IwoCPO believes Babcock must soon decide who will be the team’s starter: Osgood or Legace
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Monthly Archive for January, 2006Page 4 of 5
This afternoon, the Wings will play the Stars for the second time this season. They won the first game, in Dallas on December 27th, 4-1. The Wings overcame a slow start with the help of Chris Osgood and pulled ahead in the second and third periods with goals by Henrik Zetterberg, Tomas Holmstrom and Kirk Maltby. These teams face each other twice more before the end of the regular season: January 28 in Dallas and April 17 in Detroit.
The Wings are coming off a big 3-1 win over division rival Nashville Friday night. It was a playoff-style game, physical and fast-paced with a lively crowd and one of the best games of the season. Steve Yzerman, in his second game back from a groin injury, notched his 1,049th career assist, tying him with Gordie Howe for 7th all-time. Detroit played well and provided a glimpse of what they are capable of against quality opponents, showing they can skate with youth and speed after all. The season-series with the Preds is bound to be exciting and a tough one. The win made Detroit 7-1 in their last eight games, the only loss in that span coming to Minnesota on the 3rd.
The Stars are coming off a 4-3 shootout win over Anaheim on Friday. They rallied from a three-goal deficit in the second and third periods to force overtime and then the shootout. Then, Johan Hedberg stopped Teemu Selanne and Antti Miettinen scored in on JS Giguere in the fourth round of the shootout to give Dallas the win. Marty Turco, who had signed a contract extension Thursday, was pulled before the second period after allowing three goals on the Ducks’ first six shots in the opening period. Since playing Detroit on the 27th of last month, Dallas has gone 3-1-1, with two losses to LA (one in regulation and one in overtime) and wins over St. Louis and Vancouver to go with Friday’s win over the Ducks. Those losses to LA didn’t help Dallas’ place in the standings. They are now second in the Pacific Division, two points behind LA, where before they had been first.
Mike Babcock stated before Friday’s game that Chris Osgood would start today for the Wings. Manny Legace started against the Blues Thursday and the Preds Friday and played very well so it’s time for Ozzie to show us where he stands. He is 24-9-3 against the Stars in his career and I say this is a great time to get win #25.
As for the Stars, we may see Johan Hedberg in net instead of Marty Turco, who still hasn’t beaten the Wings (through ten games, he is 0-5-5).
Johan Franzen was hurt late in the game Thursday night when he was hit along the boards by Eric Brewer. He has an “upper body”injury and was scheduled to get an X-ray taken last night. He told the Free Press, “Can’t really move that well. Little stiff today. Not sure what it is.” Of course, the papers say nothing about Johan today so I have no idea whether he’ll be in the lineup or not. If something is broken, he won’t be but if not, it’s up in the air and depends on how he feels, most likely.
In a month of important games, this is yet another game the Wings need to win. They need to carry on the momentum they have gathered over the past two games and play with authority at home against the Stars. They beat the Preds Friday night but that won’t mean much if they falter between now and their next meetings on the 24th and 26th.
The Wings came through with a great effort in a 3-1 win over the Predators in Gaylord Entertainment Center. The game lived up to its hype, with a playoff environment for much of the game, and the Predators fans chanting loudly with both teams skating hard. Manny Legace got the start for the Wings, and had 28 saves on 29 shots. He looked very sharp throughout the game, even at times where he fell out of position and had to make acrobatic saves. Vokoun was also strong for Nashville, but failed to make the saves on a power play dominated by Nicklas Lidstrom point shots. The Wings had trouble establishing control in the Predators zone on the power play at times, something that was tough to understand for the league’s power play leaders. Johan Franzen was out injured, and replaced by Mark Mowers.
First Period
The Wings opened the first period skating hard, kept up with the Predators’ energy. But skating hard didn’t necessarily convert to many chances for the Wings early on in the first. Mark Mowers had a good one at 10:48, splitting two Predators defensemen and deiking Vokoun, who made a glove save. Mowers drew a Nashville penalty on the play, but the Wings failed to establish any control in the Nashville zone.
