Monthly Archive for November, 2005Page 4 of 5

Wings 5, Kings 4 (OT)

Published
by
Matt Saler
on November 10, 2005
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

The Wings got back on track at the Joe tonight, after dropping games to Edmonton and Phoenix in their last two home games. It wasn’t a pretty win, however. They didn’t do a very good job of protecting their leads and let the Kings stay in it all the way to the end.

Tomas Holmstrom continued his scoring tear and Manny Legace made his return to the net. He looked somewhat shaky and didn’t inspire a lot of confidence but that’s to be expected, coming off an injury like that.

First Period

Brendan Shanahan, Jason Williams, Robert Lang, Jiri Fischer and Mathieu Schneider started the game for the Wings. Babcock’s second line was Dan Cleary, Kris Draper, and Steve Yzerman, a variation on the new yet-to-be-renamed Grind Line. Kirk Maltby ended up playing with Johan Franzen and Mikael Samuelsson. A little bit of line mixing by the Wings’ new coach. It seemed to work out alright.

The Kings got a couple close-in chances a couple minutes in but Manny kept the puck out of the net, though he looked a little sloppy doing it.

At 2:58, Schneider went to the box for hooking. The Kings set up quickly and soon opened the evening’s scoring when Mike Cammalleri made it 1-0 Kings. It was a good shot by the young player, who used Chris Chelios as a screen and so caught Manny by surprise.

About a minute later, Sean Avery had a glorious scoring chance when he took a pass off a 2-on-1 but Legace the save at the far post. Avery headed back to the bench shaking his head, knowing he should have scored. FSN showed a graphic not long after that chance showing the shot differential in the period to that point: 6-0 Kings. LA was noticeably quicker and had the Wings playing catch up all over the ice.

At 6:15, the Wings went on the power play but got very little going and the Kings killed it off easily. Immediately after it expired, however, a nice effort by Dan Cleary at the blue line on the far side got the puck in the offensive zone once again. It ended up on Schneider’s stick at the near boards. He centered it to Steve Yzerman, who was just coming off the bench and was skating between the circles. Yzerman redirected the pass into the net and got his first goal of the season, tying the game at one.

At 10:58, Datsyuk had a great chance all alone in front but he was hooked on the play and sent the puck wide. The Wings went on the power play as a result and though they got a couple good set-ups, they were unable to convert. As the power play expired, Holmstrom was called for hooking and the Kings went on their own power play. The Wings killed it off easily.

At 18:07, Sean Avery got the jump on the Wings defense and nearly had a full breakaway on Legace. Lebda stuck with him, however, and though Avery got off a good shot, he was probably thrown off by the Wings defenseman on his back. Lebda was called for holding on the play, however, and the Wings went on the penalty kill once again.

The Kings had some good chances on this power play, including one where Jeremy Roenick cut across the net and just couldn’t finish, but they were unable to get the puck past Legace before the period ended.

Shots were 16-11 Kings.

Second Period

The Kings started the period on the power play but it was too short to do much. The early stage of the period was just back-and-forth play, though Franzen’s line had good pressure leading up to the 4-minute mark.

At 5:01, the Kings got a full-blown 3-on-1 chance that resulted in another Legace save. Sean Avery, on the near side boards, sent the puck to Dustin Brown, on the far side, who instead of sending it back to the middle, took a shot. Not very well executed, really, but I’m not complaining.

About four minutes later, Mike Cammalleri had another great chance on Legace but this time he did not convert, as Manny made the save with his right pad. This came at the end of some solid Kings pressure.

The Wings controlled things after that past mid-period, with chances from players such as Lang, who got a shot off within 5 feet of LaBarbera but had nowhere to put the puck.

The Wings went back on the penalty kill at 11:24. Not long afterwards, they scored short-handed and made it 2-1. Johan Franzen had the puck in the Kings zone and dished it off to Cleary at the near boards. He then skated to the net and received a great centering pass from Cleary as he got there. He redirected this pass into the net and the Wings took the lead at 12:34. The Kings, who were still on the power play, got a penalty of their own a little over a minute later and the teams went to four aside for 20 seconds or so. When they went on the power play, the Wings got a good setup going and were cycling the puck nicely until Schneider flubbed a pass at the blue line and it was cleared. They didn’t get anything going after that and it was killed off by LA.

Detroit followed their power play up with some more pressure and it resulted in another LA penalty at 15:27. They got a good initial set up and fired off some shots but Robert Lang took a penalty at 16:54 and their power play was cut short. Both the ensuing stretch of 4-on-4 play and the following Kings power play were relatively uneventful, though Craig Conroy had a good chance immediately following the LA man-advantage, which was followed in turn by a good cross-net chance by Henrik Zetterberg.

Shots were 13-12 Kings.

