier (length of contract) and Clarkson (value of contract), but disagree on the rest.

The buyouts are all about roster space for younger players and (hopefully) an incoming free agent or two. Tatar, Nyquist, Andersson, Smith, DeKeyser, and Lashoff need to have regular roles on this team. Tatar and Nyquist should probably start the season on the top 2 lines, see how they do with Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Franzen. If it isn't working, then make a change. DeKeyser, if he plays the way he did in his short stint last year, will be the #2 defenseman by Thanksgiving. Lashoff is a capable, defense-first guy, something this team lacks. He should rotate in and out of the 3rd pairing.

Talent and hard work are two completely different things. Some players have talent, some work hard, and some do both. Same with teams. Detroit got a 3-1 lead over Chicago by playing hard and getting under Chicago's skin. Toews was completely neutralized for the first half of that series, and was actually a detriment to his team because of the way the Wings played against him. That was hard work, not talent, on the Wings' part. Based on talent, this team has 3 top-6 forwards and 1 top-3 defenseman right now. The rest are bottom-6 and bottom-3 guys.

The same thing was said last year about this year's FA class. And the year before about last year's class. And so on and so on. Most of the good ones will re-sign with their current teams.

Holland has exposed himself over the last few years. This team has not gotten better. Some of its draft picks and undrafted free agents are working out, some will be very good in the near future. But he has not added significant pieces in forever. He also has not gotten rid of enough "dead weight" either. He hangs on to guys for too long. He overvalues his own players and undervalues everyone else's. He seems reluctant, if not downright afraid, to make a move. One thing he does very well is work with the guys on his staff, listens to them and trusts their opinions. But how much of Holland's "magic" really was Scotty Bowman, Jim Nill, his scouts, and Mike Ilitch's wallet? The more time goes on, I think it's becoming evident that it's at least a big part of it.

[Datsyukian-Deke 722]

I also agree with you on Lecavalier (length of contract) and Clarkson (value of contract), but disagree on the rest.

The buyouts are all about roster space for younger players and (hopefully) an incoming free agent or two. Tatar, Nyquist, Andersson, Smith, DeKeyser, and Lashoff need to have regular roles on this team. Tatar and Nyquist should probably start the season on the top 2 lines, see how they do with Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Franzen. If it isn't working, then make a change. DeKeyser, if he plays the way he did in his short stint last year, will be the #2 defenseman by Thanksgiving. Lashoff is a capable, defense-first guy, something this team lacks. He should rotate in and out of the 3rd pairing.

Talent and hard work are two completely different things. Some players have talent, some work hard, and some do both. Same with teams. Detroit got a 3-1 lead over Chicago by playing hard and getting under Chicago's skin. Toews was completely neutralized for the first half of that series, and was actually a detriment to his team because of the way the Wings played against him. That was hard work, not talent, on the Wings' part. Based on talent, this team has 3 top-6 forwards and 1 top-3 defenseman right now. The rest are bottom-6 and bottom-3 guys.

The same thing was said last year about this year's FA class. And the year before about last year's class. And so on and so on. Most of the good ones will re-sign with their current teams.

Holland has exposed himself over the last few years. This team has not gotten better. Some of its draft picks and undrafted free agents are working out, some will be very good in the near future. But he has not added significant pieces in forever. He also has not gotten rid of enough "dead weight" either. He hangs on to guys for too long. He overvalues his own players and undervalues everyone else's. He seems reluctant, if not downright afraid, to make a move. One thing he does very well is work with the guys on his staff, listens to them and trusts their opinions. But how much of Holland's "magic" really was Scotty Bowman, Jim Nill, his scouts, and Mike Ilitch's wallet? The more time goes on, I think it's becoming evident that it's at least a big part of it.

Why was Holland so successful? Two words: Hakan Andersson.

[Serratoni 49]

Red Wings fans have to be the most spoiled fans in all of sport.

'

This statement has to be one of the most lazy, thoughtless cliches in all of sports fandom. Just because fans want their team to improve or because they criticize moves or the lack thereof does not make those fans "spoiled." It makes them passionate. That's the definition of being a fan.

[joshy207 156]

Why was Holland so successful? Two words: Hakan Andersson.

He has played an enormous role, for sure. But it hasn't been just Andersson...

[Ally 448]

The people demanding Kenny's head for not making big trades and getting UFAs to sign here are the same people that will demand Kenny's head when we lost a great prospect in a trade and he becomes a star somewhere else or when someone signs a big contract with us and then doesn't immediately score the trillion goals they hoped he would.

Lose/Lose for poor Mr. Holland

[Guest DeGraa55]

The people demanding Kenny's head for not making big trades and getting UFAs to sign here are the same people that will demand Kenny's head when we lost a great prospect in a trade and he becomes a star somewhere else or when someone signs a big contract with us and then doesn't immediately score the trillion goals they hoped he would.

Lose/Lose for poor Mr. Holland

Not at all. He just has not made good decisions these last few years.

[Guest Crymson]

If we dont get Vanek, Kenny needs to go.

Because giving up a bunch of assets for one year of Vanek would be wise?

The Wings are FAR away from being stanley cup contenders, they would be lucky making the playoffs this year.

Umm, OK... after being one goal from the conference finals, the Wings would be lucky to make the playoffs next season? I don't get it. This makes as much sense as your persistent claims that Clarkson is big, which is to say not much.

3. This is my primary disagreement. I have seen others on here wanting him bought out to add some fancy new free agent to the team. I couldn't care less about the cap hit coming off the books if a Samuelsson buyout were to occur; it's about making room on the roster for the younger guys. The man can barely stay healthy for more than a handful of games at a time, and if he does... what real good does he do? Do you want him in your top 6, seriously? He's a 3 million dollar third liner. If his presence on the team next season means that one of Tatar or Nyquist does not have a spot, it's absolute garbage. Cap isn't the issue here - it's a useless player taking away from the progress of others.

If the league sides with his agent's claim that he's injured, the Wings cannot buy him out. They can, however, dump him in the minors, and that's exactly what I hope they'll do in response to his babyish, highly pretentious behavior.

[Guest mjtm77]

I am going to be like that guy in the sharks series with his gurantees about winning, but ill be right. If we stand put and don't make any moves WE WILL MISS THE PLAYOFFS. I guarantee it.

[Guest Crymson]

I am going to be like that guy in the sharks series with his gurantees about winning, but ill be right. If we stand put and don't make any moves WE WILL MISS THE PLAYOFFS. I guarantee it.

It sure is easy to make guarantees when it means putting nothing on the line.

[Guest mjtm77]

It sure is easy to make guarantees when it means putting nothing on the line.

its a hockey form.

Would you like me to bet my house? all I am saying is the wings are going to struggle to make the playoffs and its all cause of Holland making dump decisions/ no decisions

Edited July 4, 2013 by mjtm77

[AtomicPunk 296]

Moving to the East, it might not be a stretch to say they will miss the playoffs. I can think of a lot of teams over there who don't make the playoffs at the last minute. They will be playing Pittsbugh, Boston, NYR, Philly a lot more and not getting those Blue Jackets 8 times a year. It's not a stretch to say they won't make it. It'll be close.

Edited July 4, 2013 by AtomicPunk