buddha

4 minutes ago, Cruzer1 said:

You throw a lot up there, just to see what sticks. James and Mazur are different players to me, mostly because James is a left handed shot, and Mazur is a righty. Mazur's game is more physical, and he's more ready for the NHL. James needs at least a year in Grand Rapids. The Wings need more left handed shots, which is a reason why I think Carter Bear might have a shot to make the team next year, but only if he can play with Larkin and Raymond. I think his game is perfect for it.

you throw a lot of hope up there and pray that it sticks.  it hasnt so far, but our standards are different.

2 hours ago, Betrayer said:

Not sure if the postgame I listened to was a complete video, but from what I saw not a single question was asked of JB or Ausar about his minutes.

You have a top 3 finalist for Defensive Player of the Year and nobody who's job it is to ask questions thinks it's important to ask why he only played 25 minutes in Game 1 of the NBA playoffs?

Insanity, incompetence, or trying to ingratiate themselves with the organization. You pick.

ausar played 9 second half minutes.  jenkins played 16.

he's looking for shooting to spread out orlando, and since his boss refused to get him any shooting, he's turning to a g-league player to get it (because duncan or huerter or lavert (!) were giving us nothing).

as most knowledgeable pistons fans will attest, this team scores off its defense.  when you take ausar away in some desperate search for shooting/spacing, you are playing away from your strengths.

out.  coached.

1 hour ago, Shinzaki said:

Curious why you think he has limited skill?  He scored 21 in 40 college games...and he's a very good skater.  I think he profiles as a bottom six wing and PK

he scored 20 goals as a 22 year old playing against players younger than him.  if he has any nhl ambitions i would expect him to do that.

i dont think he gets his goals through speed, stick handling, great passing, or high end "skills," i think he gets them by charging to the net and being physical.

that's great.  the nhl is full of guys like that.  but he's not particularly big, not particularly fast, and doesnt set the game on fire by being more skilled than others.

he's carter mazur.  a plugger.  the world needs pluggers, but the world needs another alex debrincat more.

another fourth liner who tries hard but has limited skill.

he'll fit right in on the first line here.

2 minutes ago, RedTeamGo! said:

I don't see him comparable to JJ. 

I think JJ was a bit overrated because of the team around him, honestly, but he was certainly a good leader and clutch. He stepped up when he had to deliver a key pass and did so accurately and on time. Underwood has not really shown ability to do that. I think Underwood might have been overhyped coming out of high school because he was just such an athletic freak/physical specimen. Was able to dominate a bunch of HS kids that are now either going to random colleges in Michigan as normies or working at Chipotle in the greater Detroit area. Now he is going up against other athletic freaks. He needs to throw passes into tight windows. 

His mechanics are awful. Simply awful. Can he figure it out? Sure, of course he can. He hasn't shown it yet, though. I guess he dominated New Mexico and Central.

I tried to tell Michigan fans similar stuff about Jaydn Davis, but everyone said I was just being a Buckeye homer. 

Now, Davis doesn't have the physical tools of Underwood, so it is not exactly the same. Underwood can certainly turn it around. But he needs to start showing out in September, and realistically, when he enters big ten play. 

I could see Underwood being a bit of a Terelle Pryor, who also had bad mechanics, but Pryor was a better running, at least from what I have seen. 

Just me trying to be a fortune teller - I think Underwood will be QB1 all of this year and Michigan decides to move on after the season. Unsure if QB1 going into 2027 will be Carr or someone from outside the program, but have a feeling Underwood will go down south for what he will see as his last college season and Michigan will want a more accurate passer. When you have such an elite running back and OL, you don't need someone making highlight reel plays at QB. Honestly, if Michigan had someone like Julian Sayin with that RB room I think they would be one of the favorites for the natty this year. Hiter is going to be special and Marshall is real good. 

theyre bringing a lot of urban's old offense back.  a lot more qb runs.  that will take advantage of underwood's size and athleticism more.

carr is athletic, but he has a pop gun arm.  not sure he's a long term solution but it would depend on the offense they run.

and if underwood did leave, they'll have LOTS OF MONEY left over to go get another qb.

underwood's comp is cam newton or vince young.  He's massive, he can run like a deer, has a cannon for an arm...

and **** mechanics that impacts his accuracy.

i'm not saying he's going to final get it like young or newton, but that's his comp.

We all said "duren has to show it in the playoffs.  regular season games when the other team is playing 3/5ths of their lineup and not trying is not a good measure."

welp.  not off to a great start.

its only one game, but someone else is going to have to step it up.  tobias harris is not the #2 guy on a championship team.  duren has to be.

grand rapids gets beat again.

cossa finishes with the worst save % on the team this year (he finished ahead of augustine, but he just got there so we'll cut him some slack).

meanwhile, jesper wellstadt just started a playoff game and gave up 1 goal to dallas.  #yzerplan.

3 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Sounds like the Regents are punting again. Grasso has had his 'interim' title removed, no word of a search underway. Grasso apparently passed his audition - though when he took it he professed no desire to keep it.

you should be more concerned with the anti-semitic candidates who will be sitting on your board soon.

says a lot about the democratic party as a whole, and the university of michigan's future.

Detroit is the first #1 seed in 27 years to never have a lead in game one of the opening series.

5 minutes ago, romad1 said:

So did Joe Milton and so did JJ Mc carthey.  The gap between those two was surrounding cast (including coaches) and psychology 

JJ was a great teammate too.  not sure about milton.

