um, which one are they trying to get started?

Posted by PaulinMiamiBeach on 03/17/08 at 11:52 AM ET

Ha. Funny. But I’ve been to Michigan. And you are making fun of Tennessee and North Carolina? Might want to step outside and take a look at your surroundings before you do.

Posted by Hick from Redneckville on 03/17/08 at 12:03 PM ET

Terribly bored at work this afternoon, so I’ll instead use up some time to comment with my thoughts of the weekend.  Look forward to Chief’s upcoming post.

Is anyone else worried?  The five game win streak was okay, but those victories over St. Loius and Nashville seemed to instill more worry than anything else.  I watched the Nashville victory last week and the loss on Saturday.  We never seem to really dominate, to really take it to other teams these days.  We look slow, it seems.

Our defensive lineup is one of the best in the NHL, but I almost vote for playing Ericsson and Meech in place of Lilja and Lebda because those two have looked slow and somewhat out of place for the past month.  Up front, I guess we go with what we have, but again, I just haven’t seen the same sort of game, of the Wings imposing their will on games, as we saw last season in the playoffs and the first half of this season.  I think of course Datsyuk and Zetterberg are great, and I’m very very excited with Filpulla and Franzen, but as a team there isn’t the same killer instinct it seems.

Maybe this improves once Cleary and Homer are added again.

With respect to the goaltending, I won’t even start.  I think both Osgood and Hasek are playing poorly. There has been a lot of talk last week about how Osgood has been playing well.  I don’t see it.  He’s not making those great stops to keep us in games.  The past few games we’ve lost we’ve outshot the opponents.  I hate seeing us give up only 20 shots and still lose 4-3. The supposed best goaltending tandem in the NHL isn’t supposed to let that happen.

Sorry for the long comment.  I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but I see some real problems for us in April if we dont’ turn this around….

Posted by TDeters on 03/17/08 at 12:10 PM ET

The goaltending is crap as of late… The Wings seem to play to the level of their opponent, good vs a top team such as Dallas, and bad vs non playoff quality teams such as Bubba and Columbus.

Posted by yzerman19 from Nashville on 03/17/08 at 12:17 PM ET

Hick - he absolutely is.

Posted by moore00 from Columbus, OH/Grand Rapids, MI on 03/17/08 at 01:05 PM ET

Well lookie what we gots here!  In a masterstroke and in the same vein that the homosexual community has turned the word ‘Queer’ on its head, , it appears Bubba has co-opted our pejorative term for him and is using it as a badge of pride.  Of course, this could just be Thhhhomas making good on his promise of coming back under a different username, in which case the first part of the comparison would be more applicable.

Silly Bubba.  We’re a creative sort and can come up with other terms of endearment (you like that Southern femme movie reference, buddy?) if ‘Bubba’ is yours.  How about Muskrat-Breath?  Jug Band?  The Moonshine & Banjo Brigade?  Boys From the BFE?  I’m sure we can come up with many more.

Man.  Mondays have a way of getting my ire up.  Or should that be Irish up, given the date?

So here’s the question.  When do we hit the panic button and give the locomotive full steam pressure, inexorably thundering down the Stress tracks?

Posted by AndrewFromAnnArbor from the wilderness of civilization on 03/17/08 at 02:04 PM ET

When do we hit the panic button and give the locomotive full steam pressure, inexorably thundering down the Stress tracks?

personally, I prefer the last train out of the station…somewhere about the second game of the first round.

Posted by PaulinMiamiBeach on 03/17/08 at 02:52 PM ET

When do we hit the panic button and give the locomotive full steam pressure, inexorably thundering down the Stress tracks?

Personally, I never left the train. The Club Car has a better grade of beverage than I pour at my humble abode.

but I almost vote for playing Ericsson and Meech in place of Lilja and Lebda because those two have looked slow and somewhat out of place for the past month.

I agrees. At least with Meech and Ericsson we can say the error was due to immaturity and carry on. But with the twin L’s all we get is, “Oops! My bad!” Seriously, what do you say to two veteran’s that should be stepping up, and are not?  Skate harder, play faster….or something like that?

Posted by Rumbear from Sandy Eggo on 03/17/08 at 03:11 PM ET

With respect to the goaltending, I won’t even start.  I think both Osgood and Hasek are playing poorly. There has been a lot of talk last week about how Osgood has been playing well.  I don’t see it.  He’s not making those great stops to keep us in games. 

I somewhat agree, they may not be playing as well as we have seen them play this season, however, I think, they have had a lot of bad bounces and such as well, and there have been two saves by Osgood in the psat two games that I will remember for awhile too.

Posted by C3091 on 03/17/08 at 03:54 PM ET

I think it would be much funnier if they were trying to jump the Zamboni with the car. 

Maybe the Wings are just having a really hard time playing mind-tricks on themselves to get up for a game against a team that pulled to only 20 points behind with a win, and another game against a team that managed a historic high for points in a season with as many as Detroit had by late January.

Both Nashville and Columbus had a lot more to play for than Detroit did.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 03/17/08 at 04:28 PM ET

agree with Baroque.  my girlfriend asked me the score yesterday and i told her the Wings were losing.  she was pissed but then i explained that the team had an outside chance of making the playoffs and the Wings had been locked up for ages.

it’s strange but every year after the playoffs (the last three years), i wonder about whether our eventual outcome would have been different without the expectation/burden/advantage of a #1 seed.  it seems that’s all we can get.  i wonder if it would benefit us to have the #2 or #3 seed.  but that home ice advantage is too important (though at this point, i think most teams can win in most buildings on any given night).

i don’t know what this response has to do with the subject of this post or this weekend’s play but just thought i’d throw in some thoughts.

Posted by Alex from San Francisco on 03/17/08 at 05:02 PM ET

I think it would be much funnier if they were trying to jump the Zamboni with the car. 

What makes you think that ISN’T exactly what’s happening, mézem? 

Posted by AndrewFromAnnArbor from the Hall of Smoke and Mirrors on 03/18/08 at 03:50 AM ET

It might be - I was just voicing my hope that it weasn’t as mundane as a car getting a jump from a Zamboni.

Which isn’t all that mundane, come to think of it…

I wonder about the same thing as Alex.  That is why I was really, really hoping that the Central would be tough this year.  I flipped over to the versus game last night a couple times (Colorado at Minnesota), and the game was intnse, with playoff implications galore, as with a win the Wild moved into first in teh division with only a two-point lead over the three-headed monster of Calgary, Colorado, and Vancouver.

I would love to have the last few weeks of the season have playoff implications.

(Although the Wings might still be a number 2 seed by the end of the season.  San Jose is coming on hard, and might get the number one position.  Although they might be better off starting on the road considering their mediocre home record.)

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 03/18/08 at 07:40 AM ET