Agreed. Bertuzzi is by far my least favorite Wing. His only real use is in the shootout.
Really? I agree Bert is pretty lazy, but its just obvious the physical ability is gone. His ability to win shootouts is pretty useful. Now you have a player like Franzen who still has ability to play at a high level but instead he prefers to shoot dodge ram commercials.
You need a mix of both. signing CC when you already have 5 guys who play the same guy as CC is worthless. Signing Clark when you already have puck-movers like Kronwalll, Quincey, Smith, and White makes a lot of sense. Those are all guys who have snappy outlet passes and are good on the PP. We need guys who play a stay-at-home game and block shots with their face. Guys who compliment playing with guys who like to pinch and join the rush. Guys that allow players like Kronwall and Smith to have the freedom to help create offense. At least that is what I would like. All we have right now is Ericsson that plays a game that is even close to that. Would be nice to have another stay at home, defense first D.
What team that is any good in the league right now uses a defensive model like you suggest? The Kings had Willie Mitchell, Andy Greene, and Rob Scuderi on their defense. The Devils had Mark Fayne, Anton Volchenkov, and Bryce Salvador. The Rangers have Dan Girardi and Mark Staal. These are stay at home, defense first guys on very successful teams. The Stars suck because they have Goligoski and that's their only puck-mover. I'm not saying lets play 6 Brett Clark's, but I'm saying bringing in a Brett Clark to compliment our 4 puck moving, offense first D is a lot more beneficial than bringing in a 5th puck moving offense first D.
Like I said, it sounds good. But I think we are way better doubling down on puck movers. My opinion. Guess the Wings agree for now.
I'd like to see how this group does but we may not be able to find out.
Also got a laugh at the notion Doan > Franzen in the playoffs.
Franzen may not be tough, but he's accomplished and played at a higher level than Doan ever has in the post season.
How recently has Franzen done anything in the playoffs? 2010? And he's great to have for the half a season he actually shows up for. Not the 20 game stretches where he doesn't score, given that he does NOTHING ELSE anymore. I would rather have a 10-15 goal Franzen who worked hard and played well defensively like he did when he first came into the league than the lazy, inconsistent defensive liability Franzen who plays for the Wings now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Captain Bob
Obviously.
You lose Lidstrom, Stuart and Rafalski over two years, you've got problems.
Replacing those guys is a hard job. No question.
And Holland, so far, is nowhere even close to replacing those guys yet.
Stuart needed replacing before the All-Star break in 2009-2010. Seriously. He was the 5th-best regular defenseman on the team who started last season, ahead of only Kindl and Commodore. Ericsson has already replaced Stuart; Smith is hopefully a better "Rafalski" than White is. The hope re: Lidstrom is that Kronwall steps it up, White steps it up, and Kindl/Quincey/Colaiacovo fill the gaps.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fabricoh
I consider Pavs to be our #1 player and the center for the top line. He hasn't had very high quality linemates lately. I am a bit down on Mule as I think he's going to drop in production very quickly. I think Z is also in a downward trend. I actually think Fil is our best young-ish forward and could be a consistent 70+ point guy going forward.
So in my estimation we have one great top 3 guy in Pavs, 2 declining ones in Mule and Z, and one guy with real potential in Fil.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Datsyuk Dangles
Agreed. Bertuzzi is by far my least favorite Wing. His only real use is in the shootout.
Really? I agree Bert is pretty lazy, but its just obvious the physical ability is gone. His ability to win shootouts is pretty useful. Now you have a player like Franzen who still has ability to play at a high level but instead he prefers to shoot dodge ram commercials.
What are you disagreeing on here? I stated almost the exact same thing you did about Bert.
You can talk about all these "big" problems that Wings have but the glaring one is that Datysuk may only have 1 year left with the Wings. When you think about that....none of these other things really matter.
You can talk about all these "big" problems that Wings have but the glaring one is that Datysuk may only have 1 year left with the Wings. When you think about that....none of these other things really matter.
Yep losing your two best players in short order - Lidstrom and Datsyuk - will be very difficult to replace. Since we missed out on Suter it's going to be important to sign a few high quality UFAs to help keep things rolling.
The day the Wings got Brendan Shanahan I told my wife that the Wings were going to win the Stanley Cup. We haven't had a guy like him since he left, and I was sad when he did. We've won championships without him, but in my humble opinion we haven't been able to replicate the swagger we had in those days.
Yzerman, Lidstrom, Shanny, Konstantinov, Larianov, Fetisov, Fedorov, the Grind Line and Joey Kocur to name a few.
Yeah, I'm feeling nostalgic for a championship caliber Wings team that played with skill as well as grit.
The day the Wings got Brendan Shanahan I told my wife that the Wings were going to win the Stanley Cup. We haven't had a guy like him since he left, and I was sad when he did. We've won championships without him, but in my humble opinion we haven't been able to replicate the swagger we had in those days.
Yzerman, Lidstrom, Shanny, Konstantinov, Larianov, Fetisov, Fedorov, the Grind Line and Joey Kocur to name a few.
Yeah, I'm feeling nostalgic for a championship caliber Wings team that played with skill as well as grit.
Yeah, feels kind of sad, I'm reading Blood feud by Adrian Dater right now.. Sigh, I wish we had players like that and rivalries from that era right here and now.
