Pre-Game Talk: Oilers at Wings, Friday

[SoupNazi]

From Khan

Nyquist replaces injured Jurco on Kid Line with Sheahan and Tatar. Abdelkader skating with Legwand and Franzen.
11:04am - 13 Mar 14

Emmerton skating with Pulkkinen and Miller. Glendening skating with Bertuzzi. Miller filling in on that line, looks like in Alfredsson spot.

Alfredsson not skating today for Wings. Likely a maintenance day.

Gustavsson took some shots near the start of practice but has left, so he likely won't be ready to back-up Howard Friday. Mrazek practicing.

Injured Helm, Weiss and Cleary not skating.

Helm (concussion), Weiss (hernia surgery) and Samuelsson (shoulder) skated before practice.

Personally I would have replaced Jurco with Alfie or Pulks and not broken up Franzen and Nyquist, but I can understand why it was done. We need to get some offense going somehow. We will see if it works.

Click to read more...

 

[joe89]

Two good right-handed shooters and both are wasted on some grind line. And we wonder why we don't score enough.

Nyquist-Franzen-Abdelkader
Tatar-Sheahan-Pulkkinen
Miller-Legwand-Alfredsson
Bertuzzi-Emmerton-Glenny (play them at own risk)

Get your **** together Babs.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Two good right-handed shooters and both are wasted on some grind line. And we wonder why we don't score enough.

Nyquist-Franzen-Abdelkader
Tatar-Sheahan-Pulkkinen
Miller-Legwand-Alfredsson
Bertuzzi-Emmerton-Glenny (play them at own risk)

Get your **** together Babs.

Nyquist and Tatar have a lot of chemistry and that line worked great with Sheahan in the middle for a couple months last year.

Pulkkinen has played for decent chunks of times with Emmerton it eases his adjustment and he gets his PP time.

I get people won't like them but I can see some of his logic, if it isn't working start the bingo balls entering the second.

 

[joe89]

Nyquist and Tatar have a lot of chemistry and that line worked great with Sheahan in the middle for a couple months last year.

Pulkkinen has played for decent chunks of times with Emmerton it eases his adjustment and he gets his PP time.

I get people won't like them but I can see some of his logic, if it isn't working start the bingo balls entering the second.

I've yet so see Nyquist not have chemistry with anyone even slightly talented. Guy makes his surroundings better. Sheahan-Tatar is a solid duo that'll make any line work aswell. So while that line will likely be our best line, it comes at the cost of another line, or even two.

Emmerton just isn't capable of getting anything done offensively in the NHL, minor league scorer, big league nobody. Alfredsson is on the 4th line paper-wise and that's just not good enough with our injuries.

 

[Vladdy84]

Nyquist and Tatar have a lot of chemistry and that line worked great with Sheahan in the middle for a couple months last year.

Pulkkinen has played for decent chunks of times with Emmerton it eases his adjustment and he gets his PP time.

I get people won't like them but I can see some of his logic, if it isn't working start the bingo balls entering the second.

Tatar-Riley-Nyquist should be the 2nd line.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

I've yet so see Nyquist not have chemistry with anyone even slightly talented. Guy makes his surroundings better. Sheahan-Tatar is a solid duo that'll make any line work aswell. So while that line will likely be our best line, it comes at the cost of another line, or even two.

Emmerton just isn't capable of getting anything done offensively in the NHL, minor league scorer, big league nobody. Alfredsson is on the 4th line paper-wise and that's just not good enough with our injuries.

I guess, in Babcock's mind you have to believe Bert - Glendening - Alfie is the third line.

We will have to wait and see it, this team has problems, like I said if it isn't working after the first hopefully he changes it up, but the replacement of Jurco with Pulkkinen was going to mean changes and with as fast as that line is I don't think dropping Pulkkinen in to that duty on his first taste is a great idea. He wanted to keep the speed up, a part of this really tells me what Babcock's faith is in the kids, he needs to keep that line as a strength on the team, hope Legwand, Franzen and Abdelkader play big and chip in. But really to put Nyquist there is a commitment to those guys, kind of a statement of who is driving this bus if you will. We also desperately need to be getting more out of Tatar than he has been providing lately in terms of actually hitting the score sheet, Nyquist is likely to do that for him.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Tatar-Riley-Nyquist should be the 2nd line.

It is right now, I think people will like that I know there is a worry about separating Nyquist and Franzen, but I like the idea of keeping a high tempo kid line with a lot of offense.

Franzen - Legwand - Abdelkader will be a big physical line that likes to play down low.

The bottom six is a dumpster fire it just is.

You hope Alfie can get some offense going

Bert - Glendening - Alfie

Sorry Alfie, but you get a vet that isn't playing well but has played with offensive players of his caliber and a tireless worker in Glendening to cover some of the speed and fight for the puck for the older guys that can hopefully change the tempo and maybe chip in the occasional goal.

Miller - Emmerton - Pulkkinen

two special teams pieces and for as much as we dislike Emmerton for never being an offensive force one thing he has done well in his time in the NHL is his line doesn't get scored on a lot. Maybe they get lucky and Pulkkinen slaps one home, but their role is just don't get scored on and contribute on the special teams units. As stated Pulks has played with Emmerton a decent amount.

That is at least how I see it, might fail miserably, but just look at our lineup there isn't a whole lot of answers we are decimated. I at least see some semblance of a plan, why Smith isn't being used on the PP2 is still an absolute mystery as is the fact the D-pairings should change to guys that have played well in the past. But he isn't doing that, however I would go

Kronwall - Smith
Ericsson - DeKeyser
Kindl - Quincey

Doubt we will see it but Kronwall and Smith do play well together and Ericsson and Kronwall are really struggling right now. Smith has played well the last couple months give it a shot and Ericsson and DeKeyser can try to be a big defensive shutdown pairing.

