Learn2LuvIt

Feeling okay today.  Expecting a game 1 victory on away ice (and to that degree...Chicago in the UC) against the President's Trophy winners was a very, very tall order.  Our job is to split and get back to the Joe. 

 

For my captain obvious statement of the day: Not the single reason we lost last night, but I do believe we lost our legs in the late 2nd and 3rd.  IMO..there is no doubt the boys went out in Anaheim and have a few "pops" after the game 7 win.  Jimmy even eluded to this fact (with a wry smile) in post game interview.  Next day, long flight back to the D.  Players go home and scramble to make up quality time with family/friends for a half day since they've virtually been preoccupied for the last two weeks with beating the Ducks.  Next day, onto Chicago and flight to windy city and back in a hotel room.  Players bodies probably still adjusting to not being on PST time.  It got to them.  Ran on adrenaline for the first half of the game, then nothing.  It happens.  That's why playing the in West has/had been such a disadvantage to us.

 

One other observation: I can't stand the light feather chip pass/shot when we are trying desperately to clear our own zone.  We do this A LOT!  When guys have been on the ice for 50 seconds and are dead tired, and the other team is all over us (I mean hornets nest ALL OVER US!) , we go for the soft chip up the boards.  I don't get it??  In those situations, you have to hard around or hard out, and take the icing if it happens.  I know we can't change lines in that case, but at the very least you'll get a 30 second breather to regroup.  Last night the Hawks had two forwards standing atop at blue line, just waiting to intercept these attempts.  They'd prevent our clearing attempt, long pass along blue line to other side of ice, and their in business with a good set up.  It drives me crazy!!!! 

 

Lastly, Quincy needs to sit.  His transition game in our own zone is slow, predictable, and pathetic.  Just bad.

 

Our job is to split and get back home.  Let's do this.

 

100% agree, we are not skilled enough at the back end anymore to finesse the puck out of our own end every time.  We are removed from the days of Lids, Rafalski and even Stuart had a good first pass.  We need to suck it up and hack it out a lot more.  As soon as Chicago saw that we were going to wimp it up the boards every time they just started pinching their d almost every time.  It's not rocket science. 

A win would be nice and most importantly that everyone come out healthy.
Go Wings !

I was laughing when I saw Crosby trying so hard not to burst out laughing. That was just painful

Yeah, it was funny watching most of the players try not to crack up. NHL.com thought it was funny enough to put a clip of it on their site "Sens and Pens get an earful of National Anthem." Karlsson is the funniest though you can tell he completely loses it.

Wow . . . it was like my ears got kicked in the crotch.

I'm wondering if this injury trouble is going to hurt his chances of playing beyond this year.  Prior to this year, in his 19 year career, his missed about 29 games in total (or about 1.5 games per year on average).  He's already missed 9 games this year, which is easily the most in his entire career.

Is age finally catching up to him....is this a bad sign for coming back?  Or, maybe he is just taking an extra long break to rest up for playoffs?  Eevn under that scenario I would be thinking (is age catching up to the point where he needs too much rest....will he come back next year?)

It's funny but I thought it might be having the opposite effect, because for one of the only times in his career he is sitting on the outside watching guys play while he can't be involved.  Just might spur him to think about how much he is going to miss it all when that inevitable day comes, and convince him to prolong that day as long as he can. Also, I doubt being will make him wonder if age is catching up with him too much. A deep bone bruise could happen to anyone and can take a while to come back from just because of the nature of the injury.

Winning the division isn't all that unlikely, really. The Blues have lost two straight I think.  Runs like the one they've been on don't last.  And the Wings are getting healthy and should be going into playoff mode soon.  It'll be close but I think the Wings will probably leap frog the Blues again as they hit their own patch of adversity.

Zetterberg, Franzen, Filppula, Kronwall, Stuart, White, Howard, Holmstrom, Hudler.

That's the Grand Rapids Griffins?  


f***, the Grand Rapids Griffins should win the Calder Cup every year based on that.  Best minor league team in hockey history.

I don't disagree with your statement as a whole, they have enough of their full time players that the comparison is not accurate, however, I don't think Howard should be included in the group. I know that he played last game but he has been out so much that by his own admission he is not playing well, not tracking the puck fast enough, and the game is just going on too fast around him. A couple more games under his belt and hopefully he will round into form.

Clearly the team still has offensive problems. I don't know if it's the offensive coach, or if it's the players, but next season, regardless of whether the Wings win the Cup this year, is going to see a pretty dramatic change on the forward lines.

I don't disagree about the PP, it has been abysmal and all the short handed goals against lately have just added insult to injury. I don't think it is quite accurate however, to say that the Wings have offensive problems in general. The Wings have had trouble putting pucks in the net lately (although I think injury has a fair bit to do with it) but they are still 4th in the league in goals for (as well as 4th in goals against and just one point behind 1st place for goal differential). Over the course of the season that have scored, they just aren't doing in lately (and again I think the loss of Pavs and Lids greatly impacts that).

That was a more skilled team & the rest of the western teams had not caught up to the new financial requirements & the teams in the west were chasing a finesse style of play.

