GDT 12/11 GDT : Red Wings at New Jersey Devils, 7:00 EST

[jimmyemeryhunter 2,747]

You're sensitive, fella!!! I'm not accusing at all. I'm just pointing out that Nyquist and Tatar were the goal scorers tonight. If anyone deserved to be on the ice, it was them.

But yeah, Nyquist/Tatar were good tonight, but I wouldn't have them out with less than a minute left in it, with ONE defenseman, when were facing a team with so few skilled players.

Edited December 12, 2015 by jimmyemeryhunter

[Bill Berzeench 310]

Not about sensitivity it's about behaving like an adult.

Regardless. Nyquist and Tatar can be out there. That's not a problem. But if that's the case then they need more of a stay at home defenseman on the blue line. Like Dekseyser or Kronwall. Having 3 offensive minded guys isn't smart and it ended up costing them. Facts are facts.

Out of a sample size of what? 1 time? You gonna bench Brady and Gronk for the one interception Brady throws and tell me "facts are facts"? Your "facts" are not facts at all. They are opinions. Smith is a great skater. Nyquist and Tatar are great shooters. Both skating and shooting are at a premium with the open ice 3 on 3 affords. That's why the coach put them out there, probably. We got scored on. Simple as that. If it was the Stanley Cup finals, I'm sure defensive responsibility would have been more of a concern. But it was OT of a road game in December. Rolled the dice and came up snake eyes. No biggie.

[puckbags 863]

....ANOTHER blown lead with Howard in goal? Hmmmm.....

honestly, I think its getting to the point where Holland needs to find that "piece" that puts us over the top. Mrazek IS our goalie, Smth, E and K are ALL expendable. Helm is playing better, his worth has increased some. It's time to make some calls.

The fact you are questioning the goaltending in this game would leave me to believe you didn't watch the game? This isn't even a game after 40 minutes if Howard didn't counter our weak effort with good saves. Now don't get me wrong he looked like me dancing at my xmas party on the OT winner but he was hardly the reason for the loss.

Watch it with that. Don't be accusing people on being on drugs there guy.

Nobody is questioning Nyquist's OT contributions. So quit makin stuff again. Again.

You may want to learn how to take a joke. Is this really what the world has come to? I'm pretty sure he wasn't saying that anyone for certain has a drug problem. It's called a figure of speech.

[kickazz 5,459]

Out of a sample size of what? 1 time? You gonna bench Brady and Gronk for the one interception Brady throws and tell me "facts are facts"? Your "facts" are not facts at all. They are opinions. Smith is a great skater. Nyquist and Tatar are great shooters. Both skating and shooting are at a premium with the open ice 3 on 3 affords. That's why the coach put them out there, probably. We got scored on. Simple as that. If it was the Stanley Cup finals, I'm sure defensive responsibility would have been more of a concern. But it was OT of a road game in December. Rolled the dice and came up snake eyes. No biggie.

"You're not giving me any facts but let me go ahead and give you my opinions and pretend like my point is stronger".

Sure let's use that mentality. You're right. It's December and not a Stanley cup game. Next game he should roll the dice and hopefully it lands on Dan Cleary to replace Jurco on 4th line. No biggie.

[Bill Berzeench 310]

"You're not giving me any facts but let me go ahead and give you my opinions and pretend like my point is stronger".

Sure let's use that mentality. You're right. It's December and not a Stanley cup game. Next game he should roll the dice and hopefully it lands on Dan Cleary to replace Jurco on 4th line. No biggie.

NO. I never said my opinions were facts. That's the difference. My opinions are exactly that - opinions. You are the one who is calling your opinions facts. Big difference.

When Nyquist sniped our winner a few nights ago, nobody was complaining. But now he's a liability? Come on. Live and die by the sword.

[kickazz 5,459]

NO. I never said my opinions were facts. That's the difference. My opinions are exactly that - opinions. You are the one who is calling your opinions facts. Big difference.

When Nyquist sniped our winner a few nights ago, nobody was complaining. But now he's a liability? Come on. Live and die by the sword.

No one is saying he's a liability tho, we're talking about balanced lines. Empirically speaking having 3 non defensive players on ice is a liability. That's not really an opinion.

You may want to learn how to take a joke. Is this really what the world has come to? I'm pretty sure he wasn't saying that anyone for certain has a drug problem. It's called a figure of speech.

Relax. I'm not serious with Bill and he knows it. You're taking it the wrong way.

[Bill Berzeench 310]

No one is saying he's a liability tho, we're talking about balanced lines.

Relax. I'm not serious with Bill and he knows it. You're taking it the wrong way.

Agreed. Balanced lines are a good thing, for the most part. Glad you are finally starting to like Smitty more. He's goid.

