And Now for the Real Test

[SpikeDDS]

We’ve got 3 tough opponents in a row this week: the Bolts,the Leafs (in Toronto) and the Caps. These three team are going to challenge us where we are weakest—the D. I will say that Daley has really impacted our D corps in a much more positive way than I thought he would. That has been a good fit so far. But it also seems like every game, Jensen is either on his stomach or off his man in front of the net letting them score. I’m hoping DDK is ready to play at least a couple of these. And right now, if I have to pick between Kronner and Jensen, I’m picking Kronner. If DDK is back, I’d scratch Jensen for a game.

 

Out goalies had better be ready mentally, because these teams know how to score. Shoot, isn’t Toronto averaging more than 5 goals per game?! We better be ready to play some D in front of them too and stay out of the penalty box or these teams could make us look pretty bad. Our PK has been really good, but these teams can change that quickly.

 

We cannot afford to not start on time for any of these teams 

 

Oh, and Z just needs to be himself. Dude is playing like a man on a mission. Can’t just be him tho.

 

HEY TATS! WAKE UP! Put the gloves back on and score a goal, eh?

 

looking forward to seeing that line of Mantha-Zetterberg-Nyquist again. I like that grouping a lot. Net front presence, shooter, and distributor. And all can score. That should keep defenses busy. 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

First up, the Lightning tonight....looking forward to that game.

 

And both teams will be coming into this one with nice early season starts and some hot players!

[FD19372]

An October Stanley Cup Final preview.

[yave1964]

3 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

First up, the Lightning tonight....looking forward to that game.

 

And both teams will be coming into this one with nice early season starts and some hot players!

In order to call a series a rivalry the Wings would have to actually beat your damn Bolts every now and then, lol. Hopefully it starts tonight with Witkowski getting a hat trick...

[yave1964]

@SpikeDDS

 

Spot on with this, Osgood was basically saying the same after the successful West coast trip, we need to get 4 points in the next 3 games and then who knows? The Division is probably the weakest in the game and three teams have to get into the dance.....

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

6 minutes ago, yave1964 said:

In order to call a series a rivalry the Wings would have to actually beat your damn Bolts every now and then, lol. Hopefully it starts tonight with Witkowski getting a hat trick...

 

Well, I agree about the winning part, but bottom line is, the Wings have been a winning organization for years, the Bolts aspire to be just like that, we've had two hotly contested playoff series, and despite the fact the Bolts won them both, there are plenty of Wings players still on the team that would like to stick it to TB, regular season or not, AND the Yzerman factor NEVER gets old.

 

Stevie Y will always like to show his long time club he is a premier GM, and the Wings would always like to show him he should be working for them! 

 

Oh, and if former Lightning defenseman Luke Witkowski ends up with the kind of night you just described, the heavy sound you hear after that will be the collective jaws hitting the floor of everyone in the Lightning front office AND in Syracuse........

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

The owner and CEO of the Detroit Red Wings, Tyler Johnson, has just sent out a memo to all employees.... "Lightning 1, Red Wings 0" 

[yave1964]

6 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

The owner and CEO of the Detroit Red Wings, Tyler Johnson, has just sent out a memo to all employees.... "Lightning 1, Red Wings 0" 

Man I hate him. Like really, really REALLY hate him.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Just now, yave1964 said:

Man I hate him. Like really, really REALLY hate him.

 

Crazy thing is, right before Johnson got that goal, they were showing a graphic on the Bolts' broadcast highlighting "Red Wing Killers"

 

Johnson headed that list, along with Kucherov and Alex Killorn.

 

And both Tyler and Kuch put one in.......Killorn next?  

