OT - 24th annual Wings sre Playoff Bound celebration
Never forget the wings lost a 3-1 series lead and haven't been to the finals since 2009. This team is one of the best in all sports and I am not asking this franchise for anything especially comparing them to the other Detroit teams.
However, I forsee a 4-1 or 4-2 first round exit to the Habs or Tampa. Jimmy Howard will never win a cup. Go Wings though. We get an extra 2 weeks of watching them.
Still haven't decided who I think is worse...Stafford or Howard.
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Lions season ticket holder for 15 years. That has shaped my views on life. I am sorry but I can no longer control my debbie downerness.
April 10th, 2015 at 10:57 AM ^
Be down about the Lions then... the Wings are in much better shape. Larkin and Mantha still to come up to the big club. We might miss the playoffs in the next few years, so I am enjoying this while I can. It's always a great time to be a Wings fan.
April 10th, 2015 at 11:23 AM ^
missing the playoffs in the next few years wouldn't seem to be on the menu.
This is the normal trajectory of franchises who've had dominant decades—eventually, they run out of gas. The coaches and players who built the dynasty are long gone, and it just takes a while for things to get bad enough. Holland and Babcock are good enough to bring them back, but Wings fans might be in for a disappointing stretch.
April 10th, 2015 at 11:32 AM ^
We're due for a bad stretch. But screw it, it hasn't happened yet. I'm not gonna hang my head, even if we backed in to the playoffs and even if we get bounced. This team is rebuilding on the fly and the job the organization has done has on the whole been really impressive. Even if Babcock leaves (which I doubt) I feel pretty confident in Blashill as a replacement. A couple more young players blossom and we get some depth on defense and we could be back to being a juggernaut.
There are just some organizations in sports that are so well managed that they are always in it (at least for this millenium). NBA it's the Spurs, MLB it's the Cards, NFL it's the Pats, NHL it's the Wings. They're not going away. Reports of demise have always been highly exaggerated.
April 10th, 2015 at 11:40 AM ^
Rebuilding on the fly? You mean keeping potential stars in the minors year after year while guys like Cleary and Samuelson make the roster year after year?
Maybe Holland shouldn't sign guys like TooToo and Weiss and get some Defense. Also the Wings chose Mule over Hossa.
April 10th, 2015 at 11:59 AM ^
The Wings didn't have stars per se in the minors that were apparently good players until the last couple years when we had to call them up and play them. At least not compared to many farm systems in the league. If you take a short view of 2012-now, sure Holland leaves something to be desired. I hated the Cleary and Samuelsson deals too. But again, they're still winning and learning more about how to rebuild every year (when the Wings were the Dead Wings, it was Devellano, not Holland pulling the strings.
And Mule over Hossa was defensible at the time. Franzen looked like an incredibly dynamic power forward and no one knew he was going to be constantly concussed.
Ding Ding Ding... Holland can go any time he wants. There is not enough time in a day to list out all his bad moves over the last 4-5 years.
April 10th, 2015 at 10:04 AM ^
Both are pretty mediocre. Difference is we have seen some very good goalkeeping in Detroit in recent memory. Quarterbacking...Stafford is probably the best we have had in the last 30 years. <Sigh>
April 10th, 2015 at 10:06 AM ^
April 10th, 2015 at 10:10 AM ^
April 10th, 2015 at 10:18 AM ^
Vernon and Osgood were both underrated imo, in addition to the aforementioned Hasek. We never had the best, but seemed to always have solid players between the pipes.
April 10th, 2015 at 10:58 AM ^
April 10th, 2015 at 11:28 AM ^
I only say it because of those who say Redwing goalies are average at best and looked good because of Lidstrom and Konstantinov playing in front of them. Vernon won me over when he kicked the shit out of Roy (one of my greatest sporting memories) and then won the cup later that year.
April 10th, 2015 at 10:22 AM ^
Vernon was unbelievable in 97. Hasek obviously. Osgood had a few good playoff runs. Howard is the worst goalie the Wings have had since... Cheveldae?
April 10th, 2015 at 10:31 AM ^
Curtis Joseph was worse than Howie (not over a career, but definitely when he was here in Detroit).
Howie's not a terrible goalie but he is having a bad stretch of play at an awful time to do that at and doesn't seem like he'll come out of it. I think Mrazek is definitely a better long term option but he is making some mistakes from inexperience as well. Wings also still have a poor defense...aside from Kronwall and DeKeyser no sure things (although Quincey actually hasn't been terrible and Zidlicky was a nice pickup, offensive-wise.)
