We are 1/3rd of the Way Through The Season

RedWingsNow*

Guest
Positives:
Datsyuk still has the ability to dominate and is a terrific two-way center.
Zetterberg is living up to his C and off to a great start.
Brunner is scoring goals like we hoped.
Tatar has looked good in limited action. Better than most thought.
Tootoo has been a nice addition
Emmerton seems to be getting better in a 4th line role

Negatives:
Kronwall has been brutal. Worse than anyone might have imagined.
Despite all the injuries, we have no place for Nyquist and limited time for Tatar.
Injuries. Everywhere.
Rescuers have called off the search for Danny Cleary's comeback season.
Drew Miller stopped being a good fourth liner. Scottish Ale?
Abdelkader Zero Goals. One Assist.
Jimmy Howard is not standing up to the extra pressure.
 

VladTheImpaler

Go Wings
Feb 27, 2012
1,880
0
Add to positives: barring any major improvement in each of their games, we know that we will not have to overpay Fil and Howard.
 

silkyjohnson50

Registered User
Jan 10, 2007
11,301
1,178
Positive: Despite the injuries, special teams, defence, Kronwall, Filppula, and all else that has been bad... Detroit is still far from out of the postseason chase.

Negative: The schedule is about to get brutal and I don't really see the defence getting any better.
 

Vladdy84

L-O-Y-A-L-T-Y
Dec 1, 2011
10,675
12
Farmington
Agree with everything said. With the exception of Miller no longer being a decent 4th liner. He's had good and bad games. He's pretty much a non issue in my book.
 

mukluks

Registered User
Oct 18, 2011
169
0
Positives:

Despite a couple of rough games Ericcsson is becoming a good player with room to get better yet.

Holland may be forced to finally make real changes after seeing this team steadily decline for the last 4 years.

Negatives:

While I never thought Kronwall was a #1 or even #2 dman he is doing worse than expected.

Datsyuk is being wasted and will likely be gonzo way too soon.
 

The Zetterberg Era

Ball Hockey Sucks
Nov 8, 2011
40,957
11,577
Ft. Myers, FL
It isn't a major positive, but I would like to say Emmerton has really been a lot better this year. Think he deserves an attaboy, I think he and Tootoo would have more points if Miller could do anything this year.
 

Flowah

Registered User
Nov 30, 2009
10,249
547
As to Miller. The guy's had some shots and chances. I think it's just a matter of time until they start going in.

As to Datsyuk. I am so sad that his wingers are freaking Cleary and Abby right now. Holy crap. This guy is one of the best players in the entire world and his wingers are CLEARY. and ABDELKADER.

Apparently he's frustrated by it too because he decided in the third period "Screw this, I'm just going to score on my own" and then proceeded to do so.
 

RedWingsNow*

Guest
positives: were finally going to draft a blue chip elite talent.

Negatives: the streak is looking like more of a hope than an inevitability

As long as Datsyuk and Zetterberg are healthy, this team will only be so bad.

Not bad enough for the lottery, IMO
 

The Zetterberg Era

Ball Hockey Sucks
Nov 8, 2011
40,957
11,577
Ft. Myers, FL
As long as Datsyuk and Zetterberg are healthy, this team will only be so bad.

Not bad enough for the lottery, IMO

Missing the playoffs is the lottery now. But I do agree with your point, Datsyuk and Zetterberg will keep this team in the fight more than likely by themselves so the odds won't be great if they wind up in that lottery which is weighted if I remember right.
 

CloneHakanPlease*

Guest
Shoudlve moved Flip when his stock was an all-time high. He's better than hes shown this season but his overall potential is still overrated. You can say the injury is making him play worse, and that is true, but Filppula will most probably never match the totals he posted again in the role he's playing now.

Still can't believe we passed on acquiring Turris and Bogasion over the course of a year. Imagine if we sent Jurco and a 1st (I know thats more than Runbland, but I didn't want to be accused of fabricating unrealistic trades in favor of the wings. In all honesty, we could have got him for less) for Turris, Hudler/Ericsson + 2nd + Kindl (rumored)for Bogasion, and then shipped Flip + prospect for Ryan O'Reily in the offseason when Flip's value was still high. Young Center Depth for days, and suddenly losing Datsyuk isn't so scary. Couple that with my dream of adding one of Ryder/Fleishman the year before and suddenly our forward crop is ready to compete right now and for the next 8 years.

