Abel to Yzerman
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Your Friday Wing Blog Roundup
by IwoCPO on 02/29/08 at 11:21 AM ET
Comments (11)
Don’t let the title fool you. I have no intention of making this an every Friday thing. It just happened to be Friday, and I felt like doing a roundup and, yes, you can consider it yours if you’d like.
I’m getting just a little tired of Pete at Yzerman is God. Another day, another post I wish I’d written. He’s liking the Stuart/Kronwall pairing and sees future possibilities for the 8th Swede.
I dream of a Kronner-Ericsson pair, some day, maybe next year. Jumping up in the rush, drilling in goals from the blueline, brutalizing opponents along the boards and in open ice, Ericsson throwing hands with Pronger and widening that gap in his ugly goddam grin….
Pretty remarkable how the blue line has evolved the last twelve months or so. Yes, we lost Schneider—and before that, Fischer—but the youth movement has paid off. Ericcson, Meech, Kindl and Smith all point to a strong defensive corps for maybe the next decade. You include Kronwall and Stuart, if he stays, plus obviously Lidstrom and Chelios, and there seems little need for further acquisitions back there.
Scoring? Now that’s a whole ‘nother matter Kenny. We’ll talk.
Matt Saler feels, and I agree, that the return of Kronwall should jump-start the O.
I don’t know about you, but I’d love to see the Wings finish out this awful month with a win to help everyone put it out of our minds. They’ll have Kronwall back and a good passer in Stuart, so the excuse that the breakout passes aren’t as strong with the rookies back there is no longer as applicable. The offense should be able to get going tonight, especially considering the vote of confidence the forwards received at the deadline.
I know the consensus is that the decimated blue line has been the ultimate reason for the drop-off in scoring. That’s optimistic. The realistic view is that Samuelsson is a waste, as we’ve known he is for two years. Hudler is not big enough to battle around the net, as we’ve known for two years. And he gets discouraged and pouty, which leads to apathy, which leads to his “happy” ass spending 52 minutes per night on the bench.
Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Filppula (to an extent) I can see, because they’re typically the recipients of the outlet passes from Lidstrom, Rafalski, Kronwall and Chelios. Homer’s definitely affected as many of his goals come directly off point shots from the big guns on the blue line.
But…but. Regardless of who’s on the back end, the toughness around the net must increase. McCarty will help, if he can stay healthy—which is iffy considering his layoff and injury history even before he reached rock bottom, personally. Other, more creative, solutions?
Yeah, I’ve got one. When all the dmen are back and we’re all debating who the sixth guy should be…how about moving Meech up to a wing? I’d like to see it, and I’d be surprised if they haven’t already been toying with it in practice. Yeah, Lebda too…for those of you who have already brought it up. Consider this lineup with Meech as a forward (and yes, I know it’s drastic…but if the other guys don’t start popping some when everyone’s healthy, than drastic measures will be required):
Cleary/Datsyuk/Homer
Franzen/Zetterberg/Filppula
Maltby/Draper/McCarty (I’ll admit…it’s fun to type that again)
Meech/Kopecky/Drake
That leaves some potential talent riding pine, I know: Samuelsson, Hudler, Downey.
Reasons I like Meech as a wing instead of Samuelsson: he’s fast, defensively responsible and aggressive. If Uncle Mike is so hell-bent on keeping Samuelsson in the lineup he can sit Drake or Kopecky.
Mickey Redmond returns tonite. Courtesy of Brennan at Gloveside, here’s a few reminders of what we’ve been missing:
“Put all the hay in the barn and let ‘em go at it!”
“This is no place for a nervous person”
“He got a little lumber on him, and it didn’t tickle”
“His head looks like the top of a Makers Mark bottle”
“He really left his jock strap hangin off the clock”
Welcome back Mick. See everyone in chat tonite. Friday Juenglings on me.
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Comments
Nathan, that’s a worst-case-scenario situation. There’s no way the Wings’ brass keeps him out of the lineup at the end of two weeks, for the simple reason that he’s not displacing any offensive talent at the moment.
Also, no matter how many wins the Wings pick up between now and the playoffs, I’m sure the organ-I-zation is worried that February left a bad taste in the mouth of all 47 fans who bothered to show up for last years’ playoffs. They need the Joe packed again, and they’ll recognize that a rejuvinated fan base will reignite this team. And make no mistake…when #25 steps back onto the ice at the Joe, the noise will shake the building until Larry Aurie’s #6 falls from the rafters.
Oh wait..well, you know what I mean.
And Chief, the only thing I can say about McCarty’s health is that his renewed conditioning should help…he was looking pretty sloppy at the end in Calgary. Also, he hasn’t had to weather the season-long grind that causes nagging injuries to become serious ones. I think he’ll be okay.
