Red Crazy

Here's the update, as of April 22nd:

 

Columbus and Dallas have been trending plenty better than the Wings and Wild over the past 10, but at this point the Wings have the supposed advantage of games in hand.

 

Columbus has the fewest games remaining at two, one of which is against Dallas. The best the Wings can hope for is a game ending in regulation there, and Nashville to beat them in the last game of the season, which may very well decide whether the Wings are in or out, regardless of what we do in our last few games.

 

Dallas plays at San Jose, who has played well of late, before finishing against Columbus and Detroit. Head-to-head to end the season is a REAL must win. Whoever loses is out.

 

The Wings have a game in hand on both Dallas and Minnesota. Minnesota hasn't been playing good down the stretch, much like the Wings, but their final 3 games are against the Kings and bottom-feeders Edmonton and Colorado. Assuming they don't play down to their competition like the Wings, we can assume we won't make up the 3 point spread over our last 4.

 

Columbus can land at 51-55 points (needs win against DAL to stay alive)

Minnesota can land at 51-57 points (controls their own destiny)

Dallas can land at 48-54 points (needs wins against both CBJ and DET to stay alive)

Detroit can land at 48-56 points (needs win against DAL bad)

Detroit currently has the tie breaker on Columbus, but not Dallas or Minnesota.

Detroit has 3 of 4 at home, but one back-to-back.

 

Yep.  Another game where we only score a goal.  How many does that make now in recent memory?

 

And Howard needs to study tape in shootouts.  Lapierre was going so slow that Howard should have just kept his ground and not committed.  Instead, he goes down quickly like he always does.  

 

When you've played as a goaltender in an NHL shootout, come back and let us know. Until then, consider that you have no place making this sort of criticism.

As I pointed out in my post, they don't really have any more depth than we do. Sharp's been out almost half the year, Hossa missed 7. Saad, Bolland, Stalberg, Bickell, Shaw... none of them are really any better than what we have, none of them have as many goals as Brunner, and only Saad matches Franzen. More likely I think is that Kane and Toews add more to those guys than those guys add to Kane and Toews.

 

Upgrading a couple of our forwards to Sharp and Hossa level would help, I'm sure. But I wouldn't expect it to double Pav and Hank's output. Particularly not if the one's you upgrade are Franzen and Filppula, as you'd likely need to do to make it work under the cap.

 

The Wings have 9 negative forwards to The Hawks' 1.  In fact the Hawks as a whole have only 2 negative players, the Wings, 12.  I know +/- isn't a perfect indicator of a player's talent level but it does reflect something about their effort on the ice which gets bitched about A LOT on here.  Chicago's roster kills us in +/- and it's not because of PP goals.  Maybe we wouldn't need a ton of scoring if guys weren't getting outskated, outworked and losing puck battles that end up in the back of their net.  This is why people might say their depth is "better" than ours.

 

esteef

the man is our best player besides dats. he earned this contract. end of conversation

Same ol' song and dance.

 

Ansar Khan ‏@AnsarKhanMLive 23s

Wings were in on 2 or 3 players, felt they made competitive offers, but it wasn't good enough.

 

 

As I've said, I didn't really want Holland to make a deal for a playoff rental, but it is kind of comical that he says the same things year after year.

If Holland stands pat at this deadline, then I'm joining the "Fire Holland" crowd. 

I'm assuming this means that Holland and Flip are close to a deal?

Yep! 6 Years @5.5 mil per for a 15 goal player

Well if he wants north of 5 mil a season then I can understand Kenny not re-signing him now.  I like Flip's game but he is simply not worth this salary.

 

According to Khan, Filppula is looking for $5mil+ per year...if that's the case, they should trade him now while they can still get something.

If I were Datsyuk, I'd walk into Kenny's office and demand a trade off this sinking ship.  But, Pav would never do that.  He'll just deke Kenny out and go back to work.  He'll carry this whole organization by himself, if he has to.  That's just so unfair to him.

Pav is my favorite player of all time. He deserves to have someone to play with. The guy is still so dominant. Get him someone really good to play with and who knows maybe he re-signs for a couple more years.

