After a bad performance the night before, versus the Ducks, the Wings had a solid effort tonight versus the Kings in a 5-4 win. They did the little things right, and held on at the end, as the Kings surged and eerily came close to completing a 2 goal comeback that we’ve seen before from them, in the first round of the 2001 playoffs.

In the first period, Steve Thomas scored at 6:01, assisted by Jason Woolley and Jamie Rivers. 1-0 Wings. Thomas has really got hot again after his layoff with the knee injury. He’s going to be a great guy to have in the playoffs. But the Kings stormed back, with goals from Trent Klatt and Alexander Frolov to make it 2-1 Kings going into the second period. This is when the Wings fell asleep a bit. Shots in the period were 8-5 in LA’s favor.

In the second period, Brett Hull ended the longest scoring drought of his career with his first goal in 21 games (since Dec. 8 versus the Kings) with a powerplay goal, tipping a point shot from Nicklas Lidstrom, Ray Whitney getting the second assist. 2-2 tie. A Mathieu Schneider wrist shot from the right circle, with Cechmanek being screened by Derek Armstrong, triggered the red light at 5:18, assisted by Mathieu Dandenault and Tomas Holmstrom. 3-2 Wings. Shots in the period were 17-10 in Detroit’s favor.

In the third period, Jamie Rivers scored by stealing a sloppy Norstrom pass, and blasting a shot to get his first goal of the season and as a Red Wing. Rivers certainly made the most of his game time, also assisting on Thomas’ goal. 4-2 Wings. Robitaille notched his 10th goal of the season on a powerplay goal to pull the Kings within one of the Wings, on the powerplay just after Chelios was called for boarding by a ref 100 feet away. It definitely wasn’t boarding! 4-3 Wings. Schneider scored his second goal of the night on a two-on-one with Zetterberg, a great shot to the far side of the net. For a guy who wasn’t chosen to be on the All Star team, Schneider really showed the league the travesty of his absence from All Star Weekend. It proved to be the game winner, his first as a Wing — appropriately against his former club. 5-3 Wings. But the Kings wouldn’t go down. They pulled Roman Cechmanek with a minute and a half left, and Joseph went after a goal on a long dump towards the empty net, but then the Kings scored with a 6-on-5 advantage on a goal from Alexander Frolov to make it 5-4. With the net still empty, the Kings got very close to tying it up in first round playoff fashion, but two huge Cujo saves sealed the deal. Shots in the period were 11-7 in LA’s favor. Final shots: 29 apiece.

During the pre-game skate, Niklas Kronwall’s skate got caught in a divot on the ice as he was practicing skating backwards and doing defenseman pivot turns. He stumbled to the ice, and the Wings gathered around him as he lay on the ice in severe pain. He was carried off the ice, and X-rays showed Kronwall has a broken right leg. Jamie Rivers was just about to get some McDonalds in the press box when he saw his teammates gathered around Kronwall. He went down to the locker room to check it out, and his uniform and equipment were waiting for him–the health scratch was asked to play.

Sean Avery and Luc Robitaille had a fun night playing against their former team. Avery got in a few scrums, and was angry after Schneider crushed him into the boards. And Luc got a goal, a rare occurence I appreciated seeing. Back in late August, I saw Mars its closest to Earth in 60,000 years. And now I see Luc scoring a goal. I’ll certainly be telling my kids and grandkids the story of Luc’s goal. And I’m done badgering the ex-Wing . I always thought he would end up like a Wendel Clark, good on paper on another team, but never really fitting in with the Wings.

Talking about ferocious hits, Yzerman was belted into the boards so hard that the glass cracked. Chelios came to the Captain’s aid and got after the scoundrel who made the hit.

In more disappointing pregame news other than Kronwall’s freak accident, the NHL All Star team rosters were announced at approximately 7:30 EST. As expected Pavel Datsyuk will make the trip to St. Paul, Minnesota as a reserve forward. Nicklas Lidstrom is starting on defense. But I was surprised to see a few names omitted. Hedjuk has had a great season for the Avs and deserved a spot. Schneider and Draper were stiffed. Schneider should’ve been a lock the way he has played this season. He’s definitely a Norris contender and probable finalist. Draper has had a career season with 19 goals and he’s going to be strongly considered for the Selke. Yzerman was omitted, while the East has Messier, a guy who hasn’t played much better than Stevie Y. Shanahan and Hull were also left off the roster, which I expected. Hopefully, Schneider and/or Draper can crack the roster if other guys get injuries or decline their roster spot.

