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krsmith17

Predictions for the DRW 2014-15 Season!

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I predict the wings are still too small and will get roughed up in the east again. Nagging injuries will plague them and the playoff streak will end.

Sorry to be pessimistic, it's just how I feel at this point.

There are rumours on the Leafs board that they will let McLaren go the guy would fix our smallish problem immediately and save for Lucic, Parros not many are able to go toe to toe with him I'm not even talking about winning. The guy has 1:1 record against the beast that is John Scott.

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Not from Grand Rapids they won't.

Also, how can you honestly blame our bad start at the beginning of last season on lame plugs without immediately acknowledging that those same "lame plugs" are mostly still on the team. We have the same problem we did a year ago.

We haven't made it past the second round of the playoffs in half a decade. You can't blame that all on Sammy, Cleary, and injuries. And if you do, you're setting yourself up for disappointment.

I know we still have some issues to deal with, but having Tatar and Nyquist on the roster from day 1 is a positive compared to last year. We still have Cleary, Kindl, Quincey and Andersson, but with the season starting with a healthy Z, Dats, Helm and Weiss along with Tatar and Nyquist guaranteed roster spots, you have to at least have a shred of hope that this team can do more than just suck. Hopefully Smith is given a larger role as well and Kindl finds himself in GR and not on the PP. Point is, with a healthy roster to start the year, I'll remain positive until I'm given a reason to be negative.

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First of all, you're overplaying your hand a bit. Tatar was a regular in the lineup after 9 games...so it's not like those three guys were all getting huge playing time for the first half of the season...they weren't. After the first ten games any two of the three were scratched on a given night.

Secondly, that doesn't really address my point anyway. Cleary, Bertuzzi, and Samuelsson weren't the reason we got butchered by Boston in the playoffs. They weren't the reason we blew a 3-1 series lead against Chicago the year before that. They weren't the reason we couldn't beat San Jose for two years. And they definitely weren't the reason we got embarrassed by Nashville in 5 games.

But here's the kicker...neither were injuries. In only one of those series (Boston) did injuries play a significant role. There are fundamental issues with this team that haven't been addressed in a LONG time. Acting like those issues have been resolved because we let a couple of frequently scratched third and fourth liners walk is the equivalent to burying your head in the sand.

Again, at no point after the first ten games last season did Cleary, Sammy, and Bert regularly play for our team at the same time. On any given night, maybe one of them played. But rarely two, and definitely not all three.

Tatar was a regular in the line up yes, but was getting garbage ice time to start. It wasn't until Sheahan and Jurco came up that things started to pick up for the Wings in a positive way. So from the start of the season to when the team got interesting, we added Tatar, Sheahan, Nyquist and Jurco. With how well those guys played when they came up, it makes you feel a little better if say 3 Dmen go down and we call up Ouellet, Sproul and Marchenko. Which goes back to my point about teaching Mantha and Jurco to go to the dirty areas for goals....Blashill is the reigning coach of the year in the AHL, so I have a lot of faith that the guys placed in his hands to start the year are going to be NHL players that can play NHL minutes when they get their call.

I wasn't arguing your point Kip.

I was only saying that this year's team should have less plugs than last year.

But yes, if this team continues to play on the outside, have crappy D, suck on special teams, and have average goaltending then they're screwed.

But, an improved Smith and DeKeyser combined with hopefully more Ouellett/Marchenko and less Kindl/Lashoff, and the D should improve.

The small forwards should get stronger.

Jimmy has nowhere to go but up, after last year.

etc.

And our small forwards include Z and Dats....not worried about them at all, and Tatar, Nyquist, Weiss and Helm assuming that anything under 6'0 is small. Other than that, our forward core is getting bigger and with the way the draft has been going lately, we will have a team comparable to LA size wise soon.

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It seems I am marginally more optimistic than the majority. Possibly because my philosphical stance is that if you can't apply hope to sport, then you may as well just watch the news about Gaza, Russia the economy etc...