To your point, Underwood didnt seem to get much coaching last year.  Let's see how he responds to actual coaching this year.  

so far, not good.

in better news, i made $20 on my magic moneyline pick tonight!

and its only one game.  plenty of time to bounce back.  but they'll need a HUGE game from cade to do it.

psssst....some of us have been saying this all year long.

jenkins is a nice story, but he'll be exposed when other teams pick it up.

the team has no spacing and the duren/cade lob action is easily stopped in the playoffs.

duncan cant guard and is past his prime.  will be exposed in the playoffs.

JB is a great regular season coach, but was fired from cleveland because he cant get it done in the post season.

This was the year to make a move to get a star.  instead they traded for heurter and now have to pay duren.  how is the team going to be with duren as their second highest paid player?

JB's hatred for ausar is a fireable offense.

1 hour ago, Hongbit said:

They are hitting everything and we’re hitting nothing and we’re only down by 4.   They won’t have any answers when the defense really picks up int the 2nd half.   This will be a double digit win. 

🤔

not yet.

ref show in cleveland.

there's a british sideline reporter?  wtf?

i forgot jalen green was on phoenix.

man, who do you root against?  the triumverate of ass hole that is steve kerr, draymond green, and jimmy butler or the unique piece of **** of dillon brooks combined with the guy who thinks he's better than cade, jalen green?

the best part about phoenix-golden state is that one of draymond green or dillon brooks is going to lose.

1 hour ago, Deleterious said:

All I need now is some dumb dance/celebration from Ball when he's down 30.

there was a lot of that.

once they were down 30, ball started going one on five and scoring.

2 hours ago, Jason_R said:

So let’s say the new guy is told to get EP40 off the books. Is there any circumstance under which it makes sense for Stevie to make a play for him, as was rumored at the trade deadline?
 

As far as I can tell he has 6 years left at $11.6 million, $69.6 total. Assuming he passes a physical and his knee isn’t shot, would you trade for him if the guts of the deal were Vancouver taking Compher and Rasmussen?  If we can unload those contracts, which total almost $17 million still, that brings the net cost of EP40 to $53 million, which is $8.83 million a year. 

assuming his knee checks out, you end up with a player who, even playing on a bad team in a bad situation, has been much more productive than Copp. Maybe in a less bad situation, playing with a bunch of Swedes, and not having the unforgiving eye of the Canadian hockey media on him he might bounce back to a 65 point player. Not great but would have been enough for third or fourth on this year’s team. Put Larkin with DeBrincat on the first line, then Pettersson and Raymond on the second line, maybe with Genborg eventually for some physical presence. 

It could be a disaster so you’d have to make sure Hakan and Lidstrom and all the other Swedes are bought in. But this rebuild is stuck in limbo unless Stevie can pull a rabbit out of his hat. 

as much as I bag on ep40 for being soft and the most overpaid player in the league, im almost positive vancouver will get more than just two god awful overpaid players like compher and rasmussen in return.

2 hours ago, lordstanley said:

The Canucks need to hire Roberto Luongo as GM and bring in Kevin Bieksa, Henrik Sedin and Todd Bertuzzi as its drafting & pro scouting team.

that's just silly.  any such arrangement without trevor linden is meaningless!

1 hour ago, DTroppens said:

Here we are Friday morning and the Pistons still have more than 48 hours before their first playoff game, and we still don't know their opponent. We can get rid of this play-in round anytime.

i like the play in round.

i hate the nba playoff schedule tjat refuses to show more than one gane at a time and results in 3 or 4 days between games.

they should be playing roughly every other day.

AJD Melting Pot.  really good substack from one of the mgoblog boys.

i think the wings' problem is not yzerman per se, but that yzerman has allowed the wings' front office to become the wings' retirement home.  yzerman led a really good front office in tampa bay, one that has continued to be good after he left.  

here, he has draper and horcoff.  guys who have been here for a decade.  a decade of losing and tiny improvements on the ice and - outside of three top 6 picks - has failed in the draft.

why are they still here?  why are the only additions to the staff nick kronwall and lidstrom?

julein brisebois never played an nhl game in his life and now he's the best gm in hockey after being there with yzerman.

it takes talent to find that guy.  it takes no talent to find kronwall or lidstrom, theyre literally contacts in his phone.  

time to overhaul this mess.  go get the next julien brisebois, and if yzerman isnt ruthless enough to fire his underperforming ex-teammates, then go find someone who will.

multiple good pieces out there in the substack-verse on the need to overhaul the front office.

"Look, those are the three most important picks Yzerman has made, since they were the highest. But you also get less credit for nailing them. Getting a really good hockey player out of the 6th, 4th, and 7th overall picks should be the baseline expectation for any GM in the National Hockey League. But can you get really good (or even just regular good) players when you pick 9th or 14th or 20th? Or out of the 2nd or 3rd rounds? That’s what differentiates strong front offices from average/weak ones, and what elevates rebuilds into contenders. 

Right now, it’s not great. Only seven Yzerman draft picks played more than 40 games for the Red Wings this season, in year #7 of a rebuild. Of those seven players, one is a third pair defenseman, one is a young D who was clearly not NHL ready, and the other is a former 7th rounder who scored 30 points. The final name is Marco Kasper, who went from one of the most exciting players at the end of last year to scoring just 19 points. That is close to a five-alarm fire for me. 

As it stands currently, Detroit doesn’t have a single impactful NHL player out of the 2022 or 2023 drafts. Maybe that will happen in the future but I’m not feeling great right now. Nate Danielson, the 2023 first rounder, came up and played 28 games, making little impact. Together with the Kasper, the players you picked 8th and 9th overall in ‘22 and ‘23 combined to score 26 points. "