TheHockeytown Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 To those who remember me, hello again! To those who don't know me at all, hopefully we get to meet (and mourn together in what is a catastrophe of a season for our Wings thus far). I hope to keep up with logging in regularly this time around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hf101 Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 Welcome Back It's always great to have members return and join in the conversation whenever they can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpikeDDS Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 15 hours ago, TheHockeytown said: To those who remember me, hello again! To those who don't know me at all, hopefully we get to meet (and mourn together in what is a catastrophe of a season for our Wings thus far). I hope to keep up with logging in regularly this time around. I already responded to your other RW post, but welcome (back) to the Forums! Always good to have another RW fan on here. Most of the RW fans on here are good hockey thinkers, even though you might have to excuse us for being a little more cranky than usual. Not the greatest moment to be a RW fan, eh? Curiously (or perhaps not so curiously) most of us on here are in one accord about where we are and the need for change. Whereas a couple of us were calling for it for the past few seasons, while others waited until after the 25-year milestone was reached, we are now basically all in agreement that managerial TNT is needed to get this team right. Surprisingly, there is little disagreement on the need for Blashill to go, and not much more disagreement that Holland also needs a "promotion" to get him out of the GM chair while still respecting what he did pre-cap. Would love to get your thoughts on our goaltending situation, particularly in light of the impending Vegas draft. Which goalie would you protect at this point? I say Mrazek, because I really don't see Vegas taking Howard with both his injury and his contract. Had he continued to play like he was before getting hurt...again...we might have had a higher risk of losing him, but I just don't see them taking the risk, especially with guys like Bishop and/or MAF from the Pens being more likely choices. Your thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J0e Th0rnton Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 mwahaha Howdy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHockeytown Posted February 12, 2017 Author Share Posted February 12, 2017 @SpikeDDS Thanks for the welcome, glad to be back! Certainly not the greatest moment to be a Wings fan. I'm particularly frustrated with this season not just because of our rather embarrassing spot in the league and our poor performance, but also because of our coaching and management situation obviously. Some fans might disagree with me, but I think that a coaching problem is relatively new to us. If you ask me, Blashill, as a coach, has not lived up to any expectations that we set for him when he was hired in 2015. Something tells me he doesn't take command of the locker room, and that shows on things like our powerplay. Blashill can say all he wants that he's frustrated with our powerplay, but I see it this way: when Babs left Detroit in 2015, we had the second best powerplay in the league. We now have the worst powerplay in the league. Maybe you'll disagree with me on this, but I think Datsyuk's retirement contributes to this, as he was a big piece to our powerplay, but I'm not going to sit here and say he carried us. At one point, Nyquist and Tatar WERE good. Since 2015, their performance has only declined. Babs is big on puck possession and getting shots off, so he was saying something right to light a fire under our guys. If you look at our team statistically, we went downhill when Blashill took over. His coaching style is just different than what we had before him. This is the biggest reason why I miss Babs. He instills discipline in his players and doesn't waste time in correcting errors. He doesn't beat around the bush like Blashill has done for the past 2 years. Also, I think it might have been you that said it in a different post that Blashill can yell as much as he wants in practice but really his words carry no weight because in the end management isn't going to do anything. So in part, it's management's fault too. Until they start cracking down on players, as you put it, "who aren't pulling their weight" nothing is going to change. Alright, I've gone on long enough about my frustration with coaching and management. In response to your question about goaltending, I think the obvious pick is Mrazek. I agree, risk of losing Howard is pretty low. I'll be very surprised if Vegas takes him. The last two seasons have been eye opening for me in terms of goaltending, regardless of how inconsistent Mrazek and Howard have been this season. I've never really seen Howard as a playoff caliber goalie. In most cases, good enough to get us to the playoffs then he just falls apart. Now I don't know about you, but I'm tired of our team just being good enough to make the playoffs. Losing in the first round is frustrating, especially when you get to Game 7 and get eliminated. If I'm being completely honest, Howard has become even more subpar over the years. I truly do want to believe that Mrazek is going to bounce back from his poor performance this season, but if he doesn't then move that up on the list of priorities. So in short, if the Wings choose not to protect Mrazek, it will be one more thing on a long list of mistakes. He is younger and more likely to correct himself than Howard. Hope my response wasn't too long winded lol! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHockeytown Posted February 12, 2017 Author Share Posted February 12, 2017 40 minutes ago, J0e Th0rnton said: mwahaha Howdy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 To me the obvious choice in net of our current crop of A) Howard B) Mrazek and C) Coreau the clear choice is D) someone else. None are NHL playoff caliber, lets not kid ourselves into believing different. Yes the defense is pathetic bordering upon criminally bad and that is offset by our inferior offense but the fact is the goaltenders cannot be said to have stolen too many games this year that we shoulda lost. Snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory, thanks to the arson squad in net. Okay, just kidding, even with Roy or Hasek in net this team would be just awful but there is not a goalie in the organization I would want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 @TheHockeytown Personally I would protect Mrazek over Howard, no team in their right mind is going to take Howie right now with his fun combo of an overinflated contract and a knee that pops out with alarming regularity to go with other assorted injuries that keep piling up. I watch A TON of Griffin games and have watched Coreau find his game over the past two years as a bit of a late bloomer, becoming a bit of an AHL star and I thought he could have a little bit of an NHL career, kind of like Joey MacDonald did for us a few years ago. There is no reason he could not become a 20 game a year 'Sunday goalie' as the term used to be for a decent backup. But he has no future in net with Mrazek giving a good game followed by a bad one and Howard looking like his healthy days are long gone, but both are clearly ahead of him going forward. So to me, I would: Protect Mrazek, knowing nobody would take Howard After the draft, trade Mrazek to a team who is long on defense and short in net, a team like the Hurricanes for Pesce or Slavin if they would be so inclined, or the Flames who are deep on the back end, Mrazek and Nyquist for a Hamilton or Gio or Brodie if they would do that. The Flames are desperate in net and need middle six wingers and have depth up the wazoo on the backend of puck moving back end guys. Maybe if we can make a move during the season it would be to Arizona for Stone as long as we could resign him, Stone is an UFA and one of the most underrated shotblocker/hitter combo's on the back end in the game. So use Mrazek to bring in a young top four defender, keep Coreau as a decent backup and try to tie Howard up with bailing wire and hope he can stay healthy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notfondajane Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 Hello! Welcome back! I hope to see you here for a long time! Let's enjoy the rivalry between the Pens and Wings! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpikeDDS Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 @yave1964 Well, if Coreau found his game, today's game shows he has lost it once again. Ugly goaltending by Coreau today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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