Anyway:

1) The team will be healthier than last year, particularly our top 6 ; partly a lack of Olympics, partly less issues entering the season (gotta love those early playoff exits for healing), and partly because Weiss will be able to play and if clearly can't skate he'll be beaten out in camp. Having no trade value makes him easier for KH to waive. Inevitably Dats, Zatta, Ericsson, Franzen, Alfredsson and Kronwall will all miss a few games, but I think all will pass 60 having been rested.

2) While Nyquist won't get as hot and there will be more attention on Sheahan and Tatar, I still think the kids will take a step forward as a whole, and the 3 will combine for comfortably over 100 points.

3) Weiss will play most of the year and be underwhelmingly solid for 40 points.

4) The D will be a little better, partly because Quincey & Smith will be kept apart more and because both will start the year considerably better than they started last year. Dekeyser will produce a little more offence and Ericsson will play more down the stretch. Kindl will still infuriate but will put up 5-10 more points (or at least in terms of pace) due to a forward core more able to take advantage of his longer outlet passes.He'll occasionally be bumped out for Oullett/Marchenko/Sproul, but with either largely hold onto his spot or be packaged in a trade.

5) Howard will be a little better, Gus will be a little less lucky, but they'll be a solid tandom. Mrazek will put up great %'s in a few games against bad teams.

6) Helm's improved scoring touch will stay, and his PPG will increase again. Same to a lesser extent with Abdelkader, despite less top 6 ice-time.

7) Miller will continue to quietly effective in his role, never exciting anyone, but never letting anyone down and will get slightly higher point totals.

8) Glendenning will play less or on the wing.

9) If alfie comes back, his play will be remarkably similar to this year, but a lack of Olympics will stop him being useless down the stretch.

10) Franzen will get more time with Nyquist, and as a result will put up more than 0.75PPG and will get 25 goals+ despite going on a run of 5 points in 20 games at some stage.

Mantha will be out-played by Jurco (before he sticks in the big club) in the Minors but will finish with 30+ goals in GR. The Grand Rapids PP will miss Almquist, but Sproul will get much improved points totals.

Babcock will continue to get half the team to over-perform, despite line combinations that make no sense in half the games. Holland will continue to get blamed by fans for things beyond his control, while journalists try to give him credit for things equally beyond his control.

The Wings to finish 5-7 in the conference but with a bit more breathing room and to get a better playoff match-up before losing in the ECSF in a blackhawks style tight series. Babcock to ride off into the sunset to much mixed opinions, and the team to do better in FA next summer as the wings splash out to get the 1 last shot for D & Z.

These predictions are dependent on Alfie re-signing.

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1. the wings come out of nowhere and win the super bowl on feb. 3rd.

get cocky...and slack the rest of the season finishing 28th....missing mcdavid & rychel.

2. followed by a game 7 world series where cleary hits the bottom 9th run...straight to the pitcher.

3. the NFL starts using their waterboys and moneyball analytics and the whole league crashes.

4. XFL returns with a vengence...some punter re-names himself..."the real"

done. book it.

:w00t2:

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I was so incredibly pumped up for 2013-14. And we know how that went. So I'm gonna be cautiously optimistic this time around. The nice thing is that the youth means things are more up-in-the-air than they've been in quite some time. With a heavily veteran team (and, granted, we're still a heavily veteran team), you know what you have, you know what you're getting - the ceiling is more or less set in place. The high-end youth we have gives us a bit of an x-factor. We can hope, dream. There's room for didn't-see-that-coming craziness, e.g. Sheahan killling it.

Beyond that, almost everything that could've gone wrong for the Wings this past season went wrong. If we see improvement on even just a couple of those fronts, we should be a better team for it. Weiss, for example. Yes, a healthy Weiss is like a big acquisition. I hate that it fits Kenny's favorite rationalization narrative, but it's true.

Howard can't be much worse than he was. Quincey singlehandedly cost us games in the first half; the hope, of course, is that he plays more like he did in the second half. (He was pretty good before we re-acquired him.) Z and D should be much healthier. Smith should be improved. Etc.