Third Period

The Wings came out for the third period and scored immediately (:16). It was a very strange goal, to be sure. Holmstrom got a hold of the puck, which was bouncing behind the net close to the far post and knocked it in LaBarbera’s direction. The Kings goalie fumbled the puck and it ended up just barely going over the line. He tried to pull it out but by then the red light was on and the Wings’ goal horn was blaring. 3-1 Wings.

Draper was called for hooking at 1:49 and the Wings killed off the ensuing Kings power play. However, the Kings came within one not long after, with a goal by Roenick. He had all kinds of room to take a shot from the point and it sailed past Legace, without being tipped, to make it 3-2 at 4:15.

At 5:12, Robert Lang nearly had his head taken off by Brown, who laid a very good hit on him just inside the blue line. Lang had his head down and is lucky he didn’t get a concussion on the play. It won Hit of the Game, needless to say.

The Wings again controlled play near mid-period. Jason Williams sent the puck to a streaking Brendan Shanahan at about 9:33 but the puck was bouncing too much for Shanny to get a handle on it and he missed it at the blue line. It would have been a great scoring chance but it was not to be, apparently.

The next few minutes is describe as “stalemated” in my notes.

Then, at 13:19, Holmstrom scored his second of the night in rather sudden fashion. He had given the puck to Datsyuk at the near boards and then headed to the net. Pavel sent him the obvious centering pass and Homer promptly redirected it into the net to put the Wings ahead 4-2.

Almost immediately after the Holmstrom goal, the Kings answered. Pavol Demitra, who had been almost invisible the whole night, took a shot off the near wing and Manny’s rebound went right to Conroy, who flipped it over the Wings goalie, who was frozen and over committed by then, and into the net to make it 4-3 at 13:44.

The Wings generated some good pressure with their Williams-Lang-Shanahan line in the following minute or so but they still ended up allowing another Kings goal. I didn’t see all of the play develop (caught me looking down at my notes again) but I did see Legace over-commit on a poke-check attempt and put himself way out of position. That made it easy for Frolov to tie it up at 16:12.

The rest of the period was played fairly conservatively by both teams.

The Wings had a bit of a chance brewing as the clock was winding down but Yzerman went offsides with 2.6 seconds left and there was a faceoff that was purely ceremonial.

Shots were 14-12 Wings.

Overtime

The extra period was mostly controlled by the Wings. Their first unit, which included Zetterberg and Datsyuk, had a couple great chances but couldn’t score.

Lang ended it less than two minutes into it, however, knocking in a rebound from Lilja’s close-in shot. Lidstrom’s point blast had gone off the backboards and bounced to Lilja next to the net and his shot rebounded to Lang who had an easy time of it putting it into the far side of the net. Wings win 5-4 and escape the shoot-out once again.

Shots in OT were 2-0 Wings and for the game, 41-39 Kings.

Notes

… Ken Daniels had a very funny interview with Jeremy Roenick before the game. It included the Quote of the Game: “I hear you’re quite the metrosexual, by the way.” (Daniels to Roenick) JR responded by putting his arm around Daniels (who suddenly looked very uncomfortable) and gave some excuse about his wife wanting to counter his tough-guy hockey player persona. JR kept his arm around Daniels for the rest of the interview, prompting Ken to ask himself where he was going with that line of questioning (I dunno, Ken, where were you going? Pretty random). At the end, Ken returned the favor by putting his arm around JR and the last thing we saw before the screen switched as JR patting Daniels on the face. I found it pretty hilarious and I would love to have a video of it. Definitely not your typical hockey player interview. … The Wings have outscored their opponents 25-9 in the first period so far this season … They have beaten the Kings 8 straight times now … Brett Lebda did play after all and didn’t make any glaring mistakes so I’d say it was a successful night … With his assist on Holmstrom’s second goal, Datsyuk extended his point streak to 10 games. He has 17 points over that stretch … Holmstrom is on fire. He has 7 goals in the last four games … Johan Franzen seems to like scoring on LA: he had the game winner versus the Kings on the 13th of October … I don’t know if Sean Avery is really that good but he seems to at least step it up against his old club. His name was said time and time again by Daniels tonight and he seemed to be in on practically every Kings offensive chance (I exaggerate but it seemed an inordinate number for a “thug”) … Today was Ken Holland’s birthday. Happy 50th to the best GM in hockey! … Both teams gave up the most shots either has allowed all season tonight … Two of JR’s four regulation goals have come against the Wings this season …

The Wings did a passable job of keeping up with a fast-skating LA team tonight. They were able to take advantage of superior offensive ability to pull off the win but they will need to be better defensively if they want to keep up their winning ways. The Wild will not be an easy game on Friday night. Babcock will have a lot to say about their performance tonight, I’m sure.

