Red Wings

[jaadam4]

I love this write up CBS sports did about Ranking entertainment value of the first round playoffs matchups. They were harsh on Washington. Can’t imagine what they’d have said about us


7. New York Rangers vs. Washington Capitals


The Presidents' Trophy winners are taking on what might be the worst NHL playoff team ever -- at least in the modern era. That would normally make this the least compelling matchup of the first round, but it is slightly elevated due to a few different factors. For starters, I have a morbid curiosity about how a team with a minus-37 goal differential will fare in the playoffs. Secondly, I'm not sure how many more times I'll get to see Alex Ovechkin in the postseason, so I need to cherish this opportunity. Finally, the Rangers are loaded up front, and an offensive explosion is never far away.

[jaadam4]

Lalonde just isn’t good. Didn’t like the hire from
jump street

[maxw3ll]

I like Kane for the shooting ability. Todays NHL that helps but he seemed slower speed wise down the stretch.

losing starting goaltender was big. They scored enough that improving to middle of the pack goals against probably makes playoffs. Bottom 5 or 6 is just too hard to overcome. Top 10 scoring cant hide that.

Also seemed to lack ability to skate puck into zones at times. Think PP entry or vs fast teams.

Better Defense overall and a hot goalie and this team should be in playoff. If scoring regresses and they dont fix defense then Lalonde has to go.

[JGSpartan]

Not to mention they spent the first few years waiting out awful contracts. They still have 2 or 3 more years of paying Abdelkader a mil per year even.

They are considered to have one of the better farms now and can continue to draw from it or trade to fill holes without completely draining it.

I think Lalonde should get a year 3 for a lot of these reasons. And should it fail and they regress, they'll be a lot better set up for the next people than what Yzerman inherited.

[JGSpartan]

To be fair, The Wings did significantly improve their win percentage in OT. They went from 7-10 to 14-9. They certainly wouldn't have sniffed the playoffs losing in OT at the same rate as before.

So I guess it depends on how you want to look at things. They had 1 less regulations win but did have 5 fewer regulation losses than a year before. Those essentially all became OT wins instead plus one OT loss converted to a win. Certainly a net positive.

As far as the Yzerplan goes and defenders. It takes time to develop them. We are seeing some of the results in Seider and Edvinsson. Holland's strategy was to forsake the farm to improve now to hang on to the streak as long as possible. The barren farm system was always gonna lead to this struggle. The 10 year comment is the long end of it but the last two years (7 and 8) were probably the earliest it could have happened. Next year is nine so we'll see.

Probably Kane or Perron will be gone, or both. Jonatan Berggren probably gets the call-up with a top-6 spot available and another vet added if they can't keep one of them. Edvinsson gets the full call-up on defense. They'll probably have to take another gamble on a goaltender with Cossa probably still a year away. He did have a very good year though and he may get a 9 game trial.

[chemiclord]

Only 27 of the Red Wings 41 wins came in regulation. I've never liked these rules with teams getting points for losing in OT and am not a fan of shootouts either.

The problem with the old way is that you wound up with teams playing scared at the end of regulation and the entire OT period, with the game either ending in a tie anyway (which was apparently an awful thing that fans couldn't suffer), or games that went deep into several overtime periods.

[Tom]

Philly had to win in regulation. If they went to OT, the Caps would get the point they needed to eliminate Philly.

Ahhh, okay. Thanks.

[ghandi]

Only 27 of the Red Wings 41 wins came in regulation. I've never liked these rules with teams getting points for losing in OT and am not a fan of shootouts either.

[GALion68]

Three games stick out to me. They could have put Washington out of it's misery a week ago and they got their ass handed to them in LCA. They played the lowly Coyotes two times in March and got waxed in a 8-1 aggregate. That is where the season is lost.

These last 4 games were fun where they fought hard as hell to get into the playoffs. They showed great fight but in those 4 games, they gave up 17 goals in games they had to win. That's not a real playoff contender. The need to upgrade the defense in all facts, just way too many defensive breakdowns.

One other game, blowing a 4-0 lead and losing to bottom feeding San Jose in December.

[jaadam4]

Just remember that you can get screwed over.in Montreal, just ask Bret Hart.

Back to wrestling again I see

[froot loops]

Yesterday’s game was crazy. They looked dead and started fighting back. Raymond was getting destroyed and he kept plugging away and scored two goals. The way the cycled the puck and just pressured Montreal in the 3rd was beautiful to watch. Wish I could have seen more of that the last few weeks.

Tonight was bad. Sure they came back but with their season on the line, they barely made it to OT. I was surprised Philly pulled their goalie when the game was tied. Why not play for OT?

Feels like the Wings could use a Bob Rouse on the blue line. I would fire Lalonde but I’m guessing either Stevie will give him another year since it was his first hire as head coach or Ilitch won’t let him be fired that quick because he doesn’t want to pay someone who is not coaching.

Philly had to win in regulation. If they went to OT, the Caps would get the point they needed to eliminate Philly.

[froot loops]

Hockey has changed for the better since the days of the left wing lock, so we aren't going to see anything like that anytime in the medium term, but you need to be able to show better defensive principles. I'm not sure if that is a talent issue or a team defensive philosophy issue, but it needs to get sorted out if they are ever going to get back to the playoffs and contend.

They were the worst defensive team of any team that made the playoffs or just missed them. They gave up 274 goals which is bottom third in the NHL. That's bad. They are the seventh best scoring team in the league.

[Tom]

Yesterday’s game was crazy. They looked dead and started fighting back. Raymond was getting destroyed and he kept plugging away and scored two goals. The way the cycled the puck and just pressured Montreal in the 3rd was beautiful to watch. Wish I could have seen more of that the last few weeks.

Tonight was bad. Sure they came back but with their season on the line, they barely made it to OT. I was surprised Philly pulled their goalie when the game was tied. Why not play for OT?

Feels like the Wings could use a Bob Rouse on the blue line. I would fire Lalonde but I’m guessing either Stevie will give him another year since it was his first hire as head coach or Ilitch won’t let him be fired that quick because he doesn’t want to pay someone who is not coaching.

[chemiclord]

Kinda depressing since the biggest part of the Yzerplan was supposedly shoring up the defense.

We see how that's worked so far.

[froot loops]

Three games stick out to me. They could have put Washington out of it's misery a week ago and they got their ass handed to them in LCA. They played the lowly Coyotes two times in March and got waxed in a 8-1 aggregate. That is where the season is lost.

These last 4 games were fun where they fought hard as hell to get into the playoffs. They showed great fight but in those 4 games, they gave up 17 goals in games they had to win. That's not a real playoff contender. The need to upgrade the defense in all facts, just way too many defensive breakdowns.