On the Wings

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

The Wings came back from a 3-2 deficit with just under two minutes left to send the game to overtime last night against the Phoenix Coyotes. The game ended in a 3-3 tie, though it easily could have gone either way, both in the last minutes of regulation and in overtime, since both teams had some fairly glorious chances to end the game near the end.

Curtis Joseph played another strong game for the Wings overall, though he did give up some unfortunate goals that weren’t wholly his fault. It wasn’t his best game in the Winged wheel but it wasn’t his worst by a long shot. I would say, though, that he was outplayed by Brian Boucher, who did no give much up at all. The Wings had to rely on some lucky breaks for their first two goals and especially their third, when the play was a fraction of a second from being whistled down before Pavel Datsyuk got the puck free and sent to Henrik Zetterberg, who went to the backhand and just barely got it into the open net. Back to Joseph, he kept the Wings in the game for sure in the last minute of regulation when he made several key saves on a Coyotes flurry.

Zetterberg’s goal made up for a total fluke play which resulted in a Coyotes goal with about nine minutes left. Chris Chelios, from near the blue line, passed the puck back to Mathieu Dandenault, who was the last man in the zone. The puck took a bad bounce right over Dandenault’s stick just as he tried to pass it up ice. He was then caught out of position and Fredrik Sjostrom skated in free on Joseph, who had no chance to stop the puck. Dandenault was relieved that Henrik tied the game up and said “… I owe him dinner for that.”

Steve Yzerman got his 1,700 point when he assisted on Kris Draper’s goal 30 seconds into the second period. He reacted in his usual way and did not make a big deal out of becoming just the seventh player to reach that milestone in NHL history. He said “It’s a nice number. But I don’t know, I’ve played a long time, and things gradually add up over the years. I played in an era where there was a lot of scoring and I’m not a scorer anymore.” Sure things add up do, Steve, but not like that, at least for the vast majority of NHL players. There are many players who played as long as you have and things never added up like that for them. So what if you played in when more goals were scored? Everyone ahead of you on the list (Gretzky, Messier, Howe, Francis, Dionne and Mario Lemieux) played in the same era, with the exception of Gordie and Dionne and they were on the powerhouses of their time. I still think it’s amazing. His teammates and coach were far more outwardly excited about it than he was. Henrik Zetterberg had this to say: “It’s a great honor just to be on the same team, and in the same locker room with him. He’s been around for 21 years. I was 2 when he got here.” Dave Lewis, showing a poor knowledge of pronoun usage (sorry Dave), said “I don’t have a big enough vocabulary to describe Steve’s career. You’d have to write a book to describe Steve’s career.” It certainly is a major achievement and as nice as it is to have such a humble captain, I sometimes wish Yzerman would be a little more demonstrative.

Brett Hull continued his goal-less streak, though not through lack of trying. I’d say he had more chances to score last night than he’s had throughout his drought. He hit the post once and was robbed by some very good saves by Boucher a few other times. Once, when he fanned on the puck near the blue line, he let the entire Joe Louis Arena and everyone watching on TV hear his frustration. I had the volume a little low so I didn’t quite hear what he said but I can make a pretty good guess and if I’m right, it wasn’t very family-friendly. I think it’d be pretty safe to say that something along those lines was going through just about every Wings fan’s head each time Brett had a chance but wasn’t able to slam it into the net. While he didn’t get a goal, last night’s game was encouraging because I think Brett is very close to breaking out again. Maybe that hit put on him by Ossi Vaananen last night (for which Vaananen got a boarding penalty) was enough to wake him up.

Pavel Datsyuk has been cold lately as well. He hasn’t been scoring as many points lately but he has still generated excitement. Last night he stood everyone up out of their seats with a great one-on-one move that almost resulted in a goal on a rush which should have resulted in a nothing chance. He had a few other moments during the game which had everyone gasping and the puck followed him around in its usual magnet-like way. I don’t know how he does it but he has to have one of the best sets of hands in the NHL. I cannot wait to see him play in the All-Star game (assuming he is named to the roster on January 22, as he should be). It will be great to see him play in that kind of environment where goal scoring is encouraged for once and he’ll actually have room to do his thing.

