Ian

thoughts and stuff

[Ian @iansLife_]

Always chasing my shadow

[Joe Chapp @JCSportsDetroit]

Here is what I cannot get past. Yzerman picked Dylan Larkin as captain. Let's state that clearly, for the record. He chose him. He gave him the full power of the captaincy — but no no-move clause. And then, by Shapiro's reporting, he stopped talking to him.

You don't ask him what's going on with the team? You don't ask what he needs? You don't talk at all? If you are the general manager and you believe your captain isn't a good leader, the question answers itself: why did you make him captain? And if you did make him captain, why aren't you doing the basic job of leadership — walking up to him and squashing whatever this is?

I don't care what Steve Yzerman did as a player. I truly do not. What he is doing as a general manager of the Detroit Red Wings is an embarrassment. A general manager who isn't speaking to his own hand-picked captain has failed at the part of the job that doesn't even require talent. It just requires showing up, and being accountable.

Now the other side, because I am not letting the captain off the hook. Larkin has been the captain of this team for years. He learned from Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk. When you come up under those two, the standard is set: to whom much is given, much is expected. So when he stands at the post-game podium looking like he is about to cry, I can't give him a pass for that. He is a leader. Maybe not a good one — but a leader.

And the trade list tells you everything. Per Helene St. James of the Free Press, Larkin's three teams are Vegas, Florida, and Minnesota. The Golden Knights are in the Stanley Cup Final, so it's hard to imagine they're prioritizing this. But look at the through-line: all three are loaded with high-end American talent. Whatever Larkin is chasing, it's clear as day. If somebody advised him to hand in that specific list, it was bad advice. If he came to it on his own, that's worse.

Here's the trap that creates for Detroit. Larkin was a top-five center in this league this season. You cannot just give your captain away — you have to get real talent back. And none of those three teams has much meaningful to offer in return. We came into this offseason already needing a center. Trade Larkin and now you need two. Are you finding a top-fifteen center in the next two years? Probably not. So Detroit sits in a lose-lose: you can't keep him happy, you can't move him for equal value, and the man who has to solve it is the same one who let it get here.

The saddest part, to me, is that the blueprint is sitting right across town. Look at the Detroit Lions. Dan Campbell took over a team with no leadership and no culture, and he built the thing from the ground up — with the players he needed, in the identity he chose. That is what leadership looks like. That is what taking ownership of a franchise looks like.

Neither Yzerman nor Larkin wanted to do that. I'll say it plainly: if either man had wanted to make this culture his own, he would have done it by now. We are eight years in. The Sabres used to be the team everyone made jokes about. Now that's us. The general manager didn't do a good enough job. The captain didn't do a good enough job. Between them, they railroaded this franchise into a punchline.

[Jeff Riger @riger1984]

A local guy becomes captain of an iconic Original 6 team & is a huge part of March collapse after collapse & then demands out leaving the team w/ no leverage.

And an iconic Captain is now forced to trade his best player & can’t choose his destination

Hell of a legacy

For both

[𝓜𝓾𝓷𝓲 𝓡𝓪𝓽 🐀 @Dr_DewSweep]

Can’t tell you how much I love Min Woo Lee competing in a PGA Championship while looking like my drug dealing uncle from 1994

[ThienemanSZN🇺🇸🇳🇱 @ThienemanSZN]

Lions fans in 2023

[Cassius Winston @CassiusW71017]

Pistons losing as #1 seed
Lions losing as #1 seed
Wings choke 85% playoff odds
Tigers blow 15 gm divison lead
What did I do to deserve this

[Barstool Sports @barstoolsports]

Pistons fans are waterboarding themselves to feel worse pain than being down 3-1 to the Orlando Magic

[Ian @iansLife_]

The world feels like a place I want to be when it’s 70 degrees and sunny out

[Ian @iansLife_]

you think it couldn’t get any worse and they go and give one up with 18 seconds left and lose in the shootout. This team makes me want to put toothpicks in my eyes

[Evan LobSPEAKER @lobspeaker]

It’s another #LGRW gameday!

[Evan LobSPEAKER @lobspeaker]

It’s another #LGRW gameday!

[Ian @iansLife_]

@DetroitRedWings

[Ian @iansLife_]

You gotta make a decision after 3 beers. Either you go home and fall asleep after 3, or you drink 8 more

[Norritz Seider @rkls2021]

@Sportsnet

[Ian @iansLife_]

Absolutely massive 2 points from @DetroitRedWings and a beer league W. Solid Friday junior

[Detroit Red Wings @DetroitRedWings]

Back in action tonight!

[Ian @iansLife_]

The boys want Stevie to make a splash at the deadline so bad. Would be a spark plug for a very important march.

[Rob Gucci @heatdaddy69420]

There needs to be a documentary about how we made it to Friday this week against all the odds

[Red Wings Diehards™ @RedWingDiehards]

Wake up gang! It’s gameday! 🐙

The first of 24 remaining games tonight in Ottawa. The average point total of East WC2 the last 4 years is 93.5 points. If DET can win just half their remaining games, they will hit 96. Let’s not forget, this team hasn’t lost back to back in regulation in basically 3 months. If they can keep that up for another month, they’re getting in the SC Playoffs.

Everyone’s rested, and the ones who aren’t should be at minimum feeling great about their current game. The journey to end this stupid ass playoff drought is back on!! #LGRW

[Ian @iansLife_]

@moritzmarais Hey, would you kindly shut the fuck up?

[Ian @iansLife_]

I can’t even explain how upset the discourse around the hockey team is making me. These people make me embarrassed to be a liberal and lack even the slightest ability to form a cohesive thought in their brain. Don’t come near my sport.

[Ian @iansLife_]

Videos of this game cause a physical reaction in my body. I wish we won an NFC championship so fucking bad

[Crunch Time Sports @officialctpod]

When Jameson Williams scored the opening TD for the Detroit Lions in the NFC Championship game 🥺