No he wasn't. He started off well, had to recover from an injury, and started to play much more consistently.
He hasn't had a great playoff year. Has anyone on the team other than Zetterberg?
He didn't create much at all for his standards.
The thing that leaves me proper smarting is that I allowed myself to get sucked in. Until game #4 I was more or less apathetic/resigned to the Wings sucking and going out, then we won game #4 and this thing called "hope" came into my mind. I knew game #5 would be a tall order but I was confident for game #6. I allowed myself a tiny bit of optimism that had grown to a nearly reckless moderate optimism after two periods tonight.
And then it all comes crashing down and now I am really pissed off and angry when really it's all what I expected from the start anyway.
I guess what we learned tonight is that pessimism and acceptance ought to be the approach for the time being, at least as long as Cleary and Abdelkader are out there expected to contribute offense and Smith is expected to play important playoff minutes.
Last time I checked, its a team sport, and when your team decides that the game was over after the 2nd period tonight, that was a big problem. The Wings melted down as a whole and the Hawks were the better team. That is what happened plain and simple. Its easier to blame the refs or blame a single player, but in the end, the better team won. Wings are going to have to play a full 60 minute game, and they haven't done that since Game 4.
The thing that leaves me proper smarting is that I allowed myself to get sucked in. Until game #4 I was more or less apathetic/resigned to the Wings sucking and going out, then we won game #4 and this thing called "hope" came into my mind. I knew game #5 would be a tall order but I was confident for game #6. I allowed myself a tiny bit of optimism that had grown to a nearly reckless moderate optimism after two periods tonight.
And then it all comes crashing down and now I am really pissed off and angry when really it's all what I expected from the start anyway.
I guess what we learned tonight is that pessimism and acceptance ought to be the approach for the time being, at least as long as Cleary and Abdelkader are out there expected to contribute offense and Smith is expected to play important playoff minutes.
The most damning fact about this series:
Cleary has been the Wings' 2nd best player.
Ouch.
The most damning fact about this series:
Cleary has been the Wings' 2nd best player.
Ouch.
I believe pt totals
I'm still giddy with the thought of what these kids are learning right now.
That extension is coming. You can book it.
Can we all agree that whoever runs our PP needs to be let go. I know this is practically season 3 with an awful PP and it's unacceptable.
How to gag away a series?
The most damning fact about this series:
Cleary has been the Wings' 2nd best player.
Ouch.
I gotta give Danny some credit, he works extremely hard out there. You can tell hes trying, and has heart and wants to win. There is 1 small problem though, he doesnt have any skill. The only way I take him back is if its for a cheap contract (1.5 mil) in a 3rd/4th line role. His days as a top 6 winger have got to be over, especially considering we have guys like Nyquist and Brunner (we will sign him) ready to thrive in that role.
We need more from guys like Franzen and Filppula. Dats and Z can't do everything, and Cleary and Abby are the other top six forwards. That's your problem.
When it comes to Smith, I really think this is Babcock's approach:
He wants Smith to become good enough so that he can win a Cup with him. He's pretty sure that's not this year, but now that DK is out he has nobody else to play and so he has to go ahead and roll Smith out there and let him make his mistakes.
If he learns his lessons quickly, they might have a crack at the Cup this year. If he doesn't, well, the hope is that he will play better next year and so on, to the degree that maybe he helps take them to the Cup some day.
I don't know how wise that plan is, but I really do think that's the plan. It's not like Babcock has a whole bunker full of ninja assassins to throw out there, so I suppose it's as good a plan as any. They won more games this playoff than I ever thought possible.