Keith B
said:
|
|
... Howard needs to be named the #1 goalie. What else does this kid need to do to prove he's better than Ozzie? Can we keep risking playing Osgood when we aren't in the playoff picture? When Osgood starts we have a 50% chance of winning and he'll let in 2 soft goals. When we aren't scoring we can't afford 2 soft goals. If we make the playoffs can we afford to hope for Osgood to find his old form? Howard gives us the best chance to win. We need to start him now. Regarding the lack of scoring, how can we expect to score more then 2-3 goals a night when 50% of our forwards are not anything more than 4th liners? Abdelkader, Draper, Eaves, Helm, Maltby, May, and Miller are only 4th line players at this point. Of course Abdelkader, Eaves, and Helm will hopefully develop into scorers and earn their spot on the 3rd line (and maybe even the 2nd line) but expecting them to score at this point in their careers is insane. I hope Detroit cuts Leino (he hasn't done anything yet and can we afford to keep waiting on him?) and sits Maltby and May. We need to call up more prospects that are projected to be 1st/2nd line guys, like Ritola. Call up Tatar, call up anyone who will put SHOTS ON THE NET! Scoring zero goals in 3 out of 4 games wouldn't be acceptable for an AHL team in the NHL. We can't wait for our team to get healthy and then hope for them to catch fire once they're back. We're in 10th and only 1 point ahead of Minnesota who's 11th. We need to make a trade now. Why don't we go to Washington and offer to pay 1/2 of Nylander's remaining contract? Nylander knows our system from his play in GR, we can get him for nothing (they're paying him 5.5 million to sit in another team's AHL system and hoping he gets bought out by a KHL team), his cap number is really low (1.8 million for 2 years), and he has played 900 professional games with 679 points. Oh yeah he averages about 20 goals and 40-50 assists per year. Besides Nylander I think we need a big move. DUSTIN PENNER! Edmonton is in last place (15th) in the Western Conference. They are 13 points behind 8th and clearly not going to make it to the playoffs. Edmonton has a total of 19 UFA and RFa after this season. They have 13 players signed to 44 million (Visnovsky has a 5.6 million dollar cap hit, Horcoff a 5.5 cap hit, Souray at 5.4 Penner at 4.25, Hemsky at 4.1, and Gilbert at 4). They cannot keep all their big players and re-sign all their young players. And with how far they are out of the playoff race the should be looking to sell a player for picks and prospects. Penner who has 19 goals, 19 assists, and a +11 in 39 games is an ideal player to sell. Sell high, buy low. Penner is already just 10 goals from his career high, his 19 assists is just 5 away from his career high and he's an ideal PF who is just 27. Detroit can afford both his salary cost (4.250 million for 2 1/2 years) and his trade cost. To trade for Penner Detroit would most likely need to deal either an elite prospect (Brendan Smith or McCollum) or 2 prospects ranked between 5 and 15. Along with the prospects Detroit would need to deal a #1 pick and a couple of middle round picks. So would you trade either Smith or Ferraro and Mursak along with a plethora of picks for a 27 year old 6'5 245 pound LW who is on fire (19 G and 19 A in 39 G) who would more or less guarantee us a playoff spot this year? To me it's a no brainier. Especially since next year our cap crunch disappears and Penner is signed through the 11/12 season. Holland, please make a move now and don't wait until the trade deadline. We need help now when everyone is hurt and we need to give the player time to gel with his new teammates. Oh, and make other teams so scared of a Red Wings team plus Penner that they way over pay for a semi-skilled player just so they can say they countered the Penner to Detroit deal. Two other small plus about trading for Penner... One, all Anaheim fans hate him for leaving Anaheim and accepting a deal that as a RFA that would have put Anaheim .01 above the cap and two, he would finally make CBC commentators have to quit talking about the Wings being too small and he plays the "Western Canada" style of hockey that they love. |
|
KyleKujawa
said:
|