I'd rather lose a first and a good prospect for a star player plus two more years of pav playing with that star player

Way to miss the point (on the Luongo thing).

 

Ehrhoff is a puck moving defenseman.  40-50 points is not out of the question.  Vanek is a 40 goal scorer.

 

Are we really worried about what MIGHT be a problem 8-9 years down the road?  Ehrhoff's cap # is $4.0M.  Even at 6 years, that's a decent run.  And as you guys mentioned, he's not physical.....performing to the end of the contract is possible.

 

It's ok to be a middling team?  Jesus Christ, people.  Do you hear yourselves?  This is supposed to be a team that has one goal, every year--The Stanley Cup. 

 

You've been brainwashed into accepting mediocrity so that we can be mediocre for 3-4 more years before falling off, rather than a serious contender (now) and dealing with the future as it comes?  If Ken Holland is the genius some make him out to be, why do we have to accept s*** teams?  If we are nearing the end of our window, why not go for it?

 

Oy.

I don't know if it's cynicism or realism at this point, I admit that, but I don't expect Holland to do anything at the deadline. Whether he should or shouldn't, I don't really know either. Tough call this year if you want to get honest about where this team is at. If you don't bring in someone worthwhile who will stick around after this season, you've almost gotta say, "what's the point?" I just wish Holland would make up his mind about what he wants to do with this team.

 

If you're going to try to be good and really compete right now, you've got to trade draft picks and prospects and make a real investment in "right now." If you're going to forego "right now" for the sake of keeping prospects and draft picks, then start selling assets and trade for more draft picks and/or prospects. Let the team really sink for a year or two so we get a descent spot in the first round a couple of times. This shooting for the middle approach absolutely isn't sustainable. You lose Datsyuk and this is a very, very, very different team. And if you keep him, he nor Z and his back are getting any older, and I think it's safe to forget about Franzen being a force again.

 

So if we just continue to stand pat with a middle of the road team, drafting in the middle of the first round at best, we're going to be left with a team full of these "depth players" Holland refers to with no legit talent to support. I just don't see how there's any way out other than getting insanely lucky again in the draft like we did with Dats and Z, but you can't count on that when you're building a team. So in my mind, he really needs to make a choice about what he wants this team to be. Trade some of your "future" to be truly competitive right now, or trade some of your "right now," even if it leads to struggling, so you can get busy really rebuilding from the ground up. I'm fine with either path really, as I think both are better than this middle ground he's walking that will likely lead to nowhere.

The problem is not Babcock. The problem is the lack of synergy between Holland and Babcock. Holland doesn't give Babs the kind of team he openly asks for and needs. WTF do you think will happen in that situation?

Edited the thread title to be less obnoxious.

 

I understand not liking Crosby, but celebrating that he got hit in the face with the puck is lame.

I personally think he's been playing outstanding since coming back from his injury. He's strong on the puck, a great center, can play wing, and with out certainly knowing that Pasha will be coming back, we need all the top 6 centers we can get. Jarnkrok will need a year or two atleast before coming within the Wings system. Sheahan is projected to be a third line center so he won't be replacing Filp nor Pasha. Good centers don't come easy.

Well, You're quite wrong. He easily gets knocked off the puck. He cowards at any sort of contact. He doesn't shoot the puck. And he panics and make BAD passes because he really has no killer instinct (nose for the net)  On the plus side, he has speed, but rarely uses it. Solid on faceoffs, but haven't seen him take or win a big one. Quite honestly, Flip has been a no-show for most of the season.

The thing I find it hard to understand is who the Red Wings really have in their system that is so precious... they have one of the best players in the world on their team RIGHT NOW. Why are we letting him play on a line with Franzen, Cleary/Abdelkader?

Holland needs to make some bold moves to provide the talent to surround his core players, especially Datsyuk & Zetterberg. Iginla would have filled a need that this team desperately needs.

The way I look at it, either you trade for some talent to win now or start rebuilding. Pavel is worth picking up some real talent...

 

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By the way, found this Tweet from Brett Hull interesting:

Pitt starting to remind me of 2002 Wings #wholebunchofhallofamers!