In Response to The LA Game: I'm Not Mad At The Refs, I'm Mad At The Refs

In case that title was confusing, let me clear this up for you... I'm not mad at the Referees because I believe they lost the game for your Detroit Red Wings, I'm mad at the Referees because of the blown calls and the idea that plays that can cause injury, or did cause injury, are not called.

Let's take the example of Dustin Penner's hit on Brendan Smith.

Smith does not have the puck and is obviously blindsided. Penner is a big body and can cause damage. The refs can claim that they didn't see this but if I'm a ref, I see someone down with the puck no where in the vicinity, I'm stopping play and investigating. To the Detroit Free Press, Smith says "It was more whiplash than anything." Whiplash is dangerous and is often linked with a concussion. I'm really hoping that Smith is okay and this isn't re-occuring. Not to mention that Smith is just coming back from an injury and if Penner doesn't hit Smith's head, he hits the same shoulder that Smith has just rehabbed.

Let's take the other example from last night's game, Dan Cleary gets high sticked by Jake Muzzin.

This is another time when an injury could have occurred, and did, but the referees did not call anything. MLive says that Cleary received 15 stitches around his orbital bone (eye) after either getting hit with a high stick by Jake Muzzin or being interfered with by Jake Muzzin. Not a penalty according to the refs from last night's game.

For a league that is so focused on letting fans, players, teams, and anyone who will listen, how tuned in to player safety they are, these are unacceptable. Anytime that a player has "whiplash" it can result in a concussion, the very thing that this league is (supposedly) most worried about. This has to end.

The league rulebook has a rule that says you cannot touch the puck off a face-off, Pavel Datsyuk was whistled for this yesterday. Okay, it's frustrating that it was called when the team was already killing a penalty and the Kings scored but, it's in the rule book -- it should be called. Just like interference and high sticking are in the rule book but were not called yesterday. What frustrates me most is that plays that can, and do, injure players are let go but if a player touches the puck off a FO, so help us all.

All I'm saying, in this long winded rant, is that if a ref is going to call a face-off violation, with pretty much no possibility of injury, they need to call plays that can injure opposing players and those on the player's team as well.

The Free Agent Situation for This Upcoming Summer...

Okay, okay... I know it has only been 14 games but this team has a whole lot of free agents this summer, some RFA and some UFA, and I think some may not be back next year. Here are my thoughts about each one.

Starting with the UFAs:

• Valterri Filppula
• Current Stats: 3G, 5A, 8P (14 games played)
• Current Cap Hit: 3 Million
• My thought is all of those hockey writers who think he can be a first line center, I don't see it, I see him as a second line center all day long and twice on Sundays. If he were to be a first line center, it is certainly not with the Wings. I love Fil but I expect more from him and it seems to me he has been sort of invisible these first 14 games. I would hope we can re-sign him but if it becomes clear we can't, I would hope we can package him and get a defenseman, we all know that's what we need more.
• Next Season Projected Cap Hit: I'd give him 3.5M because I think we have prospects who can fill his role. I like Fil but if he wants more than that, he can leave and we'll bring up Nyquist or Calle Jarnkrok (Maybe not Jarnkrok but I'm high on him)
• Ian White
• Current Stats: 1G, 1A, 2P (9 games played)
• Current Cap Hit: 2.875 Million
• While I think this team needs defensemen and I don't think White is bad at what he does, he makes stupid mistakes and he needs to keep his mouth shut. I would not re-sign him but maybe that's me being biased because I don't really think he fits.
• Next Season Projected Cap Hit: I'd give him no more than 3M but I wouldn't re sign him, the problem with that is who we replace him with. That, I don't know yet. 
• Daniel Cleary
• No, just no
• I like Cleary but he's done
• Just leave Cleary
• Jimmy Howard
• Current Stats: .900SV%, 2.97GA, 6-5-2 record
• Current Cap Hit: 2.25 Million
• I believe Jimmy Howard has kept the Wings in games this season. Y'all can dispute that but I think he has. There have been moments of greatness, see: LA Kings game, and there have been moments where I wasn't sure who took Jimmy and hoped we could get him back soon, see: St Louis (may not have happened, did it really happen?) Either way, I think he is still a number one goaltender for this team and I think he needs to be re-signed.
• Next Season Projected Cap Hit: I don't think he gets more than 4M and if he does we/whoever gives him that is overpaying. Realistically, I think 3.5-3.75M.
• Damien Brunner
• Current Stats: 6G, 4A, 10P (14 games played)
• Current Cap Hit: 1.3 Million
• I am impressed with the way he has played the first 14 games. I think if we can sign him for a reasonable number, or even if we can't, he needs to be re-signed. I like him with Zata and I like him on this team. He really has a NOSE for the net... 
• Next Season Projected Cap Hit: I'd give him 2M because I love him, he's young-ish but mature and I like his offense.
• Drew Miller
• Current Stats: 1G, 2A, 3P (14 games played)
• Current Cap Hit: 837,350
• I like Drew Miller, I like what he brings to this team. He has struggled this year, as has the bottom 6 and I think 
• Next Season Projected Cap Hit: I'd give him 900,000, he hasn't done much this season and I see more potential from him. If he wants more than that though, I'd let him leave.
• Kent Huskins
• I don't think he gets re-signed because I think he was a quick fix. I would hope he gets re-signed but I think we have prospects we can play instead.