Western Conference All Star Roster
Eastern Conference All Star Roster

I love to see good fights, but what happened Monday in the game between the Bruins and Rangers was totally unacceptable and sickening. A passionate brawl between the teams definitely went too far. Joe Thornton was “punched” during a fight with Eric Lindros and a got fractured right cheekbone. The punch was more like a WWF uppercut that bloodied Thornton’s face. In addition, Darius Kasparaitis will miss the remainder of the regular season because of another dirty play. Dan McGillis gave Kasparaitis a knee-check in the second, breaking a bone in his left leg and spraining a knee ligament. McGillis was given a match penalty on the play. While this wasn’t a fight, it was a malicious and intentional attack on Kasparaitis that was part of a larger system of fights during the game. In November 2001, Kasparaitis knee-checked Matthew Barnaby and put him out for months. And Barnaby was quoted: “He’s a good buddy of mine, a good friend. He plays a tough game, but you live by the sword and die by the sword. This isn’t my last year in the league. It will be rectified.” So while many may say Kasparaitis got what he deserved, I just think that’s silly because that cycle of injuries is totally unnecessary.

In a league with scoring way down, we have Boston’s leading scorer (with 44 pts in 47 games) and one of the top stars in the league turned to a bloody pulp and knees being blown out every-other night. NHL fights/brawls/beefs should never go that far. I don’t care if you cite Old Time Hockey memories of Howe doing the same thing, because it doesn’t mean it’s right just because Mr. Hockey (Mr. Copyright) layed down the law that way in the ’50s. The game has changed. A hit is not “clean” just because it is technically legal but should also be sound in intent. You can say hockey is a tough game and this stuff is to be expected, but it’s starting to scare me. There are enough injuries this season, particularly groin pulls, that we really don’t need guys going after the opposition’s knees (remember Pronger’s run on Yzerman), breaking their cheekbones in fights, and dirty stickwork (Zetterberg broken leg on a slash, and Al MacInnis, Darcy Tucker, Berard eye injuries off high sticks, and everyone remembers the Marty McSorely incident). That’s just ridiculous. Totally unjustifed extracuricular action that only brings the league down and isolates the general population of prospective fans, just as the NHL is trying to become a mainstream sport in the United States. If I saw that stuff when I was flirting with the idea of becoming a hockey junkie, I might have reconsidered.

Fans like fights for them being fair and between two gritty/willing players: these are the “good” fights that have a place in the league. Tie Domi fights are an example. These fights don’t generally result in injuries, because the “fighters” of the league are the ones that survived their first NHL fight and know how to stick it with the best of them the right way. I believe there are ethics/unwritten rules in fighting. While it may appear like a blood-hungry battle between two mugs, most guys know where to cross the line and don’t try to injure their opponent. Respect. It’s usually a game, and often happens between off-season buddies. Guys who have a ginger-ale together after the game. Lindros certainly crossed the line, a line that is crossed way too often in the high-contact era of the NHL. What made Howe-Era fighting more credible is that the guys respected each other, and today’s fighters/checkers/stickhandlers are moving increasingly away from the respect level that has kept fighting in the game. No matter how much equipment we engineer to protect our players, the only real thing that can protect them is themselves.

In the first of back-to-back games taking the Wings from Anaheim to LA, the Wings, after holding a 2-0 lead for nearly two periods, fell asleep in the third period and allowed to Ducks to tie the game up at two apiece. Overtime was pretty open, with chances either way, but the game concluded with a 2-2 tie. The decision was pretty disappointing, considering Sergei Fedorov did not play due to the flu, a gametime decision after Fedorov took the pregame skate, and Manny Legace goofed on the first goal by getting caught out of the net. It was a pretty silly game for the Wings to let fall out of their hands.