[NerveDamage 4,176]

Was howard even tryin to save that?

I feel like he needs to be more aggressive and attack the puck and try to poke it out. He always waits and pushes back to the net and still doesn't makes the save. Good to see him try though, with that kinda but not quite Hasek-like move

Edited December 12, 2015 by NerveDamage

[Jersey Wing 1,521]

Ok, an odd night all around. Just an odd vibe at The Rock tonight (On Star Wars night) and most of it had nothing to do with the game until the end. These people of whom I live amongst are the biggest frontrunners during a game I've ever seen. The biggest chants and cheers this year have gotten worse as they obsess over the Rangers in an old chant and have added a vulgar reference to the Flyers and rarely got emotional on much until they scored and then won.

I have two questions of everyone as they happened at the other end. What the H-E-double hockey sticks was that faceoff delay call on Z? Was that a thing? Also, after the tying goal went in and it passed the high stick sniff test I couldn't see anything that looked like goaltender interference on the appeal, did I miss anything?

The guy two seats over from me was an overzealous fan but in a funny kind of way. Very frustrated and after the Devils passed up several, maybe ten shooting chances on powerplays the guys was wailing "Oh shooooooot it, shoot the effing puckkkkk and turning around sounding like Jerry Stiller as Mr. Costanza and I was taken back to the night we Wings fans were losing our minds over such passed up shots chanting "Shoot the Puck!" There were a few real loudmouths, and kids, this is a tactically stupid thing to do but I digress, chanting how they had won three cups on the way out. Now, that may sound like big news to a fan of say the Panthers or Blue Jackets fans but a lot of Wings fans were pretty much snickering. This brings me to my final odd moment, after NJ scored the OT winner, and it was the only doggone goal scored in front of us all night, a woman in her 50's with short black hair reached down and tapped my shoulder and said something I couldn't hear over the victory music. I asked her to repeat what she said and she did but I still couldn't make it out but I'm guessing was her 20 something son was shaking his head at me and quietly giving me the "Don't listen to her, just let her words go I'm so embarrassed" look. I asked again and she turned around and showed me her.....are you sitting down LGW? Her #22 Claude Lemieux jersey (we wear sweaters they wear jerseys) and made some hitting motion and I made out the words "Your boy" which I could only imagine she meant Draper. OK, first off you're in the red zone like Vincent Vega warned about. Secondly your son is almost cowering (I'm a big guy). Thirdly when he hit Draper he played for Colorado. Derp. As I walked past her held up and tugged on my Wings crest and then held up my two INDEX fingers and told her "11 Cups" and we left.

Onto the pictures

Space Bear

Two larger sized images because ACTION PACKED that's why

Larkin driveby

[NerveDamage 4,176]

I can't believe all this complaining about Howard and losing that game as his fault. He faced 38 SOG while we only produced 29. Although we had pretty good chance and one cannot but congratulate Schneider for keeping the Devils in the game, he had quite a few saves on the line and after great scoring chances. We all feel that Mrazek is the future but Howard has been stepping up to the challenge. If any we need more support to our goalies, both from the offense and a better work by the D and PK

[RedWingsRox 614]

Oh well, you win some and you lose some. Would have been nice if they could have kept the 2-0 lead to get the W but 3 points out of 4 in 2 back to back is fine.

[jimmyemeryhunter 2,747]

NO. I never said my opinions were facts. That's the difference. My opinions are exactly that - opinions. You are the one who is calling your opinions facts. Big difference.

When Nyquist sniped our winner a few nights ago, nobody was complaining. But now he's a liability? Come on. Live and die by the sword.

Nyquist isn't a liability, but he's no Marian Hossa, but he should not be the most defensively responsible person on the ice during the final seconds of ot.

We got a point, and extended the point streak, which is good. I wish we would've gotten two, but the wings have played muchh better lately. Well, better may not be the right word, but at least more consistent, which is good.

[jimmyemeryhunter 2,747]

Ok, an odd night all around. Just an odd vibe at The Rock tonight (On Star Wars night) and most of it had nothing to do with the game until the end. These people of whom I live amongst are the biggest frontrunners during a game I've ever seen. The biggest chants and cheers this year have gotten worse as they obsess over the Rangers in an old chant and have added a vulgar reference to the Flyers and rarely got emotional on much until they scored and then won.

I have two questions of everyone as they happened at the other end. What the H-E-double hockey sticks was that faceoff delay call on Z? Was that a thing? Also, after the tying goal went in and it passed the high stick sniff test I couldn't see anything that looked like goaltender interference on the appeal, did I miss anything?