GameDay: vs. LA (10-5-0, 20 Pts) 7:30 ET

Published
by
Matt Saler
on November 9, 2005
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Tonight is the second of four games between the Wings and the Kings this season. Detroit won the first game 5-2 on 13. October and kicked off a nine-game win-streak that ended just last week. Brendan Shanahan, Kirk Maltby, Johan Franzen, Henrik Zetterberg, and Jiri Fischer scored for the Wings that night.

The Wings had their nine-game win streak snapped by the Oilers last week and they went on to lose to the Coyotes on Saturday, 4-1. They rebounded against the worst team in the league on Sunday, however, beating the Blues 4-1. They remain undefeated (8-0) against Central Division opponents, having played them all except Nashville. They now kick of a tough 12-game run against Western Conference opponents that includes two three-game West Coast road trips. The Wings know this stretch of games is important and that it will be a good test for them, given the skepticism apparent around the league about their strength-of-schedule to this point. (News)

Before the Wings beat them, LA had won three in a row. They continued that trend after the Wings left LA and won another three before losing to Calgary on the 23rd. Since then, they have gone 4-2 and risen to the top of the Pacific Division, with a one point lead over Dallas, who they beat 6-3 on the 2nd. They then lost to Phoenix 4-0 last Thursday but they rebounded with a 3-2 overtime win at home against the Predators Saturday. Tonight’s game kicks off a four-game road trip against Central Division opponents before a two-game homestand against the Canucks and Avs. UPDATE: TSN’s preview for the game provides a better look at the Kings’ fast start.

The papers are reporting that Manny Legace will be back in the lineup tonight and that there is a good chance he will also be on the ice. The News reports that he has recovered from his groin injury, which I can only assume is a typo because Manny has been out due to a sprained knee, which the Freep says is 95% healed. To make room on the roster for Legace’s return, the Wings sent Jimmy Howard back down to Grand Rapids.

While Manny Legace may not have a groin injury, Jason Woolley certainly does. He has been placed on the injured reserve list and Brett Lebda has been brought up from the AHL to fill his spot. Because the Wings just sent down Howard (opening a spot in the roster for Lebda), they did not need to put Woolley on the IR but the Freep reports Holland just wants the paperwork done in case another situation arises and they need another spot for a call-up. Though Lebda gives the Wings 7 healthy defensemen, Babcock would not commit to playing him tonight, telling the Freep, “I think so, at this point. At this time, he’s not.”

Former Red Wing Luc Robitaille will not be in the lineup for LA tonight. He has a broken leg and will miss two months.

The Wings handled the Kings pretty easily the first time around but tonight will be a little different. The Wings’ last two losses exposed some weaknesses that were easily ignored against lesser opponents and though they won on Sunday, tonight will be a good indication of whether those issues have been addressed. The Blues have been a good test in the past but they aren’t any more, not at the moment, anyway. The Kings will be a bit tougher so hopefully the Wings are ready.

Wings 4, Blues 1

Published
by
Christy Hammond
on November 7, 2005
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Red Wings v. Blues
The Wings are now 7-0 on the road after defeating the Blues, 4-1, in St. Louis. In those seven games, Detroit has outscored the opponents 31-10. In the past three games, Tomas Holmstrom has scored five goals including two tonight. “He’s got a little magic going right now,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said.

Goals:
1st Period
Det1 - Brendan Shanahan (10:07) assisted by Jason Williams and Robert Lang

2nd Period
Det2 - Tomas Holmstrom (1:06) assisted by Pavel Datsyuk
Stl1 - Mike Sillinger (4:04) assisted by Scott Young and Doug Weight
Det3 - Tomas Holmstrom (8:35) assisted by Henrik Zetterberg and Nicklas Lidstrom

3rd Period
Det4 - Henrik Zetterberg (1:31) assisted by Datsyuk and Holmstrom

Boxscore Play by Play Recap Highlights

Red Wings v. Coyotes
I went to last night’s game at Joe Louis and there is one word to describe the game: frustrating. In the second half of the first period and the second period, it seemed like we were always on the penalty kill or we acted like we were. The Wings lost 4-1 to the Coyotes while playing with a complete lack of discipline. To view the photos I took at the game (from the upper bowl), click here.

Hot & Spicy Wings

Published
by
Matt Saler
on November 6, 2005
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Hockey Dirt’s Martin Thornell has a (now slightly out of date) assessment of the Wings’ season so far

GameDay: @ St Louis (2-8-3, 7 Pts) 7:00 ET

Published
by
Brian List
on November 6, 2005
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Tonight’s game is the third of eight games between the Wings and Blues this season. The Wings beat the Blues in the first and second games of the season, 5-1 in JLA and 4-3 in the Savvis Center. In the home opener, Pavel Datsyuk notched a goal and an assist, and Manny Legace had 13 saves on only 14 Blues shots. The following night in St Louis, Jason Williams was the star of the night with three assists, and Legace was solid again with 23 saves on 26 shots.