April 10th, 2015 at 10:08 AM ^
Howard is worse. He has a complete inability to do two of the biggest things that goalies have to do: (a) track the puck and (b) close the damn five hole.
April 10th, 2015 at 10:29 AM ^
Howard is not dominant but I think he is fine. No way you can say he will never win a Cup. I bet you thought Ozzie would win one, right? There are a number of good teams but no East team is dominant. It's unlikely but Detroit (like every East team) has a chance to make the finals.
April 10th, 2015 at 10:52 AM ^
I know a lot of weird things happen in hockey and the best team doesn't win as often as other sports, but if you think the wings have a good chance against the Habs then make a run to the finals, I think you are too much of a homer (judging by your avatar).
Again, this franchise is one of the best in all sports. I just don't understand why hardcore wings fans can't admit that the team isn't that good. The team hasn't had a realistic chance at a cup in the last 5 years.
We are basically the hockey version of MSU basketball.
April 10th, 2015 at 11:07 AM ^
You're exhibiting reverse homerism, which is a kind of homer who thinks their team sucks and can never beat anyone ever. Howard has been generally bad but has shown capability to play solid goaltending. His problem is maddening inconsistency right now. But he still has all the tools for being a solid goalie.
April 10th, 2015 at 11:20 AM ^
They didn't win. We were on our way to beating OSU in 2013 too...but then lost. The Wings were on their way to beating Chicago 2 years ago up 3-1 and on their way to beating Boston last year going up 1-0 on the road right? The almost beat them excuse is so dumb especially for 1 game in the regular season.
The Wings have a 6 game losing streak to the Habs. Don't mistake "reverse homerism" for facts.
You stated Price didn't look wordly or anything, which is true. However, Price can play worldly whereas Jimmy Howard has a harder time doing so. Price still outplayed Howard last night and looked horrible for his standards.
Hopefully the Wings almost win the cup again this year though.
April 10th, 2015 at 10:37 AM ^
hadn't let Aaron Rodgers go 17/22 for 226 and 2 TD's (no sacks, on a bad leg) at Lambeau we would've won the division. Also, if Stafford hadn't given up 17 points in the final 16 minutes at Dallas we would've won that game as well. Plus we missed lots of FG's as well. Seems like Stafford should work on his defense and special teams this offseason. Furthermore, if he only blocked a little bit better, he probably wouldn't have been sacked 40 some times either. So he needs to work on blocking as well this offseason.
April 10th, 2015 at 11:22 AM ^
Stafford is responsible for more of his 3-32 record vs. teams that finish with a winning record than the defense or any kicker.
Stafford's actual biggest problem is that Lions fans see Aaron Rodgers twice a year and think Stafford should as good or better. He's the second-best QB in the division, which isn't bad in a division with Rodgers. There might be five, maybe six, QBs in the league you could reasonably want over Stafford.
WTF are you talking about??? The Lions lost because the ref blew the PI call... not because they gave up a point a minute in the 4th quarter.
/s
April 10th, 2015 at 10:59 AM ^
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April 10th, 2015 at 11:01 AM ^
April 10th, 2015 at 11:02 AM ^
April 10th, 2015 at 11:24 AM ^
Not saying the Wings suck, but if any team plays smart and gets their goalie to be solid has a chance to beat anyone in a best of 7. The hard part is playing smart and getting a goalie to be solid.
April 10th, 2015 at 11:09 AM ^
Out of these NHL Goalies, which one do you think has the highest career Save Percentage in the playoffs: Jimmy Howard, Martin Brodeur, Pekka Rinne, Cam Ward, Carey Price, Ryan Miller, and Roberto Luango
That's right, Jimmy Howard.
So if one had to choose between Stafford and Howard in the sense of which one is worse, the answer is clearly Stafford as Howard actually has quite a bit of success.
Howard plays behind a defense with more holes than Swiss cheese. Hell, Detroit's defense is so bad, Quincey had a career year. I'm amazed a goalie can pull ~.920 and ~2.5 behind that. It shows us how good Lidstrom and Rafalski were.
Stafford plays behind a shit O line. Period.
Your criticism is misplaced.
LGRW! It really is an amazing streak. They have major issues on their blue line and in goal, but hopefully Howard gets hot.
Very interesting weather the past 24 hours in the midwest. I have cousins who live in Rockford IL, and they shared some videos of the tornados last night...lots of destruction.
