Winging It In Motown: For Detroit Red Wings Fans

WIIM radio is back again with our big Pre-Draft edition. We've got me, Jeff, Kyle, Mike, and Corey joining us again this time around to go over all things Wings, react to the NHL Awards, and get ready for the weekend's draft festivities. Here's what we got up to: Draft Time! - Kyle will be in Buffalo to say hi to all the Leafs fans who'll be descending upon the poor quiet villa, but we're going to be talking about it to get you prepped. Moving the Datsyuk Deal - What will it cost? What should the Wings spend? How the hell are we going to work that?! What's the point of even moving Datsyuk's deal if a guy like Stamkos isn't in the bag? The Jimmy Howard Deal - Will the Wings be able to move him with the list of buyers drying up? What about his effect on the expansion plan if you have to keep Howard around? Why am I using so many question marks?The NHL Awards Show - This was super boring and badly done, so we do what we do best: complain!The Las Vegas Expansion - If you watched the Awards Show, there's no way yo

Welcome to our latest edition of WIIM Radio! This time around, we've got me, Jeff, and Kyle joined by two newcomers to the show in CoreyWIIM and Teandcakeordeath. We break them in for the offseason with this rundown of topics:   The Penguins Won the Cup - Surprisingly most of us were happy with the Penguins winning, but we also have very good reasons, as emulating their success should work better for the Wings.The New Coaches - Between Torchetti and Houda, we've got some good fresh faces behind the bench to help out Blashill as the Red Wings try to develop a new team identity.Datsyuk - Hopefully we'll know the answer here before you're even done listening, but just in case, we talk about it and go over what teams might still take a dead-space deal.The Defensive Logjam - What should the Wings do to make space to test out the prospects at defense, or can they move guys?The Draft is Coming! - But who cares!Reader Questions - You asked some very solid questions and we gave semi-solid answers. That sounds gross,

Welcome to our latest edition of WIIM Radio. This time around we didn't have a prospects report because we just had Michelle on for the whole show. She joined me, Kyle, and Lauren to shoot the breeze about the Wings. Here's what we got up to: The Griffins Run - Grand Rapids lost in six games to the Lake Erie Monsters. The series was kind of heartbreaking, but the NHL-caliber prospects played very well. Mantha, AA, Sproul, Jensen, Ouellet, Bertuzzi, and even Svechnikov played big boy hockey against a Monsters team pretty stacked with high-end prospects themselves.The World Championships - Nyquist has been a scoring machine on the bigger ice and against not-quite-NHL-level competition. Datsyuk is still technically a Red Wing and has an assist-per-game so far. Jurco has two goals, Larkin is playing well, and Alexey Marchenko has been playing big time for Team Russia.Coaching Carousel - Houda steps into Tony Granato's shoes to take over for a rebuilding defense, Fershweiler heads to the classroom to watch, Bedard

The Wings' season is over, but there's still plenty left to talk about on our latest episode of WIIM Radio. Join along as me, Graham, and Kyle break things down while Michelle joins in to edify your asses on the lads in the pipeline. Here's what we got up to. The Red Wings are Done - What doomed the Wings this season and into the playoffs? How much of it was just bad luck versus how much of it was stuff they did wrong all season long?How to Right the Ship - Fixing the power play (including dealing with Abdelkader), time to stop "playing safe" and playing the damn kids for better or worse.Making the Moves - Ken Holland talks about getting more aggressive with trades. We take a look at some names out there and some potential trade destinations for Jimmy Howard.Prospects Report - With the Griffins still alive, Michelle runs us down the Griffins as they get ready for their 2nd round series against Lake Erie in the Calder Cup playoffs.Reader Questions - Y'all didn't get any FMKs or duck/Tangradi questions, so Kyle

Welcome to our latest episode of WIIM Radio. This time around we've got the standard me-Kyle-Graham formation running with Michelle doing all the good hard work and us screwing around for a while. Here's what we got up to: The First Three Games vs. Tampa - Detroit fell apart in the first two games, but held strong for the third. How confident should we be in the Wings being able to play in game 4 just like they did in game 3?Goaltending Controversy? - Petr may not have been the reason the Wings won game 3, but he's got to be your guy going forward, yeah?Blashill's Adjustments - What makes the Abby-Glendening-Sheahan line such a good matchup against Tyler Johnson's line? How does that work out for the other matchups and can Blashill keep pushing that advantage?Around the Brackets - The other series are going on and the Chicago/St. Louis one is real interesting, the Caps beating up on the Flyers, California can't win home games, and we forget to talk about NYI/FLA because lol.Prospects Report - The Griffins sta

