Post-Game Talk: Just as I predicted

[Shoalzie]

Still too early to make any grand statements about this team...but it's a good start. They've beaten some solid teams during this win streak.

 

[ap3x]

Sharks are the team we really struggled to beat.

Unless you weren't talking about the games @home, we won three out of the latest five games.

Other than that, I've to admit that it totally worked out to break up Gus' line, creating a new one with Nielsen & Larkin. Well done, Blash.

When it comes to Vanek, the lack of Gus on the 3rd line was noticeable though. AA did a pretty good job. But Vanek & Gus showed outstanding chemistry before. Not as if it were a bad thing to have the luxury of choosing which line to get Gus on. Just sayin'.

 

[14ari13]

Still too early to make any grand statements about this team...but it's a good start. They've beaten some solid teams during this win streak.

The team won 2.5, Howard won 1.5
When your goalie allows 1 goal in 2 games, he almost singelhandedly wins games for you.
I have been probably the biggest critic of Howard on this board, but I am very glad he is doing fine now. I have to admit I am surprised a little bit.

Unless you weren't talking about the games @home, we won three out of the latest five games.

Other than that, I've to admit that it totally worked out to break up Gus' line, creating a new one with Nielsen & Larkin. Well done, Blash.

When it comes to Vanek, the lack of Gus on the 3rd line was noticeable though. AA did a pretty good job. But Vanek & Gus showed outstanding chemistry before. Not as if it were a bad thing to have the luxury of choosing which line to get Gus on. Just sayin'.

I believe we won 1 out of last 9 at home.

We have red hot Howard, Vanek, Green, Helm, Nyquist, Spoul and DeKeyser.
I know people will jump on me and disagree on DeKeyser, but he is +4 with only 1 point, logging in big min.

Disappointing no fights in this game.

 

[jolly roger]

Vanek figured out how to use AA in his continued 8 minutes of play on a brilliant pass and a lazer shot from AA for the third goal. What more could this kid get at GR?

Is Holland really going to send him down when Jurco returns? Yuk.

Would you really trade AA or Mantha straight up for Jurco?

 

[Number1RedWingsFan52]

LA needs a goalie.

Unfortunately not at $5.3 million for the next 3 years they don't, Unless we take back another bad contract just not taking back Dustin Brown that contract would kill us for the foreseeable future.

 

[Mount Suribachi]

1) Who starts next game?

2) Three RHD in the lineup for the first time since...09? Rafalski, Chelios and Lebda?

 

[Konnan511]

Cubs make it to the world Series, Red Wings are near the top of the league in points, JHowww gets a shut out. What year is it????

 

[obey86]

Still bothers me that Nyquist can't even get 15 minutes of ice time a game.

 

[borisbadenough]

...seeing Vanek last two years in Minnesota, I can assure you that his giveaway that he recovered (and after that which led to a great assist) would not have happend in a Wild dress, as he would have just stopped skating. Detroit seems to sparked his ego. Very happy to see him contribute. All going well he could make 50 to 60 points this season, which is pretty awesome for a 2.5 million dollar player.

Different system. pp, more skilled players.. that's all. Nice to see Minn doing well early too.

 

[Yzerman1919*]

Still bothers me that Nyquist can't even get 15 minutes of ice time a game.

There were a ton of PPs and PKing to do though. I am all in favor of balancing IT earlier in the year to not run them into the ground.

Blashill clearly made an adjustment. The first 2 games, the "up the wing with speed" was the only thing they'd do. One shot and done, comes back the other way odd man rush. What I have noticed the past few games is if they see that they aren't going to have a realistic break or somewhat of an inside path for a shot, they are dumping it in with a forecheck or just hanging onto it. It is absolutely making a 110% difference in puck possession time, pressuring defense, reducing odd man rushes.

Nyquist, Vanek, Helm, Sheahan are all very good forecheckers. Without the "fly up the ice one and done" attitude guys like Marchenko and E aren't getting caught for a turnaround 3 on 1 either.

Good job by Blash. The coaching we need.

You guys pay attention to Toronto??? The Babcock special over there. Sit back and blow third period leads. I absolutely hated that.

 

[Tyler Durden]

3 games this week, who you think starts in net for majority of them? You gotta go back to Howard. I say Howard 2-1 over Mrazek, thoughts?

 

[Tasteslikekevinbacon]

I just want to point out the play at 6:29 by Sproul. Smooth stick work.

 

[Yemack]

Just watched highlight of last night's game.

On the second goal, I had no idea during the game how Sproul was able to get that deep in Sharks zone but he kept his feet moving and got himself on a good spot. After Sproul backchecked a guy and passed the puck to Nyquist, he kept thinking and kept moving his feet and made himself available as very good one timer option on that play. Liking him a lot.

Ott drawing penalty was a beauty. Wish I was there to hear what he said.

Miller, Glendening smart positioning. Our 4th line did good job overall.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

I just want to point out the play at 6:29 by Sproul. Smooth stick work.

Definitely a nice play.

And Ericsson's on the Nyquist goal too. Where did that foot speed come from? Let's hope this Ericsson holds up for the whole season.

