The FreePress has come out with their "grades" for the Wings to this point in the season. It's pretty good, I disagree with a few of their grades, but overall, a decent read. Grading the Wings. (LINK)
I don't get why Jiri Fischer was not graded. I know it may seem like a kindness not to highlight his loss, but he did play several games and it should be important to make mention of his contribution to a great start. Political correctness goes too far. Hey Supes, the paper likes my man Zets! As an aside, those images on the left hand side of the page are shameful. Ever since Gannet started toying with the Free Press website, the quality has really gone down. How can they publish images that hideous on a feature article?
Damn, those are just plain horrible images. But the best part is that you can click on them and see an even bigger blurry, ugly image. (Just for the record, I hate the Wings and I only checked the link to see what Micro was talking about. GO HABS!)
But that's because you have Wodka fever for anything Eastern block European. Admit it. If you had to choose between Fedorov or Forsberg 5 years ago, you would have went Feddie. :P
Yip. I'll take the guy who plays hard, not the prima donna. Btw, I asked one of my die hard Wings Fan friend, and he said Hank over Dats. How did he put it? "Results over flash". Yeah. You gotta admit that Hank has mad game. Come the playoffs that Dats skill will be somewhat nullified.
Re: Grading the Wings to this point Zetterberg's good...but Datsyuk can shuffle the puck thru a deck of cards Jason Williams is the biggest surprise of the season Fedorov has been taking lessons from Darko in the off-season
Fedorov was hurt most of the season until he got traded. And now is taking a low key, role player type approach. And let's see, currently: Datsyuk 45 pts., +8, 8 ppg, 16goals, 29 assists Zetts 41 pts., +7, 8 ppg, 18goals, 23 assists Zetts has 144 Shots, Dats has 80 Ice Time: Zetts 19:07, Dats 17:45 Face Off %: Zetts 45.9, Dats 52.0 Overtime Goals: Zetts 0, Dats 1 Shorthanded Goals: Zetts 1, Dats 0 Game Winners: Zetts 4, Dats 3 Shooting %: Zetts 12.5, Dats 20 Shifts per Game: Zetts 24.2, Dats 22.1 PP goals: Zetts 8, Dats 8 So, aside from the fact that Zetts has thrown up almost twice as many shots, I'd say they're pretty even. Also, some of these numbers are skewed a bit, because Dats missed most of training camp negotiating his contract, and didn't have Babcock's trust to play on the PK until about a month and a half into the season, so that explains the ice time difference. The big thing here will be the playoffs. These two have become the most consistant threats the Wings have on offense, and to this point neither have set the world on fire in the playoffs. But really, none of the Wings have really shined in the Playoffs for a few years now. So we'll wait and see. Are they both complete players? I think so. Will Zetterberg end up with the "C" if he stays here long enough? Probably. Will Datsyuk? Probably not. Why? Because there is an illusion that Dats is a flashy playmaker, and one dimensional, and Zetts is the complete package, also Datsyuk's English is so fricking bad you can tell it's bad when you read quotes from him. But I see both of them as complete players, playoffs pending. Don't believe me about Datsyuk developing his D? When he came in, that was his big knock. Know how he holds the puck on a string and makes crazy stick handling moves? He's learned to use that skill on defense. Sure he doesn't bring the crowd to its feet with a big body check, but the poke check is just as effective.
Shhhh... Micro might jump on to tell you what a friend of a friend who likes to watch the Wings thinks...