In the first period, the Wings opened the game strong. Manny Legace made a few key glove saves, and the Wings got a lot of shots on Martin Gerber. On the powerplay, Pavel Datsyuk scored at 12:22 on a great wrist shot from between the circles, assisted by Brett Hull and Steve Thomas, who returned tonight after the month layoff with his knee injury. Initially, the red light did not go on and play continued for a good minute before a stoppage in play allowed the officials to review the play. The shot just snuck in under the crossbar, and bounced out of the net quickly, giving the illusion that it hit the crossbar. I wonder if the refs thought they heard a “ting,” because I certainly didn’t (all net). 1-0 Wings. Shots in the period were 11-10 in the Wings’ favor.

In the second period, the Wings continued to play strong. Mathieu Schneider scored at 10:40 on a blast from the point, assisted by Jiri Fischer. The goal came just as the Wings powerplay expired, so it was essentially a powerplay goal. If second assists were given out for effort, Tomas Holmstrom would’ve definitely gotten it on the goal. After drawing the initial penalty to give the Wings the man-advantage, Tomas was belted by a couple hits near the blue line. He got up, and crashed towards the net just as Fischer was feeding Schneider. Sure enough, Homer’s butt was all Gerber saw on the play. A great effort by Holmstrom. 2-0 Wings. But with 13 seconds left in the period, the Wings fell asleep a bit. Thomas was tired after a long shift and failed to clear the puck to kill the clock, so the Ducks took it into our zone and dumped it in. Manny, being a little too aggressive, went to the back of the net to pursue the puck, and the Wings players left him out to dry by not covering Samuel Pahlsson, who stole the puck from Manny and got it to Petr Sykora to make it 2-1 Wings. Shots in the period were 9-6 in favor of the Ducks.

In the third period, it was a very choppy style of play. The first ten minutes involved about 2 decent shots, the rest being garbage dumps or failed passes. It was literally poke-your-eyes-out boredom. I found myself unconsciously switching the channel to the end of Jay Leno, with Clay Aiken. Pretty pathetic. The Wings really lost their stride during the third, and the Ducks used it to their advantage by sticking in the game and continuing to get good scoring chances. With Gerber pulled and a minute left, the Ducks got a tying goal from Vaclav Prospal, making it 2-2 and sending it to Overtime. Shots in the period were 9-5 in favor of the Ducks.

In Overtime, the Wings seemed to have been shocked into playing better. They came out with a couple good chances on Gerber, and Yzerman made a good defensive play to stop a breaking Duck at center ice, a clear breakaway if he hadn’t got his stick on the puck. Shots in overtime were 2-2, and, for the game, 30-24 in the Ducks favor. This shot differential reflects a bad end of the second period and entire third period.

To put Hull’s goal drought (now 20 games–since Dec. into perspective, Thomas assisted Brett’s second to last goal (15th of his season 16 goals) versus Toronto on December 6. That’s a long time ago. So I’m sure Brett was happy with Thomas returning tonight.

It would’ve been the first time for the Wings to play Sergei Fedorov in his new home, but he bugged out (literally) with the flu. Or maybe he just got butterflies about the whole situation, as he did participate in the pregame skate and was not ill until gametime.

It was definitely a disappointing game. The Wings now have 1 win in their past 6 games. And they have struggled away, so this trip is going to either be complete torture to Wings fans’ sleep and our standing in the league, or have the Wings rise to the occasion and put some wins in the win column. They’ll have the chance tomorrow night when they face the LA Kings and former Wings enforcer Sean Avery, a 10:30 PM EST start.

Tonight is the third of four games in this season’s series between the Wings and the Ducks. The Wings won both games, first 7-2 on December 3 and then 3-1 on January 3. Both games were in Detroit.

The Wings are 1-2-1-1 in their last five games and are in the middle of a fairly light slump, though if they don’t win tonight, it will become a worse one. They are 9-10-3-2 on the road this year and will be playing the second game of a five-game West Coast trip tonight. They have been having a hard time scoring lately with most of their formerly hot players playing cold lately. The most obvious of these is Brett Hull, who hasn’t scored a goal in 19 straight games.

The Ducks are on a six-game home winless streak and will try to get a win in the second of three consecutive games they will play at the Pond. They are 0-3-3 at home since shutting out Colorado 1-0 on December 19 and 8-7-5-2 at home overall this year. They lost 5-1 to the Calgary Flames on Monday to begin a period in which they will play six of seven games in their home arena. Sergei Fedorov has just 16 goals and 15 assists for 31 points. He is a minus-9 on the season.

