lordstanley

I recall the good ol’ days of 2 weeks ago when the biggest controversy around the Wings was whether Jared Goff chants were out of place.

Ha, I came here to post that.

I'm going to wait until the end of season because I honestly don't know how to judge this team right now. 13-7-3 start into early December had been optimistic. Then 3-8-1 stretch was depressing, thank God for the Wings that the Lions and Wolverines were keeping everyone distracted. Then, it's like they shook that off as just an anomaly and went 16-4-2 to start 2024, which is 1/4 of the season playing as a top 5 team, or 3/4 of the season being 11th overall. Then Larkin gets hurt and instead of digging extra deep, you'd think, to show that wouldn't derail them like it did in December they have completed collapsed with an embarrassing 6-game losing streak. A tale of four mini-seasons. Let's see how final 17 games of the season. If they make the playoffs, even as 8th seed, I'll be satisfied with progress. If they miss, even as 9th seed, both Yzerman and Lalonde (Yzerman's hire of course) need to start feeling the heat.

But in Devellano's second season ('83-'84) the Wings made the playoffs (granted, super easy back then to do) and in his 5th and 6th seasons they made the conference finals. Sure, those teams were weaker than typical conference finals teams, but the '88 team (6th season) did go 41-28-11 in the regular season for 93 points in an era before OT and shootouts. This is Yzerman's 5th season.

0-6 after starting 2024 at 16-4-2. How do you lose 6 straight games in the NHL, not even picking up loser points?! When that stretch includes NYI at home, at Arizona and at Buffalo. 4 of the 6 losses have been blowouts. I'm struggling to recall a bigger meltdown by a decent Detroit sports team (I'm not talking about losing stretches by lousy Detroit sports teams, we've seen plenty of that the past 10 years). Yes, epic collapse is right, that's for sure.

I hope Rempe’s 15 minutes of fame is coming to an end.

Weird to do that with almost a quarter of a season to go. Final weekend, I’d maybe get it. But even then, a shootout is going to give you better odds of winning than a 4 on 3 I think.

Isles did indeed lose. A good night. So the Wings are back in playoff positions by the narrowest of measures - the RegulationOvertimeWins tiebreaker over NYI. Both have 72 points with 18 games to go. Philly and Tampa have 74 points with 17 games to go. Washington has 69 points with 19 games to go.

IF the Wings can beat Buffalo tomorrow, they'll be 8 or 9 points up on all of Pittsburgh, Jersey and Buffalo. Which is pretty safe with 17 to go. So they'd need to worry about finishing ahead of 2 of Tampa, NYI, Philly and Washington. I think they're a better team than Philly and Washington.

Isles (Kings) and Caps (Jets) both on the road tonight. Less importantly, Devils (Rangers) are as well.

Is everyone's ESPN.com feed like this, or just mine? If the latter, have no idea what I did to alter things. In this order from top to bottom on the main page for me right now: - Timberwolves @ Lakers score - fine, maybe the only active pro or college game right now - Women's Gold Cup - hmm, ok, maybe big for some Americans - LSU vs South Carolina women's college basketball SEC tournament - story about South Carolina women's wild weekend - row of 4 video clips about LSU-South Carolina - big box of 6 women's college basketball scores - Iowa, USC win tournament titles - more women's college basketball - NBA scoreboard - two stories about Mac Jones trade - thought NFL content would be higher up - another story about "fallout from SEC title game" - women's college BB - below that a story about women's March Madness bracketology - men's college hoops scores - way down here? - Arnold Palmer golf results - NHL scoreboard - story about the NHL playoff picture and trade deadline - a bunch of stories about NFL free agency - isn't that the #1 topic of interest overall, nationwide? Either ESPN thinks I'm a woman, or someone literally got murdered in that LSU-South Carolina women's basketball game, or Caitlin Clark is an AI-generated bug unleashed by ESPN.

Good thing the Pens and Devils are slumping too and remain a comfortable distance behind. Wings need to put away Buffalo. For now, it’s 5 teams for 3 spots - Tampa, Philly, Detroit, Islanders, Washington.

Two teams came into this game on 4 game losing streaks. Vegas will come out wth a win. 5-3.

Killer. Knights take the lead wth 2:44 to go. While Rasmussen is grimacing with sore hand after blocking a shot on the play.

Wings are really coming on. 8-1 in shots this period. Tied with 3 minutes to go.

Holy crap, 3 great chances on one play for the Wings to take the lead but it somehow stays out.

And a penalty that gives the Wings a powerplay.

Wings have 3 shots this period Vegas has 1 Wings have 2 goals this period Vegas has 1.

Another Seider goal is tipped in. By Compher. Tie game with 17 to go in the 3rd. Let’s go!

2-1 after 2. So still losing, but not getting blown like in recent games? Still getting outplayed, but not as badly as in the 1st period. Low bar, grasping for positives.

Huh?

Sure needed that last minute goal by Rasmussen on a tip-in of a Seider shot.

Behind again, 1-0 Wings have been outscored 18-2 since being tied with NYI 3-3 late. That was only 9 days ago, feels like an eternity.

Wings @ Vegas tonight. 10pm start. Reimer in net.

Sabres beat Edmonton today so are 7 pts behind the Wings, with the Wings having 2 games in hand. But might be close enough for the Sabres to still feel they're in the race when they play the Wings twice this month. Devils still treading water at best, having lost to Carolina today. Penguins are playing at the Bruins right now in the 1st period. Flyers play at the Lightning later today, let that game not get to overtime please. Capitals should have an easy 2 points in Chicago, but that's what I thought about the Wings going into their game in Arizona last night.