April 10th, 2015 at 10:00 AM ^
Eh, the East is weak. If Howard (or more likely, Mrazek) can get hot and the team can get healthy for the stretch run, I don't feel bad heading into any matchup. Montreal because of Price and Tampa because they play us tough would be worse than the Metro side, but whatever. It's hockey, random shit happens.
April 10th, 2015 at 10:20 AM ^
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April 10th, 2015 at 10:28 AM ^
The Habs have the Vezina winner and presumptive MVP, and the Rangers and Lightning are good...but the Bruins are garbage (and might miss the playoffs) and the Pens are down, which were by consensus the two best teams for the last few years in the East.
The West has St. Louis, Anaheim, Chicago, Nashville (surprising yes but shows you what a coach suited to your style can do) and I'd say those four are better than any East team. The East hasn't been as good for a few years now.
April 10th, 2015 at 12:23 PM ^
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April 10th, 2015 at 11:17 AM ^
But you need 4 wins so it's less likely that enough "random stuff" can fall your way to get you through. I'll watch every, single game -- I just don't know how much longer we'll last tho. I say 6 games and out.
April 10th, 2015 at 11:26 AM ^
That may very well be, but at least there's a shot. Lower seeds reach the cup finals regularly in hockey. Once you get in, who knows what the hell will happen.
This is one of the arguments some have against the hockey playoffs to be fair, as opposed to the NBA where really only 4-5 teams can feasibly win the whole thing...often times the regular season means nothing in the NHL. But I prefer the NHL playoffs...we're going to see some upsets as usual. Why not the Wings? I could just as easily see Mrazek rocking a .940 s% and Nyquist getting two hat tricks in the first round as I could see a 4-0 sweep by Tampa.
April 10th, 2015 at 10:21 AM ^
Mrazek will win us the cup.
April 10th, 2015 at 10:34 AM ^
early exit from the playoffs unless something changes drastically with the goaltending.
April 10th, 2015 at 10:37 AM ^
Isn't that to be expected when you're the lower seed?
April 10th, 2015 at 10:50 AM ^
but candidly, they have stumbled terribly this last month, going from the best record to barely making the playoffs. is that a bad stretch we'll snap out of, or have the other teams turned up their game and/or figured out how to solve the wings? we'll see. heaven knows there have been plenty of lower seeded teams that have broken the wings' hearts over the years. maybe we can return the favor this year.
go wings. go blue.
April 10th, 2015 at 10:54 AM ^
We can worry about the team when the playoffs start. For now I am pumped as hell. Very few teams in the history of sports have a streak like this and unlike the Blues' streak the Wings have won cups. We have a team that is rebuilding on the fly and is still able to compete with the good teams in the league. We got this. LGRW.
April 10th, 2015 at 11:56 AM ^
Z, what a beauty!
April 10th, 2015 at 11:06 AM ^
I'm in my late 20s and I can't remember when the Wings didn't make the playoffs. What a great run for the team.
April 10th, 2015 at 11:12 AM ^
For the first couple weeks of March, I though it was just a phase and they'd snap out of it in time for the playoffs. Now I think they have major structural issues. Datsyuk still looks great but I fear for an injury every time he's on the ice, Zetterberg and Kronwall finally seem to be showing some age, Howard hasn't been the same since his injury and Mrazek still needs some time, Brendan Smith is still a dope (as proudly displayed last night), DeKeyser seems to be having a sophomore slump, who knows how long Abdelkader will be out, Cole's definitely gone, Quincey is still inconsistent at best, Kindl sucks, teams seem to be figuring out Nyquist, Jurco, and Tatar, see Datsyuk for my thoughts on Helm, and we'll probably still see goddamn Cleary at some point in the playoffs. Oh, and it's seemed to me like Glendening and Miller have been the most offensively tenacious players lately, which is great in the short term but I don't think that's a sustainable horse to ride.
sigh
Did I get it all? Oh, one more, Babcock's getting pissy with the media and I wonder if that's not a sign of him having checked out in anticipation of leaving. All that said, they still will always be my sports "Co-#1" with Michigan football, so LGRW!!!
April 10th, 2015 at 11:47 AM ^
It's not so much that teams are figuring them out as much as they're stickhandling too much. Tatar and Nyquist have almost thirty goals each, with each of them getting at least one in the past few games. Jurco, on the other hand, is just unlucky at this point. He's been injured these past few weeks and has a shooting percentage of 3.3, which is good for 605th in the NHL.