STOP WITH THE WHINING ABOUT MULE!

I hate the guy, personally. I think he’s awful. Maybe not right now in the present, but when I look at him, all I can think about is how awful he is going to be in like, two years.

That’s my beef. Right now, sure, he’s decent. He can score every once in a while. He coasts, he doesn’t hit, he doesn’t go into the corners, etc. But he scores sometimes, and that’s OK.

But man, there are 8 more years left of this guy. Eight years. Of aging, of getting slower (if that’s possible), of dramatic skill drop-off.

Man.

I can’t stand that thought. It makes me sick to my stomach. And I know that’s not his fault, it’s actually Holland’s and at the time, it was a choice that had to be made, and a decision that even I was like “Yay! We got Franzen forever which is awesome because he’s been awesome for two years! Huzzah!”

Now? Yeesh. I know that’s not fair criticism for him. I would’ve signed it to. But, personally, I don’t think I’ll ever like Franzen as a player. He’s been firmly entrenched in the Robert Lang Hall of Annoying Players I Support Begrudgingly.

Sorry that my complaints annoy you.

He has 43 points and what is it? 20 goals. That’s pretty damn good, and we all tend to lose sight of that because we all remember what he did in the playoffs a few years back. Its kinda of like what we do to Ericsson, he set the bar really high and doesn’t live up to it every single night, which is really hard to do.

Plus he kind of reminds me of Shanahan, who (correct me if I’m remembering incorrectly) was also very streaky. But he had a different style of play than Franzen, which we associated with working harder by battling more. But Franzen’s style is to get to spots to have chances.

But does anyone listen to me? Nooooooooooooooooo

I’m also the eternal-optimist type. I honestly don’t care even if it was a case of Franzen disappearing for long stretches at a time (which I don’t believe it is), as long as he continues to be a beast in the playoffs. Watching him work his ass off against the Sharks while skating on one leg will be permanently etched in my mind as an example of what our Mule does for us.

Honestly, we’re not a team that’s fighting tooth and nail for the 8th spot and needs 100 percent out of everybody, night in, night out. When the playoffs are on, there isn’t a loafer in the group and that’s Red Wing hockey.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .GP . G . A . P +/- PIM
Marian Hossa . .52 20 33 53 +21 16
Johan Franzen .54 20 23 43 +25 34

Hossa played with Dave Bolland or Patrick Kane as his centerman all year, while Mule got to play with Datsyuk.

Holland fucked up.

What the hell happened? I mean, I saw we lost to the mongrels… er… Coyotes, which comes with its own questions. But wow… what did you guys do to piss Josh Howard off. Best as I can tell, he and chicagowingsfreak are two of the few who rarely wring their hands in agony even when the occasional horrible loss to an incredibly horrible team happens.
Now, to the meat and taters.
I’ve felt Mule has been loafing about this season, personally. That’s my sole criticism of him and quite a few of our players. I’m comfortable with this because the only alternative I’ve been able to come up with is one I don’t want to believe yet; namely, we’re really, really fucking old. For the most part, the second line forwards haven’t lacked in enthusiasm over the season, even when Kronwall (who I will note has owned his own shittiness this season in a few interviews. It’s making him miserable too, best I can tell.) has struggled.
There have been games where the disappearing Mule is really indicative of some of the team’s struggles.
The one thing that the Ericsson situation has convinced me of is I’m fucking done criticizing players based on some remarkably intangible quality like their contract.
The guys who deserve criticism for the seeming albatross of a contract are management and agents. Period. To say anything about what a guy is getting paid relative to their performance… it has so very little to do with what happens on the ice.
Illya Franzenchuck’s contract being a sticking point might bother me if I worked in HR and was signing the fucking checks. I’m over it. Done. Moving on…
Whatever it is that Franzen isn’t doing for the team, I’d like to hear it from the coaching staff and the GM before I spend anymore time trumpeting my pallid and meaningless expectations. I’m curious about the silence from the bench and the office, to be honest. Babcock hasn’t so much as hinted this season that he thinks Franzen has a problem. No one has asked him about it. No one has asked the mucky mucks above him, either. Either way, the money/contract issue is a meaningless criticism.
Now, let’s figure out who we can scream at to hire someone to teach Johan how to play hockey.

A lot of people blame him for the teams losses and feel he should be traded.

I’ve never understood why people complain about him. $4 Million. That’s his cap hit. That’s it. He’s an elite, albeit streaky, scorer that gets paid as a second liner. His cap hit is barely higher than Ericsson. It’s half that of what most of the other scorers with his talent cost.

We have him for cheap. He does score. He’s one of the best playoff players we have seen in years not named Osgood. Just give it a rest.

But I won’t just do it about Franzen. Right now, I’m whining more about Datsyuk. Need more shooooooooot!!

