Jeremy Laura: The Oil was too slick for the Winged Wheel, Wings lose 5-2

Many years ago, I was stationed in up-state NY. Boss had Hab's season tix, went to tons of games. Went to a restaurant the guys went to after games. Met Roy, Lafleur, Robinson, Corson, Chelli. Wore a DRW hat ALL THE TIME. Got into multiple discussions w/Chelli. The dude abides. What an incredible guy. They all were nice, but he was so genteel.

Rough game. Long way to go. Posted my thoughts on Vrana. This will be a hectic TDL & UFA period as The Captain sets the stage for a potential SCPO berth. The tools are in the shed, we have a good team....but they continue to make mistakes. We need to polish the brass.

Bert put his stamp in the game for the Wings. Gritty little bugger. Love his play. Would expect him to go by the TDL. Ras is starting to shine, I think he stays. We really had the Oil on the ropes at times and the Wing's play was impressive. The Oil were stunned with what the Wings put on the ice.

Good game, crappy result. Shining future!!!

Wings could use a goal scorer. Someone with some real finishing ability.

I hear that the player with the second-highest even strength goal scoring rate in the entire NHL over the last three seasons is stuck in the minors somewhere. Wonder if he'd be available.

Wings could use a goal scorer. Someone with some real finishing ability.

I hear that the player with the second-highest even strength goal scoring rate in the entire NHL over the last three seasons is stuck in the minors somewhere. Wonder if he'd be available.
- Sven22

You sure that you wanna give up your front row seat to watch said player?

You sure that you wanna give up your front row seat to watch said player?

- HenryHockey

Haha, it's a price I'm willing to pay.

Rasmussen with a dumb penalty late in the 3rd? Never saw that coming...

Thoughts from last night’s game. Team played well. Ras continued to look good , defence played well. Now bad points we were out goaltended again not that Husso played bad but oilers goalie was better. Still can’t score goals and we sure could use someone who can. Also can we Plse send Copp to minors and bring up Vrana. If we had switched Copp and suters ice times. Suter. would be ahead of Copps production. Yzerman needs to tell the fans what is going on with Vrana as we all know it has nothing to do with his addiction problem. Evander Kane has did some crappy stuff but the only reason that the sharks let him go was he was betting on his own team to lose. No that’s bad. Grow up Wings management and put best players on the team.

Rasmussen with a dumb penalty late in the 3rd? Never saw that coming...
- Feds91Stammer

Probably the most frustrating player to watch.. he takes way too many dumb penalties. On a team with terrible special teams. My question is why is he on the 2nd line ? He's a bottom 6 winger. I see Kubalik and Sundquist on the 4th line which makes absolutely no sense.

Probably the most frustrating player to watch.. he takes way too many dumb penalties. On a team with terrible special teams. My question is why is he on the 2nd line ? He's a bottom 6 winger. I see Kubalik and Sundquist on the 4th line which makes absolutely no sense.
- Vladdie_Kon1

Kubalik is a middle 6 winger so I agree he makes no sense on the 4th but Sundqvist is a 4th line plug.

Kubalik is a middle 6 winger so I agree he makes no sense on the 4th but Sundqvist is a 4th line plug.
- Feds91Stammer

Sundquist is the only player on the team with size who actually knows how to screen the other team's goalie effectively but still has good enough hands around the net to get deflections or tip-ins. He's also a decent forechecker who actually does hit (one of the few on this team). I'm fine with him on the 2nd or 3rd line as long as he stays out of the penalty box.

Wings could use a goal scorer. Someone with some real finishing ability.

I hear that the player with the second-highest even strength goal scoring rate in the entire NHL over the last three seasons is stuck in the minors somewhere. Wonder if he'd be available.
- Sven22

Steve Yzerman has been around the NHL a long time as a player and as GM, he has seen a lot of good and bad things over those years. He has seen what bad chemistry can do to good teams and good locker rooms. We all loved Bob Probert a good person a great team mate and one hell of a hockey player. His personal demons ruined his career and became a major distraction. I am not saying this is an apples to apples comparison but with this many young players do you want this type of distraction around these kids. I don’t think Yzerman does.

Steve Yzerman has been around the NHL a long time as a player and as GM, he has seen a lot of good and bad things over those years. He has seen what bad chemistry can do to good teams and good locker rooms. We all loved Bob Probert a good person a great team mate and one hell of a hockey player. His personal demons ruined his career and became a major distraction. I am not saying this is an apples to apples comparison but with this many young players do you want this type of distraction around these kids. I don’t think Yzerman does.
- Goalie Dad

To be clear, I don't pretend to know that real reason behind Vrana's struggles, or what bad blood there might be between him and the team, or why he hasn't been called up yet (or if he ever will).

Yzerman might be handling this 100% correctly. He also might be making a horrible mistake. Without knowing the real circumstances I don't think it's fair to draw a conclusion either way.

I'm mostly just lamenting the fact that, whatever the real reason, it's extremely unfortunate that such a talented player who could and should be a major contributor remains on the shelf.

Good write-up as usual, Jeremy.
Wings put in a good effort and kept the big guns from scoring until the 3rd. Who would have thought that the Oil's secondary scoring would finally kick in?
Good to see the Wings stick up for one another, but one has to wonder if the effort for some was for the team they on now or for their future team? It seems they could all be playing for jobs and pride at this point.