The western teams are bigger now, we are less skilled & there is far more parody in the west.  Today, the sharks are 9 points above 500 & are not in the play offs.  It's not 08.

Yes, that must be why we broke a record with the most consecutive home wins EVER. Yes, we are doomed. The west is very talented and how many of those teams are big physical teams? Vancouver? St. Louis? No.

I understand that it's not 2008....but tell me how the 08 team was more skilled? As for the sharks, they aren't a 500 team because they are smaller- they are a 500 team because they are weaker in goal and don't have secondary scoring. I find it frustrating when people chalk up all of this teams woes to us not having a " big " team.
We are too old, too slow, too small...too many euros. That's what people have been saying about us since 97 while we were busy winning four cups

You don't understand comments/posts about different coaching styles/motivational styles in a thread about Calling the team out???

Awesome!!

I understood other poster's comment on the subject, just not yours. All I could assume was you were advocating for Tort's style because NY is playing well this year. Throw in the "Awesome!" if you want but perhaps it wasn't a comprehension problem so much as a conveyance problem. Really, what is this supposed to mean?

Thinking about this and asking myself this question as a pure example of the two way listed above to inspire:
Does John Tortorella inspire performance through love?
Does John Tortorella inspire performance through fear?


hmmmmm

What does that add to the conversation? You don't state Torts is a good coach, if his style works in NY, if his style would work here, if Babs has a similar or different style, or if Babs could/should emulate Tort's style. I still contend that your comment had no real relevance to the conversation, was it just a Deep Thought by Jack Handy?

First of all let me thank you for being my high school English teacher in doing a nice job correcting my grammar.

I hate to tell you but nothing in my post had anything to do with correcting your grammar. When you  quote someone and modify the exact quote at all you are supposed to put it in brackets to show that you the modification. If I wanted to correct your grammar or show that it was improper I could use [sic] to show that there was a grammatical error but I needed to use the word "are" for proper grammar in the sentence I was writing. I could care less about your grammar.  

Second of all when did I say the sky was falling?

Perhaps, in these statements:

99% of Franzens shots miss the net by a country mile.

Same with Hudler, for every good pass he makes he commits 3 turnovers.

We have been playing lackluster with flashes of brilliance for 2 seasons now.

Even with the terrible play of late the Wings are still 4th in Points in the entire NHL.

Everyone sees Holland as the second coming of Christ that does no wrong.  Everyone seems to think that we can steam roll any team we are put in front of. I suppose that is why we have had early exits two years in a row now? . . . We as Wings fans have been incredibly spoiled with our success but it has also led to the fans being completely oblivious to thinking we could ever have any issues.

There may be a couple or random posters but seriously, who are you talking about? Most here acknowledge that there are problems with the team (as in almost every team, every year) but think that Holland by far one the better GM's in the league and that even with the recent poor play (which coincides with the "problem" of Dats, Lids, Jimmy, and 4 others injured) the Wings when they get healthy will still have as good a shot as anyone at the Cup.

Finally, regarding the "early exits" the last two years we still went to the second round of the playoff (and game 7 of that series last year), I know it is not what Wings fans hope for but only 4 teams out of 30 got farther than us the last two years.

Poster "Chunky Lover" posted about two ways in which to inspire; through love or fear.  I simply made the comment about thinking of which of those two ways, as pure example, which one of those I thought John Tortorella subscribed to.  I just picked Torts as an example not based on any winning/success that he's has or hasn't had...just picked him.  Frozen-Man didn't read my statement that I chose Tort's as pure example, which lead to him making comments about how Tort's is a not a successful coach and who cares.

I read your statement, I didn't and still don't understand it's relevance at all.

Thinking about this and asking myself this question as a pure example of the two way listed above to inspire:
Does John Tortorella inspire performance through love?
Does John Tortorella inspire performance through fear?


hmmmmm

hmmmmm

You mean the John Tortorella who hasn't taken a team out of the first round since the lockout?  The John Tortorella who has missed the playoffs entirely two of the last 4 years? The John Tortorella who has taken the Rangers to a grand total of 12 playoff games during his tenure, while going 4-8 in those games?  Who cares how he inspires?

Exactly.

I am getting tired of hearing the same lame "when we get Dats and Lids back, we'll be perfect again"   Maybe in some ideal fantasy world, yes.  But in reality that ignores the facts that the PP still sucked before they left along with the points mentioned above.  Its a lame excuse that ignores the fact that the team had the same problems with them in the lineup.

And I don't even know what to say about the PP.  Its been absolutely dismal all year.  Wings are currently under 16% on the PP.  Think about that.  That is beyond horrible for the Wings.

I don't disagree with the fact that the PP was not doing well before Dats and Lids got hurt, although it has been even worse with them out. The point however, is that when they were in, the Wings were winning a lot more (the only thing that ultimately matters) were 1st in their division, 1st in their conference, and in a daily battle for 1st in the NHL.  They are no longer winning as much, and are not 1st in any of the standings. That is the real problem and that is directly related to Pavel and Nick being out.