slothfacekilla

What a gut punch it was reading that. You can tell how worn down he feels, he was always such a fun and bright voice during the lean years for the Lions. I wish he could have seen them lift the Lombardi.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6122736/2025/02/18/red-wings-player-poll/ Some funny stuff in there, I am not shocked that Berggren has no life skills after he drove to the wrong Grand Rapids

Would you rather fight broccoli Tkachuk or ogre Tkachuk? Didn't expect to enjoy the tournament this much, I'm really looking forward to the Olympics now.

Go Sweden!

I've been reading very encouraging things about Dylan James this season, it sounds like he could get a pro contract after this season. I would love for him to be able to replace the Mottes and Velenos on the roster. More Buch content:

I would love for him to come over to NA soon...

JT Miller being the third line center instead of Larkin is insanity lol

I was hoping Shine would still be with the Wings when they played the Lightning next. Outside of Chiarot and maybe Seider after a whistle I can't see anyone doing anything. It would be fun to watch Soderblom ragdoll him.

It's a shame that Noah Dobson is right handed

No question I would welcome a Cozens reclamation try if the cost was cheap and Buffalo retained some money. If Sabres are desperate to get rid of the contract for some reason a combo of Compher + Veleno + mid round pick would be fine with me. But not looking to do much more than that myself.

FWIW I have read rumblings that the Wings' board was Stutzle 1 then Raymond 2 so they could have shocked everyone if they won the lottery! I have no idea how true that is though as it didn't come from anyone in the Wings' org directly so could have just been revisionist stuff after Lafreniere took a while to get going.

In my mind he's one of those dudes with all the tools, but not the toolbox, so I'm skeptical he'd turn it around in Detroit but stranger things have happened. I also don't watch a ton of Buffalo games, but I've just been unimpressed with his hockey IQ when it comes to his own zone. If his contract wasn't so awful I would be way more willing to try, but his lack of offense after getting his deal makes it pretty ugly right now. Maybe he can rediscover whatever he did to get paid on another team.

No to Dylan Cozens. He's absolutely awful on defense and doesn't put up enough points to make up for it. He just doesn't seem like a Yzerman type center to me.

I'm hoping the Wings are trying to sign Johansson to a contract extension in season, I would love to lock him into a cheaper long term deal before he plays 20+ minutes a night too much!

They also said Kasper couldn't play on the first line! Seems about right for Wheeler, honestly I'm shocked he had them in the top 5 after Edvinsson "graduated". He's notoriously been more down on Danielson than other evaluators and he generally doesn't change his tune even after the draft, so it is nice to see he still rates them well I guess!

Slowly but surely the yzerplan is coming to fruition

Too be fair he has an extensive disciplinary history, and he’s also a douche though I guess so is Benn. But I am glad these guys are finally getting games for these boneheaded plays. Benn should have been suspended too and I hate him to this day!

Raymond's contract is going to be such a steal with the cap going up

And here I was posting in the January thread last night like a fool!

This is a good team, enjoyable to watch

That second goal was Edvinsson from Soderblom and Berggren. The kids are alright!

Lalonde had an awful defensive system that didn't allow for players to have any sort of agency or creativity outside of this person needs to be here and when you get the puck immediately flip it out of the zone. You could really see it with Seider, any sort of creative plays he used to do with the puck dried up the last two seasons. I also feel that his defensive system seemed to rely more on collapsing into your own zone instead of trying to stop flow through the neutral zone, which I hate. Then on top of that, I feel like the last season and a half he was coaching scared to lose his job and stifled the offense even further. They weren't chasing after dumping and they basically had no way to generate scoring chances. You could tell that the system absolutely crushed most of the players, they didn't seem to be interested in doing more than going through the motions because the system was so rigid and based around not giving up a goal. Todd, while he runs an overall defensive oriented system with players collapsing more into a trap type scenario when the opposition is breaking out, it seems like emphasis is placed on hounding the puck carrier in the neutral zone. On top of that the players seem to be given the chance to actually make plays with the puck, passes or carrying, instead of instantly flipping it out. It seems like guys are jumping up on offense more and possessing more as well. Honestly in the end it all boils down to his "just play ****ing hockey" rant. Lalonde basically coached these guys into being robots in his system which wasn't flexible at all. Todd wants them to rely less on falling back to the system, but work within that system using your instincts and skills to make plays. Plus Lalonde was an absolute moron when it came to deploying people, especially young players. Johansson is playing 20+ minutes a night and he would barely leave the press box under Uncle Fester. Kasper was being shoehorned into a bottom six checking role. The man put Motte on the top line. In retrospect it is kinda crazy what he did to this team, no wonder all the signings looked awful!