Long time no see!

Kyle Quincey will be making his debut tonight so I will for sure be paying close attention to him. Pavel Datsyuk is also out and Kindl and Commodore are scratched. This game has big playoff implications as a win tonight gives Detroit a nice advantage over the Canucks for first place in the West. Considering how good they’ve been playing at home, getting the #1 seed is going to be crucial to a Wings cup run.

Lineup

Johan Franzen — Henrik Zetterberg — Todd Bertuzzi

Danny Cleary — Valtteri Filppula — Jiri Hudler

Justin Abdelkader — Darren Helm — Drew Miller

Jan Mursak — Cory Emmerton — Tomas Holmstrom

——-

Nicklas Lidstrom — Ian White

Niklas Kronwall — Brad Stuart

Jonathan Ericsson — Kyle Quincey

——-

Jimmy Howard

The game starts at 7.30 on NHL Network.

I know Todd, Im sad too.

Considering what Bertuzzi contributes to the team his cap hit is pretty good. He has 29 points on the season and plays pretty well defensively. He is also apparently a pretty good leader so that should be taken into consideration as well. However, despite the positive he brings he brings more negative consequences.

The big negative that this move does is that it limits the Wings in terms of roster space. Not only do the Wings have to have no more than 50 contracts but they also can’t have more than 23 players on the active roster. With players like Brunnstrom, Tatar, Nyqvist, and Connor playing great down in Grand Rapids, this move limits who they can put on the team next year. In addition to that, this move severely impacts the futures of Hudler, Holmstrom, and Emmerton in Detroit. My guess is that they resign Hudler, Homer retires, and that Emmerton gets waived or gets packaged into a trade. That opens up two roster spots which teams that two of our prospects can make the team. Also, this move impacts who we go after in Free Agency as now we won’t just have to clear cap space to go after a guy like Zach Parise but also clear a roster spot.

All in all, the move doesn’t make too much sense. Not from the point of how much he contributes or from how much he makes but from the standpoint that he is hogging a roster spot.

The Wings first five minutes were dominant to say the least. They excelled in every aspect of the game and took an early lead through a goal by Valterri Filpulla. However, the Wings success wouldn’t last long as Chicago completely dominated the second period. Goals by Jimmy Hayes and Marcus Kruger would give Chicago the two points and send the Wings back to Detroit.

Sums up Helms finishing ability(Or Lack thereof)

There were some positive notes to tonight’s game though, mainly the terrific comeback by Jimmy Howard. He played outstandingly and if our team had played better he could easily have shut them out considering the way he played. Chicago had multiple breakaways that Jimmy managed to stop. Needless to say, welcome back Jimmy! Another positive was the way Kindl played. He clearly read the writing on the wall and realized that he needed to step his game up. Not only did he play on the power play but in general he played very well.

Next up for the Wings is Thursday night against the Cancucks.

Obviously, the Hawks aren’t the only team that is missing a key player as the Wings will tonight be without star forward Pavel Datsyuk who is out for the next 2-3 weeks after undergoing knee surgery. Daniel Cleary is returning to the lineup today along with Jimmy Howard so both of those players returns will provide a nice boost for the Wings. Also, newly acquired Kyle Quincey won’t be playing tonight but might play on Thursday against the Canucks.

How will the Wings perform without Dangles?

Despite their recent struggles, the Blackhawks have turned it around the past couple games and seem to be getting back on track. Hopefully the Wings can ruin the party and improve their sub-par road record. As we near the playoffs people tend to start to look at the standings more and more often and despite the Wings sitting at #1 in the league it is important to remember that every point is key and winning the next three games on our schedule is crucial to maintaining and extending our league lead.

Lineup

Johan Franzen — Henrik Zetterberg — Todd Bertuzzi

Danny Cleary — Valtteri Filppula — Jiri Hudler

Justin Abdelkader — Darren Helm — Drew Miller

Jan Mursak — Cory Emmerton — Tomas Holmstrom

———

Nicklas Lidstrom — Ian White

Niklas Kronwall — Brad Stuart

Jonathan Ericsson — Jakub Kindl

———

Jimmy Howard

Prediction

If the Wings can garner an early lead and not allow the Hawks to enter the PP I feel confident that the Wings can win this. Chicagos goaltending hasn’t been too good this season so shooting the pucks is crucial as eventually it should go in. Hopefully this game won’t be like the game versus Minnesota a while back when the Wings totally collapsed after Lidstrom didn’t play.

Puck drop is at 8pm. The game will be featured on NBC Sports Network.

Quincey was originally drafted by Detroit back in the 2003 draft as the 132 overall pick. Between 2005 and 2008 Kyle played 13 games with us while scoring one point. Due to the depth of the Wings defenseman, Quincey was put on waivers back on October 13th of 2008 where he was claimed by the LA Kings. Kyle would go on to have a very good season for LA as in 72 games he scored 28 points. He would spend the next two seasons with the Avalanche where he would be alright.

My first impression of this move was thinking we gave up a 1st round pick for who? I don’t like the deal and purely because I feel we gave up too much. Granted, the Wings always pick at the bottom half and maybe I am overvaluing first round picks. This move also shows that the Wings are in it to win it and that the market is extremely tough and competitive. As for Sebastian Piche who was shipped to Tampa to open up a contract spot, he would never have made the Wings anyways and most likely won’t turn out to be anything more than a career minor leaguer.

Due to Quincey’s cap hit(3.25 Million), we can probably scratch off any talks of the Wings getting a big name guy. Although a depth forward is still not out of the equation. Also to note is that Quincey’s is an RFA so as long as we tender him we will at least get a very high draft pick in return next season. This move makes Kindl expendable as well.