The Wings have gone on a two-game losing streak, following an impressive nine-game win streak that set NHL records. On Thursday, the Wings lost 4-3 (OT) to Edmonton. And last night, the Wings lost 4-1 to the Coyotes in an undisciplined performance. Chris Chelios was ejected from the game for arguing a cross checking call during the latter part of the first period, and Holmstrom also received a 2 minute unsportsmanlike penalty for arguing an elbowing call in the third. The Wings were beat to loose pucks by the Coyotes, leading to penalties, which led to four power play goals from Phoenix. Says Coach Mike Babcock:

“The bottom line is about discipline. At one point, we spent 16 of 36 minutes in the penalty box. You can’t build any momentum. The guys were prepared to play tonight, but we lost our discipline. I just know we can do a better job with our discipline, that’s something we’re in control of, and we let that (get) in the way of success and that is unacceptable.”

So the Wings enter tonight’s game with their first slump. Says Osgood:

“You knew it was going to come sooner or later. A lot of the games have been close this season. There are a lot of good teams. It wasn’t going to be smooth sailing all season. We just need a win to nip this in the bud.”

Along the lines of ending this mini-slump, the Blues are a great matchup for the Wings. Entering tonight’s game, the Blues are on a seven game losing streak, most recently losing 7-2 to Edmonton on Friday, in Chris Pronger’s return as an Oiler. In that game, they went 0-8 on the power play in front of a home crowd, and allowed 7 goals on 28 shots. Says Blues Coach Mike Kitchen:

“We’re not a very competent team right now. Tonight’s game was the poorest we’ve skated as a team.”

Blues defenseman Eric Brewer also takes an honest view:

“We’re last in the league because we deserve to be last in the league. We just didn’t play well tonight and we need to suck it up and play better hockey.”

Chris Osgood will get the start for the Wings, his first back-to-back of the season. It is likely Reinhard Divis will get the start for the Blues, as Patrick Lalime allowed four goals on 15 shots on Friday and lost his fifth straight.

The Wings went 0-7 on the power play last night, while the Coyotes went 4-9 on the power play. Those are the only special teams stats that matter going into this game.

Shanahan is one assist shy of 600…Jason Woolley missed his sixth game (groin) and is questionable for tonight…Datsyuk is on an eight game point streak…The Blues are 18 points back from the Wings in the Central Division.

Wings 1, Coyotes 4

Published
by
Brian List
on November 5, 2005
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

The Wings showed a lack of discipline and frustration for most of the night, as the Phoenix Coyotes beat them 4-1 in JLA. Osgood made the start for the Wings, opposite former Wing Curtis Joseph. Chris Chelios started the cycle of self destruction through penalties with five minutes left in the first, when he was called for cross checking and took a game misconduct after arguing the call. Coach Mike Babcock was frustrated with his teams’ lack of discipline and how many of the Wings’ penalties came after the Coyotes beat them to loose pucks.

First Period

The Wings opened the game strong, with good chances from Williams and Lidstrom two minutes in, with the Coyotes clearing the zone shortly after. At 2:23, Tomas Holmstrom scored his 100th career goal on a broken play between the circles. On the play, Lilja made a great pass up the middle to a breaking Datsyuk, who fumbled the puck back to a trailing Holmstrom. Scoring his third goal in two games, Tomas took the puck in stride and beat CuJo on a backhander, right side. 1-0 Wings. Assists to Datsyuk and Lilja.

At 2:39, former Wing Boyd Devereaux was called for hooking. The Wings had some good chances on the ensuing power play, with Zetterberg serving as the quarterback, working well behind the net to get the play set up. The Wings failed to convert on the man-advantage, with only one shot on net but a number of great passes. Derek Morris had two blocked shots during the power play in support of CuJo.

Around 5:55, the Coyotes set up camp in the Wings’ zone for over a minute, but it mostly was scrums along the boards. At 8:30, UM grad Mike Comrie was called for a trip on Samuelsson. The best chance of the power play came when Zetterberg passed from the right side across to Lidstrom on the left as he broke in on Cujo, but Nick couldn’t handle the pass and the Coyotes cleared the zone. As the power play ended, Nagy broke in one-on-one on Ozzie, but mishandled the puck and was unable to get a shot off.

At 12:41, Devereaux shot in on Ozzie from the right circle, and Paul Mara created trouble in the crease by driving after the loose puck and checking Yzerman into Osgood, who was able to freeze the puck. A short time later, the Wings had a golden opportunity in on CuJo, with a tic-tac-toe play from Holmstrom, across to Lidstrom, and back door to Zetterberg, who was pressured enough by a Coyote defenseman to cause him to fan on the puck, with the net wide open.

