Ehrhoff and Martin were playing great there until Datsyuk and Zetterberg took over. Not really understanding the hate on Ehrhoff so far: to me he is our most calm defenseman. We need that in our D-core. I personally love what he's brought and still hope to see him extended. Martin obviously blew it in OT, but let's be fair guys, DET seized the momentum and just took over at the end of this game. We got Babcocked, massively.
I saw a post near the beginning saying if Fleury was in net that we would have all been hating on him instead of applauding Greiss for his effort last night. Lol, no. If Fleury was in net it would have been a complete blow-out. We get zero points and the defense looks even worse than it already did. T Greezy made some HUGE saves in this one, more in the first 57 minutes of play than Fleury has made in the first 5 games. Give it a rest with the Fleury defending. This team plays more confidently when its goalie covers the damn puck and doesn't do stupid **** behind (and INSIDE) the net. We fed off of the momentum caused by Greiss' saves. The Duper goal specifically came right after a pretty nice one.
That being said, our team didn't play confidently last night, and that was due to 87's horrible night. The game against Philly was the worst game I've seen Letang play (barring his first game back against CBJ in the playoffs last year) in a LONG time. The same can be said about Sid last night. He let Detroit get in his head and Kronwall and Zetterberg completely owned him last night. Kunitz gets elbowed? It's not your place to stand up for him and take a penalty Sid. Please tell me how putting 14 and 87 in the box is helping the team; it's not. Also, as much as I love what Downie has brought to this team (whatever he's brought, this team has been sorely missing it for years), he showed flashes of being an idiot. He clearly defied Tocchet and I don't like the implications of that. Flash forward to him doing that against BOS/PHI in a crucial game of the playoffs...
Like many have suggested, this team needs another identity change; trading Neal wasn't enough. Obviously, it would have been nice to have moved Letang when we could have, and that's why so many of us were in support of it, but that's likely not an option now. The way I see it is we need to free up a spot on D to allow Bortuzzo and Despres to be constantly in the lineup. Sooner Martin goes the better. Hopefully he can fetch us a leadership guy. I hate to say it, but the 87/71/58 core brings absolutely zero leadership. It's pretty sad.
Comeau...what a signing by JR. Truly a diamond in the rough. He fits in great here. He's been doing all the right things and throws the body.
Decent game by Spaling. He hasn't done anything flashy but the guy doesn't make a lot of mistakes. The same can be said about Goc, who's just an excellent calming presence at center. We're lucky as hell to have all 3 of Spaling/Goc/Sutter. Really makes you think that Sutter is expendable...