Quote:
Originally Posted by Hurst2112
I come to this thread just to see HB's '(stanley)cup half empty' posts about the Wings. You really let me down this time man.
I keed, I keed!  You're the 1 Wings fan I've known over the years that keeps my fandom in check. |
Heh! I'm glad I can be of service.
I do try to be very objective when assessing the Wings. That often leads me to be pretty pessimistic. I think I'm just over compensating for many of my enthusiastic brethren. Also, the fact that Michigan and the Lions are just awful has definitely softened me up this year and have put things into perspective. I'm really just enjoying actually watching a talented and competitive team. It feels like it's been a while. (The Lions' pre-season championship aside.)
Though, since you brought it up...
The Wings are 7-1-1 and just finished the first two games of a long 5 game Western road trip. Despite the great record, the Wings really haven't played a good game. They won their last two against Chicago and Los Angeles in shootouts and all but two of their other victories were by one goal. Their two other victories were two goal games and the Wings scored an empty net goal in each.
They aren't blowing people away. Their defense and goaltending have just been ok. Osgood has just been ok. Conklin was pretty stellar, but had a rough night against Chicago. They are giving up a ton more shots than they have in the past (though they held LA to just 19 last night) and there have been a lot more giveaways in their own zone. It's not too huge a concern because they are still winning. Like DeTox has mentioned, the Hossa-Holmstrom-Datsyuk line is probably one of the best in the NHL right now and Zetterberg continues to be Zetterberg. The loss of Franzen for a month will hurt, but the Wings have a lot of depth and hopefully playing with Zetterberg will get someone like Cleary, Hudler, or Samuelsson going. You just hope that the goaltending and defense will get into form over the course of the season.
P.S. If you're really jonesing for some of my better "'(stanley)cup half empty' posts" go back and read last year's playoff thread. I do believe that I picked the Wings to lose every series but the first and explained why.
