chrisdetroit

St. Louis has just finished a long 6 game road trip (5 out west) and won FIVE of them.   Needless to say the Blues are hot and playing very well on the road.    First time since February 2009 that they had won 4 in a row on the road.  

The Wings are not playing well on the road and they have 8 games left on the road.   Blues have 9 games left on the road. Who has the advantage now?

So for those who thought the Wings were going to win the division because their schedule is easier..... think again.  IMHO, the Blues have the advantage simply because Detroit is hurting and still have not corrected the problems on the road.

Detroit's season is over, IMHO, if they don't win the division.  The Wings' trip out West coming up next week may be the turning point.... one way or the other... although the game against the Blues in St. Louis on April 4th will probably determine who wins the divsion and each team has won outright their home games against each other this year.

I hate to burst your bubble, but the Blues rank 21st in the league in GFA and have zero playoff experience.  We played them 3 times in 2 weeks in December and January after Hitchcock had them rolling and beat them 3-2, 3-0, and 3-1.  Yes they won 5 out of six.  They beat non-playoff teams Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg, Nashville in a shootout and a struggling Sharks team.  So who did they lose to?  The only good team that they played - Vancouver.  I'm not impressed.

I never said fire Holland or Babcock....

...and yes, our 4th line is the worst in league. Along with some other teams lines, but it really does suck. Holmstrom (I love him to death) but he needs to sit. He is useless on the 4th line, he obviously isn't the power play specialist he once was which is proven by the lack of power play production. Emmerton looks like he will never be more than what he is, average. Mursak was touted by most of you guys to be on the second line...he has shown nothing. I am not putting blame on them for losing the last three or the woeful road record, that is on the top scorers on this team to step up and be clutch when needed. I give Hudler credit for his attempt last night, but there were others that failed as NHL players. Zetterberg has had a bad back since he signed his life long contract, now we a stuck with that until he retires and his back is only going to get worse. Trade him? Of course not, but if he is gonna be injured every year, then Holland is going to have to find someone who is going to fill his shoes on the scoring end, because he just is not producing. Franzen is lazy and he sucks (sorry Lang.) For those of you that are thinking Franzen is going to turn it on come playoffs, I laugh. He won't, but everyone will give him a pass because of one magical playoff in 2008.

So you are sticking to the opinion that the Wing's 4th line is worse than the Columbus Blue Jacket's 4th line.  That just shows that your arguments are not based on logic.  And as far as Franzen and his "one magical playoff in 2008"...

2008 18 points in 16 games
2009 23 points in 23 games
2010 18 points in 12 games

That's a total of 59 points in 51 games.

But don't let the facts get in the way of your rantings

Sharks fans on HF are whining about not having a natural sniper.

They don't have a natural goalie either.  LOL

Wow.  No whinny LGW posters crying about how the Sharks are "bigger, stronger and faster".  Excellent.

4-2 Wings

Fair enough. The streak could very well end tonight, especially with Zetterberg out. Hopefully we can grind out a win.

I hate it when people come on here and predict a loss.  What the hell is the point of that?  They are always so wishy-washy too. "The streak could end tonight...Hopefully we can grind out a win".  What is that?  

I'm all in.  The Wings WILL win.  I feel much better now.

The World would be a much better place if we could just get rid of all Mission Statements. There is too much of this doublespeak...

I don't believe in karma, but this is baaaaad karma.  We've already had a 6 game winless streak this season, and we've been very fortunate with injuries so far.  Lets wait till June before we start gloating.

Not me.  I started gloating weeks ago.  They have zero chance of recovering with the goaltending that they have.  I want them to miss the playoffs entirely.  27th in the league in GAA.  Baahaaaaaaaa

Got to think Columbus could command a high price for him...

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=387786

What a lousy piece of writing.  He basically took one fact - that Nash is agreeable to a trade and repeated it in different words 8 times.

This team isnt built to win the Cup and I hope they recognise that and don't dole out some lame excuse this year for not making the move to put us in a prime position. If I'm Lidstrom I'm going to be offended if Holland doenst try to go for it. Not to mention, I've never seen our farm system so chock full of talent, we could truly make a big deal without gutting the future.

I think we need to go after a 2nd line forward. Someone who will replace and be an upgrade over the Todd. Ruutu is a good target other than his injury history and the current status of his price tag. The real dilemma is Lidstroms status tho. If were going to send some prospects packaging, it should probably be for a defender. Our unwillingness to pay market price in free agency means we'll probably go the trade route for a good player and that's where we should spend our assets. I believe in Holland's ability to fill our forward spot without spending too much tho, so we'll see.

