Loss Candy :: We’ve Got Some Work to Do
Final (Hi Mr. P)
Blues 10 Wings 3
Thoughts
What is there really to say other than the Red Wings just don’t get it. They don’t come to play when the games still count. They don’t look like a team that’s capable of winning a Stanley Cup, let alone a single playoff series. They just don’t look good. Nobody came to play tonight and the result was a humiliating ass kicking that left fans everywhere shaking their heads and an already mentally shaky fourth string goaltender huddled in the corner of the locker room shaking uncontrollably and pleading for the safe confines of Van Andel and Grand Rapids. The best decision of the night was some combination of Joey MacDonald and Mike Babcock deciding to spare the kid any further humiliation by sticking the newly-returned-to-Earth Joey Mac back in net for the third period. Second best decision of the night? FSD cancelling the Babcock interview after the second period.
Before I lose my shit, I will say this: This was a trap game from the outset whether it looked like it on paper or not. The Wings – comfortably in the playoffs – are looking to stay healthy, while the newly eliminated Blues are banged up and playing a group of younger guys who would love nothing more than to roll into Detroit, make a name for themselves, and lay the lumber on one of the league’s “premiere” teams. One would think Mike Babcock would have seen this one coming from a mile away and would have game-planned for such circumstances or at least tried to make his team aware of what was potentially around the corner. Instead, the Wings got double digits hung on them and looked like unconcerned jackasses the entire time. Fitting, then, that the Wings ran a promotion for playoff tickets at the end of the game with the tagline “Don’t Miss A Moment.” Hell yea, who would want to miss a moment of the shit the Wings put out on the ice and dared call “hockey” tonight??? Buy now, or you might miss a game where they give up 11 goals!
Who knows where this team goes from here. Most of us are wishfully thinking that they will rebound and get their assess in gear to finish out the season, but reality is a cruel mistress and it wouldn’t surprise me to see this group of “professionals” limp their sorry sacks into the playoffs as a 3 or 4 seed at this point. It’s a complete and total embarrassment to see a team play so lethargically, and the bleeding may not stop when Pavel Datsyuk gets back into the lineup. Up and down the roster, the effort just isn’t there (save for Darren Helm, apparently.) If I’m Mike Babcock, I’m sitting Ericsson’s sorry ass in favor of Salei and Kindl the rest of the way out (more from Petrella on this later), and Kris Draper doesn’t sit another game the rest of the regular season. Still, there’s no guarantee that any set of adjustments will spark guys like Valtteri Filppula and Johan Franzen into a meaningful contribution, which is a sad shame indeed.
Five games to go and no one can save the Wings from themselves but themselves. Awesome, eh?
Time to get to work, boys.
Loss Candy
nicely done, hollis, nicely done.
I’d like to bluntly point out that the Red Wings do NOT have the magic “X” next to their name in the Conference standings. A few more abysmal performances like the past few games and some decent performances from the rest of the teams on the ladder and the Wings are getting their clubs out of the garage in early April.