 

[Yzerman1919*]

Just watched highlight of last night's game.

On the second goal, I had no idea during the game how Sproul was able to get that deep in Sharks zone but he kept his feet moving and got himself on a good spot. After Sproul backchecked a guy and passed the puck to Nyquist, he kept thinking and kept moving his feet and made himself available as very good one timer option on that play. Liking him a lot.

Ott drawing penalty was a beauty. Wish I was there to hear what he said.

Miller, Glendening smart positioning. Our 4th line did good job overall.

Takes their captain and best player off the ice for 4 minutes and for their PP. Great job

 

[Flowah]

Definitely a nice play.

And Ericsson's on the Nyquist goal too. Where did that foot speed come from? Let's hope this Ericsson holds up for the whole season.

E protected the hell out of that back while getting hounded by the Sharks player. Was very impressed. He just looks so much better when not being forced into top pair.

 

[Yemack]

One more thing. Face off is going to be huge for this team this season. It's always been important but it's going to be slightly more important this season due to some of the stuffs we try now.

Helm has always been a respectable player on the dot and he owned FO last night with ridiculous 80% against some very good face off guys on Sharks team.

 

[19 for president]

Once Abby is back, I'd really like to see:

Nyquist-Nielson-Vanek (Love the Chem between Nike and Vanek, but they need more icetime)
Abby-Larkin-Z (let Larks play center but have Z out there to guide him and possibly take D zone faceoffs)
Tatar-Helm-Sheahan/AA ( I think Tats is best when he does his own thing offensively)
Ott-Glenny-Sheahan/AA (Just a real solid checling line)

 

[H3ckt1k]

I can't remember the last time I've been this happy watching the team. I know theyll fall back to earth at some point but it's really fun to watch them right now

 

[Obe2kenobe]

Still bothers me that Nyquist can't even get 15 minutes of ice time a game.

I would have liked to see him getting more minutes in the previous games. But he had 17 minutes last night didn't he?

 

[TheMule93]

Yeah Spoul really surprised me. He never really stood out in GR too much to me, but he's been great in these two games. Hope one day he can be the 1D we need. He's certainly got the offensive ability (hands, skating, iq and shot) and the size. Defense is the question mark as it has always been but he has surpassed all expectations in that regard so far. His stick work has been very impressive as noted above. I know its only 2 game and i'll probably be disappointed 30 games down the road, but for now i'm going to hype him up and pretend that he'll be a 1D someday just to make me feel good.

the main reason I'm excited for him is because he has actual talent unlike most of our other defenseman. He's a good skater (green/DDK are the only other decent skaters), he's got a good shot (only green has a good shot), he's got high offensive IQ (only green/kronner have this), he's got good stick work which helps with his offense, which gives him great potential with his stick work defensively too (not that he's necessarily there yet). Notice how the only other guys we have with his kind of talent (green, kronwall) were far superior to any of our other defenseman? Because they were talented! What do all elite defenseman have in common? Theyre talented! Look at Brent Burns - he always had great offensive talent but he hit another level and became a true 1D recently and a large part of that is due to learning to be a better defender. You don't see "defensive dmen" (a nice way of saying not very talented) suddenly having offensive breakouts - because they don't have the talent to do so!

DDK, marchenko, ouellet, ericsson are all void of any offensive talent. The will never become a 1D. Smith had talent but he is dumb as a rock - he shoots when he should pass and he passes when he should shoot so he never quite developed into much. Kronwall was always a good offensive guy that developed good defense later on and became a decent 1D. Green was a great offensive guy that never quite became a 1D due to his lack of defense but because of his talent he was still much better than defensive talentless plugs.

TLDR: Sproul has the talent to become a 1D - he has a level of talent that no other dman in our system has. Will he do it? Probably not, but at least the possibility is there which isn't true for marchy, ouellet, dekeyser, etc. That's what makes him exciting. That's what made Kindl and Smith exciting when they were younger. Hopefully he isn't another Kindl or Smith. One thing going for him is that he's a better physical specimen than either of those two.

 

[Dotter]

Unfortunately not at $5.3 million for the next 3 years they don't, Unless we take back another bad contract just not taking back Dustin Brown that contract would kill us for the foreseeable future.

Mrazek isn't 5.3 million.

 

[19 for president]

I'm waiting 20 games before I get on any sort of Sproul hype train. Guy made some amazing offensive plays last night, but I don't know if that is first call up luck or if it is something he will be consistently able to do. Ive sewn too many 5 game brilliant runs by guys like Smith and Kindle to get too excited yet.

 

[PuckDynasty]

Happy to see how well Sproul is doing, but why is he just now getting the chance? He's got size, a good shot, right handed and an offensive side, and we've been stuck with Kindl, Quincey, etc? Sadly, if he wasn't out of options or if Kronwall wasn't hurt, he'd still be buried in GR.

 

[Dotter]

I can't remember the last time I've been this happy watching the team. I know theyll fall back to earth at some point but it's really fun to watch them right now

I 100% expect them to be inconsistent and play depends on their confidence. They are a young team with a young coach, so this is to be expected.