Welcome to our latest and greatest edition of WIIM Radio. This week we've got me, Graham, and Kyle running the scene with Michell nailing down the prospects report for us as always. Here's the rundown: What it takes to beat the Bolts - We'll explore the keys to the series in taking down an injured Tampa team. Other favored teams - Being realistic, if not the Wings, who should we pull for after all is said and done?The lineup choices - Mantha sent down, Andersson back up, AA playing limited minutes. Let's take a few minutes and air our complaints.Who's in charge of the locker room - Between Holland, Blashill, and the vets, who's calling the shots in Detroit's locker room?Datsyuk and Ken Holland's statement about not trading him - A lot of complaints about the concept of Detroit holding Datsyuk regardless of what happens, but is it all a little premature?Prospects Report - The Griffins are still fighting for their playoff positioning and will be doing so with Mantha helping along the way for the last week of th

Welcome to our latest episode of WIIM Radio. This time around we've got me, Lauren, Graham, and Kyle running the big talk with Michelle propping up the episode with the prospects talk. Here's what we got up to: The Playoff Push - With Boston's SO loss to Carolina on Tuesday, the Wings' road to the playoffs got a bit easier, but there's still a tough test ahead. How confident are we feeling? Well we do mention unicorn boners and puppy blood.Datsyuk - The talk of Pavel perhaps wanting to return to Russia has to come up. We'll go over the CBA stuff surrounding the possibilities and also the best and worst-case scenarios.Prospects Report - The Griffins have clinched a berth of their own and Michelle gives us the full rundown on how the junior Wings are doing, as well as how the rest of the kids in the pipeline who are still active are doing.Reader Questions - You asked, we answered. As always, the questions are 100% fantastic to about 73% fantastic answers. What can I say? Maybe we were rusty from skipping last w

Our newest episode of WIIM Radio is fresh-baked and right out of the oven with me, Kyle, Graham, and Jeff making love to your earbones via the sweet sounds of Red Wings chatter. Here's what we got up to: The Wins vs. Columbus and the Panthers - The Wings won the only two games since the last episode so we're all happy. Hooray!Brad Richards vs. Eric Tangradi on the 4th line. Who ya got?!The Kids vs. the Bench - Mantha and Athanasiou don't get trusted in the third. Green and Smith don't either. How long can this usage last?Prospects Report - Michelle gives us a real in-depth look at the kids, including a snippet of an interview with Christoffer Ehn over in Sweden. Real great update on all the kids in the pipeline this week.Reader Questions - You asked and we answered. Some of the questions were really good. All of the answers were. We're good at this.The Week Ahead - The Wings will be in full swing before you know it and we'll tell you whether that's going to make you happy or not. WIIM Radio is rated R for lan

We've got a fresh new edition of WIIM Radio for your earholes this week featuring me, Kyle, Graham and Jeff for the main event and of course our wonderful prospects report from Michelle. Here's what we got up to topics-wise: The Wings are currently outside the playoffs and haven't been very inspiring as of late. Do they not care? Why the hell won't they start games on time?How to make the postseason from here on out with Philly and Pittsburgh's schedule to come. The Wings technically don't control their own destiny anymore, but there's lots of room to get help.Anthony Mantha is a bright spot in a sea of shit. We'll go over what he did well in his first ever NHL game.Prospects Report - Great segment this week on our Griffins buddies and their second super-hot streak. We also get an update on Alden Hirschfeld, a Walleye rundown, and the CHL news on Saarijarvi, Svechnikov, Hicketts, and Turgeon. Then we finish things off with a dip across the pond for the European prospects in the system.Reader Questions were a

Welcome to the newest edition of WIIM Radio. Not a ton of Wings action to cover this week, but plenty to talk about. Me, Graham and Kyle were the crew with Michelle running the good news report for us. Here's what we went over. The Wings Two Losses to Chicago - The results were ugly, but the process showed some promise. What does losing two straight to one of the best teams in the league teach this team?The Playoff Plan: To Rebuild or not to Rebuild - The Wings could miss the playoffs this year. Some people want that. We go over the pros and cons of such a strategy and how best the return the Wings to glory.Prospects Report - Michelle runs down the hot Griffins and the other pipeline prospects' goings-on for the last week.Reader Questions - Some good questions this week. Thought-provoking stuff from the readership for us here.The Week Ahead - Four games for the Wings. can they gather some of the necessary points for the playoff push? - - - WIIM Radio is rated R for language and felony landscaping. Learn mor

