A New Season-A New Beginning

[dengel6]

A New Beginning, sounds like a movie? Good start, to a new beginning.

 

[RP-29]

Offensively, I liked that they fired a lot of shots on net last night from all angles and had some guys crashing the net. We didn't see nearly enough of that last year. Definitely need to continue that.

Jimmy played pretty well, but definitely needs to clean up his rebound control. We got lucky MIN didn't cash in on several of those juicy rebounds in front of the net.

We didn't get nearly enough offensive push from our 3rd & 4th lines. It's going to be tougher to get similar production out of the top two lines in road games against decent defensive teams, so those bottom two lines need to pitch in if this team is going to have playoff aspirations.

Wings won zero faceoffs in that long 3-on-5 and lost two faceoffs on their 5-on-3. That turned into Jules Winnfield/Vincent Vega-style bullet dodging. Definitely gotta work on that.

Also gotta improve on clearing the puck out of the defensive zone. This was a major problem last year and - if this game is any indication of the season - will probably be the nail in this season's coffin. Ericcson was friggin' terrible at that again last night. Jensen, Green and Daley each had at least one big blunder clearing the zone too.

Ericsson has always been a liability with the puck on his stick in the defensive zone. If I was Blashill I would try replacing Ericsson with Ouellet on the PK.

 

[dengel6]

2-0 folks. A shootout win, yippie. Yes RP29, Ericsson butchers another one last night, but 2 points is well accepted at this point.

 

[dengel6]

4-1=8 points. So far, sooooooooo good.

 

[RP-29]

This week will tell us a lot about this team. Tampa, Toronto and Washington are a step up in competition over those first four wins.

5-6 points = playoff contender
3-4 points = wildcard contender
0-2 points = better luck next year

 

[dengel6]

Well, guess I was WRONG about a NEW beginning. No scoring, terrible PP, NO team chemistry. Playoffs are just a memory.

 

[RP-29]

Thing is... Blashill is saying all the right things on what they need to do to have success, but the players aren't doing what he's saying. Last night it was "we gotta throw the puck on net and crash for rebounds". That's exactly right! But the players did not do that one bit until they were playing 6-on-4 with 2 minutes left in the game down 2.

The bottom line is that we have a roster full of playmakers who pass the puck around the perimeter of the ice with hopes that the defense will make a positional mistake that will end up in a pretty goal. When we play against sound defensive teams, we simply have no chance for success without a hefty dose of luck. The only guy on the roster who crashes is Abdelkader. We've got zero blueliners who can get shots to the net. Larkin, AA, Mantha, Tatar and Frk will fire the puck if there's an opening, but when they crash, they fly by the net; they don't stay there.

Zetterberg - the leader of the team - never crashes. He's got an extremely high hockey IQ, so he can get away with playing like that, but no other players on the roster are at his IQ level. Other players can't get away with following Zetterberg's example. It's sad to say, but this team will continue to be crap through the remainder of Zetterberg's career. Awesome player, but we don't have the kind of supporting roster that can be successful under his captaincy.

Also, I haven't seen enough of Daley yet and DeKeyser has been hurt all year, but possibly besides those two - maybe including, every defenseman on the roster needs to go. Just trash. Next year is going to be just as bad because the only one on an expiring contract is Green.

 

[Zwalt]

I'm not sure what to make of this team so far. 24 games in, they are 10-9-5 with 25 points. They are getting good goaltending from Howard, (Mrazek not so much) but are sporadic on offense. The defense pretty much sucks IMHO.

They are in the 3 seed in the division but only by one point and they would be outside the wildcards if not for the division spot. I think we are seeing some improvement with Larkin and Mantha, but Z seems slower and older. I think we are going to miss the playoffs again.

 

[RP-29]

I'm not sure what to make of this team so far. 24 games in, they are 10-9-5 with 25 points. They are getting good goaltending from Howard, (Mrazek not so much) but are sporadic on offense. The defense pretty much sucks IMHO.

They are in the 3 seed in the division but only by one point and they would be outside the wildcards if not for the division spot. I think we are seeing some improvement with Larkin and Mantha, but Z seems slower and older. I think we are going to miss the playoffs again.

Larkin has been this team's best skater. He's fully engaged and giving it 100% on every shift. It's great to see him have a strong bounce-back year.

Mantha finds himself in good scoring positions and seems to be getting more comfortable in front of the net, but he's also gliding around too much and not fully engaged on every shift or in all three zones.

AA is a ball of fire with the puck on his stick, but is invisible for long stretches. He needs to work as hard without the puck as he does with it. He also needs to stay off the PK for now. I know Blashill wants to get him more ice time, but AA is not sound enough defensively to warrant PK time [yet].

Overall, Blashill does have more guys going to the net more frequently and more consistent recently. I hope that's a trend and not an anomaly. They still waste too many power plays by passing around the perimeter for the full 2 minutes without driving the net. If they can drive the net on power plays and start cashing in more consistently, this team could make the playoffs and maybe even steal a series if they match up with a Metro team as a wild card.

 

[dengel6]

7 in a row, but in the wrong direction. This is a very poor team. Come on man, get rid of Holland.

 

[RP-29]

7 in a row, but in the wrong direction. This is a very poor team. Come on man, get rid of Holland.

Sadly, getting rid of Holland isn't going to improve this team any time soon. The damage has already been done with all of the high-priced long-term contracts he's dished out to mediocre and old players.

I don't think we could give away half the guys on the roster given their current contracts and production.

 

[dengel6]

RP 29, now that's some good stuff u posted. Franzen is STILL getting $4 mil & Weiss $1.7 mil till 2021. UNREAL.

 

[RP-29]

RP 29, now that's some good stuff u posted. Franzen is STILL getting $4 mil & Weiss $1.7 mil till 2021. UNREAL.

Yup. Franzen's money doesn't count against the cap because he's on LTIR, but he sure as hell is still getting paid $4M/year in real money to sit on his couch.

Weiss is sitting on the couch too, but worse... His money does count against the cap and he never really gave the Wings anything out of all that money they paid him. At least Franzen kinda earned some of his money.

Neilsen, Abdelkader and DeKeyser (two third-line forwards and second pair defenseman) have not given us even close to $15M worth of production, but we've got each of those three locked up for that through the '22 season.

Sadly, the Wings seem destined to flounder in mediocrity for at least another 5 years because of all the long term high dollar contracts Holland gave to old and average players.

 

[dengel6]

RP
thank the hockey gods that Detroit has the best stadium in the NHL. (But far from the cheapest)

 

[dengel6]

I was very delusional at season's start. With EVERY game a sell-out, why worry about the "product". With the passing of Mr I, it was also the death of a ONCE great franchise. RIP Dead Wings.

 

[RP-29]

I was very delusional at season's start. With EVERY game a sell-out, why worry about the "product". With the passing of Mr I, it was also the death of a ONCE great franchise. RIP Dead Wings.

At this point, the Wings are better off losing to give themselves a better chance at Dahlin. We sorely need a difference maker or two on the backend.