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Muddled Offerings
by IwoCPO on 02/13/08 at 07:47 AM ET
Comments (9)
Left work at approximately 1830 last night with the intent of settling in for a pleasing Wing victory over Bubba and the 13,000 faithful at The Gay. Clearly I was disappointed, and not just in the game.
Why the angst? Here’s why. A twenty-minute ride home took three hours because drivers in the world’s most powerful city have no concept how to handle a little sleet. Three hours, driving the Chief Jeep (yes, it’s Khaki), working the clutch. Much of that time spent behind a stop-and-go tool with a plate that said “Obiwan”. If I didn’t despise Star Wars before, well now I really do. Actually, and this should sound familiar to Thhhom and the other 6 Dive fans, it’s not the movie I really hate, it’s the geeks who devote their lives to it. I’d have to create a whole other blog to get into that. But it’s a deep, burning dislike that penicillin can’t cure.
Why do I mention that? Because a three-hour drive gives you time to think, and think I did. I have some views and I’d like to share them. Most are based on conversations I had with myself on Interstate 395 (not, “the 395”, just “395”...thanks), others stemmed from Game 4 of our most recent distasteful period.
Looking to deal aren’t you? Yes you are. You want that trade. You need that trade. Have you considered the “mortgaging of the future” thing? Yeah. I know you have. Have you considered the “upsetting the chemistry” thing? Probably. But you’re looking at Cleary’s jaw and Hank’s back and Kronwall’s...everything. You’re looking at Lilja lumbering and Rafalski getting blasted every other shift and you’re wondering just when Bret Lebda, with all that speed, is going to move to a third line wing. Well, maybe you weren’t wondering that, but I am. And you’re thinking, “screw it. Kenny needs to deal and deal now.” But is that instinct because you know the deadline’s two weeks away, or is that reality?
Let’s pretend the discussions are valid, that the Wings do need that sniper, one more gunner or a stay-at-home guy. For what it’s worth, I’m of the opinion they need both. Secondary scoring does not concern me as much as it does others. I think Franzen, Filppula and even the Oompa will do just fine in the postseason. What worries me more than anything is Zetterberg’s health. Want a prediction two weeks out? Antropov. There’s your big forward. If not Antropov, Ladislav Nagy.
Defensemen? Screw Blake. He says he doesn’t want to leave the west coast? Says he’ll waive his NTC but only for a “western” team. And, yes, we’re technically “western”, (Thanks Gary. Ass.), that doesn’t fit into Blake’s comfort zone. Anaheim’s out of the question because they have more than they need on the blue line. San Jose is what the smart guys are saying. Whatever. Go to San Jose and waste the next three months of your life and end your run in late April with Big Joe and the rest. If Blake cared about another Cup he’d be begging to go to Detroit or Ottawa. He doesn’t though, obviously.
Me? I’d like to see our Wunderkind make a strong pitch for Dan Boyle then lock him up if at all possible. Oh, and, yeah, Kronwall’s not exactly close to coming back. Read George Malik’s post this morning and you’ll have no reason for optimism on that front.
Notice I didn’t say anything about Jokinen or Sundin? Neither are leaving their towns under any concrete circumstances and we can’t afford either one anyway. Either one makes us the favorite, but we just don’t have assets to deal.
So, if Jokinen or Sundin “make us a favorite”, are you saying the Wings aren’t the favorites right now?
Yep. That’s exactly what I’m saying. Poultry. I don’t care what the records are or what the odds say. The Champs are the favorite until they’re knocked out and not just because of their current reign. The Wings have to play four perfect games to beat Anaheim. Perfect games, with everything working. Can it be done? Yes. Will it? I hope so, and the chance will be there because another playoff war is inevitable. The rest of the West is so far behind Detroit and Anaheim that it’s impossible to consider any other WCF. And, yeah, Anaheim will have the #2 seed when the playoffs start. I’ll tell you this though: the Wings look like a real tired team right now. Exhausted. Lidstrom making mental errors. Zetterberg getting drilled almost every shift. Both goalies slipping. Tired.
Speaking of Anaheim, Sunday was the first time I felt any real resentment toward Mathieu Schneider. When he sent the knuckler past Osgood? No. Much more so when I read this quote after the game.
“Homer stole a lot of my goals like that too,” Schneider said.
Yeah, he may have Matt. He also screened the goalie for about thirty of your goals too. He also took beatings every night in front of the net so you could patrol the blue line unscathed waiting for a lane. I guess that got me thinking a bit about what kind of player leaves the guys he battled with to join the team that bitterly knocked you out of the playoffs. 40 days later? Did the scars heal that quickly? Again, I may not like Forsberg, but I respect that something deep down inside has kept him from seriously considering offers from the Wings over the years.
