Taylor Hall is a 17-year-old scoring phenom from the OHL. Some say he would have gone #1 overall over John Tavares if they were the same draft year. He's got insane speed and just does nothing but score goals. Here are some highlights (fast forward to the :45 mark).

Cam Fowler came up through the US National Team and was all set for college before he "magically" decided to play for the Windsor Spitfires (alongside Taylor Hall) for this season. He is an insanely smooth skater for a defenseman and has a great head on him. For my money, he looks like the best defenseman to come out of the past handful of draft classes, including the very deep 2008.

Tyler Seguin is rising quickly right in Detroit's backyard, for the Plymouth Whalers. He has 30 points in 14 games playing on an injury-plagued team that lacks the depth of Windsor. Some say he's the true #1, and he draws all kinds of comparisons to Steve Yzerman and Joe Sakic.

So.. which do you want to pick?

Just kidding. I'm not throwing in the towel yet. But I am worried that Detroit might trying to tank for Hall because he'd look great on Datsyuk's wing. It would set us up for the next decade. Anywho..

This was simply an emotionally draining game. After witnessing Michigan just shoot themselves in the foot about one thousand times, and Michigan State actually play a decent defensive game for once (I'm a Michigan fan all the way but that was such a terrible way for MSU to lose), I was pretty much counting on the Wings to brighten up my night.. A thought which made me spiral even deeper into depression, because you could pretty much tell all game they would find a way to lose.

I'm bringing it back. This seems to be the Detroit Patented Methodology for Losing Games. Offense, Defense, Goaltending: Pick Two. This season for Detroit sometimes it's been one or none of those things, but overall usually one thing stands out. Today I think they had goaltending and defense. Defense could have been better, and Rafalski's turnover on the first goal stands out. Howard was much better tonight, and made a fair amount of difficult saves. But the offense. Sure, they fired 48 shots, which is Wings hockey at it's finest. They just didn't get rebounds or make life that difficult for Anderson. I didn't really have sound for most of the game, so I had no idea that he made 48 saves. I would have guessed about 30-35. A busy night, but he didn't need to stand on his head.

That said, maaaaaaaan did the league miss out on Craig Anderson or what? I'm not even afraid to admit I had no idea he was this good, because I just don't watch enough Florida. I don't think he'll keep his .930+ save percentage all year because that's basically impossible. But he's definitely a top 15 goalie in this league and he's not likely to go somewhere any time soon. He's not exactly young, but he'll get used to being a starter and he'll be a good one for 5-7 years.

But to focus on the positive, pretty much every line had a few really good

And for the record, there's no way Todd Bertuzzi didn't score on his wraparound. Brad Watson blew it again, and I don't even care to copmlain about it

We play again.. ah, who cares, I don't even know. I'll watch it when they come on again, and I'll make a post very similar to this one. But for now, it's not the end of the world. It's not time to shake it up with a trade, but it's just time to go out and win. George nailed it completely with his post game summary. I don't even want to hear what Babcock has to say, who's coming in of the lineup and who's starting next. It just doesn't matter anymore, because right now it's not making a difference. Whoever we have in, we should be winning these games.

But.. Cam Fowler could be the next Nick Lidstrom. Is it a sign? Who knows?

Comments (7)

Baroque said:

	Hall or Fowler is a tough choice But why not? Everyone says the only way to build a contender is to tank for a while, build up a team based on high draft picks, and then fill in around the stars with cheaper players. Why not try it that way and see if it works? And I vote Cam Fowler, but I have a soft spot in my heart for defensemen, so I'm biased.
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October 25, 2009
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KyleKujawa said:

	... I tend to lean defenseman as well. But we've got competition. The Leafs seem really dedicated to losing. They're even starting Joey MacDonald. They haven't won yet, they're really tanking hard. We've got to take a page out of their book and just win nothing -- these overtime losses just aren't cutting it. Oh.. I hate this season.
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October 25, 2009 | url
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Michael Smith said:

	... I'd take the d-man first. To me, the key to consistency is a solid defense. That gives the team a foundation to build on. Regarding this year's start: Look at the Ducks. They have has a similar start. Does anyone expect them to finish last in their division? Me either. Hopefully the Wings will use this adversity to gel as a team and get things figured out.
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October 25, 2009 | url
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Waltdetroit said:

... Note: The Bruins have the leafs 1st pick. They only way the Wings could re-build may be to trade assets for draft picks and/or potential players Thus Spake Babcock - (pre-season - I paraphrase) "The Wings are just looking to make the playoffs, it is a tough division." It looks like he wasn't just spouting the coaches line, but maybe he knew something. It will take a fair amount of games for all the new players to gel. We have had the luxery of only adding a player or 2 the last few years. Take the scorer!!

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October 26, 2009
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ChazzyHooks said:

Anderson Anderson is reminding me a lot of Roloson. A guy who never really got a chance until later in his career, but once given the regins, he really started thriving. Who would've guessed LA, Colorado, and Phoenix would be the best in the West to start the year. (Well, I guess Phoenix isn't among the best, but I never expected them to have double the wins compared to losses.) I agree it's not likely Anderson, or Colorado in general for that matter, will keep this up all season long, but he's stabilized a very shaky franchise, which is great to see. This team definitely needs to wake up. Datsyuk is playing like himself of 3 or 4 years ago, when he was timid, afraid to go into corners, afraid to shoot, and just really didn't do much. He's had bursts of his usual self, but it just seems like the Wings are in the regular season "going through the motions" phase. They just don't have the points right now to get away with that. Put together a few wins before you take it easy.

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October 26, 2009
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Baroque said:

... Well, at least the Islanders are picking up a lot of loser points, so they aren't as much in competition. And I think the Leaf's first round pick went to Boston in the Kessel trade - so they will start trying to win games pretty soon, especially now that they have their "Monster" goalie back. It would be nice to actually see a guy drafted and not wait four years (at least) to see him play for a change. It makes me jealous of the lottery teams.

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October 27, 2009
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KyleKujawa said:

	... I know, Toronto did trade their first round pick. But they're still the ones tanking, so the first overall pick will go to Boston. So we'll just have to settle for second worst, if we can beat out the Isles!
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October 27, 2009 | url
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