Not the Sort of Octopus I'm Used to Seeing

by JoshRP on Mar 1, 2009 4:53 PM CST Comment 7 comments

Since I've been watching the Red Wings, which being 21, comprises roughly half of my life, I've grown accustomed to them being good. The first two years I watched the Red Wings, they won Stanley Cups. At 9 and 10 years old, I hardly realized that this was a pretty rare occurrence. I was extremely disappointed the following year when they left the playoffs empty handed. Much older now, I've come to expect the occasional defeat and even periodic poor play. It happens. No one can win every time.

This frame of mind however, does not exactly prepare me for 8-0 losses to teams ranked in the bottom five in the league in goals per game. Certainly not when the Wings are the league leaders in the same stat. Last night's loss was a culture shock to be sure. I'm not sure if I've ever heard Mikey Redmond and Ken Daniels express embarrassment at the Red Wings performance. Watching the game with my Dad brought comparisons to 'the Dead Wings' era of the 60s and 70s. This may be a bit too harsh for one game's worth of poor play, but Wings fans have simply forgotten what it feels like to lose this badly.

In an interview with Nick Lidstrom following the game, the captain was asked, "What do you think went wrong tonight?" After having watched every painful minute of the game, the only answer that lept to my mind was, "Everything...unless you happened to be wearing blue."

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So true.

I’m 22 so I completely agree with your FanPost — I can’t even remember a loss this bad. Sure, some losses have stung more (ie. key playoff losses), but when it comes to regular season losses this just hurts.

It was completely shocking and I just hope this is a wake up call for our boys and not a sign of things to come.

by Christy on Mar 1, 2009 7:40 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

This is easily the most cringe-worthy regular season performance I’ve seen in my lifetime from the Wings. Usually I only have to worry about being that embarrassed when I watch the Lions. But I wouldn’t worry about this kind of thing happening often. Detroit is a high caliber team with a lot of pride and they aren’t going to let this become a trend. The problem was that the first 5 goals all happened so fast, I think it just took the wind out of any hope for a comeback. If Conklin had been able to corral a couple more rebounds in those first few shots, I think the game would’ve turned out a lot different. Its easy to lose heart when you suddenly find yourself down 5-0 before you can blink though.

Anyway, I guess we’ll see how well they bounce back Tuesday night in St. Louis.

by JoshRP on Mar 1, 2009 11:36 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

What Helps More?

What do you think would be the better path for Babcock to take after a game like that?

Brush it off saying that it was a fluke and just work like they always do? Or get emotional about it and hope the players take it personally and use it as motivation?

Both options have their pros and cons but I think the best thing to do as a coach is to put it behind you and practice as usual and hope the players take it upon themselves to take the game personally. You don’t want it to always be nagging at your players throwing them off, but you certainly want them to learn something from such a performance. Thoughts?

by Zegarek88 on Mar 2, 2009 2:44 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

In my opinion I think the best thing for Babcock to do would be to acknowledge it but not dwell on it. I don’t think its the symptom of any greater problem. The players are going to know what they’ve done wrong. Their severely bruised pride is going to be more punishment for them than any amount of extra skating Babcock can give them. There are a lot of veteran players on the Red Wings that aren’t going to want to repeat the embarrassment that comes with that sort of a loss.

by JoshRP on Mar 2, 2009 4:19 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I agree.

Babs will probably take that route.

With some teams, I would say that he should get emotional. But there’s so much pride and veteran experience on this time, that I don’t think it’s necessary and could possibly go bad for Babs.

by Christy on Mar 2, 2009 11:38 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I added this FP to the front page.

Any time there’s a good FanPost that merits more attention, I can bump it up to the front page which is what I did.

by Christy on Mar 2, 2009 11:37 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

You should take up sports writing yourself Josh ;)

The Wings have been the standard for all franchises in sport. That last sentence has almost been over used, to show how true it is. Any crushing loss like this either stuns the team, or lets them see where they can improve, and make them that much better. The Red Wings had an outstanding month of February as is, but perhaps this will give them something to build on.

Get to see which happens in tonight’s game.

by Lavender on Mar 3, 2009 7:21 PM CST reply actions 0 recs