Buy when low, sell when high. There was a lot of high end young talent being shopped around over the past few years that Holland failed to capitalize on. Honestly two offseaons ago why not sign a secondary scoring forward like Fleishman instead of bringing back Sammy? Just having a few more good players under the age of 30 would make the retool process so much easier
 
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joe89

#5
Apr 30, 2009
20,313
174
Good/above expectations: Z, Pavel, Brunner, Emmerton, Tatar, Tootoo, Ericsson.
Bad/below expectations: Kronwall, Cleary, Quincey, Miller, Abdelkader, White, Filppula(giving him a bit of an injury-pass though)
The rest: About what I expected or haven't played enough.

Considering the injuries, this is about what I expected out of this team. Roster-wise it's a bubble playoff team right now, probably on the outside looking in. Healthy I expect a #4, #5 or #6 seed. Only so much lost ground to make up for this season though.
 

RedWingsNow*

Guest
It's all kinda crap, isn't it? The team's on a rampant downward trend and we might be in for quite a few years of mediocrity.

Once Pavel goes...And one way or the other (old age or by airplane), he's going ... this team is going to look like hell.

Z is a very good player. But without Pavel, he's going to be really, really easy to key on.

We need a new star. We need a star center.

If Getzlaf hits the market, the Red Wings are going after him big time. We need a center. And he's Babcock's kind of center.

Will that stem the tide?

If we got Getzlaf and got an elite righthanded D... I think we'd be in pretty good shape for another 4-5 years. In fact, I think we could be pretty damn good.

But... it will require Holland to clean out the trashfest that's taken over this roster.

Cleary/Bert/Sammy/Miller/Eaves/CC/White/ Dump'em'all

Go with Core players, kids, and bargainbasement players. No more $3M contracts for piece of **** players
 

silkyjohnson50

Registered User
Jan 10, 2007
11,301
1,178
It's crazy to think about how fortunate Detroit has been in drafting the 4 elite centers they have had.

The Getzlaf talk got me thinking about that. Has there been a season since Fedorov's arrival where Detroit's top 2 forwards were not named Yzerman, Fedorov, Datsyuk, and/or Zetterberg? That's pretty crazy to think about. Especially when they always had #5 on the blueline.
 

WesNichols14

Registered User
Nov 22, 2011
1,869
158
Port Huron Michigan
maybe we can get Lidstrom to call up Corey Perry and tell him to come to Detroit to they seemed like great friends in the honda commercial, I mean who leaves the arena with the other teams star if you aren't best bros.:sarcasm:
 

TheMoreYouKnow

Registered User
May 3, 2007
16,385
3,410
38° N 77° W
Once Pavel goes...And one way or the other (old age or by airplane), he's going ... this team is going to look like hell.

Z is a very good player. But without Pavel, he's going to be really, really easy to key on.

We need a new star. We need a star center.

If Getzlaf hits the market, the Red Wings are going after him big time. We need a center. And he's Babcock's kind of center.

Will that stem the tide?

If we got Getzlaf and got an elite righthanded D... I think we'd be in pretty good shape for another 4-5 years. In fact, I think we could be pretty damn good.

But... it will require Holland to clean out the trashfest that's taken over this roster.

Cleary/Bert/Sammy/Miller/Eaves/CC/White/ Dump'em'all

Go with Core players, kids, and bargainbasement players. No more $3M contracts for piece of **** players

Even if you get Getzlaf, there's quite a lot of bad teams that have big forwards. Anaheim missed the playoffs with Getzlaf, Perry, Ryan and Selanne last year. I think a lot will depend on the prospects, not even just in terms of "pulling a Datsyuk" but in terms of being able to drop the old mid to low tier fillers and get good production cheaply out of prospects for a 3-4 years.
 

Shoalzie

Trust me!
May 16, 2003
16,904
180
Portland, MI
If Datsyuk is gone after this contract...I say gut this team of the older guys and just have the young bucks and grinders around Zetterberg and in a few years, you add the proper experience around them and you're back in the mix again.

Kronwall is not a #1 defenseman, simple as that...he's a #2 if you give him the right partner. Ericsson is a second pair guy at best...he's not good enough to justify that as being your top pair.

If Howard's asking price isn't out of control, I'm fine with him and then eventually Mrazek can get a shot at the #1 spot.
 

joe89

#5
Apr 30, 2009
20,313
174
Even if you get Getzlaf, there's quite a lot of bad teams that have big forwards. Anaheim missed the playoffs with Getzlaf, Perry, Ryan and Selanne last year. I think a lot will depend on the prospects, not even just in terms of "pulling a Datsyuk" but in terms of being able to drop the old mid to low tier fillers and get good production cheaply out of prospects for a 3-4 years.

