Miss Wing Queen

after reading this i now wanna play the game "Operation"  

Or break into song: "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes.  Knees and toes!"

OH s***.  What next?!

"Ken Holland takes temporary personal leave for three weeks to deal with an acute onset of panic attacks.  Symptoms began after Holland began planning who his backup to goaltender MacDonald who be, and after he realized he himself was next on the call-up list."

I'm going to give this one to our boys.  After a while, I've got to believe that the mental exhaustion of having another teammate head to the injured list eats away at them.  It's not an excuse, but it is a factor.  I don't blame Jimmy 100% either tonight, since the team looked really sloppy in the first.  I'd say it was 50/50.  But whatever . . . rest up and move on, boys.  Six games until Pavel and Cleary come back.

What is going on with all these groin injuries?

Friggin' curling . . .  

Kostopolous should be suspended however long Stuart injury keeps him out.

I would hate for someone who absolutely decimated a guy with a horribly cheap hit to the head get off free because the player that was hit just happened to miss 0 games.
Likewise, I would hate for someone to miss the entire season on a questionable hit that happened to concuss the player (with a bad history of concussions) for 82 games.

In theory, this is a good way to handle these injuries.

However, the NHL would still screw it up like they do regular penalties now.  A player blatantly head-hunting and looking to do real damage would be overlooked, and a well-meaning yet competitive player looking to finish his play, like Kronwall, would end up out for weeks, the same way obvious slashes (ahem . . . see New Year's Eve game against Islanders) are not called but barely making contact with your stick on another player (Bert's penalty last night) is called.

Whatever the NHL does, not just in this case, it would be nice if they were consistent.  They called so much attention to the fact they were going to "crack down on these blindsided hits," but they can't pull their heads out of their asses long enough to put together either an established layout for discipline or a better training program for the refs to more accurately identify these hits or both.  I think because (1) the heads of the NHL are incompetent beyond belief and (2) it is such a subjective type of penalty that it will be a while before things are satisfactorily worked out and resolved.

Either way, best of luck, Stuie!  We wish you a very speedy recovery!

Any leftover hangovers from New Year's should be gone by now, so let's play like the team we saw in October, please and thank you.  "Motivation," "hustle," and "60 minutes" are your words for the day, Red Wings. Meditate on them and use them.

And BTW, I don't even like to let any thought about such subjects as a "thing-that-shall-not-be-named" enter my mind during a game, let alone speak it's name.  

It must have happened in the Winter Classic. Because anyone not suffering from a head injury would have went and shook hands with the other team. You know, that tradition crap he's always spewing, yet constantly avoiding.

So he had a concussion during Game 7 of the 2009 playoffs too?

Oh don't worry guys, the best player in the league will be back in a week.

I didn't know Pavel was coming back early!

For Cindy:

And for some reason I can totally picture Helmer playing Hungry Hungry Hippos in his spare time, hehe.

As well as practicing "The Worm."  

what was wrong with Tatar's goal celebration?

The kid's excited to be wearing a Red Wing.

I thought it was a great celebration, and I was really excited that he scored in his first NHL game.  This kid is going to be big.  I was sad to hear Eaves was out, but really excited that Tatar was in and that I'd get to see him in his first game.  But I thought it was kind of strange how he kind of bowled into Rafi and then went to hug the other guys.  But I just chock that up to "what happiness looks like" as Ken said.

Howard can't stop af****** beach ball. Start Osgood. Jimmy needs to earn to play.

Howard is great in flashes but if he isn't the star he is almost always the goat. He has yet to learn how to win with the superior team. Howard has been poor in his last half-dozen or so, dozes when the Wings are running a clinic. The team could have played better as a whole and simplified here or there, but Howard needs to win these games. Say what you want about Osgood, he could win the lopsided ones.

Great post.

It's rare to find a thoughtful, reasoned one regarding goaltenders around here.

Jimmy hasn't been awful, but he certainly hasn't been as good as last season either.  And Ozzy, thankfully, has been a lot better than he was this past season.  I think Ozzy's warranted a few more starts.  At the very least, hopefully it'll put some heat on Jimmy and he'll get his game back together.

I am a big fan of both Ozzie and Jimmy, but one thing I don't like that Babs does is set one standard for one player and a totally different standard for another.  When Ozzie plays bad or not up to par, we don't see him for a few weeks to a month, but when Jimmy has a bad or not so great game, he gets another 5 to 10 starts to "work it out and get his game back."  I just wish Babs stuck to his philosophy that "you have to earn your spot on the team for each game" evenly for ALL players on this team.  I am in no way taking on the "sky is falling" thought process with our goaltending, since this has been mostly just for December only, but I feel Ozzie has definitely showed more consistency that Jimmy and deserves an equal number of starts.  I think Jimmy would benefit from some competition to drive him to work on playing consistently both in games against tougher opponents and lesser opponents.  Look at the beginning of 2009 between Conklin and Ozzie.

