With Draper feeling “good” and Homer having trouble with stops and starts, I think He of Cement Hands (aka He Who Could Not Score on a Breakaway to Save His Life But Who Makes Up For It With Leadership, Faceoffs, and Penalty Killing) will be back first rather than He of Most Excellent Hand-Eye Coordination.

Okay, I finished this comment in a goofier mood than I started it… Sorry.

Babcock joked the other day that Homer better get “with it” or Franzen will take his job...There may be some truth in that.
Everybody in the NHL knows that the way to score goals, especially in the playoffs, is to stand around in the slot, deflect shots and chip- in rebounds.  Fortunately, the Wings have 3 guys who can do it very well.

Funny stuff. A couple of weeks ago Ken Holland was interviewed on HNIC. He was asked if he was going to bring Cheli back next season. His answer was YES. Now I do not think he is going to bring him back to do nothing. I imagine he will be playing the rest of this season also. Where does St.James get her bad info from? Or does she just make it up as she goes along?

And here is Bruce’s franzenstein piece:
http://redwingscorner.blogspot.com/2008/03/franzenstein-terrorizes-opposition.html

I personally am rooting for Derek Meech to unseat both Lebda and Lilja to earn a spot with Cheli, but that’s just me.

Homer,Franzen, et, 13 skated together a lot in the preseason. Can Pavel hold it until they’re both deep? I think that and this plan we’re hatched in the summer.

I personally am rooting for Derek Meech to unseat both Lebda and Lilja to earn a spot with Cheli, but that’s just me.

Although I am as happy as the next guy to see Lebda’s and Lilja’s terms come to an end with the Wings I can’t see Meech taking on Lilja’s role.

Meech would be a good replacement for Lebda.  However, I do feel Ericsson is a better match for Lilja than Meech.

PK:s need a lot of size at times.  Not to mention blocking shots which Lilja is pretty good at (as long as he uses his body as opposed to his stick).

Homer,Franzen, et, 13 skated together a lot in the preseason. Can Pavel hold it until they’re both deep? I think that and this plan we’re hatched in the summer.

Wow. Is that some kind of foreign language? I honestly have no idea what all of that means.

Personally, I’m rather curious if Pavel can, indeed, “hold it until they’re both deep”. Not sure where “deep” is, but I can’t wait to find out. 

I honestly have no idea what all of that means.

Well, I got it.  It’s a variation of the old set play that the Production Line used to use, because Abel was older and slower than Terrible Ted or Mr. Hockey.  Bring the puck over the line, protect it until your wingers are low down, then make the play.  This works not because Datsyuk is old and slow (he sure as hell isn’t), but for a better reason-- because he’s solid on the puck now, and because he plays a real patient game.  Could work pretty interestingly, although I’m not sure we should be putting two crease-crashers on the same line.  Spread the wealth, baby.

And while I think anyone who takes the name ‘lilja4ever’ must have something seriously wrong with their medulla oblongata or else is a potential buyer of the Brooklyn Bridge, I have to grudgingly admit that I think our third pairing in the playoffs has to be Cheli & Lilja.  I do think that Meech has supplanted him, but we have to hope that Lilja can step up his game like he did last year, and becomes Mr. Steady and Safe again.  If he can, then we need his physicality, his dependable defensive presence, his shot-blocking and penalty killing, all stuff that Meech can’t provide consistently (yet).  The potential upside of him playing to his best makes it worth the risk of starting him as the sixth defenseman even if he doesn’t show any signs of it at the beginning.  His last shot at redemption.  Let’s see if he can grab it.

Franzen’s emergence, and I’m certain I’m the first to point this out, has given the Wings a second powerplay unit better than most team’s first

Agree.  However, there’s one thing bothering me.  The last game I saw was Dallas, and this may have changed since then, so please correct me if it has (I’ll be able to watch tonight’s game, and will be keeping an eye out for it).  Why oh WHY is Samuelsson still playing the point on the second unit?  I thought part of the point of acquiring Stuart was to have four legitimate PP defensemen!  Sammy has a good, hard (if horribly inaccurate) shot, but when it comes to keeping the puck in, he’s a damned sieve.  If we’re going to depend on Stuart to be a top-four man with ice time in all situations, we need to start him on the power play now.  I’m telling you, Samuelsson has a contract written in blood with Lucifer’s signature at the bottom somewhere in his desk.

Could work pretty interestingly, although I’m not sure we should be putting two crease-crashers on the same line.

I don’t know, in the playoffs I can see two guys in front of the net, a digger to get the puck along the boards and send it back to Lids/Rafi to blast it at the net.  Keeping two guys low should clog up the front and keep the high slot clean.  Not saying do this constantly, but when the timing and matchups are right…

I may be paranoid, but I think teams have identified Lilja as a weak link, and are targeting to take advantage of him. 

I think Lebda is a better choice, except maybe on the PK.

If Lilja could be chained to the net with one of those electric-shock dog collars (would he even feel it?), all would be OK.

Notes from todays practice from the anti-digger.

Looks like a curveball or two in tonight’s lineup for Detroit.
Derek Meech will definitely play forward tonight, according to coach Mike Babcock. Why there’s a need for him up front isn’t as clear. Aaron Downey will be in the lineup. So will Darren Helm.
That means that one forward who played in Sunday’s game in Columbus will be absent tonight, but when asked which forward, Babcock declined to name one. It might be that a veteran will be given a night off to rest a lingering injury.
Meech hasn’t played forward in his NHL career. He did spend significant time up front as a 16-year-old with Red Deer in his first year of juniors, including playing forward in the Memorial Cup. That was more about finding ice time for a youngster than thinking that Meech was better suited as a forward than defenseman.

I hear the train a comin
It’s rolling around the bend

I hate to do this to you, but here is confirmation from a non-deep-digger about the 3rd D pairing:

For the next half dozen games, Babcock will continue to rotate Chelios, Andreas Lilja and Brett Lebda.

“You can speculate all you want, there’s three guys and two jobs,” Babcock said.

http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/sports/story.html?id=443cf921-51e2-4228-8b7b-108d16b43d6e

I hear ya Voox.  But...until I see a quote from Babcock, something along the lines of “Chelios is not guaranteed a spot”, I’m not believing it. Lebda and Lilja duking it out for the 6? Yep. But Chelios is locked in at 5. 

And Waddell’s a digger for the Windsor Star. He’s a Wing beat writer.  Better than Khan(!), Kulfan and St. James? Yep, but still a digger.

Hmmm… I always thought you held the badge of “Digger” for Detroit’s elite journo’s… Waddell seems like a decent writer, but I have only read a couple of his articles.

I like Chelios as 5 like yourself.  I certainly have not been impressed by either Lebda or Lilja (esp.) this season.  When our main D was injured, our kids (Ericsson, Meech) made the contributions of Lebda and Lilja seem weak.

Lebda continues to blow coverage, and Lilja loves turning over the puck in our own zone… tweedledee and tweedledumb if you ask me.

maybe we should have sent Lilja and Lebda to Anaheim, with a couple draft picks and a prospect...for nothing in return - with one requirement - they each play 10 minutes a game in the playoffs…