Some Thoughts

[Oobz]

I don't think I've ever been excited to watch a Detroit - Columbus hockey game but I'm kind of pumped to see what they can do against the Blue Jackets.

Say what you want about Hossa but he never takes a shift off and is effective. Can the same be said for Franzen? Franzen being able to 'turn it on' in the playoffs won't matter if they don't even get in

Franzen has been a disappointment to imo for a few seasons now. Not living up to his contract and I can't imagine any team wanting to trade for him with how he has played overall.

 

[nik jr]

I don't really see this as an over-reaction. The Wings have been on a rather sharp decline over the past 2, 2 and a half seasons. They are small, slow, soft and get manhandled by any top-end, physical team. None of the personnel moves made over the past few years have even attempted to do anything other than plug holes.

All of the excuses bandied about by people after the Nashville series, i.e. the Wings just didn't play their game, Nashville was hot, blah, blah, blah is just denial that the Wings are too slow, too small and too soft to hang with a decent team in a playoff series. The season opener looked just like their games against Nashville and for all of the same reasons.

game vs STL was much, much worse than any playoff game vs nashville.


imo, the main reason nashville won that series was injuries. DRW had a bad record after datsyuk and lidstrom got injured, which continued in playoffs. howard was also not good.

before those injuries, DRW were better than they were in '10 and '11. were one of the top few teams, usually beat physical teams like STL (4-2), boston (1-0 in SO) and LAK (3-1).

3-3 vs nashville, but 1 of those games was played without datsyuk, lidstrom or howard, and in the 1st game, nashville was dominated, but won on a couple of fluky goals late in 3rd period.


current team is probably a lot worse than last season's team. blueline is not even close. special teams will probably decline. probably will spend a lot more time in the defensive zone. puck possession will be worse.

 

[Fugu]

Of Scotty Bowman, no less.


I also remember when Jiri Fischer played his ass off as a 21 year old in the 2001-02 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Ericsson had a good playoff run, as did Q.


Maybe it's not so hard to do when you have a line up of mostly future HOF'ers on the roster.


I love Jiri, but I think you're remembering the later years of his prematurely ended career. He made a lot of mistakes and he had a couple of bad injuries early on. I think it was Hartnell who deliberately went out and injured him one time, early on too just as the kid seemed to be getting it together finally. It was after he came back from that one where it seemed he realized he was a really big strong guy and he started kicking ass. I loved it when he put one of the Sedins through the glass-- literally. I think he was getting hacked all game long and he'd just had enough.

And there was ZERO love for Kronner his first couple seasons. I remember when he signed his first contract after the ELC expired. The board had a meltdown.

 

[Fugu]

Franzen has been a disappointment to imo for a few seasons now. Not living up to his contract and I can't imagine any team wanting to trade for him with how he has played overall.

Meanwhile Hossa is off to a fine start.

 

[JmanWingsFan]

Meanwhile Hossa is off to a fine start.

Thanks for reminding us...

 

[mindfly]

I really wished some reporter with guts could ask all these questions to KH, and really force a real answer out of him

"Why did you choose Franzen over Hossa in the summer of 09?"
"Why did you not pay more for Parise/Suter than Minnesota did to atleast get them to think about Detroit more"
"Why exactly did you bring Samuelsson and Bertuzzi back when Nyquist and Tatar are ready to play in the big league?"

 

[RedWingsNow*]

Ericsson had a good playoff run, as did Q.


Maybe it's not so hard to do when you have a line up of mostly future HOF'ers on the roster.


I love Jiri, but I think you're remembering the later years of his prematurely ended career. He made a lot of mistakes and he had a couple of bad injuries early on. I think it was Hartnell who deliberately went out and injured him one time, early on too just as the kid seemed to be getting it together finally. It was after he came back from that one where it seemed he realized he was a really big strong guy and he started kicking ass. I loved it when he put one of the Sedins through the glass-- literally. I think he was getting hacked all game long and he'd just had enough.

And there was ZERO love for Kronner his first couple seasons. I remember when he signed his first contract after the ELC expired. The board had a meltdown.

There's no doubt that Fischer was constantly a work in progress.
There wasn't a lot of Kronwall hate. Some people didn't like the deal he got. Not the same thing as not liking a young Kronwall.

 

[icKx]

I really wished some reporter with guts could ask all these questions to KH, and really force a real answer out of him

"Why did you choose Franzen over Hossa in the summer of 09?"
"Why did you not pay more for Parise/Suter than Minnesota did to atleast get them to think about Detroit more"
"Why exactly did you bring Samuelsson and Bertuzzi back when Nyquist and Tatar are ready to play in the big league?"

Access is everything to sports writers. They love being plugged-in, an "insider".

As such they rarely put out anything but sycophantic fluff.

 

[InjuredChoker]

And there was ZERO love for Kronner his first couple seasons. I remember when he signed his first contract after the ELC expired. The board had a meltdown.

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=314669&highlight=kronwall

If someone has extra time.