On the Wings

The Wings got away with one last night, getting a win in overtime over the Sharks in a game where they were pretty much shut down all night. The Sharks kept the Wings relatively under control the whole game and were very good at keeping it boring. Things got more exciting near the end when the Wings decided a win wouldn’t come easily and they put forth enough effort to overcome the stifling San Jose defense.

Curtis Joseph played for the fifth straight game and looked very good. He had no chance on either of the Sharks’ goals and both were preceded by some great saves by him. The first was no one’s fault since it was on a 5-on-3 which the Wings’ skaters defended well. The second was a result of a minor defensive miscue where the two Wings defensemen collided, leaving Scott Thornton wide open for a slam dunk goal. Joseph has been very steady since coming back to the team and it just goes to show what he can do when well worked. I think Dominik Hasek would have played just as well, however, had he not been hampered by this groin injury. The fact is, both of them need to play consistently to play well. They cannot both get that here so the Wings have got to find a way to get Joseph to another team. He deserves it and the Wings owe it to him.

Henrik Zetterberg made his return last night rather than on Friday as expected and was amazing. He scored the Wings’ first goal and then went on to assist on their next two, including a brilliant assist on the game winner in overtime. He looked strong on his skates and did not seem to have missed a beat, even though he missed 21 games with a broken leg. It was great to see him out there again and even though the Wings’ offense has been good without him, he reminded us all how much we missed him. He played 27 shifts over 19 minutes, 21 seconds, getting time in even-strength, power-play and penalty-killing situations and looked good doing it. The best news is he played the whole game and did not have to leave because of his leg bothering him. That should mean he’s fully healed and that the Wings will have his services for the rest of the season, barring other injuries. Dave Lewis did not waste any time putting him back on a line with Datsyuk and Hull since they were together on the first power play unit, though not at even-strength for the most part.

Pavel Datsyuk was relatively quiet all night until he scored the game tying goal with 19 seconds left. The Sharks defense was obviously keying on him and did not give him much room to do anything all night. That’s something Pavel’s going to have to deal with from now on but I think he’s good enough that it shouldn’t be a problem. He actually played a fairly physical game last night, knocking at least one player down and taking a beating from the Sharks. He is now tied for the NHL scoring lead with Robert Lang with 40 points.

Brendan Shanahan scored the Wings’ game winner off a pass from Zetterberg. He is having a quietly strong season lately after starting out slowly. He drew the penalty that lead to the Wings’ game tying goal near the end of the third period and had a good game overall.

Niklas Kronwell continues to impress me with his physical play and decent offensive ability. He earned his second NHL point on Henrik Zetterberg’s goal and played a strong game. He does not look like a rookie at all. He’s supposedly “Nick the Second” and, though that may be a bit of a stretch, he’s looking like he may be a top NHL defenseman in a few years.

The Wings earned their third win in a row, improving to 9-1-1 in their last 12 games and 14-3-2-1 in their past 20. They still have nine regulars out because of various injuries yet the breakout play of players such as Datsyuk, Hull, Schneider and Woolley has kept them on a winning pace. They are now tied for first place overall and lead the St. Louis Blues by three points (44 to 41). The Blues still have six games in hand on Detroit, however, and will not have played the same number of games as the Wings until some time in March. The Wings are now 20-10-3-1.

Next up: vs. Chicago, tomorrow, 7:30 EST

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Lines-
Dandenault-Williams-Maltby
Draper-Datsyuk-Hull
Zetterberg-Mowers-Shanahan
Devereaux-Datsyuk-Hull
Dandenault-Draper-Maltby
Devereaux-Hudler-Bootland
Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Hull

Fischer-Schneider
Lidstrom-Woolley
Kronwall-Rivers
Fischer-Rivers
Kronwall-Lidstrom
Schneider-Woolley

4 on 4-
Shanahan-Zetteberg
Datsyuk-Hull

Fischer-Schneider
Lidstrom-Woolley
Kronwall-Rivers

PP-
Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Hull
Shanahan-Mowers-Draper
Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Draper
Shanahan-Datsyuk-Hull

Lidstrom-Woolley
Kronwall-Schneider
Lidstrom-Schneider

PK-
Draper-Maltby
Shanahan-Zetterberg
Datsyuk-Hull

Lidstrom-Schneider
Fischer-Rivers
Schneider-Dandenault

5 on 3PK-
Maltby-Draper

Lidstrom

6 on 5 Cujo Pulled-
Zetterberg-Shanahan-Dastyuk-Hull

Lidstrom-Schneider

6 on 4 PP-
Zetterberg-Shanahan-Dastyuk-Hull

Lidstrom-Schneider

OT-
Datsyuk-Hull
Shanahan-Zetterberg
Draper-Maltby
Williams-Dandenault

Lidstrom-Woolley
Fischer-Schneider
Kronwall-Lidstrom

Net-
Curtis Joseph

Tonight is the first and only game between these two teams this season.

