On the Wings

Update (3:36 PM): I’ve been told that I sound patronizing in this post and, reading over it again, I have to agree. The thing is, when I was writing it, I had frantic “let’s trade Draper, Maltby, and Schneider for Doan” message boarders in mind. IwoCPO definitely is not one of those, by the way - I just got on a tangent after reading his post.

Seeing the team score more goals would definitely be a good thing, but I, for one, am going to try to be satisfied with a hard-working, defense-oriented team because I feel they can be successful if they perfect it.

The team, in general, is playing well defensively, with just a few loose ends that could be tied up (i.e. giving up a couple goals despite allowing only 20 or so shots). Why take the team in the opposite direction? - Matt

Update (1:13 PM): Just a clarification on my snarky comments below:

I believe the team needs offense, of course, and that they need to get the power play going. But I also believe they’ll have more success if they continue to stress defensive play and not offense at the expense of defense.

Folks, this team is not going to blow out the opposition as frequently as Wings teams in the past have done simply because Babcock is emphasizing team defense. Can they and will they dominate offensively at times? Sure. They certainly have the personnel for it. Most often, however, we should be seeing consistently strong defensive efforts instead of dominating offensive performances. This is a Mike Babcock team, after all.

The power play is miserable and needs to be fixed, but, realistically, we can expect one or two PPGs per game. So we’re still not going to see 5-6 goal games.

This team needs to continue allowing only 20 shots a game. They just need to stop giving up a couple goals, which means Hasek needs to be more dominant.

Defensive diligence, not offensive dominance, is the hallmark of this team. It means they’ll be streaky, winning a few and then losing a few. It means they’ll get blown out occassionally but it also means they’ll do the blowing out themselves every once and a while.

In the end, they’ll be in the middle of the pack in the standings as well as offensive categories. They’ll be on top in defense, however. Get used to it, Wings fans. - Matt

It’s a bit of a slow news day so I’m taking the day off from blogging - unless something happens worth posting about - so I can focus on class, work, and homework.

I will point you to A2Y, though, so you can read IwoCPO’s take on solutions for ending cheap shots against the Wings. Basically, they need to increase their offensive output by getting the power play going. Once that’s done, they can score PPGs after unrelated phantom calls and then thumb their noses at the opposition bench as they revel in retaliation for a hit on an earlier un-penalized play.

Revenge’ll be sweet, if they can just get the power play going! Other teams will still be able to deal out concussions and charley-horses left and right, but, by golly, they’ll regret it when the Wings score one or two power plays. Just pray they don’t put their potential for supreme defensive prowess on hold and start allowing goals as they work on fulfiling their much more limited offensive potential.