Two funny things I heard on radio and tv over the last four days. Saturday, watching the Caps/Rangers on Comcast here in DC. Craig Laughlin had this to say, “the Capitals really have to improve their power play if they’re going to beat off the Rangers.” Thhhom, I see you returned in the comment section last night? Care to expand on that?
Second one on HNIC radio last night. Jeff Marek had the Dive announcer, McNabb, on. Just as McNabb was saying his goodbyes after describing the scent of Joe Sakic’s jock for an entire segment, Marek said. “Great. Keep up the great work on Altiturd.” Frigging classic. I laughed like a girl and gave the finger to the Obiwan guy still in front of me.
It’s February and the Wings have had their foot on the gas for almost five straight months. This is a mentally and physically exhausted team. Do they need a tweak roster-wise? Yep. There are areas that need to be ramped up before the War in May. But a four-game slide (or even five or six) is not stress train material, not yet.
Want something to worry about? How about something completely beyond Holland’s control? Goaltending. You want to stress about something, stress about that. I have a strong suspicion that if the Wings host a parade in June, they’ll do so despite mediocrity in net. I think we’ve seen the best Osgood and Hasek have to offer us this year. Will they lose us a playoff game? I doubt it. But, as usual, the Wing goaltender isn’t going to be stealing any.
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Comments
I feel your pain on the traffic. I was born and raised here. I can drive in winter weather just fine. Why can’t everyone else?
My 35 minute commute took 3 hours, and I avoided 395 like the plague. At least I wasn’t stuck on that for 8 hours like some people were.
Posted by Gustafsson from Washington, DC on 02/13/08 at 10:08 AM ET
LOL!
Shawn Matthias has 22 goals and 41 assists in 38 games for Belleville, and 2 goals in 4 games for the Panthers...so…
Here is Ken Holland’s trade at the deadline:
#25 to the grind line.
You heard it here first.
Posted by w2j2 on 02/13/08 at 10:57 AM ET
Nagy has been an underachiever for his whole career. I seriously hope he doesn’t come here. A load of talent, but he doesn’t always have the drive...you may think to yourself “hey, that sounds like the Dan Cleary story”....but, no.
The trade deadline prices are way to high, Ken Holland is not an idiot. He won’t over pay, but he’ll try to find that bargain depth guy. I love how Matthias’ stats keep coming up. If the Bertuzzi deal would have put the Wings over the top last year, and won them a cup, you would never hear about him again. But you have to trade something of value for a deadline deal, and I think it was a good trade at the time. Hindsight is 20/20.
These days, it seems like you have to put your team together in the off season, and hope it works out.
Posted by Aaron from Phoenix, Arizona on 02/13/08 at 11:34 AM ET
Lived north of Baltimore for eight years (Cockeysville - and yes, there is a town in the area called Dickeysville, too, so snicker away) and worked in the city.
A inch of snow - ONE INCH - and the news crews were out doing shots in front of the piles of salt (they said it was salt - could have been gravel) to show how ready the road crews were, and interviewing heroic plow drivers in the dead of the early moring about how ready they were to clear the beltway, and yet you got on the roads and they were fine to a Michigan gal, but everyone was driving 7 miles per hour in their sport utility vehicles that could climb mountains despite the most rigorous driving the owners had was speedbumbs in the mall parking lot, and then they would jam up the parking lots at every grocery store and convenience store on their way home to pick up the holy trinity of winter provisions - bread, milk, and toilet paper.
Seriously. This was for a forecast of one inch - and it might only be a TRACE!
I guess when the weather got white they felt compelled to buy white stuff in case they couldn’t leave the house for days. A loaf of brad, gallon of milk, and four rolls of toilet paper aren’t going to help if you aren’t stocked up already.
(And if there was real accumulation, panic ensued throughout the greater Baltimore area.)
Please, let’s relax. You know how boring the games have been for the last three weeks? Because they’re so far ahead that you feel like you’re watching for nothing? Yeah, well, imagine how the players and coaches feel… “dog days of winter”, if you will.
87 points in 70 games would put the team on a pace for another 100 point season. That would take, what, losing the next 11 games in regulation?
Maybe they should reverse Anaheim’s ploy slightly - give Lidstrom and Zetterberg the next four weeks off for “general body soreness” so they can get ready for the playoffs the last few games of the season. Maybe give Holmstrom and Datsyuk a couple weeks off, too.
If you are going to establish such a large lead over the other teams, you may as well use it.