Arguably the biggest thing going in our favor is that the Eastern Conference looks wide open, a welcome change after all those years in the tougher Western Conference. (It's been the better conference for a long time, folks.) I don't buy that the Rangers, Canadiens, Penguins, or Lightning are really any better than a healthy Wings team that has its s*** together.

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Even healthy the team hardly killed and lost against very beatable enemies. To each their own opinion but most experts and people in the know would put the Bolts and Pens over the Wings and rightfully so.

The Rangers have a great defense and well the King, Habs Price so yeah even fully healthy those teams are just better. I would go as far saying that this Wings edition will be worse than the one we've had last season. The defense just isn't good enough to get the job done

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Even healthy the team hardly killed and lost against very beatable enemies. To each their own opinion but most experts and people in the know would put the Bolts and Pens over the Wings and rightfully so. The Rangers have a great defense and well the King, Habs Price so yeah even fully healthy those teams are just better. I would go as far saying that this Wings edition will be worse than the one we've had last season. The defense just isn't good enough to get the job done

Florida looks pretty deep this year too...

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Even healthy the team hardly killed and lost against very beatable enemies. To each their own opinion but most experts and people in the know would put the Bolts and Pens over the Wings and rightfully so. The Rangers have a great defense and well the King, Habs Price so yeah even fully healthy those teams are just better. I would go as far saying that this Wings edition will be worse than the one we've had last season. The defense just isn't good enough to get the job done

The Wings are one season removed from beating an excellent Ducks team in seven and choking against an even better Blackhawks team. Those Ducks and Blackhawks were better than any of the current Eastern teams, aside from maybe the Bruins. That Wings team wasn't much better than what we have right now, maybe not better at all. What it had - at least in the playoffs - was Datsyuk, Zetterberg, a surprise third line, a red-hot Jimmy Howard, and the underdog thing. Smith and Quincey were disasters, and they'll be better this season. DeKeyser was getting his first taste of NHL action, wasn't as good as he's going to be this season. Kindl was overachieving. Andersson and Brunner were key contributors. Flip had already checked out. All of this and more tells me we can do damage in the East, we just need to be "healthy and humming," as I like to put it.

You mention we weren't very good this past season even when we were healthy. I've made that point before, but I don't know if I really buy it. All teams have ups and downs. You can't really look at a few games and say that's our team. Or, if you're going to say that, you have to look at the bad and the good, and I think being able to say we choked against the Blackhawks in the second round in 2013 is, while not really something to be proud of, a "good" thing.

I feel like if we're talking up a team like the Rangers or Pens, we're just doing it to do it, we don't necessarily believe what we're saying. Like, having seen The Mighty Rangers and Canadiens and Penguins and Lightning in action in the playoffs a few months ago, did you find yourself saying, "Damn! These teams are great! No way do the Wings compete with them in a best of seven"? Bulls***. I'm not crazy about the Wings, but not for one second will I believe that a Wings team *that has its s*** together* (that's the key, of course) isn't in the discussion for a top seed in the conference. We had what was in many ways a miserable season, but I'm still not remotely scared of the East (except for maybe the Bruins). None of us should be. I can't stress this enough.

Edited by Dabura

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Even healthy the team hardly killed and lost against very beatable enemies. To each their own opinion but most experts and people in the know would put the Bolts and Pens over the Wings and rightfully so. The Rangers have a great defense and well the King, Habs Price so yeah even fully healthy those teams are just better. I would go as far saying that this Wings edition will be worse than the one we've had last season. The defense just isn't good enough to get the job done

Well, Weiss was never healthy last year so he can be thought of a new asset. Without considering him, though, I don't think there was ever a time last year when vets were healthy (Z, Dats, Franzen, Helm) and the kids (Nyquist, Tats, Jurco, Sheahan) were on the team. That combination, Weiss playing realgud, and if Howard returns to form, then I really think this is a very different team. Lots of ifs, but I'm pretty optimistic.

Bolts and Pens also have uncertainty as well:

Pens: How will they play under a new coach? How will their defence be with Niskanen and Orpik being replaced by erhoff? How much will the loss of James Neil be felt?