Welcome to the latest episode of WIIM Radio. We had me, Jeff, Graham, and Kyle on for this post Stadium Series episode where we reminisce and look ahead (at the same time!). Here's the rundwon of topics we went over: The Stadium Series Trip - A large WIIM contingent took to Denver for the weekend's festivities. We'll give you the update on our experiences in a very nice unfriendly city where we watched the Wings Alumni lose and the Wings current players win the game that mattered.Andreas Athanasiou - The Gyro Hero has been tearing it up for the Wings of late, making a huge impact for the team. We'll talk about what makes him special and even try to make peace with him not having been up all season long.The Trade Deadline - Detroit stood pat after trading Jakub Kindl on Saturday. We go over the strategy and how happy we are with how everything went down, then move on to winners and losers around the leagueProspects Report - Michelle runs us down the Griffins goings-on and the prospects everywhere else in the p

Welcome to another episode of WIIM Radio. Kind of a skeleton crew on this one with just Kyle and Graham joining me on this Wednesday night rivalry podcast. Here's a rundown of the topics we covered: The Wings Lately - Three losses and one win for the Wings with plenty to talk about in regards to how we got there.Goaltending, Usage, and Athanasiou - Two good performances have us feeling better about the netminding situation, but which team usage are we going to get night in and night out. Seems the good team only shows up when the ice time mixture is good. Speaking of which, Andreas Athanasiouis fantastic.The Defense and Brendan Smith - Smitty got banged up against Columbus and might not play outdoors this weekend. Ouellet and Kindl are gone as well, so what's our defense going to look like?Prospects Report - Michelle runs us down on the Griffins and other prospects in the Wings' pipeline of late in her weekly can't-miss segment.Reader Questions - Lots of heavy-hitting questions in this one and we actually had

Welcome to the latest edition of WIIM Radio. We've got a great show for you this week with Jeff, Kyle, and Prashanth joining me to go over all things Wings. Here's what we got into: The Week that Was - The Wings went 2-1-1 over a four game stretch, losing one game to goalie magic and another to bullshit scheduling, but overall I think things leaned positively. Join us as we try to remember ever actually playing Ottawa.Brendan Smith - Prashanth gave us a big rundown on how Smith is truly a good defenseman and we ran him through the ringer for it like a bunch of filthy Redditors.Using the Defense Correctly - With a few guys set to come back in the near future, what should the pairings look like and how should they be deployed?Prospects Report  - Michelle runs us down the pipeline to get us all up-to-date on the kids in the system.Reader Questions - You all started us out with a question about getting carnal with a goat and things honestly improved from there. one of our best RQ segments ever.The Week Ahead - Wi

Welcome to another episode of WIIM Radio, here for your earball pleasure. We had a packed crew tonight and got into a bunch of good stuff. We had me, Jeff, Lauren, and Kyle on to discuss things. Here's what we got into: The week that was - The Red Wings went 2-2, hopefully hitting rock bottom and then winning two straight. The Florida trip was garbage, but a few adjustments later and it appears as though things have been turned around for the better.The concerns of the Florida game - A 3-0 win against the division leaders were good, but it wasn't all hunky-dory, especially with our defensemen. Guess which ones!Petr Mrazek is really really good - The guy is putting up amazing numbers. Can he keep it up all year?Kindl and his playing time - So the guy always does well in his first game back and then goes back to sucking. With an assist on the game-winner Monday, it seems he'll keep that up. Should we even have him here anymore?Abby on Barkov - None of us would have been surprised with supplemental discipline, b

Welcome to a new episode of WIIM Radio. This time we had me, Jeff and Kyle only (RIP Graham) to cover the week where there were no Wings games to cover, but lots to talk about. Here's what we got into: The ASG Weekend and the amazing John Scott story - The NHL fell backwards into the best All-Star game I've ever seen. Trying to pick a favorite moment was like trying to pick a favorite kid (meaning you do it, but don't tell anybody because they'll judge you for it).Dylan Larkin's ASG Weekend - Hey we had a guy there and he caught everybody's eye with how good he is. Larkin rules.Can you recreate the Scott magic? Should you even try? - Nobody knew what was going to happen this year, but now there's a "script." Is it possible to have this happen again without it all coming across as hokey saccharine bullshit? I say no.The line combos - Luke Glendening practiced on the third line because of Sheahan's illness. Kyle tries to be ok with it and I say something mean to him because of it.The defense and the future of K