It looks like the Mathieu Schneider suspension, as ridiculous as it was, may have served a good purpose. I think Nick Lidstrom needed something to wake him up and not having Schneider around for two games may have done that. He has played better over the past two games and has gotten in on the offense as well. Hopefully we’ll see the Nicklas Lidstrom we know and love this half of the season. I will be glad to have Schneider back for Monday’s game against the Sharks though.

One of the Wings’ announcers last night, Mickey Redmond I think it was though I’m not sure, accidentally called Henrik Zetterberg “Forsberg.” Henrik has been predicted by some to be the next Forsberg but he still has a long way to go, I think. Not yet, guys, not yet.

Next up: @ San Jose, Monday, 8 EST

Freep | ESPN | Box Score

Lines- (courtesy GWB
Maltby-Draper-Yzerman
Devereaux-Williams-Dandenault
Shanahan-Datsyuk-Whitney
Holmstrom-Zetterberg-Hull
Maltby-Draper-Dandenault
Shanahan-Yzerman-Hull

Lidstrom-Woolley
Fischer-Chelios
Rivers-Kronwall

PP-
Shanahan-Datsyuk-Zetterberg
Holmstrom-Yzerman-Hull
Maltby-Yzerman-Holmstrom
Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Hull

Lidstrom-Whitney
Rivers-Kronwall
Woolley-Chelios

PK-
Draper-Maltby
Zetterberg-Whitney
Yzerman-Maltby
Zetterberg-Datsyuk

Lidstrom-Chelios
Fischer-Woolley

OT-
Shanahan-Datsyuk
Zetterberg-Hull
Draper-Maltby
Yzerman-Whitney

Fischer-Chelios
Lidstrom-Woolley

Net-
Curtis Joseph

The major thing I noticed last night was that the Wings would dominate completely for long stretches of time until suddenly, the ‘Hawks would come out of nowhere and, for a couple minutes, own the ice. The ‘Hawks never quit last night and I give them credit for that. They’ve had a terrible season and it’s good to see that they won’t just roll over for the Wings. It’s sad to see a once-proud team struggling like that, though it’s much to the Wings’ benefit.

Brett Hull needs to score a goal. I don’t care how he does it, empty net or what, but he has to score. That last little flurry last night when the Wings were on a 5-on-5 power play with an empty net was really sad. Sure, the ‘Hawks did a good job of defending themselves there but there’s really no excuse for not scoring in that situation. Brett needs to get over that crap about not scoring empty net goals because he needs to break out of this slump somehow. I appreciate all his assists and strong defensive plays but he is on the team to score goals. If it requires “stooping” down to an empty net goal, so be it. Get over it, Brett.

That “Datsyukian Deke” was pretty awesome last night. It’s just too bad he couldn’t finish it. Everyone in the Joe was out of their seats for that one.

The way Niklas Kronwall has been playing, you’d think he’s scored 100 NHL goals as an NHL veteran. He’s been amazing this year and has caused me to completely forget Dmitri Bykov (anyone remember him???), much the same way Kris Draper has caused me to forget Sergei Fedorov….

Brian | News | Freep | ESPN | Box Score

Here are the lines from last night, courtesy of GWB (with one minor addition of my own):

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

Lidstrom-Woolley
Fischer-Chelios
Rivers-Kronwall

4 on 4-
Zetterberg-Datsyuk

Fischer-Kronwall

PP-
Shanahan-Yzerman-Holmstrom
Whitney-Datsyuk-Hull
Holmstrom-Yzerman-Hull
Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Hull

Lidstrom-Woolley
Zetterberg-Lidstrom
Woolley-Chelios
Kronwall-Chelios

PK-
Zetterberg-Datsyuk
Draper-Maltby

Fischer-Chelios
Lidstrom-Chelios

Net-
Manny Legace

Tonight is the sixth and final game between the Wings and the Chicago Blackhawks this season. The Wings have won three of the games so far, with scores of 3-0, 4-3 and 3-2 but have lost two (4-3 and 3-0).

