Learn2LuvIt

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?

Note the words in my post "pure example".  Just commenting on the concept of inspiring by love or fear in which which no teams or coaches were being referenced.  No names, just the concept.  I applied Torts to this line of thinking as an example because I can't really name a coach (who still has a job) that inspires their team via "love".  Btw...you inspire me to want to read and comprehend posts before commenting.  Thanks.

There are two ways to inspire performance: fear and love.

A coach can yell at his players and chide them personally in the media and maybe get them to perform at a high level for a while, but eventually that method burns itself out. No one wants to be angry all the time, and eventually players stop caring.

The alternative is to take the long-view approach. Set a goal and encourage people to perform in a positive way. This way can seem ineffective to outsiders, but the coach and players know they are all on the same team and support each other.

Think about what environment you perform your best work in. Ask yourself whether you can maintain the standard for performance in your job that you hold over these players. The goal is to win, and laziness needs to be discouraged, but these constant calls for benching players or calling them out reflects confusion of what constitutes effective leadership.

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

I doubt this idiot ran up to the councilman and punched him unprovoked.  I'm sure there was an exchange of words, which I would be curious to know what was said.  After all, we are talking about college kids, sports, and, most likely, alcohol.

I get your point, however, IMO, whatever the circumstances...be it a sports, opposing teams jersey, words exchanged, college kids, and/or alcohol...no one has the right to put their hands on another human being. All of the listed factors are what is great about our country...you can say, wear, be whatever age, and consume alcoholic beverages (if you're of legal age) without being physically assaulted. I understand that someone getting trashed and running their mouth increases these chances of something bad happening, but it doesn't make it right.  This situation totally sucks.

Ehh, whatever.  Pretty much a shoulder to shoulder hit directly on the boards.  Big hit, ohhh, yeah.  A little late, maybe just a bit.  However, it's professional freaking hockey.  Getting into the minutia of every big hit just seems like it will ultimately end up changing the game via "new rules".  The thing that I noticed, was Michalek immediately looks up at the refs looking for a call.  Kind of lame.  He got nailed and that's NHL hockey.  The way this game was designed, he can always go hit Ovie back, challenge him to a fight, or have one of his teammates settle the score....why do we need someone in the head office to start regulating on ice play.  The "prairie justice" element of hockey that has always naturally regulated itself on the ice, has always been something that I love about the game.  Just saying.


My link
"It's NHL Hockey!!!...and you're bummed out because you got hit pretty good on the boards....go play intramurals brother!"

Try your local church or particular place of worship.  If none of these exist for you, just look to the sky and begin appreciating.

The only problem I have with this article is using Quitting and Holmstrom in the same sentence.  Tiny detail of the piece, but I could think of much better words to use in replacement after being in the league for 16 years.  After his career, if that's called quitting....I want to be a quitter too.

A slight challenge for Pav getting the "C" is the language barrier.  Captains need to be able to interact and have discussions with the officiating crew--in English.  As Rule 6 states, the team captain alone is the only one to hold this discussion privilege with the refs.  I don't know if Pav's English is good enough to be effective with this role.

I won't say you have, but there are plenty of people around here that have definitely given up.  I'm pissed too, but it doesn't do any good to sit here and ***** about it.  We're not GMs.  We're not coaches.  We're not players.  We are fans.  The only thing we have the ability to do as fans is watch and support.

Or.....not watch or not support.  And since this whole thing all comes down to money (ticket revenue, concession revenue, team gear revenue, tv advertising revenue, etc...), ultimately our actions as fans (a.k.a. our money) can in fact lead to the firing of a GM, Coach, or Player.  If Kenny's, Babs, or any of the players actions results in less butts in seats, less jersey sales, less tv share....something will be done-and that's a fact.  Without us, they don't exist.  So in a sense, our bitching and resulting actions can have a very big effect.

F*** you desperation and making the best puck possession hockey team/system in the world revert to "dump and chase".
I think we carried the puck into the zone maybe 3-4 times last night??  Everything else was dump and chase.  I couldn't believe it.  We're not built with the overall roster size, speed, or grit to play that style.  We need to be primarily carrying the puck into the zone like we have for 15 years or else we are at a huge disadvantage with the way this team is built. Ferrari on a dirt track.

No, no, no....let's continue to be enamored with average/good players who show up one out of five games, or look "real good" in Traverse City, or played real well for us in Grand Rapids, or have had one solid season out of the last four, or they were on the roster when we won the cup.  Lets continue to say how great they are becuase they do charity work in the community, or someone met them and they were "really cool guys".  Let's make sure our fan base is so blinded by these facts that their individual play night-in, night-out is the last thing we question.  "I really hope Brunstrom clears waivers because he'll be great"....really???  ok, this from a few pre-season games....whatever.  If that's what we're hoping to take us to the 3rd round, SCF, win a cup....then we as a fan base need to re-evaluate.  