 

[Kronwalled55]

I've been extremely disappointed in Alfredsson, but Babcock has misused him so badly since Datsyuk got hurt that it makes it hard to evaluate the guy. At this point, I think we should move on this offseason. Especially with this "mini rebuild" we got going on. He can compliment a good center, but can't create anything himself.

 

[Heaton]

From Khan



Personally I would have replaced Jurco with Alfie or Pulks and not broken up Franzen and Nyquist, but I can understand why it was done. We need to get some offense going somehow. We will see if it works.

Same, but the team has been dog **** for two straight games, I think some shakeup is necessary.

 

[19 for president]

I think I'd like to see:

Nyquist-Franzen-Abs
Tatar-Sheahan-Alfie
Pulu-Legwand- Miller
(call it a night...)
Bert-Glen-Emmerton (Or better yet call up Cally of Ferraro and make that a gritty line)

At least that gives us a little depth, and doesn't split up our two most potent forwards. Maybe the kids can get Alfie going, and giving Pulu two bigger/solid defensive guys will allow him to do his thing offensively.

 

[ap3x]

Away from all the lines-talk. Important not to underestimate the oilers on friday, ask the Wild about it. Season might be over, but some players have more to play for than one might think.

 

[Number1RedWingsFan52]

Let's Go Red Wings we need some regulation wins here.

 

[Flowah]

Away from all the lines-talk. Important not to underestimate the oilers on friday, ask the Wild about it. Season might be over, but some players have more to play for than one might think.

You cannot take nights off against any team. Even the worst team in the league can burn you if you don't take them seriously. We have seen that over and over.

 

[ap3x]

Damn right.

 

[Huddy*]

You cannot take nights off against any team. Even the worst team in the league can burn you if you don't take them seriously. We have seen that over and over.

Perfect example was the other night against CBJ...Emmerton took 3 seconds off his shift and bam

 

[SimplySolace]

Off-topic but just realized the team's average age right now is 28.1 (20 man roster - counting Mrazek and Pulkkinen for Grointavsson and Jurco).

Little higher than I expected, but we got some old men who screw up the curve

 

[detredWINgs]

I've been extremely disappointed in Alfredsson, but Babcock has misused him so badly since Datsyuk got hurt that it makes it hard to evaluate the guy. At this point, I think we should move on this offseason. Especially with this "mini rebuild" we got going on. He can compliment a good center, but can't create anything himself.

Not sure why everyone is disappointed with Alfredsson. He was on fire before the Olympics, great during the Olympics, and great in the 2 games after the Olympics. Then what happened? Datsyuk went down, our depth went to ****, and all of a sudden Alfredsson is playing alongside some combination of Emmerton/Andy/Miller/Glenda/Abby nightly. He is literally the only guy worth caring about on any line he's been on in the past 5 games. He serves absolutely no purpose running around with a bunch of plugs. We might as well bench him at even strength so he can be 100% fresh for the PP.

If it were me, I'd switch Franzen to center to give Detroit 3 scoring lines, thus making Alfie relevant again and giving the opposition more than 1 person to focus on per line.

Nyquist - Franzen - X
Tatar - Sheahan - X
X - Legwand - Alfie

 

[wingsfan33]

Alfie is playing with glendening who yes plays hard and hits but has zero talent so I don't blame Alfie and now pulkkinen comes and is playing on the 4th line , now I don't know if either of them can play left wing or not but I think we'd get more out of our 3rd line with pulkkinen and Alfie together

The only optimism I can see is maybe playing on the 4th line teams might think pulkkinen is some scrap and he surprises them a few times with his shot and gets a few goals

With the insain amount of injuries though I would of liked for us to try and spread out some guys if possible , wasn't Franzen originally a center ?

Maybe something like
Abdelkader Franzen nyquist

Tatar legwand pulkkinen

Miller sheahan alfredsson

Bertuzzi Emmerton glendening

Top 3 lines look better overall in my opinion and look like they can score more being spread out

What do I know

 

[danincanada]

Did Emmerton and Pulkkinen play together in GR? If so then Babcock is probably playing the familiarity card. I was thinking they would just sub Teemu on the kid line in place of Jurco.

 

[ChadS]

Did Emmerton and Pulkkinen play together in GR? If so then Babcock is probably playing the familiarity card. I was thinking they would just sub Teemu on the kid line in place of Jurco.

Yes they played a lot together early on until Teemu started playing more with Järnkrok. They had quite good chemistry, though Pulkkinen seems to connect well with pretty much everyone.

 

[mailo]

I think,that Alfie is best goal scorer in current lineup so i hope,that he's gonna play with some atleast a bit skilled players

 

[Frk It]

I think,that Alfie is best goal scorer in current lineup so i hope,that he's gonna play with some atleast a bit skilled players

Franzen is the best goal scorer in the line up.

 

[NyquistIsMyGod*]

Franzen is the best goal scorer in the line up.

Pretty much.

Johan Franzen
Daniel Alfredsson
Gustav Nyquist
Tomas Tatar
Teemu Pulkkinen

 

[Number1RedWingsFan52]

Pretty much.

Johan Franzen
Daniel Alfredsson
Gustav Nyquist
Tomas Tatar
Teemu Pulkkinen

Agreed.

 

[JPE123]

LGRW- We really, really need 2 points