The Wings are coming off two losses to Boston and will try to avoid tying their season-high of three losses in a row with a win tonight at home. They are 17-4-1 at the Joe this year but were shut out 3-0 by the Bruins in their last game there. The Wings also will look to reclaim the #1 spot in the West, a spot that was taken last night when the Canucks beat the Coyotes 4-1 in Phoenix. Vancouver is just one point a head of the Wings with 59.

The Blackhawks will look to end a 14-game road skid that extends back to their November 10 loss to the Wings, 3-0. They are coming off a 7-4 loss to the Blues on Monday and a 5-4 overtime loss to Colorado on Sunday. They allowed four unanswered goals after scoring four in a row themselves. They have only won 5 of their previous 31 games, though two of those wins came against Detroit.

Manny Legace will make the start tonight.

Mathieu Schneider will serve the first half of a two-game suspension tonight. He was suspended for an un-called high-stick on Glen Murray Saturday. For more on the suspension and Schneider’s reaction to it, see the News and Freep.

I don’t expect this game to be an easy one for the Wings, no matter how bad the ‘Hawks are. They have given the Wings trouble for years and this season is no exception. I’ll be relieved when this season series is over because the Wings won’t have to face them again this year and wont have to play them if/when they are fighting for a top playoff spot. Hopefully the Wings will play hard tonight and not go into that spiral it seems like their entering.

Freep | News | ESPN

– The Detroit News says the Wings don’t necessarily need to make a trade to fill in the gaps but that they just need to get completely healthy. That may be true but I still think the Wings need another center, though I don’t know how they’ll get one since they are apparently planning on hanging on to Curtis Joseph to the end. As long as Darren McCarty and Steve Thomas come back and are productive, the Wings will be fine on the wings but still a little weak in the middle. It’s worked out fine so far but that will change in the post-season when they’ll be facing top-tier teams every game instead of every once and a while. We know, though, they’ll have a very solid defense once Derian Hatcher returns to the ice (and gets back in form) so perhaps another defensive center isn’t necessary. It’s the goal scoring I’m worried about. It hasn’t been a problem all season but, again, that will change in the playoffs. While I like the balance the Wings have now, and will have, I’d like to see some kind of move towards offense by Ken Holland before the playoffs. Of course, that depends on who is available at the trade deadline and what the Wings are willing to give up.

– The Wings have gone 0-10 over the previous two games on the power play. Though the Bruins did a good job killing those off, it’s clear the Wings aren’t at top form with the man advantage. The Wings’ power play has been relatively weak for a while and it’s gotten to the point where I’d rather have them play 5-on-5.

– They’ll finally get the Chicago Blackhawks out of the way this week when they face them for the 6th and final time on Wednesday. The Hawks have given the Wings trouble all year and I’ll be relieved when they don’t have to play them anymore. As tight as the Western Conference race is looking, it’s good that the Hawks won’t be in the Wings’ way late in the season.

– Brett Hull has gone a career high 16 games without scoring a goal. He has not scored since December 8th when the Wings played the Kings. The Freep points out that he has still done things during that drought to justify his presence on the ice, such as having 10 assists and playing fairly sound defensive assists. That’s all well and good but Brett Hull is here to score goals. When the Wings want a defensive forward who doesn’t score a lot, they have out Kirk Maltby (and they used to use Kris Draper but he scores goals now too). Get it together, Brett.

– The Freep also says Joseph is “classy as trade bait or star” and I fully agree with them. Curtis has been a complete class act throughout this whole thing and has earned my respect many times over. He’s a heck of a lot better man than most and has done a great job so far this season.

News and Freep