At 15:13, Lija was called for tripping on Sjostrom, and at 15:59 Chris Chelios picked up a 2 minute penalty for cross checking Saprykin in the face. Cheli argued the call, and received a 2 minute unsportsmanlike, followed by a 10 minute misconduct, and a 10 minute game misconduct. That’s booted from the game, with 24 minutes of penalties on one play.

The Coyotes had a 5-on-3 opportunity, and converted off a Paul Mara point shot, and Mike Leclerc backhand on the rebound. Ozzie had no chance on the play, out of position on the initial shot. 1-1 tie. The period ended with the Wings killing off the second power play courtesy of Chelios, and shots were 12-10 Phoenix as the teams went to the locker rooms.

Second Period

The Coyotes continued their momentum from the end of the first period, and pressured the Wings early, drawing a Jamie Rivers tripping penalty at 2:16. The Wings held the Coyotes to two power play shots, and went back on their heels for the next four minutes. At 7:37, Rivers was called again, this time for hooking Devereaux. On a night with Chelios ejected, the Wings are already down to 5 defensemen. And with Rivers in penalty trouble, it put a lot of pressure on the remaining 4 Wings defensemen (Schneider, Lidstrom, Lilja, Fischer).

At 8:22, the Coyotes scored another power play goal off a Michalek point shot which was redirected by Lilja. On the play, Lilja lost his stick for some time, but Daniel Cleary handed him his. How ironic is it that Lilja takes that very stick, goes in front of Ozzie, and ends up redirecting the Phoenix shot enough to trick his own goaltender? 2-1 Phoenix. The Wings had only given up 2 power play goals in one game one other time this season.

At 9:50, the Coyotes were hounding the Wings in their zone, courtesy of the Doan/Devereaux/Saprykin line. The Wings only had two shots up to this point of the period. At 11:55, Nagy was called for hooking, and the Wings had a good power play opportunity with shots from Lang, Datsyuk, and Lidstrom.

At 17:26, Fischer was called for hooking behidn the Wings’ net as he failed to pick up a loose puck. The story of the game: the Wings not picking up loose pucks and getting called for penalties as the Coyotes gain possession. At this point, shots are 23-17 Coyotes, with 12 of their shots on the power play for 2 goals. At 18:59, Nagy hit the goalpost on a shot between the circles, as he picked up the loose puck from trailing the play.

At 19:15, Mike Johnson scored top corner on a bad angle blast from the far right side. He beat Ozzie, who was out of position from the previous shot. 3-1 Phoenix. The Wings, who came in as the league leaders on the penalty kill, have given up 3 power play goals for the first time this season. It is only the second time they have trailed after two periods. Shots in the period were 16-8 Coyotes, to make 28-18 total after two periods.

Third Period

The Wings started out the period with some early pressure from Pavel and Henrik, but reverted to their frustrated play when Holmstrom was caught for elbowing at 2:48, with an extra 2 minutes tacked on for arguing the call. It was a relatively uneventful 4 minute penalty kill, the Wings managing to hold the Coyotes without a shot. A minute after the penalty expired, the Coyotes were called for two many men on the ice at 7:41. Shortly after, Ricci was called for delay of game when he cleared the puck over the glass. On the 5-on-3, the Wings nearly scored when Shanahan dug for the puck in the crease. While the puck ended up squirting across the goal line, further review showed Shanny kicking the puck and the goal was voided. Still 3-1 Phoenix. Shanahan later admitted to kicking it in.

With roughly a minute left on the 5-on-3, the Wings had more pressure on CuJo, and drew a Ballard slashing call with 9 seconds left in the Ricci call. The Wings failed to convert, even with many shots on net and good passing.

At 15:54, Saprykin was called for tripping, and Williams and Lidstrom had some decent chances on net. At 18:30, Samuelsson was called for slashing, and Mike Comrie eventually got an empty net goal at 19:47. 4-1 Phoenix. Shots 37-29, Wings. That’s right, 19-1 Wings for shots in the third. The Wings went 0-7 on the power play, with 16 shots. The next game is tomorrow night at 7:00 pm in the Savvis Center against the struggling St Louis Blues, who have lost 7 straight. Osgood will make the start on the back-to-back.

Notes

Tonight was the first time the Wings have allowed 3 (*correction 4, Comrie’s empty netter was on the power play) power play goals in a game, and the second time they have trailed after two periods…The Phoenix power play entered the game 14th in the NHL at 18.6%…familiar faces on the Phoenix side included Assistant Coach Barry Smith, Curtis Joseph, Boyd Devereaux, and Mike Comrie…Shanahan is one assist away from 600….Mike Ricci wears #40 in honor of Pat Tillman, former Arizona Cardinals safety who was killed in Afghanistan…The Wings had 3 of a possible 6 points on the home stand.

