So, three games in and the Detroit Red Wings find themselves last in their division at 1-2 and needless to say, for lack of a better word, struggling, and struggling mightily.
The biggest question coming into this season was Detroit's defense. While it hasn't looked the greatest, after giving up 6 goals in the first game, the Wings have given up 5 goals since (progress!).
What seems to be the biggest question right now isn't the defense, but more so, the offense. Granted the team has experienced their share of injuries on the offensive side of things (Bertuzzi and Helm are coming back this Friday), it led the Mike Babcock to start a top line of Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Damien Brunner. While the line hasn't looked too bad, it still hasn't been lighting the lamp for Detroit.
Last year, Detroit's best line by far was the first line of Valtteri Filppula, Jiri Hudler and the aforementioned Zetterberg.
Detroit's second line was Datsyuk centering Todd Bertuzzi and Johan Franzen.
Now back to what we have seen this year, which hasn't really worked, Mike Babcock is juggling the lines for the return of Bert and Helmer.
However, not to what worked last year. Zetterberg was on a line in practice this afternoon with Brunner and Franzen.
Hey, Mike! Why not put Z and Fil back together since it worked great last year? Yeah, we are minus a Hudler, but we a plus a Brunner (which is a way bigger plus than Hudler).
Datsyuk was on a line with Fil and Bertuzzi.
Again, why not go back to what worked last year and put Datsyuk back with Franzen and Bertuzzi?
Just a thought. One that seems so simple.
All we can really do is watch as fans and hope what the Wings bring to the ice tomorrow works.
i didnt care for the Bert Datsyuk Mule line
ReplyDeleteI didn't like the 2nd line from last year either. I felt like it was a waste of Datsyuk many times. Bert was too slow and Franzen so lazy for long periods of time. Maybe Z can yell at Franzen in Swedish to get his attention on a line with Brunner. I would prefer Datsyuk with some folks who can skate like Nyquist and Filppula. Flip looks good so far this year and Nyquist has some youth and wheels which are sorely lacking. Bertuzzi could bang around on a third line, and I would be ok with that. Or, Babs could send a message and throw Franzen on a lower line to show his displeasure with his effort from time to time. He seems reluctant to do so. With all the injuries though, Datsyuk will probably do a Sergei Fedorov and play defense out of necessity.
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