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rrasco

10/12 GDT: Flyers 2 at Red Wings 5

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Good to see Brendan Smith stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility for his lackluster play. Also, is it just me or is he subtly blaming his breakdowns on Quincey when he says "the breakdowns didn't come from MY side"? Maybe I'm reading into this too much, or maybe he's the type of guy who always has an excuse.

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Didn't watched the last game but against Boston the whole D wasn't up to their usual performance, not only Smith. We are only four games in the season and I would have liked to see more patience with a young gun like Smith.

Other changes are interesting, let's see if Bert can pull the piano better than Abby. And all the best to Glendening for his first NHL-Game. He must be scared. I would, if my goalie would wear pink pads. :P

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Maybe Babs's comment means: Yeah. He's a goal scorer. We need goals. <Glares menacingly at members of the team who are supposed to score goals but haven't.> I don't know why Tatar isn't playing. I ask myself that a lot. <Glares even more menacingly at offending offensemen, chugs a pint of Dasani, pops another stick of Big Red, glares until fire shoots out of his eyes, killing off non-producing forwards.>

Edited by 55fan

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I'm good with these lines, except for Alfredsson being on the 3rd line. Swap Abdelkader and Alfredsson.

Exactly. I mean, I know that line hasn't meshed very well yet (Mule-Weiss-Alfie), but come on we're only 4 games in. Gotta give them more time to build some chemistry. Abby is not a top line guy. It's one thing when he had Z and Dats to help make him look a lil better, but without them he needs to immediately be sent to the 3rd of 4th line where he belongs.

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Good to see Brendan Smith stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility for his lackluster play. Also, is it just me or is he subtly blaming his breakdowns on Quincey when he says "the breakdowns didn't come from MY side"? Maybe I'm reading into this too much, or maybe he's the type of guy who always has an excuse.

I was going to point out his comments (re: being scratched), because they did strike me as kind of facepalmy.

http://www.freep.com/article/20131012/SPORTS05/310120065/1053/sports05

On defense, Brian Lashoff is in, and Brendan Smith is out.

That news caught Smith off guard. “I’m surprised,” he said. “I’m just not in the plans today, I guess. They didn’t say anything.”

Smith is a minus-4, second worst on the team behind partner Kyle Quincey is minus-5.

“If you watch those goals,” Smith said, “I don’t think there’s a breakdown on my side. It is what it is.”

I remember hearing or reading an anecdote last year wherein Babcock tells Smith he's scratching him for the next game, Smith says ok, Babs says NO IT'S NOT OK, and Smith says he only said it was ok because he didn't want to cross Babs.

Take from that what you will.

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I thought Tatar played terribly in his game this year. Defensively unsound, uncharacteristic turn-overs, and this was all against the opposing team's bottom line players. I want the kid to get another crack at the lineup, but based on his first game I would be hesitant to play him in the top 6, against top-6 opponents. I think Babs comments are more toward Tatar needing to step up his game if he wants to play. Fortunately it's a long year, and the roster has been shuffled after every loss so far, so he will have plenty of opportunities to be more responsible on the defensive side of the game.

Anyway, I'm excited to see how this one turns out. Abby and Weiss should be good energy for the second line, and Bert had some unique chemistry with Datsyuk when they've played together in the past.

He looked bad playing a couple of minutes in a role completely wrong for him against one of the best teams in the league in a game where the entire Wings lineup was awful?

Shocking.

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I'm almost scared of what will happen if we WIN tonight... that lineup is terrible but will keep rolling until we lose. More likely what will happen is we get scored on 3min in and babs scrambles the lines like always.

When you look at the Smith situation - yes he is immature as a dman - no, staying in GR did not "overripe" him. Holland things leaving kids in GR is the same as NHL experience and that they will have less growing pains as a result. This is bulls***, look at Danny D who has stepped in and played with poise. The NHL is different than the AHL no matter how many years you play in the AHL. Kids need a shot and a chance to learn early while they are still developing or else they look like duds when they are mid 20's and still look rattled out there.

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Smith is a knob. Makes me scared about his drive to be better. Other than Smith the Defense has been pretty good defensively. We need offense from our D. Smith is just terrible. Good skater but borderline retarded

Personally, I've been incredibly unhappy with our defense in general (both the blue line and Team D), especially in our own zone. I'm happy that one of Smith and Quincey will be sitting, cuz GOOD LORD they have been a brutal pairing. (And that's not a new development, it's a continuation from last season.) But, again, all of our defensemen have to be better and our Team D needs to improve as well. Lashoff isn't really an upgrade over a struggling Smith, and I'm guessing Babs is well aware of that, but I think Babs is right that we need to play a much "heavier" game, and in that regard I like the Lashoff add. (And, as mentioned, I like the message being sent to Smith. I just hope it isn't lost on him.)

Fun, fun, fun.

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He looked bad playing a couple of minutes in a role completely wrong for him against one of the best teams in the league in a game where the entire Wings lineup was awful?

Shocking.

Yes his shortcomings were everyone else's fault except his.

Its simple. If you can't play defense, you can't play. He was a liability on the ice, and I fully expected and agreed with Babs benching him after that performance. His turnovers weren't the result of playing on the fourth line. Nor were they the result of him only playing a few minutes. Nor were they a result of the rest of the team playing poorly. His decisions with the puck and without the puck were entirely his to make, and for the most part, they were clumsy, ill-timed, poor decisions that didn't produce anything productive for the team, and often ended up with puck on an opponent's stick.

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Guest Crymson

^Smith still looks so uncomfortable in interviews

He also looks uncomfortable on the ice.

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Of course Tatar isn't perfect. How will he get better sitting on the pine? Sitting a kid with raw potential in favor of veterans who will not learn any new tricks and just drag the team down isn't smart. But I have to believe Babs knows what he's doing.

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Yes his shortcomings were everyone else's fault except his.

Its simple. If you can't play defense, you can't play. He was a liability on the ice, and I fully expected and agreed with Babs benching him after that performance. His turnovers weren't the result of playing on the fourth line. Nor were they the result of him only playing a few minutes. Nor were they a result of the rest of the team playing poorly. His decisions with the puck and without the puck were entirely his to make, and for the most part, they were clumsy, ill-timed, poor decisions that didn't produce anything productive for the team, and often ended up with puck on an opponent's stick.

I really disagree with that view of his performance in that game and I'm not even one of the people most upset about him not being in the lineup.

Basically I think he was put in a position where it's extremely difficult for him to succeed so it's not surprising he didn't do great. How many guys on this team can you put on the 4th line with Emmerton and Miller and expect that line to be productive? Datsyuk and Zetterberg MAYBE, and that's it.

Most likely Tatar will be overthinking everything he does now because he believes he has to set the world on fire in order to stay in the lineup. Most players, especially young ones, actually perform better if they're given some trust by their coach and don't have to play with the pressure of being out of the lineup if they have a bad game. Simple truth is that going by what Tatar did last season both in the NHL and AHL, and by what he did in camp, he should be cemented on one of our top 3 lines this year. He should play 82 games and he should play on the PP.. Like everyone is saying, we're struggling to score goals and we have a guy who LOVES to put pucks in the net on the 4th line or not even in the lineup. Sense, this does not make.

Anyway, I hope Babcock's comment is directed towards Holland. He needs to make the necessary decisions that enables/forces Babcock to play the best possible lineup, you know, the one that includes two of the best offensive talents we have.

Edited by dat's sick

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