GameDay: vs. Phoenix (6-8-1, 13 Pts) 7:30 ET

Published
by
Brian List
on November 5, 2005
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Tonight’s game is the second of four games between the Wings and Coyotes this season. The Wings beat the Coyotes 2-0 on October 15 in Phoenix, with goals from Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk. Manny Legace recorded his first shutout of the season, the seventh of his career, and Brett Hull made the headlines by announcing his retirement at a press conference before the game.

The Wings were on a nine-game win streak before losing 4-3 (OT) to Edmonton on Thursday. Tomas Holmstrom had two goals and Jason Williams one, but a Raffi Torres goal 1:51 into overtime ended the Wings’ hopes for getting an NHL record 26 points in the first 14 games. They settled for tying the 1994-1995 Penguins’ previous record of 25 points. The Wings are in charge of the Central Division, leading Nashville 25-18 in points. The Wings are tied with the Ottawa Senators with the most goals for and least goals against: 58 for and 28 against.

The Coyotes are coming off a big 4-0 win against the LA Kings Thursday night. Before the game on Tuesday, Coach Wayne Gretzky put the Coyotes through a grueling practice that included 45 minutes of all out skating. Curtis Joseph recorded his second shutout of the season, and the Coyotes got off to a good start in November. The Coyotes will be without Petr Nedved, who hyperextended his left elbow last week in the Coyotes’ 5-3 loss to the Stars.

Chris Osgood will get the start for the Wings, in place of the injured Manny Legace. The Joe Louis Arena crowd may get the chance to welcome back Curtis Joesph, if he makes the start. Manny Legace is day-to-day with a sprained knee, thanks to a careless Matthew Barnaby, who fell into the goaltender during the Wings’ 4-1 win over the Blackhawks on Tuesday.

The Wings carry in the best power play in the league, with a 28.5% efficiency. The man advantage could be key tonight, as the Coyotes are an abysmal 79% on the penalty kill (24th in the league). Also impressive is that the Wings lead the NHL in penalty killing at 91.4% (7 goals in 82). Several Wings are cracking the points leader board, with Jason Williams (18), Datsyuk (17), and Zetterberg (15) all in the top 30. Don’t be surprised to see success from Brendan Shanahan or Steve Yzerman, as Shanny has 69 points in 62 games against the Phoenix/Winnipeg franchise, Yzerman 65 in 57 games.

Wings 3, Oilers 4 (OT)

Published
by
Matt Saler
on November 4, 2005
in Uncategorized
. 2 Comments

Wings fail to win 10th straight

Detroit faced a much sterner test in tonight’s game against Edmonton and came out on the losing end, after Raffi Torres scored the game winner in overtime.

Both teams dominated the play for stretches of the game but the Oilers got out to an early start and caused the Wings to play catch up for the rest of the night.

Chris Osgood made his second start of the season and played well for the most part. The goals he did allow were more the result of defensive lapses than anything else. He came up big at other times, however, and was steady on the more routine saves.

The loss drops the Wings to 12-1-1 and kept them from setting a franchise record win-streak of 10 games. They did tie the record for most points through 14 games (25), though, due to the loss coming in overtime.

First Period

Kirk Maltby, Kris Draper, Steve Yzerman, Andreas Lilja and Nick Lidstrom started the game for Mike Babcock. The first couple minutes were a little choppy with a whistle or two but mostly it was back and forth hockey. The Oilers had a bit more jump than the Wings, though, and it soon paid off with a goal.

At 4:34, Shawn Horcoff made it 1-0 Edmonton when he scored off the feed from Ryan Smythe. The play developed as sort of an odd man rush, with Mathieu Schneider back and his defensive partner, Jiri Fischer trying to get in position. Smythe, skating on the far side, passed the puck to Horcoff who got the shot off. Osgood, still on the right side of the net, made the save with his right leg but it bounced back to his left foot and trickled in from there. Ozzie could have been in better position, I guess, but it developed quickly and Horcoff was Fischer’s responsibility.

The Wings responded with the some pressure of their own but the Oilers got some more chances themselves immediately following that pressure. Then, Detroit got on the board.

The Oilers were pinned in their own end and got possession of the puck in front of their own net. Cory Cross attempted to pass it to his partner not 10 feet away from his goalie. Bad decision. Tomas Holmstrom stole the pass and took it back across the net and scored a backhander on the far side, beating Jussi Markkanen up high.

