Post-Game Talk: Team Ain't Even Good Enough for a PGT

[ArGarBarGar]

Poll later, maybe. Though do we even need one?

Click to read more...

 

[SpookyTsuki]

I already know the answers..

1. Howard
2. Zetterberg
3. Larkin

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Don't really need a poll, the team needs to earn one...

They need to commit to the system and bring a better effort for the duration of games. Even with the D injuries, the effort and execution is woeful and they are throwing away important points. Hope they get this righted soon.

 

[SpookyTsuki]

Don't really need a poll, the team needs to earn one...

They need to commit to the system and bring a better effort for the duration of games. Even with the D injuries, the effort and execution is woeful and they are throwing away important points. Hope they get this righted soon.

You watch the griffins. Is this the system they played? do they need the better players? (well duh)

 

[LeftBackLegend]

We are at a point where I will think any good performance or a win will be an outlier, not the lads shaping up. Happy days.

 

[Arytonblue]

My first post on HFB and that pretty much sums up my thoughts on this team right now. Been following the team for 6 years or so and this is the worst I've seen from them.

Apart from Z, Larkin and the two goaltenders the whole team just seems to be taking the night off.....every night. Far too much half-hearted attempts on the boards and in challenges for the puck, shooting attempts on goal tonight were hilarious, so many wide and blocked shots, lest we forget the amount of terrible turnovers and pucks just given up, mostly by the D but some of the forwards guilty as well, namely Helm who was terrible tonight.

In terms of our offence, people were going nuts about our SOGs but the main problem for me is our offensive zone entries, which are just brutal. The amount of times a skater enters the zone, checks back, flubs a pass or pisses it around the boards, with little to no attempt to formulate an actual attack or play, is just astonishing. The forwards don't seem to trust the blueliners, and who exactly could blame them, 98% of the shots from the point seem to sail wide or don't even get through, far too many times where there's nobody in front of the net. The likes of Nyquist and Tatar and other highly skilled players seem to take an age to do anything offensively, particularly on the PP. They continue to stick-handle for the sake of stick-handling, always trying to set up the perfect shot or play. The amount of times I was screaming at them to just shoot the puck on the 5 on 3's tonight was was not pleasant viewing. Far too much dumping and chasing for my liking as well, players just seem to have zero trust/confidence in eachother right now.

The thing is a lot of these problems are basic things that a fully functioning team needs to do, we're not asking for miracles or huge increases in skill or ability, the team out there can and should be doing a hell of a lot better than what we've seen in the last 6 or so games, so why they can't seem to do this on a consistent level is a mystery to me. I thought that 3rd period comeback against the Canucks was the team saying 'enough's enough, time to get back to business'. But then they revert to garbage against the Canes, and then tonight just took the biscuit. Not confident at all in this team to do much better until maybe Dats and co. returns and we get something resembling a full lineup, but even then there is something fundamentally wrong with the team's mentality/setup. And here was me looking forward to hockey season .

 

[GoAwayDanCleary]

Watching some of the other games around the league tonight... these guys gotta really put it in gear because the energy is just nowhere near the level of basically all of these other teams. Just wait till we actually start playing legit competition. The Rangers or Wild would embarrass this team in terms of hustle and effort level.

For some reason there is simply no fire. Really the only thing to blame is the coaching change at this point. I think the guys are just having a really hard time adjusting to not just the new system, but the new voice behind the bench.

They've got about two weeks till Datsyuk comes back and this abysmal schedule is over with (which is completr bs by the way). At this point I'd be happy with a .500 record till then.

So disappointed with this team right now. They don't look like a team that is playing for each other. There are very little guts and courage being shown throughout the lineup. A lot of bad habits are taking over what should be a quality hockey team and that has to change asap.

 

[TheRatPoisoner]

Never mind the loss, that was just kinda boring to watch. Literally fell asleep in the 3rd period

 

[The Zermanator]

Watching some of the other games around the league tonight... these guys gotta really put it in gear because the energy is just nowhere near the level of basically all of these other teams. Just wait till we actually start playing legit competition. The Rangers or Wild would embarrass this team in terms of hustle and effort level.

For some reason there is simply no fire. Really the only thing to blame is the coaching change at this point. I think the guys are just having a really hard time adjusting to not just the new system, but the new voice behind the bench.

They've got about two weeks till Datsyuk comes back and this abysmal schedule is over with (which is completr bs by the way). At this point I'd be happy with a .500 record till then.

So disappointed with this team right now. They don't look like a team that is playing for each other. There are very little guts and courage being shown throughout the lineup. A lot of bad habits are taking over what should be a quality hockey team and that has to change asap.

Part of why I'd be almost just as fine with Byfuglien as I'd be with Shattenkirk. Byfuglien plays angry, and with passion. Lacking in so many of our players. Ericsson is a perfect example. Too many guys not afraid of losing their jobs.

Holland needs to show a pulse for once. Get rid of the underachievers, trade them for a conditional 7th (like Smith), add by subtraction. Bring up rookies to fight and compete for that last spot. If there's no fire in the players, light one under them. Trade Tatar in a package for Shattenkirk or Byfuglien, send Svech for Shattenkirk if need be. Plus a middle prospect and a 2nd. Either would completely change our defense. And players have to really compete for their jobs. Not just playing time, but even a roster spot. Kindl could be waived I believe and we could bring up Ouellet, couldn't we? We'd still eat some of Kindl's salary but Ouellet's salary is low enough to take on. But Holland has become passive to the point of uselessness in terms of roster trimming and trading.

 

[14ari13]

Preseason

We went undefeated in the preseason. I did not watch or follow.
Anyone has an explanation?

