Players on my team at or above Pavel Datsyuk (12) in points
James Neal (17)
Ales Hemsky (16)
Dustin Brown (16)
Alexander Semin (15)
Mike Richards (16)
Chris Pronger (14)
Tim Connolly (13)
Kris Versteeg (12)

Now on that list, the only players who should be even in the same ballpark are Semin and Richards. I mean for pete’s sake, Chris effing Pronger has 2 more points than Pav, that’s just not right in any universe.

The scary thing about that is with all the players we’ve lost to injury and free agency, we desperately need Pav and Hank to be 90+ point players this year. The other scary thing is Jonathan Ericsson leads all Wings D-men in points with 8.

So, Pav, Hank, Nick, Nik Jr., and Raffi, it’s time to step it up, we need you guys to play how we all know you can.

Oh, look, the Wings game replay is on FSN, I’ll be sure to get right on that…

Unfortunately, the Williams injury probably  means a return to the top six for Leino. They’ll need Helm centering the third line, assuming they keep Zetterberg and Datsyuk apart as Babcock stubbornly probably wants to do.

the Wings sure have had some long breaks so far this year.

Haven’t looked ahead, but I’m sure we’ll be wishing for breaks like this (for their sakes) come March and April. NHL schedulers suck that way.

I meant to reply to your comment about Tatar earlier, but forgot. So here it is: I asked Megan about him, but she and Sarah (both Griffins season ticket holders) said he’s not ready. Apparently, he’s not getting big minutes in Grand Rapids yet. He’s very green. Extremely talented, but green. And probably not physically strong enough for the NHL game yet.

But he’s there for the long haul now, having passed the date he needed to be sent back to the OHL. So if he matures fast, maybe next year.

On the trade thing, I don’t know if it can be done either, it would probably have to be a pretty good prospect to go along with Meech to get the kind of impact player I’d like to see.

Speaking of (former) Wings prospects, it would be nice to still have Tomas Fleischmann right about now, the guy’s back from a blood clot, and in the 6 games he’s played for the Caps this season, he has 5 goals and 2 assists!

As for the line I suggested, Babcock is gonna have to do something like that, we’re just about out of top 6 forwards. I think Helm is gonna have to be on one of the top 2 lines by default.

I hate tonight’s loss if for nothing else than we get to stew on it until Wednesday. For supposedly having a compact schedule due to the Olympics, the Wings sure have had some long breaks so far this year.

Disgusting covers it pretty well.

One thing the Wings need is for Hank and Pavel to step it up. Their wingers are underwhelming, but those two should be able to bring out the best in anyone on their wing and thus far, they’ve yet to kick it into that extra gear. We know they’re top tier, world-class players, but I feel it’s time for them to be more obvious about it.

I like your Meech package suggestion, but finding someone who could help would be tough. Holland could swing it, if anyone can, but it may not be doable even for him.

Helm and Eaves with Datsyuk is a solid idea. It’s unfortunate Babcock likely wouldn’t do it.

I didn’t pay close enough attention to see how the lines shook out after Williams went down, but it’s going to be interesting to see how things look without him going forward.

I wouldn’t call it an overreaction–it was pretty bad.

As for the team in general, even in the wins the last week, we just aren’t scoring any goals, and the PP is awful. I know it’s hard with all the injuries to have Pav and Hank together, but, short of a trade (and I don’t even have an idea who for what) I don’t know what else to do. The wingers Pav and Hank have just aren’t good enough for the Wings to have a consistent offense. I know Homer has a lot of goals, but he’s not the kind of guy you can count on to be a scoring winger 5 on 5. And well, I’m convinced Bertuzzi just can’t score, ever. Cleary finally scored tonight, but prior to that, he’s probably been worse than Bertuzzi, because he doesn’t even seem to get any chances. And Jason Williams as a 2nd line player is a joke, and now we don’t even have him.

This is gonna sound like an overreaction to one bad loss, but with all the injuries, if Lilja is able to come back in the next few weeks, I’d like to see Holland package Meech with a prospect and try to get some kind of scoring winger. That, or after his performance in training camp, is there any way they would bring Tatar up and see what he can do?

Personally, I’d like to see Helm on a line with Datsyuk, it would be nice to see what Pav could do with someone else who actually has speed. That’s my proposition, a line of Datsyuk, Helm, and Eaves. That would be hell to play against, talk about relentless.

Again, probably just an overreaction, but scoring 4 goals in a week, and getting blown out by the freaking Leafs (seriously, the Leafs???) will do that to you.