Seasons half way, thoughts?

[Richdg 267]

Ok we have reached the halfway point, well a couple games past but you all get the point. So how is this season going vs what you thought prior to the season?

before the season I posted that we would:

1. Start fast and do well the first 30-40 games.

2. be middle of the pack scoring but pretty good on D.

3. Injuries would mount mid season to second half.

4. We would fight for the final PO spot most of the year.

Well, mostly right to date. The one that we as a team are a little behind on is D. I thought we would be top 10 by the end of the year-currently we are 14th in goals allowed.

IF the PO's started today we would be 7th, 1 point ahead of 8th.

As for some of the players, some more thoughts.

Dekeyser is our best Dman. We have to get him healthy asap. I thought he had a good chance to be the top Dman after a year. Great job DD!

Tatar and Nyquist. I have said for a couple of years now on this forum that both need to play and that both were 40 point per year guys. Some attacked me for saying that, which is fine. But guess what, they are on .5 points per games pace, which comes to 41 points per year. I think some of that attacks come from the fact we haven't had many 40 point per year guys, and forgot what they look like/play like. 40 points isn't bad, just not superstar numbers.

Jurco-he looked good and needs to come back up. he could be awesome with about 10 more pounds of muscle.

Sheahan=Abby. Not a bad thing. bring him back up asap as well and let him play of the 4th line.

All the young Dmen. Almquist, oullett, marchenko, soon to be Sproul, etc..... All have played except Sproul and all have done a nice job. They are proving they have value and thus give us depth and trade pieces if/when needed.

For the second half, expect more of the same. I think we will still make the PO's keeping the streak alive. Now that it is the new year, I will also start looking at the draft prospects as well.

Go WINGS!!!!!!!!

[Dabura 12,206]

I didn't make any really specific predictions. Well, ok - I thought we'd be better. Much better. Actually, I predicted we'd face the Kings in the SCF.

So much trouble in our own end. Many nights, you'd think half our team had never had to play in the d-zone prior to this season. We have this strange compulsion to be fancy and complex and make nine passes, or try to carry the puck from behind the net and around nine forecheckers just to gain the n-zone. What happened to smooth, simple, safe, set outlet plays? What happened to crisp, concise first passes? Where'd all that go? Rhetorical questions, I suppose. Lidstrom and Rafalski are gone and our D is young and jumpy and injury prone. And we have Kyle Quincey.

Add to that the injury woes, the scoring woes, the Jimmy Howard woes, the shootout woes, the two-goal lead woes, the two-goal deficit woes, the taking-too-many-stupid penalties woes, the lineup woes (see: Cleary, Dan/Daniel/Danny/Dammit), the we-don't-do-well-with-cameras woes, the we-don't-do-well-with-NBC-broadcasts woes, and, of course, the we-hate-playing-in-our-own-barn woes, and I think it's safe to say that this first half has left a lot to be desired.

The really frustrating thing about it all is that we're a great team when we want to be. Actually, the really frustrating thing is how many points we've left on the table with our TEN shootout losses. If we were merely bad in the shootout, as opposed to mindblowingly godawful, we might be challenging for first in the East right now. If only we were one of those teams that gets by on skill....

Edited January 7, 2014 by Dabura

[Guest fat guy in a maltby jersey]

my thoughts:

this team sucks.

[wings87 1,290]

My biggest thought is, it could have been much worse we are lucky to be in the position we are in.

[kipwinger 8,494]

Gotta do something about the defense. We've got offensive d-men that don't score and are horrible in transition, defensive d-men who can't shutdown quality forwards, and a team system that is built around having a good d-core.

We need defensemen who can make plays. Sure they could do like last year and spend every second of everygame playing team defense and ultimately squeak out 2-1 or 1-0 games, but we're more talented than that. Babs keeps talking about how we're not as skilled as we used to be. But a team with Dats, Z, Franzen, Alfie, Tatar, Nyquist, looks pretty skilled to me. Get these guys some defensemen that can get them the puck and things will start picking up.

Oh, and f*ck injuries already.

Kronwall-Ericsson

Puck Mover-Dekeyser

Smith-Lashoff

Kindl/Quincey/whoever

[Nev 1,085]

The good - Pav, Z, Kronner. The PK.