The guy two seats over from me was an overzealous fan but in a funny kind of way. Very frustrated and after the Devils passed up several, maybe ten shooting chances on powerplays the guys was wailing "Oh shooooooot it, shoot the effing puckkkkk and turning around sounding like Jerry Stiller as Mr. Costanza and I was taken back to the night we Wings fans were losing our minds over such passed up shots chanting "Shoot the Puck!" There were a few real loudmouths, and kids, this is a tactically stupid thing to do but I digress, chanting how they had won three cups on the way out. Now, that may sound like big news to a fan of say the Panthers or Blue Jackets fans but a lot of Wings fans were pretty much snickering. This brings me to my final odd moment, after NJ scored the OT winner, and it was the only doggone goal scored in front of us all night, a woman in her 50's with short black hair reached down and tapped my shoulder and said something I couldn't hear over the victory music. I asked her to repeat what she said and she did but I still couldn't make it out but I'm guessing was her 20 something son was shaking his head at me and quietly giving me the "Don't listen to her, just let her words go I'm so embarrassed" look. I asked again and she turned around and showed me her.....are you sitting down LGW? Her #22 Claude Lemieux jersey (we wear sweaters they wear jerseys) and made some hitting motion and I made out the words "Your boy" which I could only imagine she meant Draper. OK, first off you're in the red zone like Vincent Vega warned about. Secondly your son is almost cowering (I'm a big guy). Thirdly when he hit Draper he played for Colorado. Derp. As I walked past her held up and tugged on my Wings crest and then held up my two INDEX fingers and told her "11 Cups" and we left.

Alright.

Down to business first.

Zetterberg put his hand on the puck in the faceoff circle, (which is a penalty automatically now) and the replay on the tying goal for goalie interference, it looked like the guys stick(can't recall his name right now) may have hit Howie's blocker and/or stick. On the replay they showed, it didn't look that way at all. My guess was the wings were trying to cash in on the rash of poor choices referees have made when a challenge has been made for goalie interference, and just came out on the wrong side of the coin flip this time.

And as for the rest of the comments, I appreciate the tales from the game, always fun being regaled by stories from away barns. But yeah, did that woman seem like she was just trying to rib you in A good natured type of way?

Or drunk enough that her knowledge of the NHL/Colorado lore was the last facet of her motor skills that were functioning properly? Cuz Im guessing she probably had quite a bit to drink, especially if her son was smart enough to show a level of shame that expressive without speaking. ha. Or was she a mob wives/jersey shore afficianado(I heard that attribute skips a generation, Hahaha)

Also, were you wearing a draper jersey? Or even a grind liners jersey? Maltby? McCarty? Ha.

awesome pictures BTW too, once again, Thanks for the share man.

Edit: Do you know what they call a quarter pounder in France?

Edited December 12, 2015 by jimmyemeryhunter

[PavelValerievichDatsyuk 1,935]

This loss made a s***ty day even s***tier, Henrique and Zajac didn't play right? So how the f*** did we lose man, this team could win almost every night if they want to. I understand it was a back to back but they were without 1c and 2c this isf****** embarrassing, Some guys on this team only play 42 games a year.

What is it a 13 game point streak. Consistent effort hasn't really been a problem for a while. Back-to-Back, 3 games in 4 days. Wings played great for the first 2 periods than lost gas in the 3rd.

Out of a sample size of what? 1 time? You gonna bench Brady and Gronk for the one interception Brady throws and tell me "facts are facts"? Your "facts" are not facts at all. They are opinions. Smith is a great skater. Nyquist and Tatar are great shooters. Both skating and shooting are at a premium with the open ice 3 on 3 affords. That's why the coach put them out there, probably. We got scored on. Simple as that. If it was the Stanley Cup finals, I'm sure defensive responsibility would have been more of a concern. But it was OT of a road game in December. Rolled the dice and came up snake eyes. No biggie.

Wait, so our 3-on-3 line was Smith-Tat-Nyquist? To me that is a mistake. They're all prone to giveaways and not the best defensively. You're right that "Smith is a great skater. Nyquist and Tatar are great shooters." but it's just the combo of all 3 that's bad. Especially when Devils were playing such good man-on-man coverage in OT.

Good game. Howard deserved the win. Jurco had a few good shifts that I noticed, which is encouraging. We're 3 points behind Montreal for top in the east!

[Rivalred 630]

This team needs to get it together

[MrazekFanBoy 223]

I'm talking about the games where we don't show up against lesser competition, we were the same way last year, and the year before. 42 games a year lol

[kickazz 5,459]

I'm talking about the games where we don't show up against lesser competition, we were the same way last year, and the year before. 42 games a year lol

.

The Red Wings have been fine this year. They've had an unfavorable schedule with the amount of back to backs and they're still a top 4 team in the conference. They just played 3 games in 4 nights. Thats no joke.

