dobbles

personally, i am fine with people being negative if they really feel the wings dont have a shot. there are unfortunately many posters that just seem to hate everything and they ruin any chance for legit conversation. there are also many posters that come off as fan boi's, so to me, the opinions all balance out eventually...

with that said, here is why i am excited:
despite all the injuries, only a handful of teams won more games than det. their 48 wins are 3 behind the leaders that had 51. only 2 teams in the west had more wins and stl was only 1 win ahead of us. to act like there is a big difference in us and the top seeds is silly.

along those same lines is goal differential. only 3 teams bested the wings +45 as we were tied with stl in 4th. the two best teams for differential are in the east, so vancouver being only 6 goals better once again indicates that the west is a very winnable conference for the wings.

goals against average. everyone that talks about this first round series loves to talk about how amazing rinne is. well sure hes a good goalie, but guess who was 6th in the league in gaa? jimmy howard. thats right, rinne was 8 spots lower at a little over a quarter of a goal per game more than jimmy. as i mentioned in the round 1 thread, lots of people are forgetting that the wings gave up less goals this season even though conklin was crap for many of his dozen or so games and negatively impacted the goals allowed.

goalie wear and tear. while jimmys groin is a bit scary, he is in a better position for a strong playoff run. stats have shown that outside of brodeur, most goalies cannot play in over 70 games and win a cup. because of howards injuries he is primed for a good run. additionally as far as the first round is concerned, no one faced more shots than rinne and no one played in more games. so can he hold up?



sure lots of things scare me about this team as it certainly has been an up and down year, but those are some reasons to be excited and optimistic that we can make a run. though looking ahead a bit, i hope that the yotes can make it through as i would prefer to not play stl in the 2nd round. their goaltending is great and that has always been the wings kryptonite in the playoffs... but i am trying not to get too ahead of myself!

That's exactly my point. The fact that he's still in the lineup says that either the organization feels Cleary at 50% is still better than someone from GR at 100% or they just don't have any other choice. Conner comes to mind as a replacement but that pretty much tells me that Babcock thinks Cleary is worth more injured than a healthy Conner.

its not that simple... for us as fans, we just look at it like we are playing nhl12 on xbox and want to pick the best player. in real life, they have balance not only which player gives the better shot, but also what the long term ramifications are. perhaps they didn't want to ruin clearys confidence by sitting him a long stretch. perhaps they dont want to get a reputation as a team that gives up on injured players. perhaps objective evaluation of which player brings more to the table is clouded by the personal relationships that exist with the coach and/or management. perhaps there is a hope that if he kept playing down the stretch that when the playoffs arrived he would be able to step it up because of his experience and that he was just laying off a bit in the regular season. maybe the team didn't want to waste one of its post deadline callups on someone to replace cleary unless they absolutely had to.

now, with all those hypotheticals, i can also concede that maybe you are right. maybe babcock just thought that cleary at 50% was better than calling up conner, andersson, etc. my main point though, is that it is a much more complicated situation than you make it out to be and there is a very real chance that they weren't totally behind cleary but just had to consider all the implications of making a change.

I still don't understand why people cared about his contract. It's always the biggest bitching point whenever it comes to Ericsson. Has it cost is anything? Really? It's not like we gave him money, which forced us to not be able to afford anyone else. His contract hasn't effected the team at all, so who cares?

the reason that was so very important to the team for the long term was because it set a very bad precedent because of how high it was. if they gave ericsson that much, and had both stuart and kronwall coming up as ufa's, it would mean that they would want significantly more. when you set the bar too high then everyone else expects to be too high as well. its something that is very important. because to win cups you need to get maximum value out of contracts. and while the cap wasn't a problem this year, who knows what it could be like next year or the year after. heck, maybe we do have a shot at both suter and parise this summer, but not enough cap room??? (long shot i know... just making a point)

the other aspect of his contract is his role. teams cannot afford to pay bottom pairing dmen that much money. so is the team implying that his future upside is top 4??? if so, i fear for the teams future. he is not top 4 material. i think he can be a solid bottom guy with a decade long career. but you dont pay guys like that 3 or 4 mil a year.


anywho, ericsson has continued to not play up to where he needs. its no coincidence that when he was injured so was our best forward, best defenseman, and starting goalie. so while i do respect babcock, i disagree with him that it was ericsson the team missed.

i have nothing against jonathon ericsson; i had the privilege to watch him several times up close when he was in the ahl. but he just is not what this team needs.

i thought the game was in detroit?

