Red Wings Thread
Oct 1, 2015 15:54:05 GMT -5
Post by wacko on Oct 1, 2015 15:54:05 GMT -5
We are almost a week away from the first drop of the puck.
For those of you that haven't been paying attention to the preseason, Blashill has unleashed the Wings' top prospects (Larkin, Athanasiou, Mantha, and Lil' Bertuzzi), and they have (for the most part) terrorized the rest of the league. In only four games, Athanasiou has 5 points (3G 2A), Larkin has 4 points (3G 1A), and Mantha has 4 Points (2G 2A). And that's not including Teemu Pulkkinen, who has 5 points in 2 games (3G 2A).
The only problem is that the roster is considerably stocked with veterans blocking the kids from getting serious looks at the roster... That concern is lessened at the moment with players like Datsyuk, Helm, Franzen, and Cleary () out with injuries, but as they come back, things will get very interesting. If the Wings get off to a slow start, do you take your chances and roll with the kids?
Here are some dumb (and hopeful) predictions I made for this upcoming year:
Feel free to chime in with your own thoughts or predictions.
For those of you that haven't been paying attention to the preseason, Blashill has unleashed the Wings' top prospects (Larkin, Athanasiou, Mantha, and Lil' Bertuzzi), and they have (for the most part) terrorized the rest of the league. In only four games, Athanasiou has 5 points (3G 2A), Larkin has 4 points (3G 1A), and Mantha has 4 Points (2G 2A). And that's not including Teemu Pulkkinen, who has 5 points in 2 games (3G 2A).
The only problem is that the roster is considerably stocked with veterans blocking the kids from getting serious looks at the roster... That concern is lessened at the moment with players like Datsyuk, Helm, Franzen, and Cleary () out with injuries, but as they come back, things will get very interesting. If the Wings get off to a slow start, do you take your chances and roll with the kids?
Here are some dumb (and hopeful) predictions I made for this upcoming year:
- Tomas Tatar scores over 30 goals.
- Gustav Nyquist fails to score 20 goals.
- The Wings have a defenseman score 10 goals for the first time since Nick Lidstrom retired.
- Both Brendan Smith and Jakob Kindl have career years now that they are far away from Mike Babcock's doghouse.
- Kronwall is demoted by the end of the season to the 3rd pairing minutes.
- Jonathan Ericsson is traded away for a draft pick.
- Teemu Pulkinnen scores 20 goals, but is a minus player everywhere else on the ice.
- Tomas Jurco makes a Sheahan-type leap forward and spends the majority of the year playing on the top 2 lines.
- Darren Helm plays less than 20 games for the Red Wings this year.
- The Howard/Mrazek goaltending timeshare works well, but Holland turns down a huge deadline trade for Howard and yet Blashill names Mrazek the #1 goalie anyway.
- Abdelkader comes back down to earth in terms of stats, but is still a good player and Glendening helps recover some of the lost production.
- Athanasiou and Larkin make their NHL debuts this season, Mantha does not.
- Johan Franzen plays his last game as a member of the Detroit Red Wings.
- The Wings are top 10 in team offense, but bottom 10 in team defense.
- Dan Cleary does not play this season.
Feel free to chime in with your own thoughts or predictions.