Abel to Yzerman
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Pre-Poultry Potpourri
by IwoCPO on 10/29/08 at 04:33 PM ET
Comments (18)
That’s right. I used a French word in the post title. I’m all eclectic now.
Looking at six hours until they drop the puck at that most traditional of hockey venues, The Honda Center. Until then, a few ditties for you.
I’ve added a new Wing site to the starboard side blog roll. Red Wings Hardware. An example of SA Angove’s work? Today’s look at a few of the fellas biding their time in Grand Rapids.
Dave Dye at the Detroit News sees the Wings winning 3-1, while Earl Sleek predicts a 4-2 victory for the Poultry tonite. He’s a homer and we don’t like homers here. We prefer objectivity. My prediction? Wings 11-1, with an “own goal” by Samuelsson as the only Duck tally. I hate the term “own goal.”
For those of you who thought the Macomb Daily Tribune had turned the corner and decided to send The Anti-Digger on the road for every Wing trip? Think again. The shrivs have held him back yet again.
As has been for the four seasons that I’ve been on the Red Wings beat, I’m not traveling to the West Coast during the regular season.
Think the Wings have “turned the corner”? Think the defensive issues are solved after allowing the Kings only 19 shots on Monday? No so, according to Gramps.
Compared to last season, the Wings are a troubled team. Not much has changed, a couple of retirements, one new
very gifted forward, great back-up goalie and the Defense is the same.I raised this question in the comments at A2Y on Sunday, and I will ask again.
If the only changes to our defense was behind the bench. Maybe Babs didn’t deserve ALL the credit, and the real braintrust is head coach out in San Jose now.
If the Wings spank San Jose tomorrow night, will this conversation end?
Finally, Steph has a good look at Kyle Quincey’s new situation in LA. Read it here.
Back to Sleek for a moment. He’s invited all the Duck fans in SoCal to our Live Blog this evening. So expect four more participants than usual.
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Comments
Sorry, but I still have to disagree with the whole “braintrust is in San Jose” palaver. It seems that a lot of the 19 have posted about Drake, Cheli and the Visor… those are significant. Combine that with the fact that these guys partied all summer and, due to the wealth of options, the didn’t all play together during preseason. So the first few games are them getting their sea legs.
We can’t be too quick to knight McLellan yet either. All he has done is inherit a very good regular season time, that got better on D during the off season, and contiue to do well in the beginning of the regular season. If it was Tampa and they were 8-2 then sure, but come on.. the Sharks had like the second most points behind the Wings last year..
let’s just wait to see how this plays out.
Posted by SharkBaiter from hiding from the sun on 10/29/08 at 04:15 PM ET
What is this crap about Howard on that site? His tenure is “tenuous”?
Sounds bad, but I highly doubt Howard suddenly sucks.
That, and I’m hoping he doesn’t.
Posted by Tyler from Arizona on 10/29/08 at 04:32 PM ET
ohhhh homER. Gotcha. i thought you were calling him...never mind. And can we call it the “Un-American Center?”
Posted by rwingscup19 from Dallas on 10/29/08 at 04:35 PM ET
The French eclecticisity (new junevenilacious word?) potpourri depends on the Nancified pronunciation. Maybe a limp wrist too. Just sayin’.
Now, to Gramps point HTT pointed out earlier SJS held the Pens to 12 SOG. Our D has been leaving alot to be desired nightly. Our only change was MacCrimmon for Todd. Ouch there I said it too, damn you Todd (saying that again though).
I still say the guys on the ice haven’t changed really. Nik is still the rudder and he should have as much pull as the newbie behind the bench.... when it comes to influencing the guys on ice. C’mon… he’s got Stevie’s “C” on his chest n all.
Z looks lost ‘tween Sammy n Huds. That is a line I’d care to see flushed.... Z needs some chemistry for the nightly grind or he’s going to wear his ass tired trying to play with William Tell.
Pavel has a new friend.... they’re looking to know eachother better and better. HOw Damn exciting they are going to be.
Our “hunters” need to start the hunting, at least one of them needs to and the other will follow that lead.... yes Stuart or JR. Open ice… through someone. Just do it.
I look at the next 2 games like a mini playoff scenario.. my challenge the to boys to sweep.
Posted by MOWingsfan19 on 10/29/08 at 05:11 PM ET
Besides the vague fact that McLellan handled the forwards and the PP… What exactly did he do here? I’m sure he was good at it but what was it? The PP is better than last year and while the defense hasn’t been air tight it’s not *just* the forwards—so that idea is out the window. The Sharks aren’t great defensively either, that 3 game stretch giving up something like 20 goals shows that.