The Wings are 7-1-1-1 in their past 10 games and 12-3-2-1 in their past 18 having earned at least one point in 15 of those games. The hottest player on the team is Pavel Datsyuk, who has 10 points in his past four games and 16 in his past six. He is now tied with Markus Naslund (who scored a goal in last night’s 2-1 overtime win over Carolina for Vancouver) for NHL scoring leader with 37 total points and was named the NHL’s Offensive Player of the Week today. The Wings will be looking to extend their home winning streak to five games tonight and are coming off a 5-1 win Saturday over another Southeast Division opponent, the Washington Capitals.

The Panthers are riding a three game unbeaten streak and are coming off a 2-2 tie with Nashville on Saturday. Florida’s Roberto Luongo has a 2.33 GAA and a .931 save percentage and is one of the league’s top goalies this year. Olli Jokinen is the team’s leading goal scorer with 11. The Panthers are 0-1-2-1 in their last four road games.

Curtis Joseph will likely start again tonight though Manny Legace is ready to go.

Henrik Zetterberg wants to play tonight but he said he probably wouldn’t. He was scheduled to have X-rays today and the final decision was to be made after that. Henrik said yesterday “It depends on how the X ray looks and what (team orthopedist David) Collon says … I don’t want to be out six more weeks.” He also said “The thing is, I don’t know how it’s supposed to feel, so it’s hard for me to say if it’s ready or not. I still feel it, but there’s no pain.” He is listed as questionable by the Free Press. UPDATE - 5:25 PM - Ken Daniels said on 94.7 WCSX today about 10 minutes ago that Henrik Zetterberg is not ready for tonight but that he should return to the ice for Friday’s game.

Steve Yzerman and Ray Whitney are both still day-to-day with groin injuries but should return by the end of the week.

Tomas Holmstrom and Chris Chelios are getting closer to playing again. Holmstrom’s shoulder is nearly healed and he should be back later this week. He said hitting will be the biggest test because he can skate and shoot now. With his style of play, he’ll need to be able to hit if he wants to come back so until he can, we won’t see him on the ice. Chelios tore his right MCL on December 8 and skated Sunday. However, he said “I’m not even close to playing,” and said that hoped to be back in two weeks from when he was injured, which would mean the December 22nd game against the Blues. His response to the doctor’s predictions was: “They say four — three to four. But who knows?” The Wings haven’t missed him too much, though, with Woolley, Schneider and Kronwall playing well in his absence.

This is a good opportunity for the Wings to get a win. The Panthers are a young team with not very much experience and hopefully that will work to the Wings’ advantage, as it should. Roberto Luongo is no push-over, however, and the Wings will have to be serious about scoring on him tonight, not lazy in their play as they sometimes are against lesser teams. The Panthers will have a lot of jump and the Wings will need to play a disciplined game. If they do their job, it should be no contest.

News | Freep | ESPN

The Wings got their revenge (and redemption) last night for their earlier loss to the Caps on November 24th. They just about completely dominated the game, scoring five unanswered goals, in a total reversal of that embarrassing loss about three weeks ago.

Curtis Joseph played well, stopping 18 of 19 shots. He wasn’t tested very much all night, however, and did not really play a big factor in the game. The goal he allowed on Jaromir Jagr was a goal-scorer’s goal, plain and simple. He had no chance of stopping it. CuJo improved to 4-4-0 on the season with the win.

Pavel Datsyuk continued his brilliance, scoring four more points to add to the six he already had over the previous three games. He made up for his a poor defensive play that led directly to the Jagr goal by assisting on the Wings’ first two goals and scoring their third and fifth. He passed Vancouver’s Markus Naslund and is now the NHL scoring leader with 37 points. His first goal was something of a fluke, with Washington’s Jason Doig knocking Pavel’s centering pass into the open net. His second goal was more conventional, a quick wrist shot from the top of the circles that beat Kolzig cleanly. Brett Hull can’t stop singing Datsyuk’s praises: “It’s not by accident. (him being the NHL scoring leader) He’s a wonderful, wonderful player.” That’s just another in a long string of comments by Hull that go back to last year. After Pavel scored his second goal, Hull told him on the bench: “….Don’t get satisfied. Keep working. You could lead this league in scoring.” I’m confident Pavel will keep working. That’s one of the biggest reasons why I like him so much and probably the biggest difference between him and Sergei Fedorov. Datsyuk comes to play every night and it’s very rare to see him take a play off. If he keeps this up, there is absolutely no reason why he should not be in the All-Star game. He’s not on the ballot but he can be written in and he should at least be invited by the league since he probably won’t be voted on to the roster. He’s been amazing. Now, if he could just score a hat trick….