Curtis Joseph should get the start.

Steve Thomas will play tonight, according to Dave Lewis.

Kirk Maltby will be a gametime decision after a hit by Sharks defenseman Kyle McLaren on Monday.

Pavel Datsyuk did not practice yesterday but is supposed to play tonight.

Tonight is another good opportunity for the Wings to get some more revenge on the Ducks and Sergei along with being a great chance to get a win against a lesser team. Hopefully they’ll work to make up for Monday’s game and play hard tonight. They need a win because this trip is too important for them to come out of it with a losing record.

Freep | News | ESPN

Here are the lines from last night’s game in San Jose:

Shanahan-Datsyuk-Whitney
Maltby-Draper-Yzerman
Holmstrom-Draper-Yzerman
Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Hull
Zetterberg-Yzerman-Whitney
Holmstrom-Zetterberg-Hull
Shanahan=Yzerman-Whitney
Devereaux-Williams-Dandenault
Devereaux-Williams-Holmstrom
Maltby-Yzerman-Hull
Holmstrom-Yzerman-Whitney
Zetterberg-Draper-Maltby
Shanahan-Datsyuk-Hull

Lidstrom-Schneider
Fischer-Chelios
Kronwall-Woolley
Kronwall-Chelios
Lidstrom-Woolley
Schneider-Chelios
Woolley-Chelios

PP-
Holmstrom-Datsyuk-Hull

Lidstrom-Shanahan

PK-
Draper-Maltby
Shanahan-Yzerman
Datsyuk-Whitney

Fischer-Woolley
Lidstrom-Schneider
Lidstrom-Woolley
Kronwall-Chelios

6 on 5 CuJo pulled-
Shanahan-Datsyuk-Holmstrom-Hull-Yzerman

Lidstrom

Net-
Curtis Joseph

The following are the relevant links:

Brian’s game summary
The Detroit News’ game summary
The Detroit Free Press’ game summary
ESPN’s game summary
The Box Score

In what was the first of a 5 game West coast trip that will take the Wings to San Jose, Anaheim, LA, Phoenix, and Dallas, the Wings seemed to be suffering from jet lag tonight in the 2-1 loss to the Sharks. The Wings got to San Jose yesterday to try to limit the strain of cross-country travel. Sure, they generated offense that is reflected by their 35 shots to San Jose’s 24, but they were unable to get rebounds off of Evgeni Nabokov, who swallowed up most of the Wings’ shots. In stark contrast, the Sharks got fewer shots, but they were far more quality scoring chances. Their first two shots on Joseph were excellent scoring chances, ones that you only get a few times in a regular game. The Wings fell asleep at times, and the Sharks capitalized on these opportunities in the form of two goals.

In the first period, it was an offensively-open period, with breaks either way. San Jose really took it to Cujo though, taking high quality shots and busting in on the doorway and crashing the net. Cujo stood on his head at times, and I’d say he kept the Wings in the game, as this was the Shark’s strongest period. But Cujo finally let one in at 17:48 when Todd Harvey made an extended wrap-around goal by circling the net and coming to the center 6 feet out before beating Cujo in traffic. 1-0 Sharks. Shots in the period were 14-13 in San Jose’s advantage.

In the second period, the Shark’s offensive attack of the first period was slowed by solid Wings defense. Niko Dimitrakos scored at 15:04 on a slapshot, with the Wings forechecking efforts and defense pretty nonchalant. The Wings definitely fell asleep and let the Sharks pass it around and get the goal. 2-0 Sharks. Shots in the period were 8-4 in Detroit’s advantage.

In the third period, the Wings mounted a solid comeback. They took it to the Sharks with 14 shots to their 6. Steve Yzerman scored at the 10 minute mark of the third, assisted by Ray Whitney and Tomas Holmstrom. It put the Captain at a tie for sixth place with ailing Mario Lemieux on the NHL’s career point list. The goal resulted from a good pass from Whitney to the slot, finding Yzerman open. 2-1 Sharks. In the final three minutes, the Wings got close to beating Nabokov, but it just wasn’t our night.