Moving on to RFA's:

• Kindl -No, he hasn't been bad these last few games but I think I'd rather have Huskins or Lashoff than him.
• Gustav Nyquist
• Current Stats: Nothing in the NHL, he's doing well in the AHL... 
• Current Cap Hit: 875,000
• Nyquist needs to be re-signed. I like him a lot and he has great potential. 
• Next Season Projected Cap Hit: I'd give him 1M because of potential, he hasn't done much in the NHL yet in his career but that could be because he plays in the bottom six... HE'S NOT A GRINDER THOUGH. (Sorry, momentary rage)
• Brendan Smith
• Current Stats: Injured :( 1A, 1P (8 games played)
• Current Cap Hit: 875,000
• Smith needs to be re-signed. He's an offensive defenseman and he has a big upside. Smith was decent until he got injured, I'd give him another shot.
• Next Season Projected Cap Hit: I'd give him anywhere from 1M-1.2M, because I like the potential he has to succeed in this system, and he's been decent this season.
• Joakim Andersson
• Current Stats: 1G, 1A, 2P (4 games)
• Current Cap Hit: 875,000
• I like his offense and I like his size but I think we have too many forwards. I'd either re-sign him or trade him at the deadline for a defenseman.
• Next Season Projected Cap Hit: If he gets re-signed, I'd give him 950,000 or 1M because of his offensive upside.
• McCollum and Pearce
• No
• Francis Pare and Brent Raedeke 
• I don't know enough about them to definitively make a judgement, must watch more Griffins games... 
• Jan Mursak
• I like him but he is, once again, injured. I think he and Tatar can fill the same role, Tatar is better in the top 6 but he can grind. I think we don't give him a qualifying offer.
• Brian Lashoff
• Current Stats: 1G (10 games played)
• Current Cap Hit: 875,000
• Going into the season, when someone got injured I was not a fan of Lashoff and I thought probably he would be a bust, we'd have him for a few games and he would not impress. Wow, was I wrong. I like Lashoff. I think he never goes higher than bottom pair but he has good defensive instincts and is a large body. 
• Next Season Projected Cap Hit: I'd give him 950,000. I don't think he's more than a bottom pair defenseman but he has impressed this season. 

Let me know your thoughts... @afilisko8 on the twitters.

Let's Go Red Wings!

Wow... A Whole Lot Of Red Wings News!

A whole lot has happened in the first few weeks of the NHL season. A whole host of injuries, a .500 record and one point squeezed from one of our losses. A few call ups and one signing, and lastly, some expectations have not been met.

Injuries:

Injuries have sort of become a story of this season. Before game one, there was already a line to the infirmary. Bertuzzi had mono, except that he didn't. Helm strained his back lifting weights, had an MRI (nothing showed), played 1 game and the team looked good, except that he had a setback and hasn't played since. Gustavsson, like a whole lot of other Wings, has a groin injury. Colaiacovo has a shoulder injury, a product of his glass bones and such. White was cut by Jimmy Howard's skate blade and has a "laceration." Ericsson was gone for a few games because he stepped on a puck in practice. I could go on and on about the injuries. Awesome news today... Smith is out 3-4 weeks with a shoulder sprain.
Injuries can decimate a roster, and to some extent, they have done that to our beloved Wings. The crazy thing for me is that, on another team, this could make the team not function. I am not hitting the panic button just yet, I could be insane for that but it doesn't seem like the right time to do so.

Part of the reason that I'm not hitting that button is...

Call Ups and Signings

With injuries come call ups from the AHL. We called up Brian Lashoff, an undrafted prospect who was never really supposed to be good. Surprising all of us, he performed well and was becoming a very dependable defenseman, until Jakub Kindl came back from injury and took his spot. Kindl's time in Detroit is now in the "put up or shut up" phase. If he doesn't pan out this year, it could be his last in Detroit. On a day when we had five, yes FIVE, healthy defensemen, we signed Kent Huskins. Huskins is becoming a very reliable D-man. We had a scare when David Backes hit him hard in our 5-3 win over St Louis on Friday. Luckily, he's okay and it was more a scare than a legitimate threat.

This is me... I'm so excited, I just can't hide it -- Feel free to finish
that line in your head.

Just yesterday, Sunday, the Wings recalled Tomas Tatar and Petr Mrazek. I AM HAVING A HARD TIME CONTAINING MY EXCITEMENT ABOUT THIS!!!! (<--- don't know if you could tell...) Tatar has made some noise with his dislike of how much time he has spent in the American Hockey League. Mrazek has rocketed from the OHL to the NHL in a matter of four months. He's coming up to Detroit having just had is first AHL shutout. Tatar is arriving in Detroit, despite the fact that Gustav Nyquist is leading the Griffins in points. Tatar, I believe, was called up to be inserted on the 3rd or 4th line. Nyquist would not suit that role, which is the reason that he was not called upon.

Those Who Need To Step Up

Kronwall, Quincey, Cleary, and the third/fourth line.

Kronwall: I think he's trying too hard to be Lidstrom, and frankly, it's not working for him. He has at least one minor penalty in every game so far, so that needs to end and he needs to get back to this...

KRONWALL'D

Quincey: It's all bad. He's had one, or two, good games but.... 

Moving on:

Cleary: He's just been bad in all areas of the ice. It's not that Buckets is not doing well, it's just that he's not been the same since he injured his knees last year. I have a very distinct feeling that it's either he gets better really soon, and he stays, or he keeps going this way, and is gone relatively soon. 

OVERALL:

I think that the team will be fine. If injuries to a big chunk of the roster only gives us a .500 record, I don't think that it is panic time. I believe that the call ups we have and Kent Huskins, the signing we made, will prove to be a good thing for the team going forward. I have to believe that the team will step up and stop being so bi-polar or else I will go insane. I'm keeping the faith in my team.

Until next time...

LET'S GO RED WINGS!