krsmith17 7,191 Report post Posted February 5, 2017 6 hours ago, poel said: I never called Jensen "bad". All I'm saying is that he's a career AHLer and he'd be still playing there hadn't it been for our terrible defense. He's no young prospect anymore and yet only played a handful of games in the NHL. Even if you, for some funny reason, thought that he's better than Marchenko, it would have been easier to just waive Jensen. No way he would have been claimed. They probably waived Marchenko to get cap relief. Time will tell but to me it's still a bad decision. Isn't "he's a career AHLer" the equivalent to "he's bad" though?... Why would it have been "easier to just waive Jensen"? It's always easier to waive the lesser player. Marchenko was lower on the depth chart, so he was the obvious guy to waive. Jensen does virtually everything better than Marchenko. He's a MUCH better skater, better puck mover, more physical (despite the size difference), MUCH better offensively, and I'd even argue better defensively... Just because Jensen is a year older doesn't mean s***. We get it though, you don't value smooth skating, puck moving offensive defensemen, you prefer big, slow defensive defensemen... We should have gotten rid of Green, Smith, Sproul and Jensen and kept Marchenko, and called up Lashoff and Renouf... DeKeyser - Lashoff Ericsson - Marchenko Renouf - Ouellet Now THAT'S a 6-man unit that can "defend the puck"... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mackel 681 Report post Posted February 5, 2017 7 hours ago, DickieDunn said: I agree about Dekeyser but Kronwall was one of the top 10 or 15 D in the NHL in his prime. They had two #1 caliber guys, one of them just happened to be one of the best ever and that clouds fans expectations of what a real #1 is. Now he's a shell of himself and should probably retire. Sent from my LGLS676 using Tapatalk I would disagree, I think that Kronwall looked better than he was because he was sheltered behind Lids. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chaps80 1,591 Report post Posted February 5, 2017 13 hours ago, kliq said: Not 100% sure if this is true or not, but I read that Marchenko and Leafs D-man Nikita Zaitsev were paired together at the world cup. Maybe Babs wants these two back together. Interesting. Sounds like a Babs move to me. He's turning that franchise around pretty quick I only his second year of coaching. I thought it would take longer for them to become a playoff team. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kickazz 5,459 Report post Posted February 5, 2017 (edited) Been hearing Babcock is a huge fan of Marchenko and feels as though he has enough "top guys" and wanted a middle pairing defensively responsible player. I think Marchenko did better under Babcock. He simply didn't fit the Blashill system. On the opposite I think Smith fits Blashill's system and doesn't fit Babcock's system. If that makes sense. Edited February 5, 2017 by kickazz Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BinMucker94 302 Report post Posted February 5, 2017 DeKeyser - Green XO - Sproul Smith - Jensen Kronwall Big E 1 LeftWinger reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LeftWinger 4,959 Report post Posted February 5, 2017 I could only dream that Ericsson would be a healthy scratch! We cannot forget, gr won a championship with Jensen, Sproul and XO all playing. They have chemistry. 1 BinMucker94 reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ChristopherReevesLegs 7,022 Report post Posted February 5, 2017 2 hours ago, kickazz said: Been hearing Babcock is a huge fan of Marchenko and feels as though he has enough "top guys" and wanted a middle pairing defensively responsible player. I think Marchenko did better under Babcock. He simply didn't fit the Blashill system. On the opposite I think Smith fits Blashill's system and doesn't fit Babcock's system. If that makes sense. No one fits Blashill's system, and Marchenko is the first man to go down because of it. Smith is on pace for 16.4 pts over a full season. Not even a career high. For someone sold to us as a puck-mover that's not very good. Marchenko was/is on pace for the same 16.4 pts, offers better defense, has the benefit of being RHed, and costs about 2 million less. I think you could argue Marchenko was clicking just as much as Smith, if not more. And probably filling his own role on the team more completely. In my own personal opinion, no one is clicking on this team. Zetterberg, Mantha, Vanek have just been talented enough to overcome and rise above Blashill's terrible systems and terrible ice management. The silverlining to this I think is that it has exposed who is truly talented on this team, the rest having really fallen off. In the case of Mrazek and Larkin I think we're witnessing two talented players that have been met with terrible coaching on top of the often mentioned sophomore slump. Whereas Mantha is still kind of riding that breakout year streak along with teams still trying to figure him out. But that's all just conjecture on my part. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ChristopherReevesLegs 7,022 Report post Posted February 5, 2017 Also this is the first time we have not had at least one Russian on the roster since the 1990-91 season. First time during the streak. Bad juju this is. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kickazz 5,459 Report post Posted February 5, 2017 Smith = Brett Lebda Marchenko = Andreas Lilja 1 Detroit \# 1 Fan reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204 Report post Posted February 6, 2017 2 hours ago, kickazz said: Smith = Brett Lebda Marchenko = Andreas Lilja Except Lilja had the grit and intangibles advantage: 2 ChristopherReevesLegs and amato reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kickazz 5,459 Report post Posted February 6, 2017 (edited) 12 minutes ago, Detroit # 1 Fan said: Except Lilja had the grit and intangibles advantage: Lol indeed. Marchenko and him are very similar in size (Lilja slightly heavier) and both had a similar lack in offensive ability. Smith and Lebda both had good corsi numbers, liked to jump in on the play and scored about the same rate (nothing more than 15-20 points) but we're god awful defensively and made boneheaded plays. Isn't it crazy that Smith is now playing/considered a mid-pairing defenseman and Lebda who was a similar player was considered a 6th D-man and some folks even called for him to be waived? It just shows how our standards have decreased ever since we lost Lidstrom, Rafalski, prime Kronwall, Stuart, Chelios. What's scary is Kronwall was an actual mid pairing defenseman in the late 2000s and scored around 40-50 points a year. Now look at us.... Sheesh.. I guess that's the difference between a good team and a below average team. Or maybe that's just how the league is now. Which goes back to my original point I made a few posts ago. I don't think any of our defenseman are good "enough" except for Mike Green. Need some drastic changes on that back-end if we're going full rebuild mode. Maybe Ouellette and Sproul become good mid-pairing guys though so who knows. Too early to tell I guess. Edited February 6, 2017 by kickazz Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LeftWinger 4,959 Report post Posted February 6, 2017 3 hours ago, ChristopherReevesLegs said: Also this is the first time we have not had at least one Russian on the roster since the 1990-91 season. First time during the streak. Bad juju this is. Deja Vu! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Krayzie_Bone 58 Report post Posted February 7, 2017 (edited) Playoff push time boys Smith is back. We all know deep down they will keep Smith around for another 5 years or so. /puke Edited February 7, 2017 by Krayzie_Bone Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
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