Bolts: What will it be like without St. Louis for a whole season? Will Bishop be that good again? - he did have wrist surgery during this offseason. Will Stralman and Wideman fix their defence problems? (alright so the last question is almost certainly yes)

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Well, Weiss was never healthy last year so he can be thought of a new asset. Without considering him, though, I don't think there was ever a time last year when vets were healthy (Z, Dats, Franzen, Helm) and the kids (Nyquist, Tats, Jurco, Sheahan) were on the team. That combination, Weiss playing realgud, and if Howard returns to form, then I really think this is a very different team. Lots of ifs, but I'm pretty optimistic.

Bolts and Pens also have uncertainty as well:

Pens: How will they play under a new coach? How will their defence be with Niskanen and Orpik being replaced by erhoff? How much will the loss of James Neil be felt?

Bolts: What will it be like without St. Louis for a whole season? Will Bishop be that good again? - he did have wrist surgery during this offseason. Will Stralman and Wideman fix their defence problems? (alright so the last question is almost certainly yes)

For me the Weiss thing is simple: until I haven't seen that he can actually be a great addition I will remain skeptical. Mind you nothing against him, I just find it difficult to come back in perfect shape after having missed almost 2 seasons :( Trust me, I wish I would be wrong and he absolutely surprises me with great play.

Pens: To be honest with you I know absolutely nothing about their new coach but at the end of the day, when you have Crosby, Malkin, Ehrhoff, Letang and that Maataa kid at least the ECF should be expected and a given at least in mind. Will they live up to all that expectations ? Who knows but on paper they are one hell of a team. I also think they've closed the gap on the Bruins I mean letting a great locker room and beloved Bruin in Shawn Thornton go is just stupid beyond everything add to that letting Iginla go.. it's not been a great off-season for one of the best GMs in the game [Chiarelli].

Bolts: Agreed nobody knows if Bishop can bring it again but that team is on the rise I mean Stamkos, Hedberg, Bishop, Drouin, Stralman, Callahan, Palat most of them aren't even in their prime yet. So it's just outstanding what Y has been able to accomplish there. This to me is a team that has closed the gap to the Pens and Bruins more it may not be there yet but they are getting closer each off-season.

As for beating the Ducks, they are the new version of the Capitals under Bodreaus the guy is a regular season guru but he just doesn't seem to have the right playoff plan. Also that game 7 against the Ducks could have gone either way when I'm looking at this Redwings team I'm looking at the embarrassment against the Big Bad Juggernut named Bruins and compared to the series against this team nothing happened, so I wouldn't feel comfortable facing them, Pens or Bolts in a first round and that's exactly what will happen.

This is a team which at best will finish around the 7 - 8 spot and again be up against an bsolute juggernut so I'd rather play the kids, forget about patchworks and if we stink all the better hello McDavid or Jake Eichel :-)

Edited by frankgrimes

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Dats and Z are amazing when healthy and they do miss their games to injury but not nearly as much as last year.

Franzen stays streaky hopping on and off the first two lines, gets injured for a little while and has a couple of game winners. 15-20 goals.

Weiss has a pretty good year. Thinking 20 goals.

Defense has some good moments. Scores a bit more but only because some kids get called up and make an impact. Not a scary bunch and the experience(yes the vets), aside from Kronwall, will continue to bring this unit down especially getting beat back on rushes and lack of physicality. This and our goaltending will continue to be the weak links.

Howard will continue to be streaky and dream he could time warp back to Raf, Lids, Stuart and Kronwall in his prime days. Even then Howard couldn't get us out of the 2nd round. Monster is solid as backup but gets hurt and Mrazek plays a lot more than we all expect but makes our goalie future look brighter than we think. Big goalie controversy ensues a few weeks before the playoffs.

Coaching and power play will be better. This plays a big role in us making it 24 straight years especially in a weaker conference.

Quincey has a soso year and is a little better than last year but him and Kindl are scratched for a lot of the season which is a good thing.

Cleary becomes a daily scratch.

Kids continue to make an impact in regular season. Tatar and Nyquist put up solid numbers, third line is one of the fastest in the league.

Helm stays relatively healthy and the 4th line isn't so easy to play against.

