Red Wings November 2025 Game Threads

[buddha]

1 hour ago, slothfacekilla said:

The hater in me is loving this season from the Leafs so far.  I had a couple buddies who were acting like they were Cup bound with the moves they made.

get rid of one of the best players in the league, rely more heavily on an aging defense and a flash-in-the-pan no name goalie = stanley cup.

gotta love leafs fans.

[slothfacekilla]

9 minutes ago, buddha said:

get rid of one of the best players in the league, rely more heavily on an aging defense and a flash-in-the-pan no name goalie = stanley cup.

gotta love leafs fans.

I wish I could give this more than one reaction!  I thought I was taking crazy pills talking with Leafs fans.

[buddha]

i know pre season means nothing but when i saw the leafs play all i could think of was that they looked slow without marner.  dude is really good.

i am unimpressed with toronto.

[Shinzaki]

Finnie/Danielson/MBN...that should be our 3rd line.  Bring up MBN and let them grow up together

[slothfacekilla]

15 minutes ago, Shinzaki said:

Finnie/Danielson/MBN...that should be our 3rd line.  Bring up MBN and let them grow up together

This line looked good in preseason 

edit: total brainfart Finnie wasn't with them (I think it was Lombardi?), look upon my post with shame

Edited Wednesday at 08:04 PM by slothfacekilla

[buddha]

i dont know what else lombardi has to do to get a call-up.

grow?  get bigger?

[slothfacekilla]

16 minutes ago, buddha said:

i dont know what else lombardi has to do to get a call-up.

grow?  get bigger?

My guess is bigger + working on playing center in the AHL against adults, but I think he's a winger in the NHL anyways.  I'd love for him to get a shot now on the wing to see if his creativity could spark some more offense for the Wings but I have no idea what the plan is really.  He's looked pretty good in Grand Rapids so far to me.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

While I think the Wings are off to a nice start, I think the warning signs are there for another collapse. It would not surprise me at all to see a month of hockey and a 15 game stretch where they go something like 5-10/4-10-1 and come crashing back down to Earth and end up in the 9th or 10th spot in the East and on the outside looking in for playoff seeding. I think this team, on paper talent wise, is a step or two below Carolina and a healthy Florida team. I also feel like they are still slightly behind teams like New Jersey and Montreal, even if their current record doesn't dictate that.

As for what I feel the warning signs of a collapse are, I feel it is related to goaltending performance, scoring depth, defense, and penalty kill. Right now, Cam Talbot at 38 years of age has a .897 SV% and a 2.64 GAA. I don't think Talbot sustains that throughout an entire season and I think his GAA pushes up closer to 3.00 as it was last season. Furthermore, Gibson doesn't look good so far this year and until he turns it around, I think that becomes more of an issue as we get later on into the season. 

The other issue I see is the lack of scoring and point producing depth on this team. The top line of DeBrincat/Larkin/Raymond has combined for 69 of the teams 163 points the season. If you put their second line as Kasper/Compher/Kane, that line only combines for 18 points. Right now, we lack scoring depth at the Center position and a Center who can truly and adequately man the 2nd line. We have a 4th line Center in Compher playing up on line 2. I'm going to leave Nate Danielson out of this conversation because he is still a developing rookie, so it's not fair to judge him right now. Anyone not named Patrick Kane or DeBrincat playing with Compher or Copp as their Center on the 2nd or 3rd line isn't exactly lighting the world on fire. AN injury to Larkin, even if it were only for a handful of games, would be catastrophic to this team. Would we even win a game if Larkin was out of the lineup for anything beyond a game or two?

Third, I still don't believe in this defense yet nor the penalty kill. I think this is still a bottom 10-12 defense, when it comes to playing actual defensive skills like clearing the puck out of the zone, getting it swept out from tight corners, blocking shots, and killing penalties. On the PK specifically, I believe we rank somewhere around middle of the pack in-terms of PK%. I wonder what our PK looks like (how bad it looks) when Gibson is in net and not Talbot. And if Talbot's performance even drops off a tiny, little bit, what does that do to our PK% overall.

I hope the winning keeps up. I hope this is a sustainable model towards the playoffs. I hope we stay fully healthy. I hope Talbot keeps playing like this and doesn't experience a dip at all. I hope we don't have a 12-15-18 game stretch where we collapse and have a losing record that takes us out of playoff position. I'm just not sold yet, given the actions of this team from year's past and the aforementioned points above.

Edited 13 hours ago by Mr.TaterSalad

[slothfacekilla]

I don't blame anyone for expecting a collapse but I'm just trying to enjoy the wins while I can!  Hopefully something is different with a full season of Toddfather.

[Shinzaki]

According to X..Pavel Mintyukov might be available from the Ducks.  Still pretty young..might develop into a 2nd pair LHD here.