I will update as soon as more news come out.

The Wings don’t plan on calling anyone up as Daniel Cleary returns tonight. We shouldn’t have too big problems as our depth has won us games in the past. Also to note is that Datsyuk only had 1 goal in the past 14 games so clearly something was wrong.

Lets all hope for a speedy recovery so Mr. Datsyuk can return as quick as possible.

In the past couple of years the Wings have been limited in their potential trade activity due to their cap space(Or lack there of). However, this year the Wings have over 5 million in cap space and have the possibility to make a move for a big name player. The Wings have been rumored to be interested in guys like Parise, Travis Moen(As Im writing this I find out that he is out for the year), Ryan Suter and even the recently traded Pavel Kubina. There are many different opinions of what the Wings should do but here is my overview of what I think should be done.

First of all, it seems that most of the Wings lines/pairings are playing great and gelling terrifically. The first line is playing great with Datsyuk having a Hart quality year and Franzen and Bert are chipping in. The second line, which has arguably been our best this season, is playing great with both Hudler and Filpulla having career years. The third line has single handedly won us games this season led by the surprise that is Drew Miller. The 4th line is also scoring points and playing alright.On the defense, everyone(Including Ericsson) is player great except for Kindl and Commodore who have just been solid.

Considering how good we’ve been playing we really don’t have many areas we can improve on and I don’t see us making a big splash. Currently we have 3 areas of improvement: A big solid third pairing defense man to play alongside Big E, a solid 3rd/4th line center who can elevate the 4th line and a Top-6 young forward or a Top Pairing young defense man(Ex. Parise, Suter, Weber).

Will Mr. Parise be wearing a different shade of Red after the Trade Deadline?

We have been rumored to have been interested in both Hal Gill and Pavel Kubina and both of those guys fit the role of being a solid 3rd pairing defenseman. Don’t get me wrong, I love Jakub Kindl and do truly believe that he can be a solid player going forward however getting a guy like Kubina would be an improvement for now and would solidify our defense. Getting a solid bottom 6 forward that knows his role on the team would also help as depth is key to winning the cup. Getting a guy who fits the mold of Dallas Drake back in ’08 will help our 4th line tremendously. I mean can you imagine a 4th line of Cleary/Abby-Travis Moen?- Holmstrom.

The final area of improvement for the Wings would be to acquire a young forward/defenseman who has already established themselves as a star in this league. The most common names in this discussion are guys like Parise, Weber and Suter, but another dark-horse could be guys like Bobby Ryan and Jack Johnson. These players are already established stars and would solidify our spot as favorites to come out of the west. The key in getting these players is to not give up too many quality players in order to get them. For example, I don’t want to give up Hudler+Tatar+Emmerton+2/3 Firsts for Parise. That deal would maybe not hurt our team at all as of right now but you are giving up your top forward prospect and 2/3 late first round picks.

Overall, I actually hope that we don’t make any moves as I think this team is a contender as it is however, If Ken Holland truly feels like we need to make a move I hope it is only for a depth forward/defenseman and that he doesn’t mortgage our future for one guy.

That’s all for now, I will be talking a lot about this topic in the next couple days so be sure to check back.

Conklin will most likely take over as the #1 goalie down in Grand Rapids while Joey will give Jimmy Howard a breather once in a blue moon. Although some people were speculating whether sending Joey back down to GR would be the good move in order to keep him “Fresh”, this move makes perfect sense and for the first time in a long time I truly feel content about our goal tending situation.

Good Luck Mr. Conklin!

It is kind of sad to see Conklins time with us come to an end like this. I wasn’t too confident in him when he came during the summer due to his bad play last year but like most others I bought into the notion that it was because the Blues were crap.

I wish the best of luck for the Conkblock down in Grand Rapids and now we can all put this chapter behind us.

After the Winter break was over I had very little free time and slowly slid away from this blog. However, I am back and hopefully back for good. I also have some new features being planed for the blog including a podcast and player interviews.

In the past month a lot of things have happened for the Wings. The Winter Classic has been announced and the Wings are on a 23 game home win streak. As for the players, Joey MacDonald has emerged as a more than capable backup goaltender and has proven that he can win in the NHL. The Wings are currently a top the entire NHL in points and are playing their best hockey in years.

I have to admit, I am very excited about this team and truly feel like we can make a run at the cup.

Thats all for now, talk to you soon!

Playing at home has obviously been a huge advantage for the Wings as they have won their last 13 at home. If they win today, it ties a record that dates all the way back to the mid-sixties.

Lets get Jimmy his 101th win today!

Like I said above this game has huge division implications. If the Wings win this one and the Blues lose in regulation or in OT, the Wings lead the Central Division and have a one game advantage on the Blackhawks. The race for the division title will be close until the end so getting points in these games will be key.

Todd Bertuzzi is a game-time decision and if he is good to go then Emmerton will most likely be scratched. Mike Commodore is still out with a foot injury.

Lineup

Johan Franzen — Pavel Datsyuk — Danny Cleary

Valtteri Filppula — Henrik Zetterberg — Jiri Hudler

Drew Miller — Darren Helm — Jan Mursak

Cory Emmerton/Todd Bertuzzi — Justin Abdelkader — Tomas Holmstrom

*

Nicklas Lidstrom — Ian White

Niklas Kronwall — Brad Stuart

Jakub Kindl — Jonathan Ericsson

*

Jimmy Howard

Puck Drop is at 12.30 pm on NBC. This game is nationally televised so I can watch it on my TV not on some crappy link. So guys enjoy cause this games going to be a good one.