Surprisingly good - Alfie, Lashoff. Monster, Q2 Franzen.

The bad - Injuries. Playing down to bad teams. Injuries. Roster management wasting the first 6 weeks of the season. Puck movement in our own end. Q1 Franzen

The surprisingly bad - Quincey, Cleary (did even their biggest detractors think they'd be this bad). Howards form. Injuries. The shootout.

[stillwater 186]

my thoughts:

this team sucks.

You say that in every post, in one way or another.

They must be doing something right.

Have them get healthy before judgement.

[Z and D for the C 712]

I think it's encouraging that he hasn't really slowed down all season, in fact he's probably heating up even more. He we through a little stretch where he slightly decreased in production but right now he has 13 points in the past 10 games and 6 of those points are goals. It's completely possible he'll score more in the second half of the season than the first. He's really giving the team a chance in the absence of Stamkos.

[frankgrimes 1,836]

Basically exactly what expected, very comparable to last year and to easy to play against.

+

Z, Pasha, AlfredssonDanny K, Nyquist, Tatar, Kronwal and Monster

~

Smith, Abdelkader, Ericsson, Mule

-

Clearly, Bertuzzi, Quincy, Howard, Weiss and sending down the only gritty player on this team in Tootoo

I won't mention Helm, Jurco both haven't played enough and the latter was just an emergency call up.

All in all lots of injuries, streaky games and I know it's a wishful thinking but I would love to see the team play with a chip on their shoulder in the second half. The upcoming horror trip to the sunbelt teams might define their season.

[Richdg 267]

I would love to see us dump the old broken crap and go young. Even if that means we miss the PO's. Just going so we can be "one of the best 16 teams in the NHL" doesn't do much for me. We are not a cup contender right now and could really be 2-3 years away. We have to have better players. be it trade, UFA, or draft.

[roboturner 562]

I would love to see us dump the old broken crap and go young. Even if that means we miss the PO's. Just going so we can be "one of the best 16 teams in the NHL" doesn't do much for me. We are not a cup contender right now and could really be 2-3 years away. We have to have better players. be it trade, UFA, or draft.

The thing that sucks the most is we only have a few more years of Dats & Z. Maybe 5 at most.

We need to win at least one more Cup in that time.

I know doom and gloom has been predicted for this franchise for years, but who knows if we've got/will get anybody to step in to these huge holes that will be left.

[Richdg 267]

If I come across as doom and gloom, that is not the intent. I true to be honest and realistic with what we are. we are an average team at best right now. yes we can still pull off the hot streak where we look good-most teams can. But success is more often than not how you do when things are not going great. can you struggle and still be .500?

Do we have some strong spots? yes. Do we have some weak spots? yes, more than strong....... It took a long time for us to get to the top of the mountain, I am hoping we can retool/rebuild quickly and get back there.

[BadgerBob 297]

The surprisingly bad - Quincey, Cleary (did even their biggest detractors think they'd be this bad).

I didn't expect it, but it doesn't surprise me. They are both absolutely awful and it's nothing new. At least Cleary used to be good, never been a fan of Quincey at all.

[dragonballgtz 273]

My thoughts, we are the new Flames team. Meaning depending on the night we can play with the best teams. Other nights it looks like AHL teams could kick our butts. That's scary being a bubble team because a top draft pick would be huge

[evilmrt 636]

My thoughts, we are the new Flames team. Meaning depending on the night we can play with the best teams. Other nights it looks like AHL teams could kick our butts. That's scary being a bubble team because a top draft pick would be huge

You're right on. The lack of consistent play and attitude with this year's team is their Achilles heel. Every team has a bad night now and again, but the amount of nights this season where an AHL team could have kicked the Wings ass is unprecedented in my young life.

[Dabura 12,206]

we are an average team at best right now.

Agree and disagree. We are, but we all know this has been an incredibly screwy first half. It's like we've been drunk for three months.

[joshy207 156]

Consistently inconsistent. This is the same team that was on the outside looking in with a week to go last season. It's also the same team that rallied to get the #7 seed, took out Anaheim, and had Chicago on the ropes before falling apart. It's a team that can completely pick apart an opponent one night, then look like they have never played the game the next night. You never know which team is going to show up.

[Guest DeGraa55]

About what was to be expected.

