buddha

watching andre play for the bulls. he looks even more out of shape than usual.

another way to build a winner is to find late round picks who turn out to be quality players and occasionally stars. elmer may be on that track.

the nfl is weird. one day youre the best offense in football and the next day someone figures you out and youre back to the drawing board. the lions got figured out by the pats. they are also missing their best playmaker in the backfield and two of their best receivers. injuries play a role, especially with a rebuilding team like detroit. let's see how they adjust after the bye. i'm not optimistic, but they finished strong last year. i think they need to do so again or else you might start to lose the locker room.

theo fleury? give me a break. yzerman had 5 straight years scoring over 100 points and five seasons of more than 50 goals, and two of those were over 60 goals. fleury never scored 50 and had 2 100 point seasons in his career. federov was more talented than yzerman, but i'll take yzerman over sergei just for the "want to". yzerman had a much betger career than forsberg, equal to sakic, and different than messier. i think youre really underrating yzerman. youre right, i put in generational when i was talking about a superstar. consider your nit picked.

schwartz went from 2-14 to 6-10 to 10-6. i think campbell will be afforded similar leeway if he gets to 5 or 6 wins this year. if theyre 3-14 he will definitely be on the hot seat going into year 3. who knows with a new owner? sheila made the initial mistake of keeping patricia and quinn instead of immediately cleaning house, so i would imagine she'll have patience with campbell/holmes.

g2 misconstrues what i say and then argues about it so he can continue to make the same point over and over. news at 11. again, the original argument was how to get a superstar center. i guess i have a broader definition of superstar than you do if you dont consider steve yzerman to have been a superstar. if yzerman isnt a superstar, who is?

yzerman, federov, datsyuk and lidstrom were all generational talents, imo. yzerman was past his prime by the time they won the cup, but by then he had turned himself into one of the best two way centers in the game. the original question was how does a team get a superstar center. those wings teams had yzerman and federov, both of whom would meet that criteria in my book. so would zetterburg.

i would argue that yzerman, federov, zetterburg and datsyuk were all some of the best players in the game at the time the wings won cups with them. not connor mcdavid, but still exceptionally good hockey players.

its too early to say anything about hutch other than to say he hasnt been producing much lately. as i said before, jj watt didnt do much in the beginning of his first year either.

where do you get a superstar center? you draft one at the top of the draft. or, if youre the red wings of old, you find them stashed away in russia or sweden when no one else was looking. you have to get lucky and have a top pick when there is a generational center at the top of the draft (like this year with bedard who is undoubtedly ticketed for chicago). we havent had that kind of luck in a while and now everyone is looking in europe as much as us so we cant use that market advantage anymore. or you could be toronto and have tavares fall into your laps cause he's a leafs fan. any idea if mcdavid was a big russian five guy? as sloth pointed out before, kasper looks like a potential zetterburg or larkin. a top guy if he turns out to be zetterburg 2.0. does larkin look better with better wingers? of course. every player looks better surrounded by better players, imo. health has also been an issue for larkin.

i think elmer is slow for the nhl, ras too. but he does have amazing reach.

it looks to me like veleno was playing much better in preseason. he looked faster. elmer was playing with ras and sunkvist today. is that the biggest line in hockey? and the slowest? zadina and veleno were "floaters" today moving between lines. at this point id honestly rather see veleno center a 4th line than suter. the wings now appear to have quality forward depth. the defense will likely still need work. that said, at the end of the day, they need raymond to keep developing into a true top of the league sniper. their top line is just middle of the pack (or a bit below) right now and they need it to be better to compete with other top teams. in truth, larkin is probably a second line center on a true cup contender.

i would be surprised if Levi ever amounts to anything in the nfl. i would not be surprised if he doesnt play this year and is cut next year in training camp. the nfl is a hard hard game to play. if your heart really isnt in it, youre not going to succeed. ask deshawn hand.

zac taylor is still a dumpster fire. that team wins because they spent quality money on defense and drafted well at qb and got a game changing unicorn at wide receiver.

goff looked like shit in that game. the pats overwhelmed the offensive line, which was supposed to be the strength of the team. i dont have a problem in going for it on 4th down, i have a problem with the execution on 4th down. this is the second week in a row the lions appeared to be outcoached. last week it was the defense, this week it was the offense. injuries are a huge issue with this team (again), and you cant expect the depth to be there after 2 drafts considering what was left from the previous regime. but i think we can say a couple things. 1) okudah is not a top cover corner yet. he's better than last year, but he was burned multiple times in this game by zappe and the pats' receivers, none of whom have any reputation in the league. he has to be better. hopefully he will get there, but dk metcalf (and me) were right: he looked great when he had safety help. take it away and he hasnt been great. the other corner spot has been a disaster. 2) goff is who we thought he was: if he has a clean pocket, he can be ok. put some pressure on him and he curls up and dies. 3) they have no pass rush. still. julian okwara is probably not on the team next year. is romeo coming back this season? austin bryant was just as good as hutch, which says more about hutch than bryant. lets see how they look coming out of the bye week. they should be healthier. they need to at least be competitive in their next three games. allow me to play dean wormer to brad holmes: Bad, unlucky, and injured is no way to go through life, son. its how you get fired.

they can beat any team on their schedule, its the nfl. they could also lose to the backups of any team on the schedule, its the lions.

that would be nice.

unpopular opinion: the presence of cabrera on the roster this year had nothing to do with how bad they are. unpopular opinion #2: the presence of miguel cabrera on the roster next year will have nothing to do with how good or bad they are. he's not blocking anyone. let him sit on the bench and play a couple games a week. or cut him. doesnt matter in the overall scheme of things.

that team was much more disappointing. this team had fools gold written all over it from the get go. .500 at best.

ive never been more depressed about the lions as i am after the last two weeks. shame on me for thinking they might be turning it around. and i'll talk myself back into thinking theyre on the right track and that its the injuries, etc etc. sucks to root for this stupid team. add zappe to the long list of never weres and has beens who have made the lions (and their forever gullible fans) look stupid. oh well. its hockey season now.

he's been invisible without cominsky in on third downs. he hasnt beaten one offensive tackle for a sack yet. and the times he has gotten through, the qb has just side stepped him and took off running. like all of us here, i dont know the position or football, but i know what i see and what i dont see. i dont see anything from him. patience. he's a rookie.

of course, they also desperately need a dt, a lb, a cb, a safety...

no. but we still desperately need a speed rusher. has to be a qb if its top 3.

if they have another top three pick it MUST be a qb. i hesitate to say this because its the lions, but most teams dont pick top 3 or so very often. you have to grab a qb if he's there. stroud, levis, and young seem to be the consensus 1-2-3. young is too small, levis too untested, and stroud is too buckeye. i really like bryce young, but i feel he's going to get injured in the nfl because he's so small. stroud is the better prospect but can you beat the buckeye out of him? life is easy for stroud at osu, its a little tougher in the nfl (/fields, justin). i dont know enough about levis to say.

the sky isnt falling, its already on the ground. just beat the bears, that's all i want out of this season now.