Sorry but I stopped reading after the first sentence.

wake this team up? we just won our 20th straight at the joe and sit at the top of the league, i dont know what u mean by waking this team up, they seem to be doing fine

There is pessimism then there is LGW pessimism...

MacDonald looked real solid out there. I guess it could be due to the fact that he's at least seen some form of action in AHL games for the season. Conklin has been simply raw.

Exactly.  People forget that Howard went through the same thing when he was Osgood's back-up a few years ago.  With goalies, it takes a few consecutive games to get into a groove.  Conklin is no Jimmy Howard but I expect once he gets a few games under his belt he will be fine.  When Conklin was with us 2 years ago, he saw enough action to keep him fresh.

Maybe after tonight people will wake up to what I have been screaming when we signed him...AGAIN, but Conklin has no right being out there with us.

Damn, I wish Holland had listened to you.  Did you at least try to call him and let him know that he was making a mistake?

The guy won the frickin Conn Smyth 3 years ago.  Don't you remeber when he completely shut down Crosby in the finals 2 years in a row.  And you want to trade him after 1 bad year.

No frickin way

Do you see the contradiction in the bolded statements?

I think the "fight slappies" would be pretty happy with a Wings lineup that dropped the gloves 30 to 50 times a season.


At the time, people didn't consider the Wings Cup winning teams in 97 and 98 to be that tough relative to the rest of the league because they didn't fight as much as other teams.  But they would beat the snot out of any Wings lineup in the last decade.  More importantly, they were a talented lineup that had good size and a lot of players who weren't afraid to mix it up.  

It's not just about the times you actually drop the gloves, it's about being a big physical team that's hard to play against, and a can dish out punishment as well as take it.  



The Wings don't have very much of that in their current lineup.

Sure they fought but relative to the rest of the league, very little and still won Cups.

They are currently first overall in points in the entire league.  

I want to see them win more than see them fight or play "tough".  They looked pretty tough in those 3 straight wins against a much bigger and tougher St. Louis team who they outscored by a combined margin of 9-3.

esteef

Well of course they fought more times in the playoffs.  They played more games Duh!

You can't compare teams that played fewer games with teams that played more games and get a valid statistical comparison.  That's like comparing the number or murders in New York with the number in Ishpeming.

How come it seems like almost every thread descends into a fighter/non-figher/toughness/soft/grit debate. I understand that the guys mentioned in Dreger's article would add some grit but still. . .

Because there are a lot of LGW members that yearn for the old days when there was more fighting in hockey.  That game is gone and many people on here don't want to accept that.

Very interesting stat from bottom article:

FEWEST

Red Wings -- 7 fights, 1st in West

Coyotes -- 11 fights, T-10th in West

Canadiens -- 11 fights, 11th in East

Hurricanes -- 13 fights, T-13th in East

Lightning -- 14 fights, 12th in East

Islanders -- 14 fights, T-13th in East

MOST

Rangers -- 38 fights, 1st in East

Bruins -- 36 fights, 2nd in East

Senators -- 34 fights, T-5th in East

Flyers -- 32 fights, 4th in East

Blue Jackets -- 32 fights, 15th in West

From the same article.

According to HockeyFights.com, which tracks these things:

In the 1996-97 regular season, leading to the Wings' first Cup in 42 years, the Wings fought 55 times and were 23rd out of 26 teams in the NHL. The Bruins and Islanders led with 90 fights. The Red Wings fought seven times in the playoffs, more than any other team.

In the 1997-98 regular season, the Wings fought 33 times and were 25th out of the 26 teams. The Canucks led with 105 fights. The Red Wings did not fight in the playoffs.

In the 2001-02 regular season, with a roster laden with future members of the Hockey Hall of Fame and other stars, they fought 21 times, the least of any of the 30 teams. The Panthers led the league with 117. Again, the Wings did not fight in the playoffs.

In 2007-08, the Red Wings again fought 21 times, the least of any of the 30 teams. The Flames led the NHL with 70. The Wings fought once in the playoffs

So we won those 4 cups even though we didn't fight.  Wow. The LGW fight slappies are not going to like that....

I'd like to see us get younger as a team this summer. I think Bertuzzi and Holmstrom will hang them up over the summer. Obviously Lidstrom's status is still unknown. I'll miss Homer, but at this point, he is no longer effective at even strength, although he is still a powerplay specialist. Assuming Stuart heads west to be with his family, I'd like to see us get a younger guy to take his spot (Tim Gleason). I don't mind Cleary, but his game is kind of on the slide, as well. I think he will be here for at least another year, though.

I hate to disappoint you but Bertuzzi and Homer will most likely be back next year.  The Wings love both of them and they love playing for the Wings.  Both have been as effective as the Wings expected and neither has significant injuries.  Homer is a little banged up but he is the kind of guy that will play through it.