I wish all the people who predicted deep runs in the playoffs would chime in.

[jimmyemeryhunter 2,747]

About what was to be expected.

I wish all the people who predicted deep runs in the playoffs would chime in.

Im not one of these people, I hope for it, never predicted it.

I was just unaware the playoffs occured at the halfway mark of the regular season.

[Wings_Toledo 233]

I think the team has done alright with the ridiculous amount of injuries and the constantly changing lineup. Howard has struggled, but he seems to be getting back into form with two consecutive solid games to start the new year (nevermind that shootout business...). With a completely healthy lineup (which I know is unlikely to happen) this team is capable of winning a lot more games. Not having Helm, Ericsson, DeKeyser and Franzen are big losses to this team, no matter what your opinion of Franzen might be.

Edited January 7, 2014 by Wings_Toledo

[wings4thecup06 504]

Up and down to be honest. Going into the season I was incredibly optimistic after the end of last year. And then we re-signed cleary……….(just for the record, I have nothing against Danny, but I firmly believed it was time for the wings to part ways with him)

That said, I think we've done exceedingly well considering the injuries we've had (as of Jan 5th, 166 man games lost, 7th in the league - source mangameslost.com!!!!).

I'm hoping that we'll have a big surge once we can get DeKeyser, Helm, Datsyuk and Franzen back, establish some consistency with our lines and move forward productively. Extremely excited about the form Helm has shown when he came back, some unexpected offence too which is badly needed.

I do think that they should possibly bury Samuelsson and bring up Jurco full time, the kid just needs to play. And I truly believe there's a spot for Sheahan on this team also. A couple of big, young bodies will definitely go along way.

Glad to see that Nyqvist and especially Tatar are playing well, but they both just need to become a little more consistent and bring it every night.

Tootoo needs to be up here permanently IMO, just so we can have a greater bang and crash presence on our 4th line.

Only real negatives I can find are the lack of consistency, Cleary been given a constant lineup spot, injuries obviously, non stellar play from Jimmy (although he looks like he's turned a corner now). Otherwise, the east definitely is no where near as strong as the west. I could envision that if we can get on a roll in the second half and start churning out wins, I don't think there's anyone else in the East besides Boston and Pittsburgh that could give us a problem come playoff time. That is of course, if this team starts to play like we expect it to.

[VM1138 1,921]

I expect their play to improve in the second half. I don't know why, but I do. Assuming, of course, they can get healthy to the point where maybe only one top player is injured at a given time.

I imagine they can turn in another great finish to the season once the Olympics are over.

[GoWings! 179]

I'm worried about these injuries. Are we a playoff team when healthy? I think so. Can we stay healthy? I don't think so. There's always someone hurt. We were finally on a roll 2 months ago and then we lost practically everyone. Never icing our best players. The way this team is built, we need everyone healthy. The good thing is I see a nice core of rookies filling in and doing pretty well. Our backup goalie has been a big surprise keeping us in the playoff hunt. Our starting goalie has to rise up second half. We all knew the defense was gonna take a hit when our hall of famers retired. A hot goalie can win a Cup with a hungry team. I'm not convinced Jimmy can win us a Cup but I'd love him to prove me wrong. Guys like Helm are such spark it's a big shame he can't stay healthy. Weiss, Quincey and Cleary are awful. Kindl gets an honorable mention for suckiness also. All well. Maybe a trade is in the making. Team is doing worse than I expected but we've been spoiled for over 2 decades. Season isn't over yet. Let's see what happens. Go Wings!

[Guest Crymson]

My thoughts are that this string of injuries has been ridiculous. And it couldn't have happened to the team's less important players, nay. The injuries have, instead, come almost entirely amongst the team's best scorers, top defensemen, and generally vital players.

[dirtydangles 1,328]

My thoughts are that this string of injuries has been ridiculous. And it couldn't have happened to the team's less important players, nay. The injuries have, instead, come almost entirely amongst the team's best scorers, top defensemen, and generally vital players.

Agreed. How is it that Q, Sammy, and Cleary escape injuries?? I guess Sammy doesn't play much but Cleary and Q go every night and are never out with injuries this season. The only way babs will see how terribad they are is for them to be out of the lineup with injury and a young kid steps in and elevates play.