Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

81 More Just Like That

10/15/2016 at 9:12am EDT

Your fastest, arguably most explosive, player sits a game against the arguably fastest, most explosive team in the league.

Healthy, but sitting.

You get a quick two-goal lead but no one, and I mean no one, expects it to last. It doesn't.

Two too many men on the ice penalties. Again.

Three power play goals against.

Weak goaltending. Another two-goal lead vanished.

Most lines shuffled. Defensive pairings re-aligned. After one game.

Every bit of that is every bit of what we've seen for years.

You know you're in for a long year when, after one game, a healthy scratch is inserted into the second game's lineup, on the top line.

Seriously. A player you deem unqualified to play in the type of game he's been built for sits. You get an epiphany and he's on the top line for the second game against a slower, more deliberate team, in a game that should be more defensive than the one he sat out.

Red Wing logic. Jeff Blashill logic, massaged and formed by the logic of Ken Holland.

Our season of discontent, our season of utter contempt. A nutshell of what we can expect the entire year.

I do believe this team will make the playoffs. I believe they have the talent to do so. I also believe Jimmy Howard will be the number 1 goaltender before Christmas. I believe Jared Comeau will back him up, by Christmas.

I believe the pressure, self-imposed, to make the playoffs in the final year at JLA will remain a primary factor in bringing more defense to this team.

Connor Hellebuyck.

He's the number 1 goalie in Winnipeg.

If Petr Mrazek can be included in a deal for a defenseman, like Trouba, do it. If he can be used as a sweetener along with anyone minus the guy who sat game 1, the guy who is nearly as fast and is clearly untouchable in Larkin, do it.

Then again, and I'm rambling, why? Is one defenseman going to make this team suddenly competitive? Is one deal for one defenseman going to limit a team like Tampa to 3 goals instead of their typical 6?

It's crazy fan talk. All of it. We all know it. As much as we blast away at Holland we know he's privy to info and, frankly, hockey wisdom that we're not. None of us truly believe he's lazy. We all do believe the game has passed him by but he's not dumb. He can't be satisfied with this. He can't view this as a successful franchise. He can't possibly see himself as a successful GM right now.

After one game, and one disgusting summer, this is where we are. Middling. In need of much more but in no position to get there, through any traditional means.

Two goals leads will vanish. All year. This team will score. All year. Mrazek and Howard will make very good saves but not steal a damn thing. All year. Danny DeKeyser is our best defenseman. Good god.

We'll squeek in. Again. Or we won't, and we'll end up drafting 14th instead of 17th.

One game in and we're fatigued. One game in and this is the mood we're in. It's 0913 on a Saturday. Drink up.

Live Blog tonight. We'll do it all again.

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About Abel to Yzerman

Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that.

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