gcom007

Some of you guys are acting like children. Bench Eaves? He made one bad play... but he has been one of our best players this series... always providing energy, getting shots to the net. It was not Smith's fault that he got a bad pass at the blue line like that. IMO the only one to blame is Babcock. He should not have had the 4th line out there on the powerplay. IMO Nyquist has looked FANTASTIC tonight and there was no reason the 2nd pp unit could not go back out once pavs and hank came off. Having the 4th line out there is what led to the turnover, and t he resulting powerplay goal. Therefore, Babcock deserves blame.

 

Besides that, the Wings played a great period. Dominated play, got good shots to the net, had scoring chances. They hit two posts. The nice thing about the Ducks scoring when they did is it allows the Wings 15 min to regroup and come out strong like in the 2nd. Have some faith.

Guys missing from last years team:

 

Lidstrom

Holstrom

Stuart

Hudler

Bertuzzi

Helm

 

that's 6 regulars out 18 regular skaters -  fully 1/3 of the team.

 

Veteran guys that they brought in to help

 

Coliaccavo

Sammuelson

Tootoo

 

2 of the 3 have missed almost the entire season.

 

Rookies that are filling in:

 

Lashof

Smith

Kindl (partial season experience)

Andersson

Nyquist/Kindl

 

Based on this, just to make the playoffs have been a struggle.

 

I am glad we didn't mortgage our future.  One or two more expensive free agents were not going to replace the 1/3 of the team that we lost.

 

If the only two options you've got to fix a team that got massacred in the first round of the playoffs last year are a few aging vets who weren't all that good to begin with (Sammy, Colaiacovo, Tootoo) OR a bunch of kids with no real NHL experience, then I'd say you've f***ed up.

 

Management keeps "doing all it can" to improve this team and that's the best it's got.  Rookies or plugs?  What the hell? 

 

Remember when we won the cup in 2008.  Our third line was Hudler, Filppula, and Sammy.  Back then Sammy was only a third line player making 1.2 million per season.  Now at 36 years old he's a top sixer worth 3. In what universe?  Similarly, back then young guys like Hudler and Filppula were expected to step into supplementary roles until they rounded out their game.  Now, we need Nyquist or Tatar to be top sixers or else we have to use Cleary or Abby?  Yes we miss Helm and Bert, but only one of those guys is a top six forward.  The rest of the top two units are intact and they still can't buy a goal.  Does Bert make that big of a difference, or where we expecting Helm to be an offensive dynamo this season? 

 

Mismanagement dudes.  Plain and simple. 

"What is gained by making the playoff and embarrassingly being booted in the first round?" you ask.

Answer: Not being embarrassed by being booted BEFORE the playoffs begin.

 

I can't believe people actually think it's more embarrassing to make the playoffs and lose than to MISS the playoffs. Crazy!

 

Who cares about embarrassing?  Since Holland is FINALLY suggesting that we're in a rebuild (only after missing out on Jagr I might add) we might as well think about the long term.  And in the long term missing the playoffs and getting the higher pick is probably better than making it, losing early, and getting the 20th overall or whatever it would be.  They don't play for bragging rights, they play to win the cup, and even if me make the playoffs we're likely not winning anything. 

 

Also, the fact that we're having this discussion is embarrassing no matter what happens with the playoffs.

Is this golf on now, or the Wings 2nd round of the playoffs?

There's a phrase, "To whom much is given, much is expected."

Red Wings' players are given a lot.  An awful lot.  They're treated very well by ownership and management, rewarded with contracts that some of us fans say are for too long or for too much money, especially when a player is past his prime.  The players that fit into the team's structure are kept here for a long time, usually only leaving when they choose to retire or to move on.  They're largely sheltered from the public, they don't have to do all the appearances that players in less-traditional hockey markets have to do.  And they're (for the most part) adored by the team's fans.

What's expected in return is that they give 100%, play well, win more often than not, and do well in the playoffs.  Last night's game was a total failure in every way possible.  There was no effort, no emotion, no pride, no appearance of any desire to even be there playing NHL hockey.  I don't think that's what we will see all season, far from it.  But that was no way to start the season, especially after what transpired this summer and fall.  Can you imagine if that was a home game?  The stands would have (or should have) been completely empty by the third period.  It was unacceptable by anyone's standards and especially for a team that says they expect to compete for the Stanley Cup every season.

A couple of you have said the team is due for an overhaul.  I couldn't agree more.  The locker room seems to have become a country club over the last few seasons, there is no price to be paid for under-performing.  Nobody gets traded away, nobody gets let go, nobody gets benched.  Helm's line was the team's best line in way too many games last year.  Other guys continually disappear for long stretches but continue to play here.  Players who don't "fit the system" aren't looked at as possible acquisitions.  Now, what we have is a collection of redundant players and a team that can't adapt to an opponent who outworks the Wings or who can shut down their puck-possession style.  They couldn't dump and chase if their lives depended on it.  An aggressive forecheck is out of the question, 3 or 4 players excepted.  And there's no real hope coming up through the ranks.  Yes, Nyquist, Tatar, Andersson, and Sheahan are all NHL-ready or very close, but what are those guys going to do when they get here?  3rd line, maybe fill in on the 2nd line?  We don't have anyone like Tarasenko, Skinner, Henrique, Andrew Shaw... someone who can quickly step in and produce at an NHL level.  Andersson and Sheahan project as 3rd liners and Nyquist and Tatar have talent but are small.  Same as the roster we have now.  It's time for an organizational shift, this season or this off-season.

