Nightfall

Lets just cut through this shall we?

There is no goalie good enough to wear the Wings jersey.  You name it, every goalie has good days and bad days.  Every goalie gives up rebounds.  Every goalie gives up soft goals.  The team in front of the goalie makes all the difference.  The Wings are 3rd in the NHL because they have a good team.  

So Howard had a bad game, big deal.  Hell, the entire Wings team had a bad game last night.  The funny part is when the team in front of him plays like crap, he still gets pushed under the bus.

Personally, I am glad that they signed Howard to the 2 year deal.  I am also glad that the collective Wings fans are not in charge of the team.  Hell, these are the same people that will lambaste their team all season long, and then when they win the cup, will take credit saying it was the best team ever assembled.  Look at the Dallas Drake signing a few years ago.  People scoffed at that signing, yet he was a valuable depth player.  In the end, he wins and cup and everyone takes credit for saying how good of a signing it was.  What a load of crap.

Here is an idea.  To the ones who are critical of the players, get on board with being a fan of the Red Wings.  If you want to bandwagon it up, go jump on board the Vancouver bus.

Crap defense, crap decisions on offense, bad rebounds.  This is an entire team crap effort.

Some players just do better with a change of scenery.  Nuff said.

When.. in the last 30 seconds of the game ? They might be down a few by then. They need to stop playing puck possesion, instead of clearing the puck like most teams would have they just try to give it back to one of there players and thats what unfolds.

How does 7:53 left in the 1st sound?  

So Howard does one better than last time and keeps it down to one goal against, and we're STILL complaining about him?  Yeah, he really sucks, doesn't he?  I can't believe he let in that one whole soft goal.  I mean, there's no reason he couldn't have got us a shutout so that the rest of the team could've taken the night off...what a lazy bum.  Trade him.

I agree.  If you want real hockey talk, go over to the hfboards.  The hockey fans there are much more down to earth and its refreshing.  I come here to discuss the games with fans of the team I love, but it seems here, too many red wings fans have brain damage.

Howard let in one bad goal.  Hell, its a goal I let in probably once every two weeks.  Anyway, he rebounds and plays solid, yet still gets the shaft.  Just further proof of the lofty expectations that wings fans here have on their goalies.  In order for a goalie to be great here, 3 of the 4 things must happen every game.

1. A shutout
2. No rebounds
3. Less than 1.50 GAA
4. Greater than a .945 Save Percentage

Print this out and circle the ones that are applicable.  If you can't circle 3, he is a bad goalie and should be traded.

This board is downright laughable at times...

I have to agree.  Seriously, I go to the HFboards to get more intelligent hockey talk.  I come here to hear some biased Wings perspective and the most stupid comments from armchair Wings fans.  Anyone with a straight face saying that Howard lost the LA game is an idiot.  Howard has had his best stretch of hockey over the course of the last couple weeks, and because of the defensive lapses in front of him, they haven't done so well.  I don't blame Howard for this at all.  I blame the product in front of him.

There for a second, I thought you were going to talk about some articles written here on these forums.

howard .875  

salei the only defensemen not a minus

The stats were not indicative of how this game was played.  Howard cannot be faulted on the first two goals.  Blown defensive coverages is how you lose games, not win them.  Even the 3rd goal was a tough one to save because of the fact he committed to the first shot, and it rebounds off a defenseman in front and got another shot.  You can call it a lucky bounce or puck luck, but this kind of crap happens all the time.  

Did you notice that Dallas kept a vast majority of shots to the outside where they were easy saves?  Hell, Detroit didn't get anything going until the 3rd period, and there is NO excuse why the team just did not play well until then.

As other posters have pointed out, the Wings have played bored.  Even in the rec leagues, you can tell teams that are playing bored, because they let teams that are not as good as they are hang around in games or beat them.

The entire team should be faulted for this loss.  Not one player.  Not the defensive pairings.  The whole freaking team.  They have to go out there and outwork the other team, not sit on their asses and play uninspired.

/end rant

Next game on the schedule is on Saturday.  Lets go wings!

Consistency with Howard definitely is an issue, but the good news is it is only February and Detroit has lost for the first time in 6 games.  That isn't too bad of a streak.