Posted by Gabriel from San Diego, CA on 02/29/08 at 12:10 PM ET
If Uncle Mike is so hell-bent on keeping Samuelsson in the lineup
Why does it seem like there’s always one player who is inexplicably kept in the lineup night in and night out, as if there’s something going on behind the scenes we don’t know about?
Posted by PaulinMiamiBeach on 02/29/08 at 12:34 PM ET
Gabe, good points, you are definately right. I was also going to correct myself by saying that the odds the Griffs get into the playoffs are not good anyways.
Posted by Nathan on 02/29/08 at 01:18 PM ET
Why does it seem like there’s always one player who is inexplicably kept in the lineup night in and night out, as if there’s something going on behind the scenes we don’t know about?
It must be an NHL rule or something. Every team has one guy like that.
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 02/29/08 at 01:18 PM ET
Just one, Paul? I can think of several. Lilja is the obvious one, but for me the first one that comes to mind is Maltby. True, the Wings would be in pretty bad shape if it weren’t for his monstrous offensive contribution this season…six whole friggen points…but the sad truth is that Malts has the second worst +/- on the team, behind only Drake. Is his PK ability really so outstanding that he justifies a roster spot? I just don’t get it with him.
Posted by Gabriel from San Diego, CA on 02/29/08 at 02:36 PM ET
True Nathan, with the Wings siphoning off the talent of the Griffins, the liklihood of them making the playoffs is pretty slim. And I imagine adding Darren to the eligible list makes for continued incentive for him to keep improving…reinforcing the notion that he hasn’t earned a spot with the big club just yet.
Posted by Gabriel from San Diego, CA on 02/29/08 at 05:41 PM ET
Is his PK ability really so outstanding that he justifies a roster spot?
in a word…YES.
Posted by PaulinMiamiBeach on 02/29/08 at 07:27 PM ET
It must be an NHL rule or something. Every team has one guy like that.
I already told you—it’s deals with Satan or blackmail material. Samuelsson must know Keyzer Soze.
Gabriel, great comment about Aurie’s sweater. I laughed and shook my head at the same time.
Chief, you haven’t been buying Yuenglings for the refs and linesmen, have you? The fans in the stands saw it, the commentators saw it, even the freaking players on the ice saw it, but the four idiot refs MISSED it! HOW?
I know I’ve been doing a lot of lurking in bushes outside places lately, but the standard of officiating has been so piss-poor this season that if it doesn’t pick up, mark my words—I’ll be lurking in the bushes outside League offices in Toronto very soon.
With Keaton, Kint, Hockney, McManus and Fenster too. “Five…six…seven…Oswald was a fag.”
Posted by AndrewFromAnnArbor from deep in the engine room of the Tanager on 03/01/08 at 05:25 AM ET
I’ll guess you all talked about it in last night’s chat, but we heard Ken Daniels talk at least twice about moving Meech up front. We all know where he got the idea from in the first place, don’t we?
But as long as we’re speculating, why leave Meech to languish on the 4th line? The D should all be back before Cleary. Why not try Meech up there with Datsyuk and Holmstrom? Meech has been stellar at finding the open spots and he’s shown he can go to the net. Why not try him with a center who’ll know where he’s going to be a full day before the game even starts?
And why not move Ledba up for a try, too? I’m not sure if he has much else to offer offensively besides his speed, but that’s no small thing. Speed backs off defense.
Not much to lose in trying it… lately they’ve been getting barely more than zero goals a game at even strength. I don’t have nearly the hockey smarts as some (most) of you, but I don’t think there’s a way to get negative goals… or the team probably would have thought of it already.
Posted by BobTheZee on 03/01/08 at 02:52 PM ET
I don’t remember exactly, but wasn’t one of the reasons Mathieu Dandenault was switched from forward to defenseman in the first place was because at the time the team had a glut of forward talent and was a little thin on defense, so he would get more of a chance to play there?
With a decent group of defensemen, trying Lebda and Meech at forward would be the same situation, but in reverse. Meech has certainly done enough to earn more time somewhere in the lineup.
And I hope Lebda will be better once his ice time goes back down to something more appropriate for a lower-pairing defenseman.
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 03/01/08 at 04:24 PM ET
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McCarty has been made eligible for the Griffin’s post-season. Obviously, if the Wings decide they want him, they’ll bring him up, but maybe that shows they don’t expect him to be ready.
How about Ericsson on the wing? Boston sometimes parks Chara in front of the goal on the PP, don’t they?
Posted by Nathan on 02/29/08 at 11:52 AM ET