But seriously, I love Franzen, he just pisses me off sometimes, because he does seem to take shifts off and not hustle for pucks. Yes, he gets spotted more often because he is waaay more visible than other guys. He’s a top line scorer, for Pete’s sake. Of course we’ll notice if he’s not looking like he’s going 100% out there. But to be fair, like someone else said, pretty much the whole team has looked that way at times. Mule’s just more noticeable, or maybe he’s just been tied to the whipping post (get that Allman Bros. reference, which by association is also a Gov’t Mule reference, did ya, huh?). We need a scapemule sometimes. Sorry Mule. I love you, but I’m going to (unfairly) go after someone when I’m frustrated. Last year was Hudler, this year it’s you.

I’d go after Ericsson, but that’s too easy, now, isn’t it?

For the record, nobody makes me laugh with giddy excitement more than Franzen can, especially when he mixes it up after a whistle. He needs to do it more. Remember when he ripped Kane’s mouthguard out of his mouth when that pint-sized prick was chewing on it like a little squirrel right in Mule’s face? That was awesome.

I went so far as to both; suggest we flip Miller and Mule, to give Miller some top line minutes and “send Mule a message,” AND to suggest we started calling Mule Shitbox.

I only ever feel this way about Mule during ugly games. I think as Wings fans, a lot of us are guilty of finding scapegoats, rather than blaming the team as a whole. It’s just the way we’re conditioned as fans. We’re always good, so if a game or streak of games, goes bad, we are more prone to blame one person rather than attacking the team.

Is his contract an albatross and he has no value? Is it something you just can’t see happening? There are still people talking about how Nash might want out of Columbus and, despite what anybody thinks of whether that should happen, there has to be an acceptance that a trade with Nash could realistically involve Johan Franzen.

It’s NOT OK to loaf just because a guy with less than half your cap hit happens to be scoring goals. As far as the cap hit argument goes. He’s being paid $5.25M and that’s the kind of production you should expect out of him… unless you honestly do think that Johan Franzen is going to be playing in 2018-19 on a $1M salary and a $4M cap hit? The guy is being paid Marian Hossa/Phil Kessel money. In real-world dollars, he’s paid more than Ryan Kesler and I have to accept that he’s not going to score 40 goals because we have a third-liner with 10?

I’m not sure I understand the argument about how it’s only ok to be mad about loafing if he does it for 4 out of 4 games instead of 3. Yeah, I loaf at my job sometimes too. My job isn’t to outwork other people and I don’t get paid north of $5M to do it for only 10 months a year.

AND NOW ONTO THE PARTS WHERE I AGREE

I think it’s time we killed the talk about Hossa and what could have been. That was two fucking years ago. You lot remind me of fucking Gotye with this shit. If you hate that decision so much, get in your fucking DeLorean or go harvest some chronitons and go fix that. Whining about the past isn’t getting us anywhere. Move on.

Spring 2008…..my first ever NHL game, Red Wings game, playoff game, and visit to the Joe all rolled into one. Franzen scored the game winner in OT. For that alone I always find it hard to get too down on him. Also, 20 goals. He’s really pretty good comparatively.

I get frustrated with Mule, much like everyone else, and I think a lot of that is because I know what he can do. He’s given us glimpses of how great he can be the bar was/is set pretty high for him. I think my expectations (based on 2008 and the playoffs) are just too high and are going to have to change (unless I want to become an enraged Hulk every time he doesn’t live up to them). Love him, like him or hate him, he’s ours. He’s not going to be traded, he’s not going to be put down on the 3’d or 4th lines as punishment and we (I) just need to accept it. I’m still going to yell at him get frustrated when the “bad Franzen” shows up for games, then I’ll get over it and move on. It’s important to note that no matter how angry I get at Mule, nor how many times he pisses me off. I still WOULD NOT EVER, EVER EVER WANT TO SWAP FOR HOSSA. And nothing you could say would ever change my mind. In fact, right now I’m picturing Mule shooting pucks at the Ram truck, getting it good and pissed off, then sending it to run over Hossa.

You watch the games and Mule does look like he’s gliding half the time. Yet, he’s potted 20 and leads the team. It just doesn’t feel right to complain about our leading scorer. Maybe he’s loafing, maybe not, but it’s certainly hard to gripe about the results.

Probably best to just stick to ragging on Riggy Shitbox. :)

There I said it

“Franzen” kinda looks like “Lang”.

Two issues highlight my frustration with Franzen.

1. He came into this league as a defensive specialist. He was not drafted nor expected to be a goal scorer. He developed into one after he joined the team. GREAT! I mean, that rarely happens, so good luck for the Red Wings that it did. The PROBLEM is he seems to have completely left the defensive part of his game behind him, almost as if he says to himself “I don’t get paid to do that. I get paid to score”. Which leads me to my next point…

2. Ever since the great Stevie Yzerman metamorphosis from scoring demon to all around two way player, NOBODY on the Red Wings has been allowed to coast defensively. The best offensive players are also expected to play well and back check like everybody else. What the hell does Franzen thinks makes him so special that he can ignore that fact? Is he aware that Datsyuk could probably score 50 goals if he only played in the offensive zone?