[yave1964]

I have to admit that I am a huge fan of Kucherov, when Stamkos went out for your boys last year and Bishop forgot how to tend the net and the wheels fell off he almost single handed got them to the postseason, 2nd in goals, 5th in points, now he has Stammer back, 6 games a goal a game and probably the prettiest shot in the game. I usually study defensemen when I am watching a game but he is dynamic, so dynamic that I watch him oer Stamkos even.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

40 minutes ago, yave1964 said:

I have to admit that I am a huge fan of Kucherov, when Stamkos went out for your boys last year and Bishop forgot how to tend the net and the wheels fell off he almost single handed got them to the postseason, 2nd in goals, 5th in points, now he has Stammer back, 6 games a goal a game and probably the prettiest shot in the game. I usually study defensemen when I am watching a game but he is dynamic, so dynamic that I watch him oer Stamkos even.

 

You know, ever since the Lightning traded Marty St. Louis to the Rangers, I had been saying they needed to get Stamkos a winger. Not just any winger...not just a guy who plays with him sometimes.....but basically Stamkos' linemate/brother that he plays with ALL the time.

 

St. Louis was not only that to Stamkos, but was also one of his closest friends on the team from accounts I have read.

Bolts tried lots of guys on Stamkos' wings...none really gelled (of course, it didn't help that Stammer always seemed to be out of the lineup), and this year, Jon Cooper made it a point to let the team, the media, and the fans know that Stamkos and Kucherov are linemates.

Period.

 

I think this will benefit both, as Kucherov has become much more than just "someone's winger", he has become an elite player in his own right.

And I really don't think Stamkos minds sharing or even giving the spotlight to Kucherov....as long as the team keeps winning.

 

With any luck (for Bolts fans anyways), maybe Stamkos-Kucherov can become something like a Toews-Kane was or is in Chicago.

 

This DOES mean, of course, that lines 2-4 will have to be contributors as well so teams just can't pile up their best defensemen and checking lines against Stamkos-Kucherov's top line....not without paying the price anyways.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Tell ya what, @yave1964 , @SpikeDDS , for as big a pain as Johnson, Kucherov, and Killorn are for the Wings, Justin Abdelkader seems to be that as well for TB.

 

I really, really hate seeing Abby roaming around out there like a bowling ball...makes stuff happen, particularly against the Bolts, even if he doesn't get the goal himself.  He has played a big part in the tie game we have now at 2.

 

And on another note, Dylan Larkin is out-face offing Stamkos, Johnson, and Brayden Point (3 of TB's better face off men) all by himself.

[SpikeDDS]

@TropicalFruitGirl26 @yave1964

 

Well the better team team won this game, and the score was a LOT closer than the play was. We looked just plain slow out there. We took too long to make decisions with the puck giving TB time to interfere or steal.

 

Ericsson had another lousy game, his giveaway leading to the softie GWG by Kucherov. Howard will certainly want that goal back, but it would never have happened without Liabilit-E coughing up another one.

 

And your guys broke in our new pipes! Post after post. This could been MUCH worse than 3-2. Easily! We were fortunate the game was even within reach by the end of the 3rd. 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Despite the loss for Detroit, I would dare say Larkin, Mantha, and Zetterberg played very good games.

 

I didn't realize what a big player Mantha was.

With his size and skill, if he ever fully adjusts to the NHL level, teams best look out. 

Looked at his numbers and he was quite the offensive producer in juniors and a pretty good one in the AHL as well.

[yave1964]

8 hours ago, SpikeDDS said:

@TropicalFruitGirl26 @yave1964

 

Well the better team team won this game, and the score was a LOT closer than the play was. We looked just plain slow out there. We took too long to make decisions with the puck giving TB time to interfere or steal.

 

Ericsson had another lousy game, his giveaway leading to the softie GWG by Kucherov. Howard will certainly want that goal back, but it would never have happened without Liabilit-E coughing up another one.

 

And your guys broke in our new pipes! Post after post. This could been MUCH worse than 3-2. Easily! We were fortunate the game was even within reach by the end of the 3rd. 

Nice to see Abdelkader play a heavy game last night, he was more or less worthless last year for long stretches of time, good to see he and Helm on a line together , they really do compliment each other I have never understood why the two of them haven't been used together more.