It is time for an overhaul... This small skilled team doesn't equate to NHL hockey anymore.  Sure, there is a place on the team for a couple of smaller skilled forwards, but if St. Louis didn't prove anything to anyone else last night, they proved it to me, todays NHL needs BIG skilled forwards... I almost blew my beer through my nose when Mickey Redmond said about Franzen that "There is a guy who can match up physically with Backes..." I laugh hysterically today about it.  The Wings are full of small skilled and big average players. The extent of our small skilled forwards should start and end with Zetterberg and Datsyuk.  I reserve judgement on Brunner because he is a rookie and well had 1/5 of our shots last night and at one point had half of them. But the rest of this team can and will be judged, especially after 10 games if they aren't at least 6-4.

 

The makeup of this team needs to be changed drastically.  I know Holland tried for the Olsen twins and I give him credit for everything he did over the summer, including the draft where he went with some larger and tougher players along with his couple of smaller skilled players.  I know nobody agrees with me, but Franzen needs to be traded and I would say the same about Filppula. Why? Because Filppula can bring us a nice piece in return.  I still maintain that Filppula should be traded to Anaheim for Bobby Ryan (if Anaheim would do so.)  I know Selanne holds alot of water in Anaheim and the fact that he said he wants to play with Filppula should not go unoticed by Holland and the Anaheim GM.  I do not even know what Franzen would get us in return after his epic fall at the end of last season and which contiues today.  If traded anywhere, I am sure it would be somewhere where he would have countrymen who have chemistry with him, Vancouver or Dallas come to mind.  I have said before about getting Burrows or Morrow for him, but I am not sure now that those teams would want him.... I could see Franzen doing well with the Sedins or Eriksson, which is why I mention those two teams.

 

Quincey wasn't anywhere worth the 1st round pick, I don't care who would have been selected at #19.  Heck, Stuart only cost us a 2nd and a 4th.  I maintain that Quincey should not have been re-signed and we should have collected whatever picks we could have gotten as compensation.  But no, Holland wasted $3.75M of cap space on this useless garbage.

 

In my opinion tradeable assets today are:

 

Filppula, Franzen, Cleary, Emmerton, Quincey, Ericsson, Kindl...(of course along with picks or prospects to get us what we need...)

 

Waive Mursak, his NHL career is over, WAY over...

 

Buyout Samuelsson and Bertuzzi....

how the hell do we keep giving up these breakaways???

 

 

I have an idea for a fun game.

Everyone guess

a) which Wing will score first

b) who will get the first assists

c) which month it will happen in

Once again, thanks Ken Holland for years of sitting back doing nothing and not having a plan in place for when Nick retired...thanks buddy!  

“I'm a Red Wing for the next three years and I'm going to make sure every team we play knows that.'' -- Jordin Tootoo

 

esteef

If Weber truly wanted out of Nashville, you would have to think he wouldn't have signed a 14-year offer sheet with another team.  Rationale being that it woudl be close to 100% that Nashville woudl match and he'd then have a 14 year contract with Nashville (doens't mean he's stuck there for 14 years, but you know....).

If Weber thought he'd be getting out of Nashville by signing an offer sheet, he got bad advice.  From everything I've heard though, he has no issues with Nashville.

Although Twitter is probably the premiere way to get NHL news, there are a couple people who deal in baseless speculation, rather than reliable information. Here are some Twitter sources you shouldn't cite/believe:

@Eklund
@NHLSourcesSay
@NHL_Trade
@NHLTheInsider
@hchockeytalk
@The_Creasy

Proceed With Caution:
@HockeyyInsiderr
@RobRossi_Trib
@andystrickland

If you have any more suggestions, please post them!

Bottom line.  It's his decision, whatever his reasons are.  I get uptight about a lot of things but not this kind of thing.  He has to be seriously considering where he's going to be the happiest and most fulfilled, with a chance at the Cup.  If it were just the money, he would have made his decision when all the offers were first thrown in his face.  Granted, it's a quality problem, but he has every right to take his time sorting it out.

Not Pens, not Pens, not Pens!

Not Slitherin!  Not Slitherin!

I wanted the Wings to add some grit, but Tootoo would be about at the bottom of my list.

Dirty player.  Questionable defensively.

I just want to say redwashington2000 is my favorite poster. That is all.

Yeah Marian Hossa. Looking more and more like the letting Hossa walk and signing Franzen long term deal was a bad idea. I hate to say that but it's true.