I don't know if you guys have noticed, or if you noticed and it didn't bother you.  But, to me it seems our defensive pairings have pinched collapsing too closely to the net on some of these horrid goals.  In the past month I've watched TPH put at least 2 pucks in his own net via bad deflections.  It's as if the players are set in front of the net like a pinball machine.  Is it just my lack of knowledge on hockey defense, or are we panicking and pinching too closely to our goal. 

  It seems to me that Howard is having a hard time seeing the puck at times.  The best game I have seen in the last month was really the Vancouver game.  The defensemen stayed a bit further away from Howard and allowed him to see what was going on.

  I'm a product designer.  In my line of work there have to be 3 flaws to create a catastrophe.  It seems to me that the way the Wings are playing is similar.  The forwards loose the puck or have a turnover---1  The defense can't seem to break up a cross ice pass and pinches collapses in on the goal or do not get themselves in front of the opposing team ---2  Lastly, Howard either can't see or moves too aggressively to one side trying to make a save----3  That's how I feel we are getting scored on.  Is it a result of a scheme we are running?  Is it fatigue?  Is it simply sloppy play?  I want to try and understand what's happening.

I'm sure this is sounds more desperate than it really is.  Just trying to gain some more insight into the actual mechanics of the game.

Josh Howard