Brett Hull had two points in last night’s game but easily could have had three. During the second period, there was a race for the puck at center ice and Hull got their first. As he broke in on Kolzig, the Caps defenseman caught up with him and as Brett was about to shoot, the defenseman gave him a little hook with his stick and he never got the shot off. I thought we’d just see a boring hooking penalty but miraculously, Bill McCreary pointed to center ice and Brett Hull got his fifth try at a penalty shot. It ended up being his fifth failure because his deke completely failed and he lost control of the puck, never getting a shot off. Pretty embarrassing but he was laughing about it afterwards. They showed a replay of him exchanging words with Kolzig on the bench later. Better luck next time, Brett. You’re not really a penalty-shot type of player anyway.

Draper continued his hot streak (which had grown cold over the past couple games) by scoring a surprising goal off a slap shot when streaking in on Kolzig 18 seconds after Jagr scored. Not a very good goal for Kolzig to give up.

Jason Williams scored the Wings’ other goal and looked good doing it. He received a good pass from Boyd Devereaux and showed great patience as he came in on goal before he backhanded it over Kolzig and into the net from a bad angle. It was just his 2nd goal of the year. Williams just needs to get some confidence and when he does, he’ll be a much better player. That goal was an example of what he would be like with confidence and it’s something I look forward to seeing more of from him.

Niklas Kronwall looked good in his third game as a Red Wing, earning his first NHL point when he assisted on Datsyuk’s goal and ending the game at a plus-1. He doesn’t look like a rookie at all out there and plays a physical game.

I don’t know how the Wings were able to zone it out but that stupid Roman horn or whatever it was that they kept playing over the PA last night was extremely annoying, even on TV. I thought arenas weren’t supposed to play things during play but maybe I’m wrong.

The Wings improved to 18-10-3-1 and are 7-1-1-1 in their last 10 games. They have the most wins in the league and are trailing the Flyers by just three points for first place overall. They lead the Blues by one point for first place in the Central Division with 40 and are #1 in the Conference.

Next up: vs. Florida, tomorrow, 7:30 EST

News | ESPN | Box Score

Lines-
Shanahan-Mowers-Maltby
Draper-Datsyuk-Hull
Dandenault-Williams-Devereaux
Miller-Hudler-Bootland
Maltby-Draper-Dandenault

Fischer-Schneider
Lidstrom-Woolley
Kronwall-Rivers
Lidstrom-Schneider

PP-
Shanahan-Mowers-Draper
Hudler-Datsyuk-Hull
Shanahan-Datsyuk-Hull
Maltby-Draper-Hudler

Lidstrom-Schneider
Kronwall-Woolley
Lidstrom-Woolley

PK-
Maltby-Draper
Datsyuk-Hull

Lidstrom-Schneider
Fischer-Woolley

Net-
Curtis Joseph

Tonight is the second of two games between these two clubs this season. The Caps won the last game 4-1 on November 24th in Detroit.

Since then, the Wings have gone 6-1-1-1, outscoring their opponents 41 to 17 and becoming the highest scoring offense in the NHL with 107 goals. (Atlanta is #2, by the way, with 92. Which is pretty amazing considering where they were last year). They are 11-3-2-1 in their last 17 games and are tied with the St. Louis with the most wins in the Conference (17). The Wings are coming off a 4-3 overtime loss to the ‘Hawks, a game in which they never led. They are without 10 regulars and playing with a roster filled with minor leaguers but are still finding ways to win and score goals.

The Caps haven’t been so successful since that game, winning only three times and losing five. Their head coach, Bruce Cassidy, was fired on Wednesday and replaced by Glen Hanlon (a former Red Wings goalie). In their first game under their new coach, the Caps beat the Bruins 6-5 at home, scoring on three of their first five shots and ending a three game losing streak. They have the second worst record in the league but a comeback may be in the making.

Curtis Joseph will start again tonight since Dominik Hasek and Manny Legace are both still out with injuries. Hopefully he won’t be nearly as soft as he was on Thursday in Chicago, where the goal he allowed in OT was particularly bad.

We will not see any of the injured Wings back on the ice tonight, including The Captain, who is probably the closest to coming back but did not make the trip to Washington with the team.

Henrik Zetterberg will take part in warmups again and may be available as soon as Monday night for the game against the Florida Panthers.

The Blues’ 3-2 overtime win against the Jackets last night put them just one point back of the Wings. They play again tonight against the Kings and that makes this game that much more important for the Wings. They’ve done a good job so far of holding the Blues off and keeping the #1 spot in the Central Division and I’d hate to see them falter now. Considering what the Caps did to them last time they faced off, I think the Wings will be looking for a bit of revenge (and redemption) tonight. Hopefully they do something like what they did to the Ducks and completely dominate all phases of the game.

Sources: ESPN and Freep