hooon

Incredible GDT, I'm not even all too familiar with Glee, and I still think this GDT phenomenal, thanks for the hard work!

Huuuuge game tonight. Definitely feeling the nerves. The Wings have to play at least as well as they did in game 3, and I would love to see that extra gear from Datsyuk/Z/Franzen. You have to assume the Hawks are going to be playing for their playoff lives and treating this almost as an elimination game - it sure feels like one somehow. 

With the shakeup to their lineup, that top line is going to be a handful, hopefully Z keeps playing tall continues to neutralize them. With their main defensive forwards all on the top line, I hope this gives Datsyuk a ton of room to take over offensively playing against Kane.

LETS GO WINGS!

A rookie defensemen on a weak defense who makes mistakes? Gosh.

Yes he has looked bad plenty of times this season. He still has a tremendous amount of upside, limited amount of trade value, and has plenty of years to mature.

Trading him would be absolutely idiotic. 

So the biggest Red Wings whiner makes a thread about not whining...

That'd be like Blueadams making a thread asking people to stop making lines threads.

Should your account be benched?

Come back on April 28 to make your picks. The Stanley Cup Playoffs start on April 30.

 

Uh, it IS April 28th.

 

The eastern conference seeding hasn't been confirmed and won't be until after tonight's Boston vs. Ottawa game, which was rescheduled due to the Boston Marathon incident. 

I'm sure picks can be made once the seedings have been decided after tonight's game.

BTW, I'm in!

Franzen continues to be the most undeserved whipping boy ever. He's only led the team in goals every single year since he's had his contract.... and he is making UNDER FOUR MILLION DOLLARS.

I love it when people can tell how much "effort" someone is putting in. Even when he is outscoring, outhitting, and outplaying almost everyone else on the team, it is still Franzen who gets constantly criticized, even over the players who are making more money than him.

Franzen's been one of the hardest working players on the team all year. 

Its pretty crazy how hard it is to see a player's true value until he's not playing anymore. We saw it last year with Ericsson, and Helm is pretty obvious. Bert is certainly not the best player in the league, but he is valuable to the team, especially with how poorly the offense has been doing. 

I was never wild about his latest contract, but the offense needs him right now and for the final push.

How does he improve our scoring? he doesn't. helm is a great defensive C. Our D is fine overall, and will only get better as the young Dmen mature. helm is not now nor will he ever be a guy that scores 20+ goals a season. That is what we need badly. Again, to get quality, you have to give quality. Its not like the RW are short on checkers. We have those. it is scorers that we lack and size/grit that we lack. helm is none of those.

Wow, you are severely overlooking what Helm brings to the team. 

Scoring is not everything in this league, ESPECIALLY for a 3rd/4th line center who is the most integral part of the PK on the entire team. How many teams have 20 goal scorers for their 3rd line center? Those are very unrealistic expectations for a guy who is essentially the new Draper. (Draper hit 20 goals one time in his career, did that make him not valuable to the team?)

Helm will NEVER get traded, as he shouldn't. He holds faaar more value to this team than he would garner in a trade. 

I think you have to resign Filppula.  He is arguably the best free agent available this year.  I can see the lines looking something like this.

 

Nyquist-Datsyuk-Bertuzzi/Jagar/Morrow

Franzen-Zetterberg-Flip

Tatar-Helm-Andersson

Emerton-Abdelkadar-Tootoo/eaves/milller

 

Kronwall-Ericsson

Dekeyser-Kindl

Smith-Quincey

Colo

Lashoff

 

Howard

Gus

 

This a pretty solid lineup.  However, I think Bert might be gone as well.  So replace him through a trade for a young forward or a UFA.

We let Brunner walk?

I hope not.

Yeah Smith would have to start playing defense, or scoring, or something in order for me to get excited about that.  As of right now I'm MUCH more excited about Kindl than I am about Smith.  As such, Kindl and Dekeyser might be something to get pumped about. 

Smith's playing his first season in the NHL as a defenseman, a position that traditionally takes a lot longer to fully develop than a forward.

Just because he hasn't yet lived up to the unrealistic expectations that were thrown upon him by excited fans doesn't mean it is time to give up on him yet. 

Kindl has indeed been playing great, but was not playing any better than Smith in his first NHL season. Smith's upside also far exceeds Kindl's.

In any event, it is great to have a good stock of young D players and prospects. Future on D is looking brighter than it has in a while. 

Pretty crazy how all of the sudden the Wings have one of the best D prospect pools in the league. 

Jeez, Babcock is infuriating sometimes. 

I like that Datsyuk isn't stuck with 4th liners anymore.

They need to start putting together some wins, the West is just getting tighter and tighter.

Yeah this line needs to go. I know we are thin because of injuries but there are options out there.

I don't see why Z has both Franzen and Brunner on his wing. Let Franzen play with Datsyuk, and then preferably throw Tatar on that line. Franzen-Datsyuk-Tatar sounds a whole lot better than Clearly-Datsyuk-Abdelkader. I'd love Nyquist to be called up for a spot on that second line with Z and Brunner, and then when Fil comes back he slots into that spot.

I hate being one to pretend I know more than an NHL coach, but this line is just frustrating to watch and it is getting a little baffling as to why it is still together when everyone can pretty plainly see it isn't working.

Just don't have a good feeling about this one after last night.

Unbelievable that Datsyuk is stuck with 4th liners. Abby and Cleary are so insanely ineffective in scoring roles it's maddening to watch. I can't believe Babs won't even put AT LEAST Franzen or Tatar somewhere on that line. Pavel is amazing, and can do almost everything by himself, but it makes it a lottttt easier to have someone halfway competent on a line with him, and at this point I would rather ANY two forwards on the team (hell most Dmen too) be on Datsyuk's line over 8 and 11. 

Big win needed, get it done boys.