Franzen doesn’t need to give 100% all the time to please me. Hell, I don’t even think that’s possible. But he sure needs to get closer to it than he’s been over the last two years.

My biggest problem with Franzen is his effort. He doesn’t have to get a point every game nor should he be expected to, but he should be expected to give close to 100% every shift. And yes, I’m sure everyone here, myself included, has slacked off at our jobs from time to time, but we aren’t getting paid $4,000,000+ a year to do them. The problem here is that when he doesn’t score, he doesn’t do anything else for the team – doesn’t hit, go into corners, back check effectively, or play responsible in his own zone.

I suggested that he spend a game on the third line as a message to get his act together and that laziness won’t be tolerated, like how Huds was sent to the Leino Lounge earlier this year for a game. He got the message and since then has been producing and showing that he doesn’t want to be scratched again. Nothing permanent, unless he continues to do nothing but provide occasional bits of solid play.

As it is right now, I’d be willing to send him to Carolina for Ruutu and a upper/mid pick, perhaps a prospect. Ruutu is younger and has had similar point production as Franzen (57 points last year was a career high for him). He’s never played on a team like the Wings, having been stuck on the Blackhawks before they got good (or before they existed, according to 99% of the fans) and is now on the mediocre Hurricanes. I’d reckon that he could be a 30 goal, 65 point player playing on a line with Z or Pav. And when he isn’t producing points, you know he’ll be giving top effort and playing an aggressive, physical game while being sound defensively. I can’t say the same about Franzen

No, I won’t stop whining about Franzen.

The thing that pisses me off the most about Franzen is the gap in his all-around game when he is rolling versus “loafing” or floating.
Basically, when he is mentally engaged, he throws his body around, backchecks hard, rides guys out on the boards, and makes sensible plays in the correct positions. However, when he’s floating, he rarely touches anyone except with his stick, lazily chases the puck, makes horrendous low percentage passes, and just pure out sucks ass. Yesterday, on a play where we had a chance to go on a 2 on 1, he fumbled a pass that was on the very center of his tape. Play got broken up and led to just one of the many turnovers he had yesterday. Sure he showed some emotion after that by banging his stick, but he came out the next shift to show his consistency – the consistency of inconsistency.
It’s easy to tell and say that the mule is a different animal. Once he gets one, he starts to become more engaged to the game, becoming “hotter” and creating more chances. However, if things don’t continue to go well, he goes back to his floating-self. And this is what I and many other fans have a problem with. You see out there that datsyuk, zetterberg, flip, buckets, helm etc. trying to be more physical and play better defensively when their offensive game isn’t going (more so dats and z). Sure you may say that it’s not fair comparing a multiple selke winner and a conn-smythe proven two-way specialists with an offensive dynamo, right? Wait, what? If he’s not exactly an offensive dynamo who has the hands to score north of 40 but doesn’t because it’s not elimination games and he hates the regular season, why should he be treated any differently? Why should we just accept his loafing ass as just that? Last time I checked, red wings hockey is focused on our forwards being responsible defensively and playing a strong two-way game. And this is where i get frustrated most about Franzen. If things don’t go well offensively, why does he have to suck at both rinks of the ice?
Frankly, I am also very much against the Franzen vs. Hossa debacle. Hindsight is always 20/20 and you can never ever correctly predict what WOULD HAVE happened if we chose Hossa. I don’t like regretting decisions because I THINK it would have turned out better otherwise, instead I’d rather spend that time thinking about what we can do with Franzen. And that is to trade him to stl for the best player in the league, David Backes.
(I also think justifying the way he plays by the numbers on his contract has some flaws. I know contracts are a reflection of skill and performance but it shouldn’t be an excuse to play any less than you’re capable of.)

everybody’s frustration, but I think we need to reevaluate what exactly our goals are here. If our goals are to win the presidents trophy, send 4 players to the AS game, have hart trophy debates, and win scoring titles, then ship Franzen off on the next wagon out of the D. Now, if our goals are 1. make the playoffs 2. WIN THE CUP, then I believe Franzen has proven that he gives us the best chance at completing goal 2 when healthy.

Of course I scream at my tv every time he’s being lazy or doesn’t seem interested, but as soon as April gets here something funny happens. I stop screaming at him for the same reasons and my cus words turn into squeals of glee. So until we either miss the playoffs because of him, or he lays an egg and fails to compete at the very highest level in the playoffs while healthy, then he gets a pass from me. Apparently he gets one from Kenny and Babs as well.

every one whines nowadays, we are in first in the league, if ain’t broke don’t fix it.