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This year vs last year: a poll

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This year vs last year: a poll  

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I dont know. I made the thread because I was mostly interested in seeing how people have viewed the changes thus far compared to what he had last year. Ie Pavel Datsyuk is gone, but he was also injured and not nearly as effective as he typically is last season. Nielson alone scored more points than Datsyuk did, plus we also added the enigmatic Vanek. So should we expect a better product? I'm not sure how the chips will fall come October, depending on potential trades or the likely injuries in training camp. Anyway many people didn't see the offseason activity we were hoping for for a variety of reasons, but I want to see what people think of this season compared to how we looked last year and not compare it to what their ideal dream roster was for this season. Hence the thread.

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As of today with what we currently know this team looks worse than the 2015/16 team. None of the guys brought in are as good as Datsyuk was. The D is still a mess. There are more questions today than when the season ended. The good news is there is still time to make improvements.

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Right now I think the forwards are in better shape than a year ago. I think at their respective stages in their careers Nielson is likely to outscore Datsyuk (he did last year), and he's an excellent two-way player to boot. Vanek has some baggage but even so, he produced more than Richards last year, on what was considered a poor performance from him. Our team is a year older and most of them (aside from Zetterberg) are still on the right side of 30 and its reasonable to expect them to improve. And at least for the time being having Ott will keep the knuckledraggers from kicking up dirt in the forums about how soft we are. Also as kickazz mentioned we might be able to expect more from the coaching staff this year, too. Blash included. He's had his rookie season to figure things out, I hope he comes into his sophomore year with some answers.

Defensively we're down Quincey and replacing him with Marchenko? Am I missing something else? Anyway I'd say that's one solid step backwards.

Goalies are the same, at least for now. Maybe Mrazek is past his inconsistencies at this point?

That's how I'm reading things thus far.

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I'm going with better just because I think Nielsen and Vanek will add more offense and allow for better matchups. The D will hopefully get sorted out by the start of the season. If Mantha and AA start the season with the Wings then even better.

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I changed my vote to better. For now.

Last year almost everyone on the team regressed which is an extreme outlier for a team full of youngsters who are projected to get better. I think part of their regression was due to poor coaching.

This year we still have the same youngsters and many of them are entering their prime. With the change in coaching staff and Blashill gaining some insight, they should be better.

Datsyuk was good on paper but when it came down to it he wasn't here for the first few months and if you guys recall he didn't find his mojo for a few months (remember how LGW were bashing him in november and december?) additionally he didn't really show up in the playoffs. So realistically Datsyuk aka The Magic Man was only really here between January and April. I think Nielsen is Datsyuk's replacement with the added element that he'll probably actually play most of the season. So he'll be an "upgrade" in terms of long term reliability to an older, injured Datsyuk.

I take back what I said about Vanek being Richard's replacement. I no longer consider him Richard's replacement, but rather Johan Franzen's replacement. The two are similar in that neither is as fast in their current phase of hockey while both are supposed to be goal scorers around the net in close quarters and PP specialists net front presence.

I don't think Larkin is going to have a "sophomore slump" , I actually think he'll be better. I actually can't recall if any of our rookies have even gone through sophomore slumps. Tatar went from scoring 17 to 29 goals in his second year and Nyquist maintained his 27-28 goal range in his second year. If anything they had a "junior" slump.

Lastly, and I think this is the main reason why I switched to better.. is Petr Mrazek. After his first legitimate 82 game season he showed us flashes of what we see consistently from Carey Prices hightlights. Mrazek went through a pretty s***ty slump after having a Vezina like performance for 2-3 months. First goalie to stop 15 shots on goal by Alexander Ovechkin, (arguably the best goal scorer in NHL history) in a single game speaks volumes to his potential Imo. Mrazek is now one year more experienced, and if he can maintain his consistency HE will be the sole reason this team wins out games. He was our Carey Price from November- January. He needs to be our Carey Price from October - April. The rest will follow suit.

So I think they'll be better than the 2016 Red Wings and as good as the 2015 Red Wings. But not as good as 2013 Red Wings that took Chicago to game 7.

Dipset.