If you've already listened to this week's episode of WIIM Radio, you'll have already noticed a bit of a hole in the middle of the show. We had a timing hiccup this week and couldn't get the prospects report cut into the main episode in time. We don't want you to miss out on it just to miss out though. What we've got here is this week's WIIM Radio Prospects Report.  In this report, Michelle runs down the Griffins' relative return to health and what kind of an affect those injuries have had on the team in the standings lately, since the Griffins have had kind of a roller coaster season so far.Vili Saarijarvi and the odd case of a bad Flint Firebirds team, along with the odd case of his juniors eligibility and potential for next season.Svechnikov is hot since returning from the World Juniors. We like hot.Joe Hicketts and his impact on the Victoria RoyalsDominic Turgeon's offensive growthAxel Holmstrom's dominance in SwedenEhn and VahataloListener Questions: Mantha/Bertuzzi callups? What's the future for Frk? You

Welcome to our latest edition of WIIM Radio. This week we had me, Graham, Jeff and Kyle on to talk about the Red Wings and all things NHL for you. Here's a rundown of what we got into. The week that was, including the PRO-cess of the Wings - Detroit won two and lost two since we last talked. Surprisingly, the two wins were the games we deemed "good" while the losses were "bad." I promise we say smarter stuff than that in the episode though.The defense - How bad is Jonathan Ericsson? How good is Brendan Smith? What's going on with the pairings? There's always a lot to talk about when it comes to Detroit's blue line.Petr Mrazek and the end of the tandem - Has Mrazek's relative lack of games compared to other starters hurt is Vezina chances? How badly? We look ahead and try to guess at how many more games Howard will get.Dylan Larkin and the All-Star game - With our lone representative being an excitable 19-year old, are we more excited about this ASG than we have been in years past? The answer is of course we a

Welcome to another edition of WIIM Radio. Today we've got me, Kyle, Lauren, and Jeff on to talk all the Red Wingshockey from the last week. Here's the rundown: The end of the road (trip) - The Wings finished out their western trip with a comeback win over theCoyotes and celebrated their homecoming with a boring loss to Philly. I was at this game and will give you my unabashed thoughts.The scoring - The Wings can't put the damn puck in the net. Unlucky? What's wrong? Why in the hell can't the power play score?The defense - Marchenko is sitting and Quincey is playing. Is there something nefarious playing out here? Who should be sitting (other than Ericsson because we know he won't be)?Nedomlel - probably the last time anybody ever talks about this guy.Prospects Report - Michelle runs down all the latest happy-haps for our beloved children in the AHL and elsewhere. Ok, they're not children. They're large adult sons.Mailbag - Another great round of questions for our readers leads to a round of purely acceptable a

Welcome to another episode of WIIM Radio. The Wings are out West, but we're all together in the studio pumping out quality online podcast content for your listening pleasure. We went a bit old school tonight with me, Kyle, Jeff, and Graham chewing the fat that is the ass of the Red Wings lately. Here's what we went over:   The Kings loss and the road trip - The Wings had a loss coming, so we're not terribly bummed out by the loss in Los Angeles. Hopefully the loss will reset the less-than-stellar play leading up to it.The cap situation - Elliotte Friedman explained what Ken Holland meant about the "$66M" cap in regards to the timing of Pavel Datsyuk going on LTIR. We try to make sense of it all in regards to what exactly they can and can't spend.Drew Miller tinfoil time - If he gets a contract this summer, you know for damn well certain it has something to do with the timing of his torn meniscus. I'm not saying, I'm just saying...Kyle Quincey, playing seven defensemen, and Smith sucked again - What is the pl

Welcome back to WIIM Radio, the first of 2016! This time around we had a small crew of just me, Kyle and Lauren, but we had plenty to talk about, since we skipped last weeks episode. Here's what we covered: The Wings performance lately - Detroit has won their last two games, but that's two of their last five. They haven't looked particularly convincing anywhere in that stretch. What's it all mean?Kronwall/Ericsson and the pairings - For some reason, Blashill has the pairings set weird and has decided that Kronner-Riggy should be a thing again. What the hell?Roster moves - Nosek is a Griffin again as Miller and Jurco are cleared to go. Quincey will be back real soon and Ken Holland is talking about not carrying eight defensemen. We talked at good length about what we think that will mean for Marchenko and the pairings.Around the NHL/Atlantic - Florida has won 10 straight to take hold of the Atlantic, but does this division have a true contender? What's it going to look like at the end of the year? We also brie