I was at the game last night, and they only showed part of the tribute to Ozzie on TV.  What they showed on the big screen at JLA was really special, starting with a clip from his very first start in the NHL (and how young he looked).  The arena was so loud with applause and cheers for him, especially when they showed "400 regular season wins."  Congrats, Ozzie!  You deserved it!

Happy New Year, everyone!  Here's to a great 2011, especially a terrific June 2011!

I'm expecting some rust on Ozzie, and the game may be more challenging, but my expectation is not perfection for a guy who has played a handful of games in as many months.  I'm cutting him some big slack for Saturday's game.  And all I have to say is I'd rather get him started now in a rotation than wait until March like last year and wear Jimmy out (although he has the stamina of a bull).  If we lose, we lose.  If we win, even better.  The overall benefits far outweigh the negatives.

I had posted this in the training camp thread.

Ken Kal and John Keating MCed the event and kept us laughing while we ate until Ken Holland showed up for a question and answer session.  As he was talking, he discussed the future of goaltending in Detroit and felt Howie was the long term answer, and also mentioned he was a big fan of veteran players, indicating that Osgood (and players like Draper too) complimented the new guys on the team because they were "company" men who would do anything (take less pay and less of a role) for the team's sake.  He mentioned he had read on the internet how "people are saying 'well so and so is too old' and such," so for those who wonder if they read and visit LGW, maybe.   I wished I had a tape recorder because he discussed a lot of interesting points that many on here would love to listen too (shoot outs, new prospects who've impressed him, the team this season), but sadly, I didn't have one handy.

Holland also mentioned two things in regards to the vets and Draper.  One, he made the point of saying, (me paraphrasing) "Why do we keep the older guys around?  Well, we keep them on the team, and every 4 years or so we're driving down Woodward, and they're usually in a convertible somewhere down the line having gotten us there."  He also mentioned that during one of the Phoenix games last season, Helm had lost a face off that resulted in a game winning goal, and at practice the next day, who was it out on the ice with Helm, practicing all the "strategies" for winning a face-off?  Draper, the "player at the top of the league the previous year in face-offs won."  

Like it or not, Holland likes his cocktail of veteran and younger players and knows the fine line he walks in regards to bringing new players up in a timely fashion but also getting the most value (in his eyes) out of the experienced players too.

Here's my video of the Wings' Three Stooges/Abbott & Costello.  It took forever to download to PhotoBucket.  It's great to hear the crowd's reaction to their antics.  Thanks, boys, for a great show!

Here's my pictures from Day 2.  Lots more of the players came out to sign.  I got to watch some of the scrimmage and practices too.  Downey was looking faster than he has before and much sharper on the puck.  Out of the prospects/younger guys, Owens is definitely one to watch.  When he signed for me, I said that I liked his goal from yesterday, and he replied, "I had one today too.  Did you see that one?"  Tatar is also doing really well.  Franzen went skates first into the boards during the scrimmage, and I had bad flashbacks from early last season, but he slowed down before he hit the boards.  The Z-D-H line is looking really good--can't wait to see them in action.  More to come tomorrow.  I'll add video tonight too from the scrimmage.

I am ashamed of my sex when girls do stupid s*** like this.  I would have smacked the ***** myself if it were me.  And I probably would have had a broken tv by the fourth time of that happening.  

I'm hoping for a better year on the injury front so that Babcock will not be pressured to work himself into a corner as far as goalie management goes like he did this year.

I believe that Osgood would have worked out his funk from 08/09 if the cards had been dealt better (him not getting the flu, the innumerable injuries, scrapping to make the playoffs).  In about 60-70% of the games he played in October/November, Osgood showed promise of returning to his 08 postseason form.  However, I really believe his lack of starts stunted that for the remainder of the year.  

Howard stepped in and proved that he had won the job, and under the circumstances deserved the starter job.  The good that came out of it of course is that we learned what Howard is made of, he gained a ton of regular season, and some playoff, experience, and we made the playoffs.  But Babcock's ideology of "there's always tomorrow . . ." for Osgood was detrimental to the team to some degree since he screwed himself out of having his backup prepared in the regular season and come playoff time if needed.  

Now I understand that things went the way they did in the best interests for the team making the playoffs, but Babcock really needs to learn from this mistake so as to prevent it from happening in the future.  As the coaching and management staff has already made clear to the players, everyone will have to begin the fight again for their job come September.  And that is only fitting because it challenges the players to up their game and bring their best.  The same goes for Howard and Osgood.  We don't want Howard to follow Mason's footsteps, and with one year left on his contract, Osgood can still show that he deserves to play for the Red Wings.  

Overall, come September, I'd like to see Howard get about 60-65% of the starts, and have Osgood get 35-40%, but have the starts evenly distributed and managed, and of course, have above average to exceptional performances from both goalies.

It just seemed like we were always walking a fine line this season and holding our breath as far as the goalie situation went, always wondering how far we could push our luck, and I would like to see this team avoid that if possible next year.