Wings take the 5th seed, make it to the 2nd round and play a hard fought 7 game series coming up just a bit short.

Holland makes a move at the trade deadline finally to acquire either a power forward, goalie or solid defenseman for playoff run. Another 2nd round exit forces him to address the other 2 next offseason.

One year from today we are a happier,more optimistic bunch!

Edited by GoWings!

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This is a team which at best will finish around the 7 - 8 spot

I like you, frank, but I just can't get behind this. You're saying that at our best - which, as 2013 showed, is really quite good - we barely squeak into the playoffs in the weak East, and, to me, that's giving the conference way too much credit. I get that there's this narrative that we're barely clinging to life and THIS is the season that the playoff streak comes to an end, but I think it's largely just that - a narrative. Had we added Datsyuk in free agency, people would be saying, "Holy s***, Zetterberg and Datsyuk?! And they've got all these young studs like Nyquist?! This team's gonna be GREAT!" In fact, going into last season, a lot of the "experts" had us down for second or third in the Atlantic. Did we learn this past season that the conference is super-tough? No, we got destroyed by stupid-ass injuries - and, even then, we still made the playoffs.

The Bruins are an elite contender. They're a team built to win the Cup, and I'm not sure we stand a chance against them in the playoffs even with a healthy roster. But the Bruins are the only powerhouse in the Eastern Conference. Behind them are the Penguins, who feasted on a terrible division and didn't seem like world-beaters any of the times we played them; maybe the Rangers, who were lucky to make it to the Finals and are probably a weaker team this season (losing Pouliot and Boyle and Stralman is a big blow for them and they know it); maybe the Canadiens, who were terrible for stretches this past season and are, I think, entirely dependent on their goalie (look at their roster. Tell me, with a straight face, that they're much deeper and much more formidable than us); maybe the Lightning, who are setting themselves up for great success in the future but aren't there yet and very likely overachieved this past season because Bishop played out of his mind (remember: they lost him for the first round and the Habs streamrolled them); and I'm not even going to mention the Flyers or Capitals or Leafs or Senators or Devils or Hurricanes.

I believe the East is wide, wide open. I don't believe the Wings are truly a fringe team.

Think of all the points we pissed away. We get a few of those back, and we're not an 8th seed.

I can't imagine we don't substantially improve on this past season.

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I like you, frank, but I just can't get behind this. You're saying that at our best - which, as 2013 showed, is really quite good - we barely squeak into the playoffs in the weak East, and, to me, that's giving the conference way too much credit. I get that there's this narrative that we're barely clinging to life and THIS is the season that the playoff streak comes to an end, but I think it's largely just that - a narrative. Had we added Datsyuk in free agency, people would be saying, "Holy s***, Zetterberg and Datsyuk?! And they've got all these young studs like Nyquist?! This team's gonna be GREAT!" In fact, going into last season, a lot of the "experts" had us down for second or third in the Atlantic. Did we learn this past season that the conference is super-tough? No, we got destroyed by stupid-ass injuries - and, even then, we still made the playoffs.

The Bruins are an elite contender. They're a team built to win the Cup, and I'm not sure we stand a chance against them in the playoffs even with a healthy roster. But the Bruins are the only powerhouse in the Eastern Conference. Behind them are the Penguins, who feasted on a terrible division and didn't seem like world-beaters any of the times we played them; maybe the Rangers, who were lucky to make it to the Finals and are probably a weaker team this season (losing Pouliot and Boyle and Stralman is a big blow for them and they know it); maybe the Canadiens, who were terrible for stretches this past season and are, I think, entirely dependent on their goalie (look at their roster. Tell me, with a straight face, that they're much deeper and much more formidable than us); maybe the Lightning, who are setting themselves up for great success in the future but aren't there yet and very likely overachieved this past season because Bishop played out of his mind (remember: they lost him for the first round and the Habs streamrolled them); and I'm not even going to mention the Flyers or Capitals or Leafs or Senators or Devils or Hurricanes.

I believe the East is wide, wide open. I don't believe the Wings are truly a fringe team.

