buddha

our own little erik karlson

predictions: high scorer: Larkin 90 top goalie: Husso .903 most improved: Rasmussen most disappointing: Debrincat (25 goals) points total: 93 division standings: florida toronto boston tampa bay detroit ottawa montreal buffalo playoffs: nope

youre old. 🙂 i dont feel any of the anxiety either, just happiness that theyre here and that they won. correction: "we're" old. 😉

oh betrayer....

in fairness to sherrone, washington had rogers lined up before the coaching change. he just had to convince him to stay. that's not to defend the job sherrone has done this year, but the qb situation isnt entirely his fault.

ras isnt physical enough to intimidate anyone. he started to do it a bit two years ago but didnt do it at all last year. hopefully it was just the injury.

what's the point of watson? are the wings so bereft of strength they sign a guy who does nothing but take penalties and occasionally facewash another guy? are we still that small and weak that we need a checking tough guy with no skill? isnt that why chairot is here? veleno is bulked up. ras is 6'6 for god's sake. edvinsson too. cant they take care of themselves? i mean, maybe not with the way teams take liberties with larkin all the time. still, its a bit frustrating to have an unskilled tough guy on the roster taking a spot from a guy who was picked 7th in the draft and actually did enough to MAKE the team.

its because they oversigned veterans and dont trust their young players. i get it, motte is a solid nhl'er. so is fischer. but why are they here over kasper and mazur? same thing with signing holl and trading for petry last year. why them over edvinsson? it just holds the prospects back, imo. if i were a prospect i would hate to be drafted by detroit. you never get a chance to play unless youre freaking superman. if not, they'll stick you in grand rapids for 4 yeara while signing journeymen "tough guys" who will block shots and fight.

keep watson and cut kasper because....youre the red wings.

when you've lost bacon...

i actually have more confidence in them now than i did before the game. but before i thought they were a 6 win team, now i think they might win 7 or 8!

can jack tuttle turn the season around?

i havent seen anything from johannson that says he's nothing more than a bottom pairing guy. they have to keep him or cut him, i wouldnt be surprised if they waived him.

kasper with 2 goals already. are you watching stevie?

welp, so much for jack campbell.

another guy who could have more value than you might think is rasmussen. big and physical and on a good deal.

it might be better for the team long term if they are out of it at the deadline and they can deal a physical defenseman like chairot to some contender for a 2nd round pick. copp is unmoveable on his deal but teams always value a physical defenseman at playoff time.

i dont think copp and compher are necessarily the "problem." their contracts are potentially a problem. the "problem" is that those two are role players who are overpaid. the "problem" is they dont have enough high end skill players on offense so they end up with compher and copp playing roles they were unsuited to play for a playoff team. but you can still win with copp as a checking line center and compher as a "200 foot center" who does the dirty work between two skill players like kane and tarasenko. the issue up front to me is that larkin/raymond/debrincat need to take a step up and be a better line. theyre good, but they need to be amazing. i think wheeler and pronman still underestimate raymond. he needs to turn into panarin or zabinijad if the wings want to be a top team in the east. the other elephant on the ice is the defense. edvinsson must be on the seider track and turn into a 1b defense. petry and chairot should be 3rd pairing defense (petry shouldnt even be that) and instead they are top pairing and second pairing. they need one of their younger group of defensemen to take that step up, be it johannson or wallinder or eventually ASP. theyre never going anywhere until guys like petry are no longer necessary and guys like chairot are in a role that suits him.

i've never seen a manager take a team to 31-11 and a playoff spot with basically one starting pitcher. one and a half good starters? its been amazing what they've done.

absolutely. a lot of his job is keeping players motivated and interested and used correctly.

ive always been in the "managers dont really matter until the playoffs" camp, but this year's performance by hinch was master class.

i agree with you for the most part. people forget they were the worst team in the league (and one of the worst teams in nhl history) with one of the worst farm systems in the league when he took over. that said, the good sized contracts for middling to average players are now coming back to bite them a bit and those players are now blockinh prospects. the other avenue - besides signing older vets to get the team to be average - would have been continuing to be bad and sell off assets and draft higher in the lottery. the blackhawks route. which way is better? we shall see. but to your point, i think yzerman has done a decent job given the terrible hand he was dealt. the proof comes next year, imo, when kasper/danielson/mazur et al should all be in detroit.

but to your point, they dont seem to have superstars. and the league has played a role in preventing them from drafting them because theyve been ****ed in the lottery.

i have faith that they have a lot of really high quality players. but theyre in the minors and they refuse to give them a shot because we need a fourth line checking wing who has played three years in the league RIGHT NOW.