conundrumed

Literally opposite ends of the spectrum with my fave teams. D and Buffalo are on skids. I truly think Detroit gets on a run. Lots of early injuries have sidetracked them.

I always hated waiving Byron. Sometimes the little guy going hard and trying to lay a big hit gets his teammates revved up. Always reminded me of Cogliano. With any finish at all, they'd be popping goals left, right and center. I swear Cogliano used to get 4-5 high danger chances/game. No finish, like Byron's breakaways.

But can we swap Lewis out?

Keep an eye on: Jonatan Berggren poolies. 1g/1a through his first 3 NHL games playing 3rd line and 2nd PP. High IQ RWer, good 2 way, gifted offensively. The Wings have said they won’t call him up to fill in short term. Here he is! I’m excited to see if he can sneak up the lineup/secure a full-time spot. PPG AHL player, already too good for that league. Still on IR: Fabbri/Soderblom. Not sure either bumps him if he keeps it up. Was my dark horse for Calder this year.🤞

Paul Byron, 5’9”/160lbs. Had a coupla 20g seasons but is now oft-injured. Can Phillips be Byron? I’d be okay with that but I’m doubtful. He requires waivers, so the potential of losing him for nothing has to be considered. Byron was also too good for the A. Tough call. For the player’s sake, maybe just move him if he’ll never get a look.

Sutter came in saying we’re one of the slowest teams in the league and I agreed. Now he puts an anchor on every line so I don’t understand. My guess would be put Huberdeau and Dube together and either Kadri/Backlund doesn’t really matter. Not so much about speed as pace. Match the players that can play the same pace or close. Huberdeau is the hardest because he wants fast and faster. Sutter’s frustration seems to be he wants him to slow his pace. Are we wanting to be a deathly slow team again? I don’t pretend to understand. But we’re getting at that time of year when the speed of play gets on the uptick by a lot.

Just a black hole. Like Vrana, but at least we know Vrana entered the league’s player assistance program as Price and others have done. Kylington is a bigger question mark. Personally, I have zero idea why it remains hidden. Seems very counter-intuitive. It will be addressed like a tidal wave when/if he comes back. Why not attempt to get ahead of it a little? Very strange to let it reach a crescendo of silence in this day and age.

Like you, we have no idea.

Ummm, uhhhhh….

So St Loo will stay at the bottom of the league again? I know they like to tell us that, but it’s not really accurate.

Well Kubalik has shut me up. 7G (t-1st)/18pts (1st) for the Wings through 15 games. Not bad for $2.5 per. Austin Czarnik is back.lol Czarnik-Veleno-Berggren 3rd line. He’ll lose that spot when Bertuzzi gets back soon. Bert(Suter for now)-Larkin-Raymond Kubalik-Copp-Perron Suter(Czar)-Veleno-Berggren Erne-Rasmussin-Sunny Maata’s been a huge surprise. Really helped Hronek’s game, now their 1st pair. Vrana hanging out with Kylington. No idea why, how or when.

We’re getting close to the time of the new season where things will start normalizing. There always hot start teams, players and goalies that will fall off. Some teams and players look better than they actually are and vice versa. We’ll be okay. Likely don’t need any moves atm. We had big changes and I’m willing to wait 1/4 of the season to see what works. We have enough to ice 4 good lines and 3 reasonably good pairings. Just gotta see how it gels. Sutter’s been playing the fiddle a lot and I get the frustrations. But this is the only opportunity to play the darn thing before things get a world more competitive and the league starts normalizing.

It’s his D-play that I see as his biggest struggle. Maybe Backlund helped with that. With Kadri he’s been a bit of a deer in the headlights defensively.

Not sure why we're stuck on the idea Huberdeau needs the best RW money can buy when he had Duclair and Tippet. Dube's strong side is RW, Mangia's is LW. Just do it that way. Hubie the Mangia 1-2 at LW. Dube and Toffoli 1-2 at RW. Or just go back to original lines. Lucic isn't a top 6 and it has screwed every line.

Thank you. I don't know what point Sutter was trying to make, but it was a terrible decision at the time and it shows.

Whatta save Markstrom. Damn...

Fair enough.

I'm having bad flashbacks of Sutter "rewarding" 4th liners by taking one and elevating them. Thus messing everything up.

I'm going back to my initial thought when we got Huberdeau: Hube-Lindholm-Dube Dube's the hardest worker most nights, he can carry the puck, can forecheck hard and is smart enough to figure it out. But JTech's right. We need to stabilize the back end. It's been a gong show on occasion and playing high risk at the O Blueline with no one back to cover. Cut the gambling out.

Way too early though. You don't build chemistry by putting everyone on notice 7 games in. Hated the idea from the outset. Why break up Mang-Kadri-Dube and a great 4th line, solid 3rd to "fix" a first line that needs time to get in sync?

Big Z

Crush by Dave Matthews and here we are. 3 song intermission. It was fun. Is Daccord actually good? He has a shutout.

Going to California.lol Next up I am the Highway Chris Cornel:) Voice already warmed up pregame.lol

Guitar break.lol See how many songs I can get in.

I don't get the line changes. Why in game 8 when you're 5-2?