Anxiety

A lot of fans worry. They worry about where their team is in the standings, who's injured, what the right line combinations are, who the GM should be trading for, etc. You can count me as one of those people. But right now, my worrying has gone beyond the expected and has wandered somewhere I never thought it would go.

For the first time I can remember, I'm worried that the Wings won't have enough pieces to make a substantial run at the Cup. This has never been an issue during my time as fan. The primary concern in years prior has been whether the key players will show up and effect games during the playoffs instead of pulling a disappearing act (e.g. Marian Hossa, 2009 playoffs). I'm watching this team struggle now, and I think the only thing left to do is hold out hope that once all the injured players return to the lineup we'll be given some type of both moral and palpable boost that will push the Wings up the standings and, more importantly, make them a team that can match up with anyone in the conference.

A lot of people on the message boards are trying to draw comparisons between this team and the Penguins of last year. Do I think they're the same? No, not really. The Penguins were spurred on by a change in the system. The Wings have no systemic issues. Their problem lies in the fact that they're basically Grand Rapids East, with a couple of superstars thrown in. I can see the Wings taking a similar path to the one last season's Penguins squad did, but it will come from players returning from injury and strengthening a paper-thin lineup.

I just hope that my anxiety will be quelled, or at least pushed back into an area I'm more familiar with. I'd call it a good season if, come April, I can start worrying about Pavel and Hank scoring during the playoffs and not about whether Doug Janik can anchor the fourth pair.

Links of note

I've been waiting for the Wings to win to put up another post. That's actually a lie and I'm basically just lazy, but it sounds like a good reason not to post anything. Here are some links worth checking out:

An article about Leino being in and out of the lineup. Not too long, but sheds a little light on the subject. I found another one here from the Detroit News. Guess everyone in town decided to write about Ville today.

Babcock makes it pretty clear how he feels about the Helm line.

An article about how Pavel's point production is likely going to rise soon. I posted it not just because I agree with the article, but because there are few things in this world better than a Pavel Datsyuk quote. Even if it is just one line.

A2Y has a very interesting post about the goaltending controversy. At this point, the term "goaltending controversy" only applies to the fanbase, because it's pretty clear that there's no controversy as far as Babs is concerned.

Blog Overhaul

After much prayer and months of careful thought, I've decided to stop posting In Reviews. I just don't feel like it adds much to the site considering the amount of time it takes to write one, and I've obviously fallen woefully far behind on them. From now on, I'll be taking the blog in a different direction. I'll be writing about the Red Wings in general, and posting links to anything and everything I can find that's noteworthy. I think this will make the blog more interesting and allow for more frequent updates (the goal there is multiple updates daily). I think I'll start posting In Reviews again during the playoffs (yes, I think there will be playoffs to blog about), as it seems like that's a better time to break down every minute detail of the game. We'll see how this works out.

Wings v. Oilers in review 12/3/09

Edmonton goal (1-0) 5:50 in 1st period; Visnovsky unassissted:
Well, Brett Lebda basically scored on his own goaltender. That'll just be fuel on the fire for the Lebda haters on the message boards. Puck bounces up, off Lebda's stick, takes some weird hops on the ice and bounces under Howard's legs. Goal.

Edmonton goal (2-0) 17:09 in 1st period; Nilsson from Stone & Stortini:
Nilsson just makes a nice move, first putting the puck in front of Howard and then pulling it back toward himself and tucking it in past Howard's outstretched leg.

Detroit goal (2-1) 19:59 in 1st period; Cleary from Bertuzzi & Lidstrom:
Lidstrom makes a perfect pass from the defensive zone up to Bertuzzi in the offensive zone. Now on a 2-on-1, Bertuzzi waits and passes to Cleary at just the right time. Cleary one times it home for the lone Wings goal of the night.

Edmonton goal (3-1) 8:50 in 2nd period; O'Sullivan from Jacques:
The second soft goal Howard gives up on the night. The puck gets deflected on a pass through the center of the zone, and it actualy hits Howard's pads and trickles under.

Edmonton goal (4-1) 11:47 in 2nd period; O'Sullivan from Souray:
Howard comes way up in the crease and gets swallowed up by the scrum in front of the net. This leaves essentially the entire crease open and the Oilers put it through a defenders' legs to score.