Hard work is not enough. Sorry but he’s not the same guy as he was. Injuries don’t excuse bad play, they explain it, but they don’t make it okay. Oh we’d have won the cup but Cleary was hurt, well Cleary is hurt so we didn’t. Nobody gets points for injuries.

What’s with the Cleary hate? The guy’s been injured as shit for essentially the whole season and he works his ass off just as hard as anybody else on the team. He does so much of the dirty work that other guys are afraid to do and in my opinion if the team had been without his leadership qualities the last six games, the losing streak would have looked a hell of a lot uglier (if that’s even possible).

I love Holland and I agree with keeping prospects in the AHL so they can actually play hockey but Holland has seemingly taken this philosophy too far with Nyquist and Smith. Nobody can tell me they aren’t top 9/6 material right now. Once Franzen comes back and bumps Nyquist from the Datsyuk line I’d like to see Nyquist bump Abdelkader to the 4th line. Helm and Miller need a creative winger with them to become a great 3rd line. Helm and Miller can cover for Nyquist’s defensive liabilities meaning he can focus on creating chances. Helm’s speed should back up the opposing defenders giving Nyquist more room to operate. Nyquist’s creativity could lead to numerous scoring chances meaning Miller could really score serious amounts of goals by playing that clean up role he excels at.

If Nyquist sits and Cleary or especially Mursak or Emmerton start, I’ll be very disappointed. I like Mursak and Emmerton but neither seem like Red Wing material. *Has any Red Wing veteran been more disappointing than Cleary? He makes 3 million a year and right now has a measly 12 goals. He’s played in two more games than last year and has 14 fewer goals. If he doesn’t step it up I think his roster spot should be replaced with either a FA or Tatar next year.

This is off topic but with how good Smith has been I can’t help but think we wasted a 1st rounder on Quincey. I understand that Quincey needs time to settle in (and I think he will) but Smith is as good if not better than Quincey. We already had 7 NHL defenders (Lidstrom, Stuart, Kronwall, White, Ericsson, Smith, and Kindl) and a so-so 8th and 9th option (Commodore and Janik). We lost Commodore for nothing (a conditional pick if TB makes the playoffs, which they won’t) and we don’t improve our top 6 defenders since Quincey basically takes Smith’s spot and Smith is better than Quincey. And in addition we give up a 1st round pick which we could have packaged with Mursak and Andersson and gotten top 9 help in a quality forward like Setoguchi or Cody Hodgson.

This is the lineup I’d like to see in the playoffs.

Franzen-Datsyuk-Bertuzzi
Filppula-Zeterberg-Hudler
Nyquist-Helm-Miller
Cleary-Abdelkader-Holmstrom

Lidstrom-Smith
Stuart-Kronwall
Ericsson-Quincey/Kindl/White

As I had said about him following the Rangers OT loss, I think it’s not so much a matter of whether or not Nyquist gets a spot, but whose spot he takes. Go Wings!

Even when everyone is healthy, I can’t see Goose NOT playing on the Wings moving forward. He’s too good, too skilled, and has the ability to make things happen on the ice. I absolutely loved watching him at Maine and now with Detroit. It sucks for guys like Emmerton and Mursak and maybe even Homer and Cleary, but the kid needs to play. He could be that “top 6” forward the Wings didn’t get at the deadline. You need his skill for the long playoff run. Not many teams have a guy with his talent on the 3rd line (assuming he’s bumped down when Franzen gets back).

Maybe he has a Leino/Flyers type playoff run in him (which is hopefully the only thing those two ever have in common).