What a silly notion to hold a player accountable to the Red Wing way of winning damn near every night.  At least in the past if we didn't win, effort was not the question.  I think Stevie Y. would have a lot of problems with what is going on in the front office, behind the bench, and in the locker room.  How about instilling one of the greatest motivators of all time: fear.  Fear that if you don't produce, this country club exsitence know as the Wings is over (I mean country club in a good way and the way the Wings treat our players...from the tailored private jet to and from every game, to giving players a window of days off due to personal reasons/having children, being treated like movie stars around town, to the high end Illitch Xmas party, etc...the list goes on and on).  How about if the Wings are such a "great organization" to play for, go out every night and play with maximum effort or else you're gone.  How about "To whom much is given, much is expected".  Seems like we are giving a lot to these players, and making excuses when they don't perform as expected.  "I think this will be a break out year for Fil", "When Franzy's healthy he will do x", "Huds has been working real hard over the summer and looks in great shape", "We really liked Ian White in San Jose, we think he'll be good for us" (which is BS because Babs badly wanted Brent Burns), "Z is getting good opportunities, puck luck just isn't with him right now and nothing's going in" (bunch of bs...the pucks aren't going in because the shots aren't good enough to get passed the goalie), "Homer won't play in back to back games" (because he's old),"Pav is getting better and creating a lot of offense", "Abby has been one of our best players" (really???, your 3rd/4th liner is your best player....that's a problem) , "I think the Bert line has been the best line thus year", (yeah, except they can't put the puck in the net and run around behind the net and in the corners...places where it's impossible to score from).

Just to be more specific, I think Stevie Y. would be tempted to want to throttle Franzen and the way he floats around the ice, and skates through plays if he's not wide open or has to battle in the corners for the puck....and then is always yapping at the other team or refs.  He's like a combination of Lang and Maltby...he shows up every so often, but runs his mouth constantly (so yes, he's lazy and he sucks, and has a big mouth).  I digress.  

Yes, it's very early in the season.  But regardless of the scoreboard/record, we don't look right at all.  Obviously I'm very frustrated.  We are HockeyTown, the best place to place professional hockey on the planet.  We need our players to start playing like they never want to play anywhere else every night.  We need our fans to start demanding more.  How about this.....F@$k you Franzen, show up every night or get to packing.

Go Wings

I've been thinking about this question for the past few days and have come to no conclusion or any sort of opinion, so I thought I'd throw this question out:

Would now be an optimal time to trade Z?

*Not sure if he has a NTC, but in reality, that obstacle has been overcome by teams wanting/needing a player out.  Taking that element out of the equation, and just addressing the basic question above.

Ericsson has played 4 years in North America. Year 5 hasn't started yet. In that span he played 2 more or less full seasons in the NHL. He was drafted 291st (LAST overall) and he was a forward then. His last season stats: 74GP 3G 12A 15Pts 8+/- 87PIM 89SOG Not bad for a 3rd pair D.
Do you know what Pronger's (2nd overall pick) 3rd NHL season stats were? 78GP 7G 18A 25Pts -18+/- 110PIM 138SOG
So it took Pronger - a surefire top pick - more than 3 years to learn to be an NHL defenseman. (And that would have been his 7th year playing pro or quasipro hockey in North America, counting juniors.)
So cut Ericsson some slack. You can't teach size, but it appears that Detroit's management believe they can teach Ericsson everything else he needs to know, and fairly quickly.

On the numbers......
He's played in North America for 5 years.  First season was with GR in 2006-2007. They've been exclusively "teaching" him either in GR or up with the Wings for 5 years.  Fairly quickly??  
Pronger was also 20 years old in his third season....not 27!  His third year in the NHL was 1995-1996.
At 27 he statistically should be in his prime.  If what we've seen so far is any indication of his prime, then he is way over-paid!  Flat out.

No clue.  This writer needs a hobby in the summertime.  Are things that "slow" for him now that he turned to being ridiculous.  Maybe he should join a Dungeon's and Dragon's summer league.  Seems like a good fit as he's appears to be pretty good at the fantasy thing.

Kronner + pick/prospect for Hemsky?  Roll again.

Hudler.  No question.

Lets see how Wiz feels after being with the Blue Jackets for the next six years...see if he still feels the same way about being a "good fit" for one of the most storied hockey franchises in history.  See how life in a college football insane (only) town goes when no one in town could pick him out of a line-up.  See how he feels when he tells locals that he plays for the Blue Jackets and they immediately ask "what is hockey??", tune out, and walk away mumbling something about the Buckeye's.  See how he feels when he's consistently at his summer home in early April.  Like it's been stated before, "nothing says hockey like the middle of Ohio" (not Ohio bashing, used to live there for many, many years...but it's the absolute truth about Columbus).  Hope that few extra Mill on the contract goes a long way because he may just slowly slip away into non-existence from here on out.  Maybe a change in perspective for him.  Ask Mike Commodore (regarding statements he made about Bab's), things change real quck and burning the bridge of not just a coach, but an entire organziation...on top of that...his hometown team...THE Detroit Red Wings.... = not so smart.  
Thanks for the compliment Wiz and I hear soy sauce makes Crow taste a little better.  May want to start acquiring that taste now.