Think of all the points we pissed away. We get a few of those back, and we're not an 8th seed.

I can't imagine we don't substantially improve on this past season.

I agree. With the state of the East and also our horrendous injury record from last season, this team is definitely capable of grabbing the number 4 seed, if not 3. While I will remain reserved until we see how the early part of the year plays out, I'm cautiously optimistic.

Think about it. We've got Gus and Tatar not only starting the season on the roster, but they're both playing solid minutes each and every night. Add Sheahan into the mix, and Jurco, although he's looking like the first recall right now, pending what happens with Cleary. Even just with those 4 kids, that's a massive improvement right there. Increased speed, scoring depth and a little size with Sheahan. A healthy D and Z will be key, and getting Weiss going will really help too.

Obviously there will be injuries. But if they're less frequent, and to less important players, then there's every reason to think that the Wings will at least challenge for a much higher seed, made all the more believable in my eyes by the fact that really only the Lightning got better in the East this offseason (of those that made the playoffs).

Like I said, cautious optimism I think is how I'm approaching the upcoming year.

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Last season Howard costed us around 10 games before Jan.1st and then after that he found his game. To add to that, We missed Pav and Hank for half the season, Weiss pretty much the whole season, Helm off and on all year, Franzen was hit or miss, Alfie missed time, Danny D, Smith and Ericsson all missed chunks of time. Going into this season, with a very good schedule that we have, a fresh healthy load, there is NO REASON to think that this team cannot do substantially better than we did last year. I mean for God sake, in March alone, we litererally did not have Pav, Hank, Weiss, Helm, Anderson (5 centerman) hence why we had to trade for Legwand. I would LOVE to see how any other team in the league would fare in that situation. Lets stop being so negative and wait to see what our healthy team can do, with the kids also playing important roles.

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Guest DeGraa55

The bruins who lost to Mtl who then lost to nyr are a powerhouse? Do people even watch hockey? Stop cherry picking stats fact is most teams got better in the easy and Detroit stayed the same...

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The bruins who lost to Mtl who then lost to nyr are a powerhouse? Do people even watch hockey? Stop cherry picking stats fact is most teams got better in the easy and Detroit stayed the same...

The Bruins don't match up very well against the Habs. Any time those two play, it can go either way. That's pretty much what we saw in their *seven-game* series - it could've gone either way. If the Bruins advance, they beat the Rangers and they make their second consecutive appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. For the most part, this team is toying with its conference and most of the West. They didn't get it done, but that doesn't mean they're not a powerhouse. The Wings were a powerhouse for the better part of two straight decades, but with that territory comes a lot of disappointment, as we all know.

As to your other point - I'll believe that most of the conference got better and is going to shove the Wings down into the basement when I see it unfold that way. Until then, I'm saying, as someone who's practically a LGW pioneer in the art of being hopelessly cynical and pessmistic about the Wings, that a healthy Wings team is right there with the likes of the Penguins, Rangers, Lightning, et al. and will challenge for a top seed.

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Guest DeGraa55

The Bruins don't match up very well against the Habs. Any time those two play, it can go either way. That's pretty much what we saw in their *seven-game* series - it could've gone either way. If the Bruins advance, they beat the Rangers and they make their second consecutive appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. For the most part, this team is toying with its conference and most of the West. They didn't get it done, but that doesn't mean they're not a powerhouse. The Wings were a powerhouse for the better part of two straight decades, but with that territory comes a lot of disappointment, as we all know.

As to your other point - I'll believe that most of the conference got better and is going to shove the Wings down into the basement when I see it unfold that way. Until then, I'm saying, as someone who's practically a LGW pioneer in the art of being hopelessly cynical and pessmistic about the Wings, that a healthy Wings team is right there with the likes of the Penguins, Rangers, Lightning, et al. and will challenge for a top seed.

Looking at the playoff teams WE ARE IN THE BASEMENT. Stop ignoring it. We were 8th. So many people here think were a top 4 team in either conference when was the last time that happened? Stop drinking the damn kool aid and face facts. Until we do better were a fringe playoff team. That's what's been proven these last several seasons.

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