Posted by Heaton on 10/29/08 at 05:22 PM ET
There’s a lot of teams looking to find their groove. By Turkey day we need to have things hammered out, plus a cap issue when Cheli’s ready to come of LTIR....
Posted by MOWingsfan19 on 10/29/08 at 05:32 PM ET
No he wasn’t.
Paul McLean was the defense coach and when McCrimmon was hired he moved to take over for the forwards which McLellan was in charge of.
http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2008/06/sharks_hire_mclellan_as_head_c.html
From MLive: McLellan spent the last three seasons in Detroit, working under coach Mike Babcock. McLellan worked with the forwards and was in charge of the power play.
Posted by Heaton on 10/29/08 at 05:33 PM ET
Ah, my bad. I’ll go back to moving furniture and ripping out carpet.
Size 11 in my mouth.
Posted by MOWingsfan19 on 10/29/08 at 05:56 PM ET
Dan Cleary looked good filling in for the mule in LA, but there were stick battles
where it was apparent that he doesn’t come close to Frenzen in upper body strength.
Posted by HockeyTownTodd from upset when blogs dont live up to my expectations on 10/29/08 at 06:20 PM ET
From MLive: McLellan spent the last three seasons in Detroit, working under coach Mike Babcock. McLellan worked with the forwards and was in charge of the power play.
Heaton, we don’t go for all that fancy research and references in these here parts. We’re also not too fond of your so-called “facts”.
Posted by Gabriel from San Diego, CA on 10/29/08 at 06:24 PM ET
Oops, I made my comments about the Sharks in the “Whoa...” post before reading this one. And, yeah, Todd is supposedly known as a PP guru, except ours is currently clicking above 30% and theirs is at 16.7%. Maybe Brad McCrimmon is the problem, I don’t know, or maybe just the players themselves? Considering many of them have spoken up about it, I have full confidence they’ll shore up their defensive play in no time.
Looking more forward to the game tonight than tomorrow’s. The Grind Line needs to get “visible” in “real-world hockey terms” fast, otherwise they’re gonna get dominated by Parros-May-Sutherby. I hope we’re not lamenting the loss of Franzen by the end of the evening. (Or early morning for the 95% of you. Thanks Gary. Ass.)
Posted by yawt from norcal on 10/29/08 at 06:42 PM ET
And can we call it the “Un-American Center?”
That’s actually what I call Yao Ming.
Posted by Earl Sleek from Anaheim, CA on 10/29/08 at 06:48 PM ET
Thanks Gabe.... I have my head up my ass cause I am pissed about having to move my 2 fish tanks in less than 24 hours to have carpet installed.....
Posted by MOWingsfan19 on 10/29/08 at 06:49 PM ET
Poultry tonite.
Could be limited by Little Gary’s red lining wherein us folks here in Margaritaville by the Bay are lumped in with the other caged fowl and called “Duck Fans” for a nite...ergo...no TV for YOU!
Gabe you got a connection? Otherwise, I hope Justin TV is humming tonite.
Thanks Gary. Ass.
Posted by Rumbear from Sandy Eggo on 10/29/08 at 07:30 PM ET
Or maybe it’s the couple hours pulling all the damn staples from the subfloor thats really got me grumpy?
Ah well… b-e-e-r-r-u-n.
Posted by MOWingsfan19 on 10/29/08 at 07:50 PM ET
Our boy Todd was great, but that doesn’t make a team’s defensive game fall off this bad, when the talent is still there. I consider this an acclimation period to a couple of things:
- MacCrimmon’s style
- Getting chemistry back—remember, the Wings played two distinct teams in the preseason, so the chemistry between each forward line and d-pairing is probably just now getting to where it would normally be in game one or two
- While I agree with Babcock about the Cup hangover being a farce in terms of physical fatigue, I think there is some mental hangover. As long as this team keeps racking up points playing like this, it’ll be tough for them to change what they’re doing. I certainly don’t want this, but it might not be the worst thing in the world if the Sharks pop ‘em 5-1 or 6-1 tonight. Right now you have a team that is world champs. They are slacking in their own zone and still have a 7-1-2 record. It’s human nature at times like this to think, “Geez, we win no matter what...” so, to that end, it wouldn’t be the worst thing if a team kicked the snot out of them as a wake-up call. Of course I’d prefer Babcock waking them up so they keep winning AND play better, but it’s also human nature to tune out the boss when the results are still good, no matter how ugly it is getting there.
Posted by Nathan on 10/30/08 at 09:29 AM ET
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Posted by VooX from Behind the Bar in the Hasek Club Car on 10/29/08 at 04:07 PM ET