Frustration

[SpikeDDS]

Another couple of games here where we played pretty well—in last night’s game against the Canucks, I thought we played DARN well almost all game—but lost leads in the third period and ended up losing close games. You can see the frustration is getting to them in their post game interviews.

 

And I understand it. It’s frustratibg as a fan to watch a game like that. Certainly, our 3rd period was our worst one, but it’s not like we played too badly. And we DOMINATED the first two periods! There was a LOT of O-zone time. But Markstrom was huge, and stopped a lot of pucks. We should have been ahead by 3 goals. But we weren’t, and you could almost feel it coming. 

 

Blash sat Cholo last night. He’s been quiet on the score sheet of late, and his +/- has been dropping. I like the move for a night. Hopefully it motivates him. I’ll give Blash credit. He uses the press box better as a tool than Babs did in general. (He does have a younger team, so it’s somewhat different, but still.)

 

What’s tough as a fan is that they aren’t sucking, but they aren’t winning! I expected us to suck. And if you look at our record, we do! But I expected us to suck because we would t be able to compete. I expected far more unwatchable hockey. Not that there has not been some. There have certainly been some unwatchable games, and even more so, unwatchable periods. But this season has been FAR better hockey than last season, but it’s hard to tell by the results. I have to be honest and say I’m struggling with it a bit.

 

Last year, I stopped watching as many games. I actually thought about not buying the annual NHL.TV subscription. But I did buy it, and I’ve watched a lot more this year than last. They’ve played better...for the most part.

 

The old saying that if you keep playing good hockey, the results eventually come, are we breaking that? It sure feels like it!

 

And then I saw the article on Zadina. Not close to ready. He had a bad WJHC (1 assist in 5 games). He hasn’t scored in several games. And he has the team’s WORST +/-. HE’S DEFINITELY not ready!

 

And I was hoping that I would be able to see him play once we dump some of our veteran talent at the deadline. However, the article reminded me that with the 2021 expansion draft coming, if Zadina plays 10 NHL games this season, he will need to be protected in the draft. So if the Wings are smart, I won’t be able to watch him play but 9 games toward the end of the season. I CERTAINLY don’t want the Wings to expose him. That would be dumb. But it does mean that as a fan, I’m not seeing what I was thinking I was going to see this season AT ALL!

 

It’s frustrating right now, but for different reasons than I expected. 

[yave1964]

@SpikeDDS

 

Zadina first. He was minus 9 through the first 9 games, since then he is close to even so his two way game has certainly improved as the season has progressed. He had a 3 point night his first game back after the WJ's and really hasn't looked bad, I would like to see him get into half a dozen games at the NHL level late in the year to prepare him for next year. 

  Yeah very frustrating for the Wings that the defense couldn't stay on the ice as Howard and the forwards have really been solid all year, but it is difficult to put all the blame in one place, after all we literally have the worst record in all of the NHL right now after the Kings won last night. There is a kid, a phenom who everybody and their borther is comparing to Patrick Kane named Jack Hughes (brother of Quinn Hughes, the Michigan boy taken by Vancouver) so losing a lot down the stretch doesn't break my heart. If we can get Hughes it would give us a forward group going forward of:

 Larkin, Athanasiou, Mantha, Veleno, Zadina, Hughes, Bertuzzi.that is seven kids with varying degrees of talent which is a fantastic place to start. 

  So yeah, frustrating as we outplayed Vancouver but took a loss but each loss gives us a better shot at Hughes, no amount of wins this season makes us a playoff contender so I will enjoy watching the kids play hard and hope for the best (worst). There are about eight or nine teams racing for the cellar all within a handful of points of each other, right now we hold the poll position, lol.

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

 

I hadn’t actually noticed that we had dropped that far!

 

LUGHES FOR HUGHES!!

 

;-D

 

(Might even change my sig line to that!)

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

 

And I AM grateful that Vanek has upped his game of late. Might as well maximize our deadline assets. I hope all of our potential dealables play their guys out and get dealt to real contenders for solid draft picks.

 

I’m drinking to that!