The Wings followed up their goal by generating some strong pressure with the Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom line. At 11:02, the Wings went on the power play and Pavel’s line was out there again, with Schneider and Lidstrom. They got a good set up and had some sustained pressure, cycling the puck well and getting off some good shots. Zetterberg got called for hooking after a flurry at 12:52 and the two teams went to four a side for 10 seconds. The ensuing Edmonton power play was killed off easily by the Wings, though they did follow it up with some close-in chances on which Ozzie needed to be sharp.

The rest of the period consisted of back-and-forth play, with both teams trading chances but not scoring. The Wings went on the power play again with 1:49 left but didn’t get much going before the horn sounded.

Shots were 13-12 Wings.

Second Period

The Wings’ 11 second power play to start the period amounted to nothing but they got another chance at it little more than a minute in when Cross took a delay of game penalty. This effort wasn’t much better. Their initial set-up was quickly cleared and their next attempt only generated a little pressure. They gave up a good short handed chance after screwing up in their own zone but Edmonton’s shot was sent high.

Soon after the Wings’ power play expired, Brendan Shanahan got called for tripping. The Oilers got some good pressure and almost scored on a flurry with about 35 seconds remaining on the man-advantage. Franzen was called for hooking as a result of this flurry and the Wings faced a 5-on-3 situation. The Oilers set up and began cycling but the Wings cleared it and it was killed off. Six seconds later (5:37), before Shanahan could join the play after leaving the box, the Oilers made it 2-1. Edmonton young gun Ales Hemsky sent the puck through the crease to Ryan Smythe at the far post, who got a slam dunk goal. Not much chance for Ozzie on that one.

The Wings fourth line, made up of Dan Cleary, Johan Franzen and Mikael Samuelsson generated good pressure soon after the Edmonton goal and caused the Oilers to ice the puck. It was a good shift for those guys, even though they didn’t score.

At 8:16, Steve Staios was called for tripping and the Wings went on the power play again. They scored in less than 30 seconds. Pavel Datsyuk took the puck in off a rush on the far side and sent the puck to Holmstrom, whose snap shot went over a flailing Markkanen for his second of the night. Pretty exciting goal to make it 2-2. Great pass by Datsyuk.

The Wings got pretty fired up after that goal and dominated play for the next few minutes. Pavel Datsyuk’s line, with Zetterberg and Holmstrom, in particular, got some great chances. Holmstrom nearly got a hat trick at this point but was denied. When the next line came out, it was somewhat anticlimactic, actually. Those three are great together and are exciting just about every shift.

Play evened out after that and the rest of the period was more skating up and down the ice trading chances.

Shots were 12-8 Wings.

Third Period

Pavel’s line began the period with more excitement, getting a flurry of chances at about 1:20. The Oilers had a couple big chances themselves early, with a rush at 2:09 that forced Osgood to make a good save and a 2-on-1 twenty seconds later that ended with the shot being sent over the net.

Edmonton took the lead once again at 4:11 off a harmless shot from Chris Pronger that was tipped in by Fernando Pisani from 10-15 feet out. The puck, which had been flying about 4 feet in the air , went straight down to the ice and Osgood had no chance to react, after committing on the first vector. 3-2 Oilers.

The Wings countered with some pressure, again from Pavel’s line but couldn’t score.

At 6:46, Marc-Andre Bergeron was called for “closing hand on puck” and the Wings went on the power play once again. It turn out to be a textbook example of how to manage the puck and score with the man-advantage. The Wings put on a passing clinic and pretty much had continuous pressure with the same unit for 1:19 before finally scoring an inevitable goal at 8:05. Their puck patrol had worn the Oilers down, both physically and geographically and by the time Williams took the pass from Datsyuk, they were collapsed around the front of the net. Williams one-timed Pavel’s pass and it blew past Markkanen, who was pretty much helpless to stop it. Game tied at 3.

Osgood made what sounded like a great save on Torres at 9:09 but I missed it live and didn’t see the replay because I was pulled into a short conversation by someone else in the room. Still, Ken Daniels and Mickey Redmond were pretty excited about it and called it a game saver.

The Wings had to kill off another penalty soon after what I thought was a blown interference call committed on Lang at about 12:30.

At 15:29, Stoll went off for holding but he actually committed the penalty a good 15-20 seconds before that, if not more. The Wings, with the extra skater, absolutely dominated the puck for a while and got some very good chances before Markkanen finally got a glove on it and got a whistle. The Wings power play wasn’t bad either, with some good pressure and chances but no score.

Again, the period ended with both sides trading chances at a fairly rapid pace.

Shots were 12-4 Wings.

Overtime

I don’t have much down for overtime. It was pretty much just back and forth until the Oilers scored at 1:51 to win the game. Torres scored on a give-and-go with Staios off a rush and just beat Osgood. Not the greatest goal for the Wings defense or their goalie to give up but it’s done now.