Hull extended his scoreless streak to 19 games (since Dec. 8), but got some decent chances. He just hasn’t been able to get as many clean shots. This quarter-of-a-season slump is pretty awful. Putting it into perspective, Pat Verbeek, an ex-Wing who was the color commentator tonight on FSN, said that his longest goal-less streak was 16 games. I have all the respect for Verbeek, but he was never a top goal scorer in the NHL. I realize that Hull is doing tons of other things out there during this streak, including assists and scoring chances, but we didn’t sign him to pass the puck. I do appreciate that his goal-less streak is in this fashion of still plugging on and helping the team, rather than pulling a “Lucky” Luc Robitaille and fade into the ice in these difficult times. Keep it going, Hullie!!

Tonight is one of those fortunate nights for Wings fans to see the ugliest player in the NHL, Mike Ricci. FSN caught him helmet-less going towards the Shark’s bench after a shift, and that just reminded me of the hideousness. His black hair wildly hanging down to his shoulders, looking like a total goon.

It was nice to see Schneider back on the ice after the 9-day layoff (two game suspension) following an accidental high stick that the league busted him for. What is peculiar is that Jeremy Roenick only got a one game suspension for throwing a water bottle in the direction of the refs following an uncalled high stick that left Roenick’s mouth bloodied. Maybe the NHL saw that Roenick was right for being frustrated with dangerous high sticks not being called, but the league has a precedent of busting players with more than a one game suspension for going after refs in such a manner.

Jason Woolley had an absolutely awful shift near the end of the first period. He got on the ice, almost turned the puck over on a routine cross-ice pass to his defensive partner, and then had more trouble getting the puck to his teammates. The Sharks ended up getting control of the puck, and the Woolley gaffe-athon continued when he was called for 2 minutes for holding the stick on Scott Thornton at 19:27, a call that usually reflects a player being out of position or lazy. Don’t want to be too tough on Woolley for one bad shift, but that one was pretty darn bad. He’s had a solid season thusfar, coming from being scratched early in the season to being a regular defenseman. That shift was a fluke.

Hopefully the Wings can turn things around Wednesday at Anaheim, a 10:30 EST start. It will be an interesting game for the Wings, as they have played Sergei at the Joe but never in his new Pond home. Then the Wings will play the next night at LA, another 10:30 EST start. It will certainly be a test of fanship for Wings fans to stay up in the wee hours of the night to support their team.

Tonight is the second of four games these two teams will play with each other this season. The Wings won the first game 3-2 in overtime on December 17.

The Wings are 4-1-1-1 in the month of January and in their most recent game, tied the Coyotes 3-3 on Friday night. They are 9-9-3-2 on the road this year but are 20-7-5-1 against Western Conference opponents. In the Central Division, the Blues are still six points behind the Wings, who have a two-point lead on Colorado and Vancouver for first place in the Conference. The Wings also lead the league overall by two points with 61. Toronto and Philadelphia are the other two teams with 59.

The Sharks are 5-2-1 so far in January and won their last game 2-1 in Denver on Saturday. They are 9-4-7-2 at home this year but are 17-9-5-3 against Western Conference teams. The Sharks have a six-point lead of their own in their Pacific Division (over the LA Kings) and if the playoffs were to start tomorrow, they would automatically be in the #3 spot. As it is, they have the fifth-highest points total in the West.

Curtis Joseph should get the nod tonight.

The Wings have moved up Steve Thomas’ return date to either Wednesday against Anaheim or Thursday against the Kings. The date given yesterday was either Thursday or Saturday.

Darren McCarty is week-to-week, according to Dave Lewis. He did practice for 35 minutes or so with the team yesterday. He went with the Wings out west, though not because he is close to playing but so he could continue his training with the team.

Mathieu Schneider will return to the ice tonight after serving a two-game suspension for high sticking Boston’s Glen Murray on the 10th.

The Sharks have been surprisingly good this year and won’t be an easy opponent for the Wings tonight. I still think the Wings should win tonight, though, and I expect a good effort out of them. This West Coast trip is an important one because of its length and they need to start it off on the right foot with a solid game tonight.

1/19 News
1/19 Freep
ESPN