LGD: Bawitdaba Da Wings Have No Money
By Jon Steitzer
8 years agoHow many of the Red Wings 10+ free agents can they afford to bring back next year?
It seems like Mike Babcock new the exact right time to go running from Detroit with his bag full of money. Sure the Leafs aren’t great at the moment, but they are slowly sinking like the Andrea Doria, As the Blashill era Wings ease themselves into NHL lottery consideration “like an old man into a warm bath” it’s worth pausing to reflect on how screwed the Wings really are.
As usual, Cat Silverman has us covered on what’s really worth knowing:
The issue? The Red Wings are only $1.62 million under their long-term injured reserve modified upper limit for the salary cap, and Pavel Datsyuk’s $7.5 million cap hit isn’t a part of that equation.
So while the Wings for tonight may be the better team, let’s remember that they are a team that needs to shed almost $6M to bring back their star player.
The Leafs
The story the for the Leafs is pretty much the same as it will be all season, a couple of players falling out of the bottom of the roster, and a couple more getting their chance to climb back in. Today has featured the demotion of Rich Clune to the Marlies, and Scott Harrington coming in for Martin Marincin, who despite not looking great at times has been a statistical gem and certainly more deserving of a spot instead of Roman Polak.
Of course Marincin will probably be in tomorrow night because that’s how things work on the 2015-16 Leafs, so it’s not worth getting too worked up over, unless you are Frank Corrado.
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 James van Riemsdyk |  Nazem Kadri |  Leo Komarov |
 Shawn Matthias |  Tyler Bozak |  P.A. Parenteau |
 Daniel Winnik |  Nick Spaling |  Joffrey Lupul |
 Michael Grabner |  Byron Froese |  Brad Boyes |
| Defensive Pairings | |
|---|---|
 Jake Gardiner |  Dion Phaneuf |
 Matt Hunwick |  Morgan Rielly |
 Scott Harrington |  Roman Polak |
The Red Wings
The only numbers that seem to be worse for the Wings than their cap numbers are their possession numbers, and this is largely due to Jeff Blashill being a second tier coach at best. He’d probably be a decent assistant, and he certainly was capable in the AHL, but with a roster nearly identical to what Babcock worked with last year, and with upgrades in the form of Richards, and Green, Blashill has taken a 53.5 CF% team and turned it into a 46.1 CF% team in a month. Randy Carlyle might not be able to ruin a team that quick.
Unfortunately for the Leafs, despite Blashill not knowing what he’s doing, there is enough talent on the Wings to give them the edge for now. Zetterberg and Nyquist had the starts they needed to have, and Dylan Larkin could be a contender for Calder now that McDavid is broken.
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 Justin Abdelkader |  Henrik Zetterberg |  Dylan Larkin |
 Tomas Tatar |  Riley Sheahan |  Gustav Nyquist |
 Joakim Andersson |  Darren Helm |  Teemu Pulkkinen |
 Drew Miller |  Luke Glendening |  Landon Ferraro |
| Defensive Pairings | |
|---|---|
 Niklas Kronwall |  Brendan Smith |
 Dan DeKeyser |  Jonathan Ericsson |
 Jakub Kindl |  Alexey Marchenko |
Starting Goaltenders
It’s the battle of the Winter Classic backups
VS
What to Watch for…
- Red Wings fans lying to themselves about Mike Babcock leaving was good for their team
- Ken Holland kissing Lou’s ring in hopes that he can unload one of his horrible defensemen and their crappy contract
- Hopefully someone punching Justin Abdelkader in the head repeatedly
- The return of Scott Harrington! I can’t be the only one who’s psyched.
- The human interest story of Ray Ferraro calling a game for TSN where his son is playing, his brother in law is behind the bench (Tony Granato) and his wife (Cammi Granato) is being honoured as a Hockey Hall of Famer in a pregame ceremony. I’m a pretty cynical jackass, but even I think this is a pretty cool moment.
Caption This…
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, so have at this…
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