 Wow is Larkin better this year. Wow is ericsson still awful. Why the Hell is WitkowskiBooth even on the team playing their worthless 3 minutes a night? Bertuzzi should be back soon and hopefully those two are gone. I would like to see Bert play 10 minutes a night, he plays an Abdelkader type of game and should fit right in.Sheahan is down to 6 minutes a night, man does he need to go.

 So in a perfect world the forwards could be tweaked with Bert in for Witkowski/Bert and AA signs and Sheahan is taken out back and shot or something. Our overall skill would go up and the forwards would be almost dangerous.

 

  We outshot them every period We won .57 percent of the faceoffs which was a great sign. The effort seemed to be there. Overall I am not too unsatisfied, just that damn goal by Kucherov at the start of the third. Our power play was shut out by the aggressive Tampa kill led by the insanely talented Hedman.

 

  One thing with Tampa, they have a weird setup under coach Cooper, they run with 11 forwards instead of the usual 12 and 7 D instead of the usual 6 but on defense, the massive amount of minutes go to the bi 4 while Sergachev, Dotchin and Koekkoek were all under 10 minutes each which is very rare for a dman let alone three of them in the same game. Not saying it is wrong, just different than what anyone else is doing. frankly I am kind of surprised he is pushing big minutes on old farts like Stralman, Coburn and especially Girardi this early, the fear factor being that they will wear down way before the postseason but he is a good coach.

[WingNut722]

@yave1964

Hedman and Kucherov played a hell of a game, for sure, but we didn't test them very well, particularly on special teams.  Power play was awful and completely lifeless.  Penalty kill was okay and giving up on goal is not the worst thing in the world, but the Bolts were able to spend too much time in the offensive zone.  Once again, we relied on Howard a little too much.    

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964 

 

Yah. We have 2 losses, and Liabilit-E has cost us the GWG in both of them. If those plays were unusual, it might be different. They are not. 

 

I will say that despite not scoring, Tats at least looked like he was getting in the right spots, even if he wasn’t able to finish. Better game for him than the previous 5. I don’t know what needs to happen to get him going, but it had better not be being out of contention again, and he’s gonna have to earn the right to play with Z by showing he can score without him. 

 

I agree about Witkowski and Booth. We are wasting opportunity to develop our talent by supplanting AA with them. Ditto for Sheahan. I realize that they are trying to save for Larkin and Mantha’s paydays which are coming. That is the ONLY logical reason for doing what they are doing. But, again, this is not out of spite. This is out of their own self-made desperation resulting from multiple overinflated contracts which now force them to say things that aren’t true (that AA is only worth $1.9M a season) and take desperate measures to cover for their mistakes (Witkowski and Booth) and try to call them “wise.”

 

if if I was AA, I’d take that deal or slightly above it, but only for 1 year, and then play my ass off to earn the right for a fatter payday, arbitration, or a deal by increasing my value. Rotting at home or in Switzerland is not going to help him. But make no mistake—he is getting screwed. 

[SpikeDDS]

@WingNut722

 

I really thought that we were just slow with the puck in our own zone. There were a number of times when we had the puck in our zone, but our passes were too slow, and the Bolts’ speed held the zone. That last 10 minutes of the first period, we looked positively AHL-like trying to get the puck to even the red line. They were anticipating our passes even before we saw the passes, and closed down the lanes. It really is a testament to how much more talent they have than we do, especially on our back end. 

[WingNut722]

@SpikeDDS 

 

Absolutely.  And when you're spending so much time trying to get out of your own zone, by the time you do get it across the other blue line, there's only one guy carrying it in while four other players trade seats on the bench.  Tired hockey is losing hockey.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

You know, you guys had me a bit confused with the whole "Witkowski-Booth" thing....until I looked at box scores and realized....the Detroit Red Wings actually had Witkowski.....at FORWARD??

 

That is just....no!!

 

He is a defenseman by trade.

He has played forward to cover for a sudden injury on the ice before, and played some in the minors, but he is first and foremost a defenseman.

 

Unless the Red Wings had some emergency in their forward units, he really has no business playing forward at the NHL level....even on the 4th line.