 

 

[Jason_R]

42 minutes ago, slothfacekilla said:

I don't blame anyone for expecting a collapse but I'm just trying to enjoy the wins while I can!  Hopefully something is different with a full season of Toddfather.

Yes, the standings are pretty inconsistent with a goal differential of zero. That said, points are points. 

Mac has done a good job of holding players accountable. He has done a good job of integrating the kids. It is clear the kids have some real talent. This team is losing the feel of Dead Wings they’ve had for a few seasons. I could see this being a place where a guy with a no trade clause might be willing to come if they are still competitive at the deadline, and where a high end free agent might decide to sign.

[slothfacekilla]

It does help when only 1 team in the Atlantic has a positive goal differential and it is only +3

[lordstanley]

The Wings have had at least 25 points through 20 games in 3 of the past 4 seasons including this one. They were 11-6-3 in late November 2023. They were 11-5-4 in late November 2022. One difference about those years is that the Wings were well off the division lead because the Atlantic was stacked. In past years, Toronto-Tampa-Florida-Boston were a wall you had to get through to secure one of the Atlantic's three guaranteed playoff spots. That doesn't exist this year, IMO. 

[1984Echoes]

The other thing is...

I don't think Yzerman is going to just "sit on his laurels" either...

Meaning, even if no trades are made... If McLellan gets annoyed by Berggren or Ras, just for example, they can swap them out with Lombardo or Mazur or MBN.

If Gibson or Talbot get nicked up a few games, they'll call up Postava or Cossa (health permitting of course...).

Not certain where they think Wallinder or Tuomisto are so far this year (or maybe even count Holl as a backup option)...

But it seems like Grand Rapids is sitting on several prospects that may become options if needed.

It seems like between Detroit and GR, there's a higher level of talent in total than in years past.

To be utilized as needed.

And if Stevie does want to pull a trade off at the deadline (bringing in talent) ... I'm not going to complain. And I think we just might have the pieces (and draft picks? Is Stevie ready to include draft picks now?) to facilitate...

 

 

Edited 9 hours ago by 1984Echoes

[Mr.TaterSalad]

3 hours ago, lordstanley said:

The Wings have had at least 25 points through 20 games in 3 of the past 4 seasons including this one. They were 11-6-3 in late November 2023. They were 11-5-4 in late November 2022. One difference about those years is that the Wings were well off the division lead because the Atlantic was stacked. In past years, Toronto-Tampa-Florida-Boston were a wall you had to get through to secure one of the Atlantic's three guaranteed playoff spots. That doesn't exist this year, IMO. 

I agree largely with what you are saying here about the wall of teams not existing this year. That said, they still have to get through Florida. Once Florida is healthy, I expect them to return to being the top of the division. As well, I still see Montreal as slightly ahead of us, even if they aren't at the moment. We will see how they fare over the next few months as far as being better or about the same as us.

[lordstanley]

Ugh, laying an egg vs NYI tonight. 3-0 Islanders early in the 2nd, Horvat has just scored. 

[lordstanley]

4-0. Geesh.

[1984Echoes]

I'm ready to swap out some players.

Sit Hamonic, put in JBD 3rd pair.

Send Johannson to GR and call up Wallinder.

Wallinder starts out as 3rd pair but if he is playing better than Chiarot boost him to 2nd pair. Or maybe Wallinder is a better match with ASP?

I like the sound of a heavy-defensive 3rd pairing with Chiarot-JBD. 

Drop Ras-Berggren to GR and call up Lombardi-Mazur.

See what happens with a little bit of a shake up here...

Just my 2 cents.

[1984Echoes]

PS: Can we send Gibson to GR? Are either of Cossa or Postava back on the ice? (Actually, Cossa played last night: 24 saves 1 GA... Postava hasn't played since Nov 2nd...). Heck, call up Gylander if we want to keep Cossa in GR for now...

[1984Echoes]

And a pet peeve question: WTF are we even doing with Hamonic? He's worse than Holl. He's older than Holl. Worse defensively.

I mean... WTF? Jettison him and bring Holl back up as a 3rd pair or 7th defenseman.

I want Hamonic off the team.

IMO.

[Motor City Sonics]

I can not figure this team out, man.    They're more chaotic than a Jackson Pollack painting.  

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, Motor City Sonics said:

I can not figure this team out, man.    They're more chaotic than a Jackson Pollack painting.  

Two goals direct off missed coverages off a face-off - A little bit of bad luck on deflections, a couple of goals Gibson should have stopped deflection or not, and IDK what Mo&Si thought they were doing on the last one but it hardly mattered at that point. But even excusing bad defensive puck luck one night - you can't get shut-out.

Edited 1 hour ago by gehringer_2