... Naming Howard the #1 is pointless -- it's obvious he's going to get a bulk of the starts until Detroit's in a more comfortable place. But is there any doubt Osgood should be the guy in the playoffs? He pulled this same thing last year -- bad in the regular season until the last two months, then in perfect form for the playoffs. Not to reward him for playing poorly, but what's changed that makes you think he won't do that again? I disagree that this team can only score 2-3. When healthy, Detroit doesn't score all that many pretty goals. Most of the offense comes from driving the puck at the net and trying to get a tip or a rebound. They're still putting up nearly as many shots as they would healthy. They won't score as many as a healthy lineup, but there's no reason they should be getting blanked three of four nights. Especially with a Hart Trophy candidate on your top line -- he's who I'm looking at to start scoring. Not to just shoot down everything your saying (because I love discussing it), but I think making a move now is ill-advised. "We can't afford to wait for our guys to get healthy?" We have been waiting. We're getting Cleary, Zetterberg, Williams, and probably Kronwall back in the next two weeks. Maybe two and a half for Zetterberg. That might have been a better idea about a month ago when the first three went down and Bert wasn't on fire. But now... it seems pointless. We're two points out with more than half the season to go. If the hockey gods really hate us and we haven't seen the last of the injuries, we can make a move closer to the deadline and be in good shape to still snag a playoff spot. The bright side of all this injuries is the team is playing it's best defensive hockey in three seasons. Besides May and Leino, no forward is really playing terribly. It's going to make for really competitive bottom two lines as guys try to stay in the lineup. Our scoring lines were potent when everyone was healthy. Hopefully, as guys come back the consistency on defense and the PK will continue as the PP comes alive and we finally get some elite scorers. Nylander would be a bad idea. First, we can't just have Washington agree to eat half of his cap hit. They would need to put him on re-entry waivers. Secondly, I'm not sure where you're seeing his cap hit is 1.8 -- you might be looking at his salary on CapGeek (what he earned for being on the roster). His CAP HIT is 4.8, so even on re-entry it's 2.4. Detroit has some cap space for next season, but I think it would be a huge mistake to tie up 2.4 in Nylander before Lidstrom, Helm, and Abdelkader are taken care of. Lidstrom will take a paycut, but you just can't assume what it's going to be until he takes it. I'm not a huge fan of Penner. He can look absolutely lost and lazy out there, like he has for the past few seasons. I don't trust his quick start this season enough to guarantee him more money than Franzen -- especially at the cost of bluechip prospects. Oiler fans wanted him gone for most of last season, and he was nearly traded to Ottawa in the offseason. During the Heatley drama, TSN ran a headline that he was traded to EDM for Penner, Smid, and Cogliano. They retracted it, but it was confirmed that that was the trade in place before Heatley exercised his NTC. I'm just not convinced it's not a fluke. Maybe he just wanted to be on Team Canada. I would not want to take a chance on that -- and more importantly it's not the kind of move Holland would make when he's looking at a rash of talented players about to come back into the lineup within the next two weeks. So far, Holland has been very conservative in the cap world. There's a long-term plan in place, and I don't think Holland is going to throw a wrench in that just because there's a couple injuries. Injuries are unpredictable -- but being barely out of a playoff spot at this point of the season is not the end of the world. Not bad enough to justify some of the gambles you're suggesting. But I do think there will be a trade this season. Detroit has an overload of assets in Grand Rapids and they might need a scorer (or two of Williams/Leino/Cleary could start scoring, that'd be nice) and/or a #6 defenseman at the deadline. Because of the injuries, they'll have room. And they'll have room to add players that won't cost us any of the young players we want to keep in the team's core as we sort of re-assemble and transition for a post-Lidstrom era. |
|
Horton
said:
|
... Regarding Bertuzzi carrying the team, I have played for some teams where one player scores most of the goals. If the team wins, this is not an issue. Datsuyuk & company might choose not to score, preferring to let Bert get the spotlight. This is a very unselfish Wings team. |
|
junkyarddog
said:
|
... It looks like some blogers are having a Panic Attack. Look we have Injuries. Things will get better. Howard is doing more then can be expected from a newcomer. Bertuzzi can only get better as the players return. |
|
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Babcock's Death Stare on Twitter
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please 
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our 
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? 