OT: Wings - out of the playoffs this year?
The seem to be stinking up the ice tonight getting hammered by Vancouver. I mean the blue jackets lost to them in OT last night and the Wings can't keep them under 5 goals?
Is this going to be a good thing for them? To miss the playoffs completely? I can't see them making it in if they're going to play like this. Supposedly focus isn't a problem for them right now. If it's not, maybe there needs to be a major shake-up in the personnel. This is definitely not working this year.
Any thoughts? I can't get the game because I live in Columbus so I don't know what they're looking like, but the score appears to say it all.
mod edit on the off topic tag... hockey fans just don't grasp the idea at least 2 out of every 5 threads
while (sport.location == "Michigan" && sport.team != "MSU Basketball")
{
sport.analRape();
sport++;
}
Programming language jokes are funny if you don't know programming...
This is an infinite loop of anal raping for Michigan.
Please adjust your conditions, set sport.year = 2011, and get Michigan out of this hellhole.
Are sucking right now. I'm still hoping they pull it together, but they just can't consistently win this year. and they give up all kinds of leads.
They look awful. Just....bad.
This must be what it's like to be a Leafs fan.
the terror of the make-me laffs.
They'll get in and they'll be a dangerous opponent for whoever they match up with in the first round. They've lost approximately 283789427 games to man-injury this year and it will take them a few games to mesh as a unit. Once they do though, watch out.
That being said, if by some chance they happen to miss the playoffs I am not going to be mad because as a Wings fan I have been spoiled beyond belief for the last twelve years or so. Sad? Yes. Mad? No.
is that the players who were on the ice never got better during the long period they were together.
Is there just a lack of drive caused by the abnormally long seasons the last 17 years and added to by the olympics this year?
Have they all gotten to the point they need to miss the playoffs to realize they CAN miss the playoffs?
This is an embarrassment. Even for Michigan sports this year, this is awful.
Are you speaking of the Wings or Michigan sports in general? Please tell me it's the latter....
Twelve years? You mean 19, right?
I was just speaking off the cuff. I knew the streak was a lot longer. Still though, if they don't make it, and people are mad, those people are stupid.
I definitely agree. Not making the playoffs this year isn't something to be ashamed of. I'm one of the people who said before the season started this year that they wouldn't make it (for a variety of reasons), but it wasn't because I was hating on the Red Wings. It's just that realistically the odds have been stacked against them all season long (and since before the season began). I just wish more people would accept the very real possibility that they won't make it so that it doesn't come as such a complete shock if they don't. My worry is that if people don't look at it realistically there are going to be A LOT of people who wake up on the last day of the regular season and demand that the team be blown up and rebuilt, which is not what is required.
Some things definitely need to be fixed though (and I'm staring right at that idiot McCrimmon...)
Let me guess. It must be one of the following scenarios:
(1) McCrimmon is the leader of an intra-front office conspiracy of Scotty Bowman followers designed to undermine Mike Babcock in the hopes of getting him fired;
OR
(2) McCrimmon, last summer, conveniently would schedule promotional adverts or weight training sessions for Marian Gaborik so that he could never visit Joe Louis Arena, thereby ultimately forcing Gaborik to sign with the Rangers.
I just don't think of the Wings as being off topic. I had considered it during the post.
Hey, who needs the Wings when you've got the Pistons! Right? Anyone.... anyone...
http://www.mlive.com/pistons/index.ssf/2010/03/pistons_falter_against_s…
I think (hope) they'll be fine. Vancouver is a great team this year. Last night in Columbus they started Raycroft instead of Luongo which was part of the reason they had to go to OT.
I think the Wings will start clicking down the stretch and with Howard playing well (better than tonight) they'll be a killer opponent. No one is going to want to play them in the 1st round and I'm hoping my nucks won't have to!
Says the guy with the Canucks avatar and whose username is "nuck"!
Edit: I know they really are a good team
Though it has many faults, the number I use to judge how teams stack up when taking a quick look at the standings is goal differential (factors in pp & pk, unlike +/-). Only two teams since 2000 have made the playoffs with a diff of -10 or less, Carolina in 2000 (-13) and Boston in 2007 (-10). The wings are currently sitting at -7. Surprisingly, it's the offense that is lagging last years pace. On ratio, at this point last year the Wings scored 226 goals and allowed 187 for a +39 diff. Through tonight, they scored 165 goals and allowed 172 for a -7 diff.
I'm not sure what to make of their chances. Based on their experience, I want to say they'll make it and I wouldn't want to face them, but these guys are old. The average player is slightly more than 4 years older than one on Chicago or Columbus, maybe they're just wearing out.
they are in 8th right now, I think they'll be fine.
Obviously they need to get wins, especially against teams close to them. Friday is the first of three remaining games against Nashville (Home, Away, Home). There are also two games against Calgary in the next couple weeks (H,A). One game each against St Louis (H) and Minnestoa (H). In April there are three games against Columbus (H,H,A). Not sure if Columbus will still be in the hunt then, but those, I hope, are good chances to pick up wins.
Two games against lowly Edmonton (A,H).
Two games at Chicago, this Sunday, and the last game of the season, also Sunday.
11 of the remaining 19 games are at home. There's a three-game road trip in the middle of March, and a two-game one to finish the season. There are four sets of back-to-back games.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/teams/schedule?team=det
I said about a month ago this team will not make the playoffs. They were playing better when they had more guys injured. Around New Years, they were three games above .500 at some point. Now they are five games below .500. I don't know how to explain this except for this: it's time for Detroit to miss the playoffs. 19 seasons in a row in the playoffs and 18 seasons in a row with home ice advantage in the first round. (That second stat is mind boggling). The hunger isn't there anymore and the players are worn out. In the meantime, our young hot prospects like Filppula and Ericsson aren't turning out to be nearly as good as people thought they were going to be. Ericsson in particular has been horrible this year. Babcock needs to sit him for about a week and play Lebda or Meech instead. Lebda is no star but he has been a lot more solid than Ericsson this year.