Red Wings

[Tom]

Yeah, I thought Lalonde should have been fired earlier this season if not at the end of last season.

[froot loops]

Their finish in the last week of the season showed a lot of fight and probably saved his job. But he should have had a short leash because his job needed to be saved because they collapsed until that last week.

I'm not sure about McLellan but at least he shows some urgency. He seems like the first one in the organization to show any urgency since the glory years.

I cannot square this rebuild with what I watched when I was growing up, the Wings were crap in the early 80s but it didn't take them 10 years to get back to the playoffs, granted it was easier to get a playoff slot. But this glacial progress is maddening. Their pro scouting is so bad, they cannot find any veterans on the cheap that they can improve the team with. It's either wait for their draft picks or overspend money on a veteran that is a JAG.

[chemiclord]

Let's be honest and accept that the Wings of the past had two advantages that the current Wings don't have.

1) The salary cap (while not quite as hard as some people want to believe it is) is a limiting factor in the sort of talent they can bring in. The Wings were never terribly good at finding veterans on the cheap. They were really good at paying veterans whatever the hell they wanted.

2) They were the first NHL team to really seriously invest in overseas scouting. You're not getting a Datsyuk type player in the 6th round because no else knows how trans-Atlantic travel works. Hell, you're not even getting a Lidstrom in the 3rd round anymore. Those guys are going high in the first like they should be because every team knows who they are by draft day now.

I don't know what the way forward is, nor do I believe it should take 10 years like Ken Holland grumbled (and like it seems to be taking under the "Yzerplan")... but turnover in the NHL simply isn't ever going to be particularly quick in this current era, at least until some team discovers the next new paradigm that shifts the landscape.

[froot loops]

I'm not talking the Stanley Cup years, I'm talking the Jacques Demers and Bryan Murray eras. They were able to find cheap veterans that would help them get to the playoffs and that's what we are talking about here. They are hoping to get back to you he playoffs as an eighth seed. It shouldn't be this hard.

[chemiclord]

How many cheap veterans are even available nowadays, much less ones that could be good pieces to a playoff push?

I do agree that it shouldn't be this hard... but I don't know precisely how easy it should be. Everyone in the NHL seems to have embraced the Ken Holland 10-year rebuild plan, and as a result there's not a lot of variance in how teams rise and fall from year to year. Hell, for the last decade, it's felt like the same teams are in the playoffs and the same teams are in the lottery.

[Tom]

4 straight losses. I don’t care what they do at the deadline. Doubt anything will help.

[DanO]

4 straight losses. I don’t care what they do at the deadline. Doubt anything will help.

It's my fault. I invested in Fandual to watch the games. Pistons and Tigers as well. Expect the Pistons to start Sucking and the Tigers won't ever get above .500

[froot loops]

What are they doing? WTF with this deadline.

[ghandi]

Mrazek? Isnt he pretty much done at this point?

[foxhopper]

yep

[chemiclord]

I don't even think the Red Wings know what they want to be at this point. They just keep grasping at the same straws thinking one of them is going to be different.

[froot loops]

Yzerman actually said he was glad to get Mrazek because he was signed next season, WTF? They just got off the Husso contract. The goalie position has been a disaster under the Yzerplan. I always bring up Ken Holland's 10 year prophecy. At this rate that was too optimistic. Getting the fucking 8th seed should not be this difficult.

The trade is so puzzling that I couldn't figure out if this was a buy or a sell.

Also, the Wings sent a second round pick to the Sharks last year for them to take on Jake Walman. The Sharks flipped him to the Oilers today for a 1st round pick. This is Troy Weaver level managing.

[chemiclord]

At least Troy Weaver found pieces for his successor to piece together.

I struggle to think of too many pieces Yzerman will leave for his successor to build around.

[froot loops]

It's crazy how they went from one of the best organizations in the NHL to a bottom dweller. For about 10-15 years they were the biggest team in town. They used to chant Let's Go Red Wings at the Lion games, now they are just a broken franchise with a fading legend preaching patience every year.

[chemiclord]

It's crazy how they went from one of the best organizations in the NHL to a bottom dweller. For about 10-15 years they were the biggest team in town. They used to chant Let's Go Red Wings at the Lion games, now they are just a broken franchise with a fading legend preaching patience every year.

Even if they had all the opportunities of yesteryear, they don't have the ownership and the front office savvy and organization to take advantage of it.

I'll admit I don't know how Yzerman could have gone from building a competent franchise from next to nothing in Tampa... yet can't even seem to get the winged wheel in anything resembling a consistent forward gear.