Howard has 30 wins to lead all goalies.  Yea, he needs to work on his consistency.  Maybe he can lose a few more and make himself look about average.  After all, consistently winning games is really an issue.  

holland has some thinking to do

Great job on the last two goals by Howard..... Really thought he was turning the corner, then goal in the last minute of period 1 (not his fault), goal in the last two minutes of period 2 (not his fault, kill Ericsson), a bad rebound for goal number three (his fault) and a TERRIBLE miss on the GWG...

Frustrating night to be certain, they started so well.

too bad Howie had to let in that weaksauce goal at the end

the thing i noticed is goalies bail out other teams when playing detroit. but how many times has jimmy bailed out detroit this season? once? how many games have he been to blame? a bunch? hes not a game stealer which sucks cause i dont see him going anywhere

When I read quotes like this, I just shake my head.  I could see if Howard had a subpar game, but he played very well tonight.  Would he like to have the last one back?  Of course.  At the same time though, there were some stops he made that could have went in but they didn't.  This was not a goaltending issue.  If anything, it was a capitalization issue.

I didn't get a chance to see the entire game, but I just watched the highlights and I am going to watch the game in its entirety tomorrow.  The highlights didn't show me that one goalie outplayed the other.  If anything, it was one team unable to capitalize on their chances while the other one did.  Dats had about 5 chances to score and couldn't bury the biscuit.  Eaves had a couple good chances.  The Wings have got to score on those opportunities.

Yet, they didn't.  The blame game is easy to cast on one player or another.  Seems that everyone except Lidstrom, Hank, or Dats are easy targets.  I really should put up a freaking pie chart and start marking down who the loss gets attributed to just as a goof.  During the 5 game win streak, it was a team effort.  In a loss, its (insert player name here).  Howard, Rafalski, Bert, etc.

I don't know, I just tire of the bulls*** in this forum at times.  I have read some very good posts from true Wings fans.  Then I read s*** like this and its just that....s***.  These are Wings fans?  I mean seriously?  True Wings fans don't throw their players under a bus.  Stand behind your team for a freaking change.  Win as a team, lose as a team.  Its that simple.

Way too much bitching from members here.  Especially considering that we outplayed Boston for the final two periods of play.  The Wings played an excellent game and the stats of the game don't lie.  Are there things they can improve on?  You betcha!  At the same time though, the blame game going around on Kindl and Howard really needs to stop.  The "Wings fans" on this forum really need to get behind their team and stop with the senseless accusations and blame.  Especially on things like "rebounds" which Howard was toasted for, but when Thomas gives up rebounds, they are naturally supposed to happen.  The arguments make no sense.

Ah well.  Onto the next game!

You tell 'em Babs, stfu Mcguire.

Man, that shot from Abdelkader was nice.  Thomas must have s***ty rebound control.  Did you see that juicy rebound?

/sarcasm

I've played hockey and stuff like that is going to happen, although I agree that any time that a puck deflects off an official that leads to a scoring chance, the play should be halted.

Since we are talking about changing the way things are happening on the ice when it comes to officials.....

I think they should have one less official on the ice and more above the boards standing there watching the play.  In my experience, the worst place to observe the play is on the ice.  The best place to observe it is standing on high, watching from a protected area.  They looked at this in the NHL Combines and it was successful.  They really should think about doing this.

I just don't see things changing like this.  I have only reffed USA Hockey for a couple years now, and after 100+ games, I haven't had a puck go off of me and to a player who scores.  If it does though, you can bet I would feel terrible about it as most refs would.

i fixed that for you.

I actually agree with you on that.  Most Canadian fans are quite the hockey enthusiasts.  

Is that relevant?

I don't have to be a forward to critique a forwards play.  Don't deflect simply to justify Howard's positioning on that goal.

IMHO, people who have played the game seem to have more relevant analysis when it comes to hockey.  Thats just my observation though.

Do goalies let in weak goals or make mistakes on positioning?  Yup.  Just like defenses blow coverages and forwards turn pucks over.  IMHO, if you are going to chew Howard out for crap positioning, then chew the D out for not covering the man in the slot.  A lot of blame to go around on that goal, and the idiots blaming one party and only one party for that goal, is dumb.