OffThePost.org

That's the thing. If it doesn't work, he's not leaving the team in bad shape cap-wise. Even deBrincat's deal isn't long.He can adjust easily on the fly and move pieces because they don't have a lot of money/term.

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

No matter how bad this Wings season ends, they'll never be the worst team in Detroit. Hell, they won't even be the worst team at Little Caesars because HOLY FUUUUUUUCK have y'all seen the Pistons!?!?

They are 3-31 now, but what's even crazier is that they started 2-1, and then lost 28 in a row, and won one last week and have now followed with 2 more losses.

They can score, but man, can't play any defense!

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I heard on the radio "The Raptors are visiting the Pistons" and just immediately assumed that's who the Pistons would beat to break the streak

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

Yup!

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So, mind you, I get that it's McDavid who absolutely annihilated him last night but WTF is up with Mo Seider? He's not looking anything like a franchise defender this season.

I read something recently that the competition he's facing is by far the toughest in the league. His numbers don't look great as a result and it's not like he's bad or anything, but it's tough facing the best night-in night-out.

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Well...still, you'd expect better numbers from a guy who was projected and initially looked by all accounts to be an elite #1 defender.

Mind you the team in front of him (and certainly the goaltenders behind him) are very much a work in progress but the continued regression is somewhat concerning.

Ruh-roh, tensions boil over following Detroit's sixth straight loss (and the second game in that span I believe where they spotted the other team a TD and extra point) and Lucas Raymond and Ben Chiarot go at it during practice.

Wings in very real danger of missing the playoffs entirely, and seem to have lost their way after Dylan Larkin went down.

So far the Yzerplan has not gotten off to a rollicking start, but I think a lot of any successful rebuild depends on a fair bit of luck, of which Detroit has had very little. Also, I feel that his insistence on getting the Bolts on board with analytics had Tampa ahead of the game back then, now everyone is using them.

Still very curious as to why both Mo Seider and Lucas Raymond have struggled after phenomenal rookie seasons. Should make their upcoming contract negotiations better numbers-wise but both of them were supposed to be franchise cornerstones.

I think they will be. There will be some growing pains.

Larkin is the motor that keeps this team going. He may not put up superstar #s but he just never stops going. His loss is huge.

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

It's too much to ask for Compher to be the top line center of a team with playoff aspirations but I thought Copp would be at least a worthy fill-in. He's currently at 3C behind Compher and Veleno.

Losing 4-1 to the floundering Coyotes at home?

The Detroit Boneless Wings are cooked.

Analytics guru JFresh posted some interesting figures and some pointed criticism at both Yzerman and Newsy regarding Moritz Seider's usage.

Sorry I'm too lazy to get the link, but the gist is that the coach is deploying him as shutdown guy, not a #1, and that's a big reason why his numbers have taken a nosedive. He's getting the hardest minutes with a lot of DZ starts and that's not really where you want your top guy to be. But JFresh also pointed out that it might be telling that the GM went out and got four veteran defensemen and the coach doesn't trust any of them with tough matchups.

Seider tanked the moment they paired him with Chiarot.

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I thought they eventually stopped that nonsense after it clearly wasn't working and paired him with Mr. Griddy.

Apparently NO ONE in the East wants that 2nd Wild Card. Wings, Isles, and Buffalo all managing to lose, so now the effing Capitals are one point out.

That 7-game losing streak was a hard tank and they've gotta win these against the Isles to get in.

Lucas Raymond now leads the team in scoring after going on a pretty good run. Some minuses in there too, for whatever that's worth.

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

Poke is right- it really seems like nobody wants WC2. Red Wings and Isles are kind of doing the same thing- long winning streaks followed by long shit streaks.

I feel like if the Isles lose tonight, that's it for them.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Athletic stat boy Dom Luszczyszyn crunched the numbers and Moritz Seider and Jake Walman get by far the hardest assignments in hockey. They're basically buried in their zone against the league's best players all the time. That's not a great way to deploy your defencemen, especially when you spent so much money on a veteran blue line.

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I think it was Dom's piece I was citing here.

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

The gist of it near as I can tell is that Mo can't really create any offense because he's constantly having to battle to get it out of his own end of the ice, so instead of skating it or making an outlet pass he has to just chip it out, which obviously has all but destroyed his ability to produce offense.

What I'm wondering is, who is Newsy putting out there for the softer minutes that he's giving to guys like Kane? I assume it'd be someone like Gostisbehere, but if he's doing that with someone like, say, Holl, that's a real waste.

On one hand I feel like this is bad coaching, but on the other hand, Lalonde clearly doesn't trust the old guys Yzerman has assembled for the 2nd and 3rd pairing, and he has good reason not to trust the goaltending at all.

Up front, I know Larkin is a very good two-way guy, and I've watched enough of Jimothy Timothy to know he's reasonably good defensively, beyond that I don't know anything about the Detroit forwards other than the fact that Patrick Kane may very well be the worst defensive player in the league. Sometimes the amount of help forwards can give the defense goes a long way toward success.

Totally unrelated--if you ever listen to the 32 Thoughts pod, Elliotte Friedman has the most awkward pronunciation of "Detroit" possible. It always comes out "Detrow-it" and it clearly drives Jeff Marek nuts. I am assuming that's just a Friedge thing and not a Canadian thing.