Edited December 12, 2015 by kickazz

[Bill Berzeench 310]

Spot on, kickazz. Point in what- 12 straight now? That's a team running pretty well. Not a team you gripe about. Toronto? Now there's a fan base that has reason to gripe.

[LeftWinger 4,949]

KICKAZZ - I wish they get rid of both contracts, but one will do if it gets us a missing piece to get us over the next level.

PUCKBAGS - Not questioning him, just need to give to get. If we want to get that upper level high end player we need to get us over the hump into contending, you may have to get rid of a higher end talent that has become expendable.

[roboturner 562]

Guys, its OK to say Howard looked like a fish outta water (literally) AND that he played well the rest of the game.

Some of you guys act like he's your kid getting bullied at school

[kickazz 5,459]

Guys, its OK to say Howard looked like a fish outta water (literally) AND that he played well the rest of the game.

Some of you guys act like he's your kid getting bullied at school

Meh not really. Hasek looked like a fish outta the water (all the damn time) and he won two Hart Trophy and like 6 Vezina's. Saying Howard looked like that is like a compliment seeing as though that was Hasek's trademark save making move.

Those moves have been made by goalies like thousands of times in this league. And when they make saves with them, they end up being a "highlight reel" With Jimmy it just didn't end up being a save (unfortunately for him).

Don't get me wrong - Jimmy has had a lot of face palm moments (like the patented behind the net giveaway to get scored on by Calgary, etc). But dude was going to get scored on regardless. He knew it too. That was way too good of a breakaway.

Edited December 12, 2015 by kickazz

[chaps80 1,591]

I just watched that OT goal again. Howard looked so lost. It seemed like he made up his mind that he was getting scored on before it happened. Instead of flopping on the ice and making it easy, come out and challenge, poke check..something. Yeah Hasek made tons of saves like that, but that was his style and it did'nt look out of place and won him countless awards. Howard simply looked ridiculous and lazy. And rattled.

[Bill Berzeench 310]

I just watched that OT goal again. Howard looked so lost. It seemed like he made up his mind that he was getting scored on before it happened. Instead of flopping on the ice and making it easy, come out and challenge, poke check..something. Yeah Hasek made tons of saves like that, but that was his style and it did'nt look out of place and won him countless awards. Howard simply looked ridiculous and lazy. And rattled.

Howard played a good game. I think the real issue is a lack of a killer instinct. The Wings havent realized that 2 goal leads are only safe in soccer. In hockey, you should be up 4 or 5 if youre going to go into a defensive shell. The Wings need to learn how to pile it on.

[GoWings1905 2,694]

I just watched that OT goal again. Howard looked so lost. It seemed like he made up his mind that he was getting scored on before it happened. Instead of flopping on the ice and making it easy, come out and challenge, poke check..something. Yeah Hasek made tons of saves like that, but that was his style and it did'nt look out of place and won him countless awards. Howard simply looked ridiculous and lazy. And rattled.

Really? Focusing on that one attempt on a breakaway in OT when Howard was the only reason they got to that point. Sure, it looked bad, but how about Smith coughing up the puck? Or Tatar letting a guy behind him in that situation?

That's the thing that puzzles me about the vocal Howard crowd -- there's always this unrelenting attention to one moment and the 63 minutes prior gets ignored. He's never going to be great in the shootout or flashy like Mrazek and somehow that's held against him.

Blown leads have occurred with both goalies in net. Mrazek lost a third period lead in three consecutive starts recently. Howard also has the superior stats in the past five starts between the two. But he's lazy because of one goal in overtime in a game he stopped 36 shots. Howard is playing as well (if not better) than the first half last season when he made the ASG.

I like both goalies and if the playoffs started tomorrow, I would prefer Mrazek starting. That being said, there is a complete double standard with fans who write their own narratives against Howard.

[jimmyemeryhunter 2,747]

If Howard would have made that save with his glove behind his back, it would've been a candidate for save of the year.

But he missed completely, so it just looks hilarious.

I think on breakaways/shootouts, instead of stopping around the hash marks before backing in, Howard should just keep skating out to meet the player at around the top of the circles, and attempt to Kronwall them.

It'll surprise at least 25% of them,which should raise his save% in those situations.rawfulmayo he'll connect with at least 5%, another 5% for broken sticks, falling skaters, & whiffed shots. The "you got Howar'd©®" chants will be sweet too.

But for real.

I don't understand why we keep blowing leads in the last few minutes of the game, but I wish that would stop.

Still ecstatic with the points streak though.

Whether or not they seem in sync most of the game, they're starting to click more and more. And when they do, our offense is lethal.

Also need to work on the forward trailing behind dropping back to cover for the d man in on the rush, but its getting better.