 

[TeemuS]

yeah, remember Lions? 0-16

 

[Mr Lemonoue]

Even they lost they did play better then other games, still pretty good effort.

 

[RockemSockemProberts]

Holland needs to show a pulse for once... But Holland has become passive to the point of uselessness in terms of roster trimming and trading.

This is why I'm not joking when I say, somehow, some way, I really do want the Wings to make Yzerman the next GM as soon as is humanly possible.

 

[8snake]

Sounds odd to say given the infusion of younger players on the roster, but we need more speed on this team...both up front and on defense. Yes, a better passing defensive group would ramp up the tempo and make the team collectively quicker, but overall we just don't have much in terms of guys who can skate and make things happen. Larkin obviously, Helm when he's healthy...that's about it. Tatar and Gus are more quick than straight line fast, Jurco can skate but is completely ineffective at actually playing hockey and everybody else is average to poor. On defense it's just pitiful. No dynamic skaters, and the closest one (DD) has an extremely limited offensive skill set.

 

[14ari13]

We miss 5 key players. Datsyuk, Greene, Franzen, Richards and Quincey.

We won all preseason games, then we won first 3.

 

[theYman]

We went undefeated in the preseason. I did not watch or follow.
Anyone has an explanation?

Just another reason that the preseason don't mean ****.

 

[Zetterberg4Captain]

too many excusers both on the ice, in the mgmt office and among some so called "fans"

hockey is won and lost on the backend, ours is easily among the worst in the entire league and our GM has failed for close to a decade to plan for post lidstrom while in that time almost every other franchise has been able to find a top pairing dman through one of the many avenues available

our forwards are built around the premise that the game would lose all its edge and physicality just because kenny dosent like being a man and getting physical, well it hasent and it never will

thats not the same as having useless goons who just fight but we clearly lack the hardworking checkers who are skilled as well and who can play the game the right way

make some changes on the ice or make some changes in the boardroom

 

[JPE123]

We are just bad. I'm starting to worry about Blash. The team doesn't seem prepared

 

[TCNorthstars]

We went undefeated in the preseason. I did not watch or follow.
Anyone has an explanation?

Explanation? Clearly it is all your fault since you are now watching and following! Go sit in the corner.

 

[Mickey Redmond*]

I turned the game off. They aren't even enjoyable to watch anymore. Flipped over to watch a really good game between the Pistons and the Bulls which the Pistons won in OT. Now 3-0.

 

[14ari13]

Explanation? Clearly it is all your fault since you are now watching and following! Go sit in the corner.

I did not watch a single preseason game, therefore I ask.
We won all the games and the 3 first ones of the season. Then maybe the players and the coach got too cockey. Now they have to work hard to right the ship.

 

[TheMule93]

Watching some of the other games around the league tonight... these guys gotta really put it in gear because the energy is just nowhere near the level of basically all of these other teams. Just wait till we actually start playing legit competition. The Rangers or Wild would embarrass this team in terms of hustle and effort level.

For some reason there is simply no fire.

Yeah I was watching a sharks game earlier this season and I was shocked at how fast and exciting it was.

This team makes hockey unwatchable. It's so incredibly boring and slow. We have no players that I'm excited to watch outside of Larkin. (okay, I'm always excited to watch dats too, but he's out right now)

Going into every game knowing that we're going to suck and that it is going to be insanely boring is depressing.

No wonder the Joe is half empty every night.

 

[Pavels Dog]

I did not watch a single preseason game, therefore I ask.
We won all the games and the 3 first ones of the season. Then maybe the players and the coach got too cockey. Now they have to work hard to right the ship.

More like pre-season games mean literally nothing (I think Anaheim also did well didn't they?) and we had some easy games to start the season which we won thanks to Z, Mrazek/Howie and Larkin.

Now we look like a team with a lack of energy, speed or physicality, and our skill-level is not good enough to make up for that. Our d-men play soft and are guaranteed to turn the puck over if you pressure them. This means dump-and-chase hockey is extremely effective against us (only slightly less so when Mraz is in net). Our own attacks are pathetic, one-and-done if even that. Poor passing, over-complicated plays, lost board battles, no net-front presence, lousy shot accuracy, no offense from the D..

Just a complete trainwreck right now. If not for Larkin I'd hesitate to watch anymore games until Dats returns.

 

[Yemack]

Wings are making a LOT of unforced turnover, inside OUR ZONE. and it's not just Smith and Kindl, even Kronner makes it. some of it is due to having not enough support near by and our D has no where to go but to get rid of the puck along the board and hope for the best. (hint, you have more time than you think) Teams are catching on to it, and those passes were completely and thoroughly shut down last game. So much so some of them were tape to tape passes from our D backhand to Senator players. and this is just ONE problem out of many we have right now in our zone. I have already mentioned how players need to take the body right away and make it harder for Senators.

I dont rewatch games so maybe I'm wrong in assessing problem or maybe I dont know what the hell im talking about but Wings were completely owned in their own zone last night, and that is undeniable fact. Just repeating useless cliches like 'we need to play better, give 100%' wont make them play better in their own zone. There needs to be a change either in system or how they should be executing. I thought having bit more composure would help but Im starting to think this problem may go deeper than that.

oh and there's breakout pass problem. well I'm not even going to touch this because it was worse than what was acceptable at AHL level. It was refreshing to see our D skate out though. Guess what when they had a chance and did it, it actually led to successive breakout instead of misfiring pass into turnovers in neutral zone.

 

[Kronwalled55]

I'm starting to get worried about this team right now. I know I'm a little slower to jump to that thought process, but this team has scored just 1 goal in a game in 4 of the last 6 games. In the Calgary game they scored 2, and then they had the epic comeback against Vancouver.

I would say that there's an issue with starting on time with this team, but they don't seem to be starting at all.