dat's sick

Wow...no tripping huh?

According to Eddie, Pavel "lost an edge"... LOL. 

Our bottom 2 lines are the only forwards playing hard... Zetterberg wants us to lose

People complain when someone sits out, saying "blah blah blah Yzerman played on one leg", but then when a guy like Z is a warrior and plays despite not being 100% everyone complains? 

I'd rather have this Zetterberg playing than whatever scrub would be in the lineup instead. 

We are soooooooooooooooooooooooooo bad.

Eh, we're looking okay imo. Good effort. But as per usual we have no clue what to do around the net. Can't hit the net, can't get shots past blocking d-men, one pass too much, one pass too few.. 

Hate losing in a SO when points are this important. Both Brunner and Nyquist had nice moves but they are too low % moves. Sharks players had the right idea, simple moves, things they're comfortable with.

Well we could use a win tomorrow. Good thing it's only Chicago we're facing.

...what a season... sigh.

So didn't want San Jose to get a point out of this game....

Who cares. We only need to care about ourselves, as long as we get points it doesn't matter who else does.

As soon as we get close to the other teams' net we lose all confidence. Looks like everyone has forgotten how to score goals and are overthinking everything.

Tough loss but that's the way it goes. We deserved to win, we didn't. We had enough chances to score a couple of goals, but the puck didn't go our way. Blues got a fluke goal and sat back the rest of the way. If it's one thing Hitchcock knows it's how to protect a lead, and he has the defensive pieces to do it. 

 

I thought the key moment that killed our chances of a comeback was when Babcock decided to put Abdelkader out on the 4-on-4. Lots of space on the ice, great for skilled players like Nyquist right? Well no, let's play a guy whose biggest strenght is playing along the boards, something there's a lot less of in 4-on-4 hockey. So he gets the puck, and Kronwall is completely open in a spectacular scoring opportunity. It's a pass even I could put on the tape, but Justin puts it behind Nicky so instead of stepping into the slot and scoring he has to slow down, awkwardly take the pass with his skate and nothing comes of the chance at all. Kronwall is so frustrated by the bad pass he takes a stupid penalty shortly after. 

 

Babcock has to start playing the guys who actually make things happen for us. If we can call up Shehan, we can call up Tatar. Time to sit Daniel Cleary because he doesn't help us win. Time to make Abdelkader a 4th liner like he's supposed to be. Tatar, Nyquist, Zetterberg and Datsyuk are the guys who drive our offense, backed up by Filppula and Franzen (who was looking good today). Right there you have our top 6. LOAD THAT SH*T UP. 

 

Also Dekeyser looks ready to play more minutes. 

I'm not upset about nothing being done by Holland this deadline, but sooner or later some fat is going to have to be trimmed from this team one way or another. 

 

List of expendable players: 

 

Bertuzzi

Abdelkader

Cleary

Miller

Eaves

Emmerton

White
Cola

Samuelsson

 

List of players NHL ready or soon to be NHL ready: 

 

Tatar

Nyquist

Andersson

Ferraro

Sheahan

Lashoff

Almqvist

Jarnkrok

Dekeyser

 

Sad thing is I don't see anyone but Nyquist, Andersson and MAYYYYYYBE Lashoff being on the team next season. 

Jarnkrok should be fast-tracked. Give him a locker-room spot next to Zetterberg. Let him watch Datsyuk in what could be his last season in the NHL. Use him on the wing. Use him on the 3rd or 4th line. Trial. By. Fire. The kid will sink or swim. Sending him to Grand Rapids for a year is almost a step back from the SEL, really at most a lateral move. But that's what's going to happen, right? Sigh. 

How many rookies do you guys want to play?
 
We already have Lashoff, Brunner, Nyquist, Smith, and Andersson playing regularly, with Dekeyser about to join that group shortly. That's 1/3 of the playing roster. 
 
The only Griffin who should be with the Wings is Tatar and if he comes back it will be at the expense of Nyquist most likely.

If we're not trying to do anything in the playoffs, what good is this season other than giving our kids some experience for next season?

Filppula-Zetterberg-Brunner
Franzen-Datsyuk-Tatar
Nyquist-Andersson/Helm-Miller
Abdelkader-Emmerton-Tootoo

Kronwall-Ericsson
Quincey/Cola-Smith
Dekeyser-Kindl/Lashoff

Make it so Kenny/Babcock.

3rd period underway. 

Anyone know why Danny D. took warmups? 

In case Cola got injured?

Crazy the things that can happen when you pair up a playmaker with a shooter. Huh. 

Abby is 6'1" 220 lbs.   Remember when he used to hit guys?

Remember when he used to be on the 4th line, where he belongs? 

Semin is a lazier floater than Franzen.  I could not possibly be happier that he re-signed with Carolina.

That's a bad reputation that may or may not have had SOME truth to it at times in Washington, but ask any Carolina fan and they will say it's definitely not true this season. Actually he's been praised for his hard work, even defensively. And of course he's putting up points. 

 

It's a lot of money but it could turn out to be worth it. Looks like Semin and Staal have really found eachother. 

Come on Flip.  You gotta  score there.

Looked like he was aiming for the goalie.

I would say Red Wings and Canucks have the biggest following/media-exposure in Sweden.. after that it's close between Pittsburgh, NYR, Toronto.

 

Colorado had a lot of fans in late 90s and early 00s, but that's pretty much all died out.