 

Granted, even as a defenseman, he is at BEST a bottom pair guy, at worst an extra D-man.

The reason the Bolts didn't keep him past last season. 

They had enough D, plus brought in Girardi where they didn't need to have a 6th or 7th D-man like Witkowski any longer.

 

Luke won't make anyone forget Paul Coffey, Niklaus Lidstrom....or even Kyle Quincey.

But if you want a no nonsense, in your face, hard hitting DEFENSEMAN to fill in some minutes, Witkowski can do the job.

 

Just make SURE he is kept away from the opposing top six guys (he WILL get outskated and spun around by the league's better players), keep him off special teams, and for the love of puck KEEP HIM OFF THE FORWARD LINES!

 

I think Wings fans will be happier with him as a serviceable D-man than a marginally minor league caliber winger any day of the week!

[WingNut722]

@TropicalFruitGirl26

 

Witkowski was brought in specifically for sandpaper quality, same as Steve Ott last year, not that it did any good.  Nevertheless, your statements are true, and Wings fans will undoubtedly agree.  How do I copy this text to Jeff Blashill, though, so he'll consider it when developing his next lineup?  Anybody know his handle?

 

@JeffBlashill2017....  maybe?

[SpikeDDS]

On 10/17/2017 at 1:09 PM, WingNut722 said:

@TropicalFruitGirl26

 

Witkowski was brought in specifically for sandpaper quality, same as Steve Ott last year, not that it did any good.  Nevertheless, your statements are true, and Wings fans will undoubtedly agree.  How do I copy this text to Jeff Blashill, though, so he'll consider it when developing his next lineup?  Anybody know his handle?

 

@JeffBlashill2017....  maybe?

 

Or hey, just let him watch from home and give the money to AA, right?

[yave1964]

Man that last game was borderline impossible to watch. 4 of their first 5 shots on net went in, Howie was awful, we actually did a decent job of carrying the play in the first, lots of shots, the Leafs were blocking them, getting sticks and feet in the way and Curtis McBackup played like Curtis Joseph in his prime turning all but one away. Okay he got himself out of position badly and gave Z probably the easiest wraparound that I have ever seen but overall he was solid.

 

  Plusses, Tatar a goal and an assist, the 100th goal of his career, a goal for Ericsson. 3 assists for Jensen who looked good. We outshot the Leafs 33-26 overall and they even blocked 12 shots. We out hit them by a wide margin They owned us in the dot on faceoffs which was a key, at least two of the Leaf goals came within seconds of a faceoff win.

 

  So we scratched our way back into a game 4-3 when the ref made a bonehead slashing call on Kronner, man are they calling everything a slash right now, it is ridiculous. A few seconds later 5-3, we kept pushing throughout the third but couldn't make one go in and then they got an empty netter, game set and match.

 

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

 

Yeah, I don’t think that I have EVER seen a worse goalie reaction on a wraparound opportunity than I saw on Z’s goal. I was thinking he had to have slipped or been interfered with, but the replay showed that it was just a total buy on the shot fake. Even Riley Sheehan could have scored on that play! I can only wonder what went through Babcock’s head when he saw that goal! It was simply jeer-worthy. 

 

I haven’t seen Howie play that badly in a LONG time. Just positional errors and mostly short side. Matthews goal was particularly frustrating, and I was glad to see Blash pull him. Howie needs to look at that film, make the adjustment to cover the short side positionally, and then forget this game entirely. Howie HAS to be positionally good to play well. Mrazek can sometimes get away with bad positional

play, making up for it with his reflexes, but Howie cannot do that.

 

I mentioned that Tatar looked better this game, and I was right—he finally got his 100th goal and scored two more against the Caps last night. We need him to play like this if our season is to have any legitimacy. Zetterberg and Larkin CANNOT get us to the playoffs by themselves. Our second tier scorers have to score 20. Our D is just not good enough to count on too many 2-1 wins. Tats and Nyke have to pull their weight.

 

I am glad this week is over! Like Howie with this game, everyone except Tats should probably forget about this week.