(warning, depressed rant follows. Also, I wrote this all this morning before I heard the news about Jimmy, so... this doesn't apply as much anymore because we're screwed no matter what? Woo! Optimism!)

This link sums up my thoughts so far on the Wings: http://blogs.thescore.com/nhl/2012/03/20/detroit-chicago-road-woes-and-playoff-implications/

I've enjoyed their dominance at home, but have been always a bit worried about the road record. The line that best sums up the story this year is:

If you can win without your fans in the stands, that speaks to the mental strength of your team.

And as the Wing's post home record collapse shows (regardless of any injuries), this team just does not have it mentally. We've seen it in the past few seasons as well. They have the skill, but something is missing.

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Ok, so there is all this talk about the redline being put back in for 'safety'. This is obviously stupid. All it will do is move the trap from the blueline up to the redline.

My thought for increasing scoring is to shrink the zone to pre-lockout sizes but leave the redline out. And remove the trapezoid (it's obviously bad, it has the name "trap" in it!). Personally I think that a smaller zone to defend against, and more maneuver room in the neutral zone would make it harder for trap-type defenses. It may make for less room offensively, so a PP can't set up and just pass around the perimeter anymore. But PP's like that bore me anyway.

Oh yeah, we should also have the refs call the freaking rules as they are written and not ignore interference.

So what I'd like to hear from everyone is:

1. What would you do to increase offensive creativity?
2. What rule changes would you like to see?

So I've always felt bad for the Blue Jackets, they seem to have really gotten a raw deal in the NHL. Terrible GMs, the promise of Nash but no one to help him out, that brief but terrible cannon mascot thing.

EDIT: I totally forgot about Mason - HA! Yeah, add him to the list above.

I had hoped that they would do well (not too well of course). A good Blue Jackets team would make for an excellent rival. But so far they've been cursed.

So... that brings up the question, who will replace Scott Howson? Or rather, who should they replace him with? We've already seen The Captain go to Tampa Bay, is there any possibility that Jim Nill is getting anxious to do the same somewhere? What would you think if Nill took over GM for the BJs?

Discuss.

There is lots of discussion about the booing at the end of the 1st last night, I'd like to see what everyone else thinks.

My opinion: it's ok sometimes.  A 2 goal lead at the end of the 1st is hardly reason to boo, even though it was a terrible period.  I doubt it's the start of prepetual boo-birds at the Joe, but I think I know why people were so ready to boo last night.  I counted up the home and away wins/losses/ot losses for 2011 and (assuming I can add today) this is what I get:

Home record: 4-7-0

Away record: 9-2-1

I think people are tired of spending their hard earned money (times are tough in MI people) to watch the Wings play crappy hockey.

Discuss:

{Ed Note: Moved to front page for good discussion - One game against the Bruins doesn't mean these issues are gone, but I'd like to see the discussion moved forward from the difference between when this was written and now, after the Wings showed they can play dominant hockey against a good opponent]

I posted this in the CSSI thread and JJ suggested I make a FanShot out of it so that it isn't buried in comments and we can get some discussion going.  I've never done one of these before, so we'll see how this goes.

So here are my thoughts on what's wrong with the way the Wings have been playing lately, mostly based on the last game.  Because that was as perfect an example of everything they've been doing wrong this year (and for the last 2 years to a degree).

First, I didn't watch the game all the way through… at about the second goal against I knew what sort of game it was and forwarded through large chunks of the game… pretty sure I didn't miss much.

I’m pretty sure it was the loss of Filppula that got them back into this mental funk. Anyway, onto my criticizm.

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