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 02/13/08 at 11:56 AM ET
Want a prediction two weeks out? Antropov. There’s your big forward. If not Antropov, Ladislav Nagy.
Please, not Nagy. As Aaron said, he’s an underachiever, especially in the playoffs...Dallas found that out last year.
I love Antropov’s size, but he gets hurt a lot for a big man. My choice would be Prospal, and TB is said to be interested in moving him. The question is: Do we have anyone they want (and that we’re willing to give up)?
Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 02/13/08 at 12:33 PM ET
Please, not Nagy.
Not saying I’d agree, but I think it’s a possibility.
Posted by IwoCPO from Washington, DC on 02/13/08 at 12:37 PM ET
Several semi-related thoughts are running through my head…
Like any deal for a pending UFA, the Bertuzzi trade was a gamble. The Wings could have kept him, but didn’t want to gamble further by giving him term (personally, I’m glad they didn’t, even though he’s doing pretty well for Anaheim).
Whether Matthias pans out or not at the NHL level is still totally up for grabs—2G in 4GP does not a career make. And one strong OHL season doesn’t necessarily translate to NHL scoring prowess either (Draper and Maltby were both 50 goal scorers in junior).
Anyway, it seems that most “big” deadline deals don’t pay immediate dividends in terms of winning the Cup. Maybe I’m missing someone, but I can’t think of any freshly acquired “stars” that really pushed their new team over the top. I can, however, think of many cases where key role players acquired at the deadline helped win (Larry Murphy to Detroit in 1997, Jamie Macoun in 1998; Doug Weight and Mark Recchi to Carolina in 2006, etc.). Obviously, some acquisitions have more impact than others.
I can also recall situations where the deadline acquisition stayed with his new team and helped win the Cup in a subsequent season (Mike Keane to Dallas in 1998, won Cup in 1999; Chris Chelios to Detroit in 1999, won Cup in 2002; Ray Bourque to Colorado in 2000, won Cup in 2001).
There have also been early to mid-season trades that helped tilt the scales the same season (Patrick Roy and Mike Keane to Colorado in December 1995 [thanks to the Wings]; Brendan Shanahan to Detroit in October 1996). And, of course, off-season trades and/or signings (Hasek, Hull, and Robitaille to Detroit in summer 2001).
I guess my point is there’s no surefire formula for adding a new player (or players) to the mix and winning it all. It does seem, however, that some time is needed to build chemistry in most cases. It also seems to logically follow that when a major star is added, the short period of time between the deadline and the playoffs is typically not long enough.
Therefore, here’s to the Wings finding a few key role players that: A.) don’t cost too much, B.) contribute to a Stanley Cup run in 2008, and C.)will stay and help the team win more than once.
Posted by YzermanZetterberg on 02/13/08 at 01:06 PM ET
Anyway, it seems that most “big” deadline deals don’t pay immediate dividends in terms of winning the Cup. Maybe I’m missing someone, but I can’t think of any freshly acquired “stars” that really pushed their new team over the top.
Ding-ding-ding!
A couple friends and I were discussing just that the other day. The teams that probably did the least last year were Anaheim and Ottawa, and the teams they had worked out fine.
We were specifically talking about how it takes some time for a new player to adjust to his new team - how frequently does a player struggle in his first year, no matter how good he is, and only really settle in after he’s had a full off-season, preseason, and started the season with his role and teammates pretty much established? Rafalski when he first signed pointed out that it would take him a little while to fit in - and that is coming to a system that fits pretty well with his abilities and a partner like Lidstrom.
I concur - don’t spend a lot, but add depth (and maybe look for Anaheim to get Sundin and then flounder?) 
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 02/13/08 at 04:17 PM ET
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This team lost 4 straight in March of last season and still finished the year as the second-best team in the league (yes, they would’ve beaten the Sens, easily). Remember when they crawled into the playoffs in ‘02?
Please, let’s relax. You know how boring the games have been for the last three weeks? Because they’re so far ahead that you feel like you’re watching for nothing? Yeah, well, imagine how the players and coaches feel… “dog days of winter”, if you will.
My point is this—four game winless streaks don’t mean anything unless they happen in the playoffs, especially when you’re still double-digit points ahead of the next best team in the entire league.
And let’s be honest. They’ve actually played better in two of the last four (against Toronto and the Ducks) than they did in any of those games they won coming out of the break. In the last ten games, they’ve maybe played two or three decent games. So, they were due for losses. They were tempting fate by giving less than a full effort. It caught up, will screw with them for a while, and then we’ll all forget it happened, just like that four game streak last March.
Posted by Nathan on 02/13/08 at 09:12 AM ET