The Tough Call

The Detroit Red Wings are in a tough place for a team that sits second in the Atlantic division and 8th overall in the NHL. In most cases when a team sits this high in the league very little it done to improve the team come trade deadline time, its usually a small move to get a veteran forward or defenceman to help boost the overall depth of the team, only when it comes to the Wings this year they could be looking to do a little more. The Wings are a team with lots of good defence but only 1 or maybe 2 guys who stand out, the rest are questionable on a game to game basis not to say these players have no value its just their play tends to fluctuate from exceptional to just okay. This is okay if these guys are your number 4-6 guys but the problem with the Wings is that they rely on these guys as their top players. So how do you fix this problem, you make the tough call. When I say the tough call I mean trading former all star goaltender Jimmy Howard. Howard is 31 and has under performed for most of this season, its even gone as far as him loosing his starting job to young up and comer Petr Mrazek. Howard has a .904 save percentage this season with a 2.89 goals against average in 20 games, this is well below the expected production of a guy who is getting paid 6 million a season. Where this trade could work is with the Vancouver Canucks a team that at time has struggled with both offence and goaltending and with Hamhuis being available from Vancouver I believe he should be the Wings #1 priority. First off Hamhuis makes about half of what Howard makes which allows cap room for Detroit. Where the problem lies with this trade is that Vancouver needs offence, now they cold settle simply for a goaltender but this also causes a problem for Detroit in that they need a right handed shot from the point and regardless of how solid Hamhuis is he shoots left. Now the other tough question is should the Wings trade Howard I mean sure he has under performed but he is a former all star and was the third goalie for the USA Olympic team at one point so maybe the Wings should hold on to Howard at least for one more season. At least that how I see it.

Help Make Larkin Rookie of the Year!

    It has been a pleasant surprise for most Wings fans this year that 19 year old Dylan Larkin has exploded onto the scene the way he has. As a life long Wings fan I know that for the most part our team had been filled with veterans and for a long time it seemed like if you weren't over 25 you weren't making the team. But in the past few seasons that train of thought has slowly started to drift away as the Wings are almost in a youth movement of sort, with young guns such as Tomas Tatar, Gus Nyquist and Danny Dekeyser leading this to where they are expected to be at the end of each season, the playoffs. But with this recent youth movement came one move of surprise to me and that was Dylan Larkin, not only is he younger than all of the players listed above but he is also leading the team in scoring.

      So with your help I would like to start a campaign to make Dylan Larkin rookie of the year! Tweet @NHL with #LarkinTopRookie I hope with all of your support we can get our boy the Calder Trophy he deserves!

     Make sure you comment below and tweet tweet tweet!

Purpose of my Blog

     The purpose of my blog is to keep all my loyal followers and fellow Detroit Red Wings fans in the know about what is going on with our team. Weekly recaps from game scores and overall updates about the status of the team. I will also be giving my own personal commentary on how I think the the Detroit Red Wings are doing and what I think they can do to improve.
 
       As a hockey enthusiast and former student of the game I will give my in depth look into what is going on with the team. I will make trade analysis and predictions as we edge closer to the deadline and will make predictions towards the playoffs as to our chances at the Stanley Cup.

     My main goal of the blog is to interact with the fans like me and get a good following of people who love the Wings as much as I do. Please leave comments as to your predictions and analysis of the Wings season below and lets have a great time!