Notes

The Oilers were without one of their big off-season acquisitions, Michael Peca, who suffered a concussion after being hit by Rick Nash’s elbow Tuesday … In 48 career games versus Edmonton, Steve Yzerman has 43 goals. He didn’t get one tonight, though … Karen Newman did not sing the national anthem tonight. I was so in shock that I didn’t write down the guy’s name … Chris Pronger will visit his old team tomorrow night when the Oilers travel to St. Louis … The Oilers are on a 12-day, 7-game road trip because their home arena, Rexall Place is hosting the Canadian Finals Rodeo … Because Kris Draper thinks his line can no longer be called the “Grind Line,” the Wings are looking for fan ideas on a new name for the Maltby-Draper-Yzerman forward unit. We’ll get to vote on them when they distill the entries down to the 10 best on 16. Go to the official site to make your submission. Be more creative than “Visor Line, ” please. The deadline for submission is the 14th and voting will take place on the 16th … With the Wings two power play goals, the Oilers have given up at least one PPG in their last 10 games … Interestingly enough, the two backup goalies in tonight’s game have a connection: they both were University of Maine goaltenders. Michael Morrison, the Oilers’ backup, was at Maine from 1998 to 2002 and Jimmy Howard, the Wings’ temporary backup, followed him up from 2002 to 2005 … The Oilers blocked 20+ shots tonight, just to give you an idea of how good they were at keeping the puck away from their goalie …

It was a disappointing loss, to be sure. The Wings played well enough for much of the game to pull off the win but they were unable to finish fully on their chances too often. The Oilers played a good game and their speed gave the Wings a good indication of exactly where they stand both offensively and defensively. Their most recent opponents were nice for padding in the wins column but didn’t really tell us much about how good the Wings really are. Now we know that they are good but that they need to work on some things before facing even tougher opponents.

Play-by-Play, Shift chart, Box-score

Manny Legace conference call transcript

Published
by
Matt Saler
on November 3, 2005
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Definitely worth reading (via. Kukla’s Korner)

GameDay: vs. Edmonton (6-6-1, 13 Pts) 7:30 ET

Published
by
Matt Saler
on November 3, 2005
in Uncategorized
. 2 Comments

Wings look for 10th straight victory tonight versus Edmonton

Tonight’s game is the first of four games these two storied clubs will play this season. The Wings won the season series in 03-04, going 2-0-2 over four games. The two teams skated to a 1-1 tie in their last game together, on 23. Feb 04.

The Wings are riding a nine-game win streak and will look to break a franchise record tonight with a 10th. Their latest wins have come against, LA, Phoenix, San Jose, Anaheim, Columbus (2) and Chicago (3). Not exactly the cream of the crop but it’s still remarkable that they’ve been able to keep up their winning ways for so long. Despite the Sens’ 10-4 shellacking of the Sabres last night, the Wings still hold the league lead in goals scored and are still winning the scoring race with Ottawa (55 to 54). On top of having the highest scoring offense, they have a great defense, having allowed the fewest goals (24 to Ottawa’s 26) of any team this season. They have only lost once, 4-2 to Vancouver at home on 10. October. If they win tonight, they will be the first team in league history to have 26 points after 14 games.

The Oilers began the season with three wins but a 3-1 loss to LA in their fourth game started a 7-game skid that finally ended 28. October in Dallas with a 5-3 win. They have now won three in a row and have outscored their opponents 15-5 in those games. They are coming off a 5-1 win over Columbus on Tuesday but more important to Wings fans is the game before that, a 5-1 win over Nashville. The Edmonton penalty killing unit has allowed at least one power play goal in their last nine games, something the Wings should be able to capitalize on, given that they have converted 38.1% of their power play chances at home this season. Edmonton is kicking off a seven-game road trip tonight, a stretch in which they will look to improve their 3-4-0 road record.

Chris Osgood will get the started in place of the injured Manny Legace tonight. Jimmy Howard was called up from Grand Rapids to serve as his backup. Legace practiced yesterday and expects to be back soon (as in, three games), according to both papers (Freep and News)

Mathieu Schneider will make his return tonight, after missing one game with a groin injury. To make room, Brett Lebda was sent back down to Grand Rapids.

The News says head coach Mike Babcock has some concern about tonight’s game, given the Oilers’ speed and their win streak. That’s understandable since it will certainly be a tougher test for the guys than the previous 5 games have been. Still, the Wings aren’t so slow themselves and their defense has been solid enough to ease most worries. Osgood has looked very solid in his two games and with the Wings’ offense scoring as it has been, things should go well. They will need to play a more efficient game than they did Tuesday night though. Sloppy passes will not work, not with the Oilers looking to take them the other way with a burst of speed. Should be a more exciting game than what we’ve had for the last three against Chicago.