The other pieces will still have to be filled, but if you can replace 35 year old Datsyuk with 28 year old Getzlaf that's at least a sideways move and keep you away from complete suckage until you get the rest sorted.

The youth infusion will happen one way or the other. Kenny's hand is already being forced(willing or not) right now with five ELC's on the roster. The first RFA deal will come cheap with all of them too. You better hope we hit the jackpot with two or three of our prospects, which maybe isn't such a stretch considering a deep pool. Best case scenario in two-three years, we have as many as 9-10 good young players on ELC or cheap RFA deals filling out the roster, while we can spend FA $ on quality.

If you will, a hypothetical roster in three years with ~age:
Nyquist(26)-Free agent-Brunner(29)
Jarnkrok(25)-Zetterberg(35)-Franzen(36)
Tatar(25)-Helm/Sheahan(29/24)-Ferraro(24)
Abdelkader(28)-Helm/Sheahan(29/24)-Tootoo(33)

Smith(27)-Ouellet(23)
Kronwall(34)-Free agent
Ericsson(31)-Sproul(23)

If you get the right free agents, that would be a really vibrant team. Obviously with some tweaks, like trading some of our dozen small wingers for more size or other prospects leapfrogging some guys etc. Fairly soon you'll notice the keepers and you can start making adjustments.
 

Big Poppa Puck

HF's Villain
Dec 8, 2009
20,530
932
D-Boss' Dungeon
Bob pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Although I'd put Babcock in the negatives as well.
-The amount of ice time Cleary is getting despite being terrible is downright unacceptable. The guy just doesn't have it anymore. He should playing 8-10 minutes on the 4th line and PKing.
-He keeps give Datsyuk dead weight on his wings, while rarely playing Tatar.
-He has a man crush on Lashoff for no reason.

I'm not calling for his firing or anything, but he has been frustrating this year.
 

LastWordArmy

Registered User
Sep 11, 2011
9,056
3,543
Canada
Positives:
Datsyuk still has the ability to dominate and is a terrific two-way center.
Zetterberg is living up to his C and off to a great start.
Brunner is scoring goals like we hoped.
Tatar has looked good in limited action. Better than most thought.
Tootoo has been a nice addition
Emmerton seems to be getting better in a 4th line role

Negatives:
Kronwall has been brutal. Worse than anyone might have imagined.
Despite all the injuries, we have no place for Nyquist and limited time for Tatar.
Injuries. Everywhere.
Rescuers have called off the search for Danny Cleary's comeback season.
Drew Miller stopped being a good fourth liner. Scottish Ale?
Abdelkader Zero Goals. One Assist.
Jimmy Howard is not standing up to the extra pressure.

I do not think that Kronwall has been brutal, I think the team all together is not as deep, mostly due to injuries. Somehow need to make room for Nyquist/Tatar. Miller/Eaves need to score a few more goals, valid point.

I think that Jimmy has played well, but this team really needs Helm and dare I say Bert back?
 

Henkka

Registered User
Jan 31, 2004
31,077
12,078
Tampere, Finland
As long as Datsyuk and Zetterberg are healthy, this team will only be so bad.

Not bad enough for the lottery, IMO

But when he have to overload them...

...it will lead to injuries for both of them.

It just goes that way, if those other injuries just keep going and going and this freaking situation is birthing new injuries. Sooner or later, one or both of those huge stars go out and then we start talking about Jones or Barkov.
 

Vladdy84

L-O-Y-A-L-T-Y
Dec 1, 2011
10,675
12
Farmington
Were all overreacting a bit IMO. Myself included. Get Helm, Bert, Smith, CC and Mule back in the lineup and just get in the playoffs. Anything can happen. Would love to knock the Hawks off in the 1st round as an 8th seed.
 

Heaton

Moderator
Feb 13, 2004
22,548
925
Auburn Hills
I do not think that Kronwall has been brutal, I think the team all together is not as deep, mostly due to injuries. Somehow need to make room for Nyquist/Tatar. Miller/Eaves need to score a few more goals, valid point.

I think that Jimmy has played well, but this team really needs Helm and dare I say Bert back?

I think Kronwall is way over his head. In the past when he made mistakes it wasn't as glaring as it is now because we had Lidstrom and Stuart for support. Now there's no support - it's Kronwall in this weird, awkward and uncomfortable top pairing spot and he can't handle it. Just like Stuart when he was on SJ in a role he wasn't conditioned for due to his draft position. Put Stuart in the #3 or #4 hole and he's very good.

That doesn't excuse his gaffes, just that he's not going to get better without help from the rest of the team.
 

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