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Are our weak links starting to become obvious?


SpikeDDS

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OK. We have a few injuries. More than.a few. We are playing with some rookies from GR, and it's good because we get to evaluate our talent. That's good, and there is some real promise On display I think.

But it also forces us to put 3rd line guys on more premier lines and see what they can do. And this is unfortunately where many of our issues are.

Look at last game, a sorry excuse for a hockey game if you are a Red Wing or a fan. What is telling are the stats:

Quincey: -3

Cleary: -2

Smith: -2

The one that really hurts is Quincey. He's supposedly a top-2-pair defenseman, but his play unfortunately suggests the result that he got. And against the Islanders, no less, one of the worst teams in hockey, who just seem to have the RWs number, I must admit. Tavares has eaten our lunch the last few times we've played them. And often, Quincey is a part of the reason why.

And Cleary is another guy who just isn't anywhere close to the same player he was during the playoffs last year. He looks very similar to the Cleary we saw in the regular season last year.

Smith CAN have an upside, but the downside is that he continues to make mistakes, although the goal where he pinched was a play that was designed for him to pinch, and it just didn't work out. But the problem is that with our offense scoring anorexicly, and with Big E out 3-5 weeks (again), just adding to our list of players out injured, the mistakes stand out more, and now may become more frequent. If we are scoring 4 goals per game, it may not be as big a deal, but we aren't even scoring 2 now, and giving up a goal due to stupid mistakes is tough to overcome right now.

I'm not liking what I'm seeing. I'm hoping that Babs and KH see it. Not sure what KH can do about it, but we are vulnerable; it shows; and teams are gonna start targeting those weaknesses if they are not already doing so.

Setter berg can't get playing again fast enough.

Merry Christmas my fellow forumers!!

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 merry Christmas back atcha

 

your right, I believe we are fine if we are healthy but guys like Cleary, Sammy, Bert, Quincey, all of whom will likely be gone like a cool breeze come April have proven to be less than adequate when called upon to step it up.

  the GR shuffle has been enlightening, I have been saying I love our farm for the first time since the early nineties, which helps going forward but not much now. I have to admit, with the young turks on the way and the expiring contracts, mostly dead weight combined with the cap going up, I am way, way more excited about next year than this. not ready to right this one off but this is definitely a transition year.

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@yave1964  Merry Christmas Yave!!

 

 I agree, this is definitely one of those rare transition years for your franchise. I still think the time might be right to totally revamp and sell off Pavel and Zetts. The real question is, can the Wings add enough young talent before the two stars fall out of their primes....and will the kids be ready for long playoff runs and be *solid* contributors before the 2 stars skill sets wane. If not, they should get the boatloads of picks and prospects for these two. The danger is hanging on to long, much like the Flames did with Iggy and Kipper. They waited far to long, lost Kipper to retirement and  got very little back for Iggy, when it should have been top tier prospects and picks.

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@yave1964  Merry Christmas Yave!!

 

 I agree, this is definitely one of those rare transition years for your franchise. I still think the time might be right to totally revamp and sell off Pavel and Zetts. The real question is, can the Wings add enough young talent before the two stars fall out of their primes....and will the kids be ready for long playoff runs and be *solid* contributors before the 2 stars skill sets wane. If not, they should get the boatloads of picks and prospects for these two. The danger is hanging on to long, much like the Flames did with Iggy and Kipper. They waited far to long, lost Kipper to retirement and  got very little back for Iggy, when it should have been top tier prospects and picks.

I gotta respectfully disagree with the Wings needing to deal Datsyuk or Zetterberg, unlike the Flames of the past five or so years the Wings are loaded with talent in Grand Rapids and it is not trickling up to the big club, it is more of a steady stream, guys like Nyquist, Tatar, Smith, Dekeyser are all regulars and solid contributors, and a half a dozen more are on the cusp, not even counting Mantha and several others who are in juniors or still in Europe who are close.

  Trading Dats and Z would in my opinion be a mistake. The Wings have a wonderful quarter of a century tradition of players passing on the cudgel to the next one coming up, I believe that it will occur again with these two as they age.

  When Z and Pavel were coming up they played on a line with Brett Hull and were dubbed the two kids and an old goat line in Detroit. Two games ago, Pavel mused that playing with Jurco and Tatar it was the two kids and an old goat line all over again, only now he is the old goat. That is the Wings, most teams are more liquid than us with a dysfunctional roster, the Wings are loyal sometimes to a fault, true (see Dan Cleary) but that is better than going the other way.

  The big thing is I think it was obvious the Flames were being help up into mediocrity by Iginlia and Kipper, and would be better off by trading them four years ago for picks and players. The Wings are struggling this year but were in the second round, pushing eventual champs Chicago to overtime game seven before falling in the best series played in last years postseason. We are not far off from getting it together and I am not ready to write this season off.

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