How is this post pessimistic? All I did was speculate the Wings record in their final 22 games. Did you want me to be a Homer and say they go 22-0? They will win b/t 14-15 games give or take as we all know they tend to take their feet off the gas pedal.

while you may not be as bad as stinky fish taco or whatever his name is, you still are often overly negative for no reason at all. as a person that is always critical of things i like, i certainly have my qualms about the wings (dont get me started on ericsson!) but there is a different between being critical and the often 'troll like' attitude that comes across in your posts. so you shouldn't really be surprised when people attack you.

with that said, the wings are currently getting 1.4 points a game. that would mean in 22 games, they are going to get 31 more points. with your anticipated 14-8, thats 28 points. only 3 off. and assuming a couple of those losses are OT/SO, that would make up the 3 point difference. so in this case, you are not really being unrealistic.

i still think ericsson is a negative to this team. i do agree with the posters that have stated his physical play is at least better this year. however, i still think that his decision making is still just abysmal. his defensive lapses are still way too often. especially for his salary. it just scares me that realistically, if lidstrom and stuart both leave, ericsson would be the person they expect to move into the top 4. (i do think they obviously are looking at smith as top 4 long term, but i dont think that would happen next year. its also assuming they only replace 1 with a free agent)

at this point there is really no reason to even consider this year. see if he can continue to make progress for next year, or at the very least, get him to a point where it isn't effecting his life after hockey. its a shame to see him out, but for his sake, i hope they are ultra conservative.

personally, i am waiting for a couple more games before making up my mind, but i am really leaning towards conklin not being someone they should keep on the roster. it's unfortunately not even an issue of how good or bad he might be in a night. to me it comes down to the fact that the team is nowhere near as effective with him in net. whether its a lack of confidence, bad luck, or anything else, it just isn't working right now.

i certainly concede that a lack of playing time can hurt a backup. however, conklin is 54th in minutes played, so it could be worse. the team is 6th in goals against and howard is near the top in most goalie stats, so its not like the team in front of him is incapable. yet he is near the bottom of all goalies for save percentage. even a guy like macdonald was able to come in and play lights out last night.

the problem could be conklin. the problem could be how the team in front of him plays when hes in there. either way, with how tight the central is, its a problem the wings cant afford to let linger.

freshy, you are basically trolling as you are unwilling to listen to an entirely rational counter argument. you do realize people can have a differing opinion than yours and not be morons for doing so, right?

i get more excited when i see the bottom 6 come over the boards than i do the top 6...

i am really surprised at how many people are advocating multiple changes... i know you all want us to get tougher and grittier, but personally, i would rather only make 1 or possibly 2 roster changes down the stretch. its kind of silly to throw off the chemistry of a team that has been top 5 in goals scored and goals against most of the season...

stewart is quickly getting to the top of the list for biggest douchebag in the league. guy is a coward.

Exactly.  An entire thread at LGW to ***** about yet something else.  Surprise!  I come here for breaking Wings news and some of the community.  Yet all I ever read when I open a thread is ***** ***** *****.

you know you could just avoid the thread that is specifically about things that annoy us on fsd??? its a fun thread poking at stupid commercials and other general annoyances. maybe next you can go into the thread about the allstar game and complaining they are talking too much about who made the allstar team...

while it certainly wouldn't hurt to have a higher quality backup, i am starting to think conklin isn't the problem. the defense is very porous this year but because jimmy has been amazing, its hidden a lot of that. because conks is playing only average hockey, it exposes just how many oddman chances and defensive breakdowns we have been having. unfortunately, its all 3 pairings that give up these chances.

i think way more than that. anaheim said they are looking for an equivalent asset coming back. honestly, i think a lot of the trade talk coming out of anaheim is just to motivate players by lighting a fire under them.