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That's how you teach young players to be losers. See Edmonton.OK then, challenge accepted.
Actually, I was one of the few pushing for an all-out youth movement after #5 retired. I got mocked for saying Nyquist, Tatar, Sheahan and Jurco belonged on the team two seasons ago. Those chickens came home to roost with all the injuries last year when Ken Holland's merry band of old, useless guys who belonged in the MEN'S LEAGUE that is the NHL were completely useless. In the end it was the youth movement in general and Gus Nyquist in particular who kept the playoff streak intact. It wasn't Todd Bertuzzi, Mikael Samuelsson, Jordin Tootoo, Dan Cleary, and Patrick Eaves who were winning games with Z and Pavs and Mule injured for large stretches.
Bottom line: when your GM says dumb **** about a MEN'S LEAGUE in order to explain why prospects aren't in the lineup and then said prospects punch your ticket to the playoffs you should be called to the carpet to explain your dumb ass statements.
OK now you are just feeling sorry for yourself. No one has said the vast majority of these comments. If you truly believe it is the case start a poll or name names. I have never called for Holland to be fired. I have suggested he be encouraged to get bumped up into the org chart, much like Jimmy D did so Holland could get his turn as GM. Holland had a great run and belongs in the HHoF. However it is clear he is far too timid to upgrade the roster. He routinely made significant trades to upgrade the roster prior to the salary cap. Since then he has only made very minor changes. His biggest trade was for Brad Stuart for a 2nd round draft pick. That worked out fine when the Wings had one of the best rosters in the league and simply needed a physical defensive d-man. Acquiring Kyle Quincey for a first round draft pick hoping he could be an offensive d-man was a laughable farce. I said as much in the thread when the trade was announced.
Bottom line: Holland is past his sell-by date. He shouldn't be fired but it's clear he doesn't have the stomach for making the tough decisions necessary to upgrade the roster into a Cup contender.
Hogwash. Half the roster has turned over and there are talented prospects in the pipeline.
Agreed. But when your #1 d-man who plays with two of the best forwards in the league isn't trending to put up 50 points it indicates your team is very bad at puck possession and generating offense from your back end. Los Angeles has offensive d-men, Chicago has offensive d-men, Boston has offensive d-men, Anaheim has offensive d-men. It's no surprise they have all won Cups recently or are tearing up the league right now. What Anaheim is doing in the West is simply amazing.
The Wings are one of the top possession teams in the NHL. They have one of the top PPs in the NHL.
Holland chose not to sign both of those players in favor of Brunner and Weiss. Brunner was productive yet Holland was wise to not return to that well.The Wings bent over backwards to placate Jiri Hudler. Val Filppula left for greener pastures. Ken Holland basically said his prospects were rubbish compared to REAL MEN like Todd Bertuzzi, Dan Cleary, Patrick Eaves and Mikael Samuelsson. That sort of "loyalty" bluster is beginning to sound dangerously close to what Dolla Bill Wirtz said when the Blackhawks were in their full on death spiral. If anything Holland is far too loyal and not willing to follow the same logic as his coach: the best players play. Babcock wanted Smith on this team when Holland sent him back down to Grand Rapids. The same thing happened to Xavier Ouellet this year.
Bottom line: an old, out of touch man's loyalty is a young man's slap in the face. The Blackhawks routinely lost guys as soon as they hit free agency. We lost two good young players in Hudler and Filppula. Now I was never a big Hudler fan but the writing is on the wall about how the young guys feel about being told "best guy wins the job" but are then forced to play yet another year in the minors when they have clearly won an NHL roster spot.
He chose Weiss over Fil. If Weiss was healthy I considered that an upgrade. No GM can predict injuries. It appears Weiss is back in the line up.
Babcock isn't going anywhere and players get old. Holland has done a pretty good job of replacing them as they do. Some players leave bigger holes than others.The bar is now to "make the playoffs". Do you honestly expect that bar to rise when Babcock leaves after this season? Do you expect it to rise when Pavs and then Z see their production fall off and eventually retire?
I disagree. We have a bunch of promising forwards on the team with more in the pipeline. I think you are ill informed on a whole host of things but overall it is just poor analysis.Bottom line: for the remainder of Holland's tenure as GM we will hope to be the Nashville Predators under Barry Trotz: a team that cannot score goals and will need to beat teams 1-0 or 2-1. Oh, but we won't have Shea Weber or Ryan Suter. At that point we'll see how much the players Holland subjected to becoming "over ripe" buy into the concept of loyalty.