Edited by kickazz

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Right now I think the forwards are in better shape than a year ago. I think at their respective stages in their careers Nielson is likely to outscore Datsyuk (he did last year), and he's an excellent two-way player to boot. Vanek has some baggage but even so, he produced more than Richards last year, on what was considered a poor performance from him. Our team is a year older and most of them (aside from Zetterberg) are still on the right side of 30 and its reasonable to expect them to improve. And at least for the time being having Ott will keep the knuckledraggers from kicking up dirt in the forums about how soft we are. Also as kickazz mentioned we might be able to expect more from the coaching staff this year, too. Blash included. He's had his rookie season to figure things out, I hope he comes into his sophomore year with some answers.

Defensively we're down Quincey and replacing him with Marchenko? Am I missing something else? Anyway I'd say that's one solid step backwards.

Goalies are the same, at least for now. Maybe Mrazek is past his inconsistencies at this point?

That's how I'm reading things thus far.

Nielson did outscore Datsyuk, but only by 3 pts (52 vs 49) even though he played in 81 games, compared to Datsyuks 66. I personally think the trade off between last years Datsyuk and next years Nielson will be a wash.

That being said, I also voted that the team will be better this season, but by how much depends on whether or not they swing a trade for a Defenseman. Currently Id say 'slightly' better (as in 2-6 pts better). But if they can get a legit Defenseman (top 2 pairing, not necessarily an elite D-man), Id bump that prediction up to 6-10 pts better.

I think that Blashill being in year 2 (and having an improved coaching staff) will help a lot. I know some of you (myself included) were down on him at times last season, but I have not given up hope that he can be a top coach in this league.

I just cant see the entire team struggling to produce like it did last season. I haven't checked the numbers, but I think that of our top 10 most important players, damn all of them had their worst seasons (outside of rookie years). I expect Nyquist, Tatar, and Sheahan to all top their point totals from last year.

If one/more of them are traded for a Defenseman, then I expect some combination of AA/Mantha to produce at a similar rate as those guys did last season (but our D would be better in that situation).

I expect Kronwall to be much better this year. I think he was embarrassed by his play, particularly 'post knee injury', and I expect to see him come into the season with a chip on his shoulder. Yes hes 35, but there are plenty of players who are productive at that age. Besides, he managed a measly 3 goals and was -21 last season (which was last on the team by a decent margin)...if he doesn't perform better this year, then honestly he needs to retire.

Zetterberg I'm more torn on...he looked really bad at times last season, and clearly is not a top line (or even 2nd line) guy at this point in his career. I personally think think he got worn out...he has 20 pts the first 23 games of the season, and only 9 pts the last 20 games of the season. If he were to play on the 3rd line/have his minutes limited to 15-16 per game (he was at 19:20 last year) he could be far more consistent and still have some gas in the tank for the playoffs.

For the goalies - thats a toss up....I can see Mrazek being a stud all year, or being inconsistent again. If im betting, I go with the first option, but I am also an optimist at heart lol.

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Dude those are just words. You had a solid 8hrs of rest and now you're voting better. That's all there is to it.

Real talk I pondered on it at 2 am last night in bed.

7.5 hours gotta stick with the 90 minute sleep cycles for that perfect REM sleep.

Maybe I swtiched from same to better because I'm Jamie Lannister and like to switch to the winning side as any Lannister would.

31981743.jpg

Edited by kickazz

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Dude those are just words. You had a solid 8hrs of rest and now you're voting better. That's all there is to it.

I was reading it, fell asleep and changed my vote too. It's all about rest.

I changed my vote to better. For now.

So I think they'll be better than the 2016 Red Wings and as good as the 2015 Red Wings. But not as good as 2013 Red Wings that took Chicago to game 7.

Hey, no backsies. You won't be able to do that in november"..."

I don't see it as we took Chicago to game 7, I see it as we had them on the ropes and they came back.

all red eyed, snotty noses, but dammit they came back.

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I was reading it, fell asleep and changed my vote too. It's all about rest.

Hey, no backsies. You won't be able to do that in november"..."

I don't see it as we took Chicago to game 7, I see it as we had them on the ropes and they came back.

all red eyed, snotty noses, but dammit they came back.

Yeah but we shouldn't even have been 3-1, that Chicago team was breaking records that season and we were without Lidstrom for the first time. It's cause our vets were still solid but they declined** bad in 2015 and even worse in 2016

Edited by kickazz

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