At 13:30 of the first, Lilja had an obstruction penalty along the near boards. It was a good call, and the Predators converted just 25 seconds into their man advantage. On the play, Fiddler cleaned up on a point shot rebound to make it 1-0 Nashville. It was a bad goal all around. Lilja for getting the interference penalty, and the Wings defense for letting Fiddler get behind them for the rebound.
The Wings got a power play chance at 14:42, after Sullivan was caught hooking Datsyuk. Again, the Wings had trouble establishing much of a presence in the Nashville zone on the power play. Lang particularly had trouble, and his turnover in the Wings’ zone didn’t help. The best chance actually came a short time after the man advantage, when Holmstrom found a rebound near the left circle.
The Wings had a great chance from Zetterberg as time expired, taking a feed from Samuelsson down low. The puck bounced high over the boards off Vokoun’s pads. That made it 11-10 Wings in shots.
Second Period
The second period started with a Lidstrom hooking call at 1:24, his 24th PIM of the season. That’s rather high for the multiple-year Lady Byng nominee. The Wings gained momentum off the penalty kill, with a great chance from Holmstrom in front. On the play, Shanahan passed in to Holmstrom from the far boards, but Vokoun contained the Holmstrom shot to avoid a potentially dangerous rebound.
At 4:21, Lang got caught hooking right off the faceoff, and this started Nashville’s burst of chances. Their best chances of the man advantage came at 6:02, when got a shot off between the circles and had a rush of traffic in front with multiple rebound tries. Legace was his strongest of the game on this play, and the one ten seconds later that nearly mimicked the rush of chances.
The Wings seemed to come alive after Legace’s stand in net. At 8:35, Williams passed from the near side to Zetterberg back door, but he hit the goalpost with Vokoun down and out. A minute later, after drawing a Timonen hooking call, Woolley shot and missed an open net on a slightly bad angle. It was that kind of night for Zetterberg, who even hit the post on an empty net as time expired.
On the power play, the Wings still couldn’t establish themselves in the Nashville zone, making for 0 for 4 so far in the game on the PP. But they made up for it with good pressure after even strength ensued. At 16:18, the Wings had a good chance with Pavel passing to Holmstrom in front. Vokoun was strong on those plays all game though, not giving up too many rebounds.
The Wings got another power play at 16:50 with a Weber tripping call, and the Wings converted 26 seconds later on a Lidstrom point shot to make it 1-1. Vokoun was screened, and Lang picked up the assist. That made the Wings 1 for 5 on the PP so far.
The Wings picked up another penalty with a Kariya hooking call. It was the story of the second period: the Wings skating hard and moving their feet, and the Predators forced to hook and hold to prevent scoring chances. Shots in the period were 15-10 Wings.
Third Period
The Wings carried their momentum into the third, with a goal from Williams two minutes in. On the play, Williams got a feed from Samuelsson in front, and shot it high over Vokoun’s shoulder to make it 2-1 Wings. The Nashville defense fell asleep on this play, as it was a 2-on-2 in the Nashville zone and much credit should be given to Samuelsson’s work along the boards.
At 6:17, first period scorer Fiddler had a wrap-around chance on Legace, but shot it high off the goalpost with Legace down way too early and the top of the net wide open.
It was a scary moment at 11:28 when punk Scott Hartnell checked Cleary into Legace behind the net. Thankfully, Legace got up ok and the Wings got a power play with Hartnell in the box for goaltender interference. It was a cheap play by Hartnell, with Legace obviously in a dangerous position, and reminded Wings fans of past cheap plays by the goon. He was the one who hurt Legace back in 2001, and Fischer in 2003. Color commentator Mickey Redmond was talking about how dirty of a player Hartnell was only seconds before he ran Legace.
The Wings scored late in the ensuing power play at 13:07, on another Lidstrom blast from the point. Replay showed Shanahan getting the tip, making for his 11th power play goal of the season. Yzerman and Lidstrom got the assists. The assist from Yzerman put him tied with Gordie Howe at 7th all time in assists at 1049. 3-1 Wings. Shots in the period were 9-7 Predators, 33-29 Wings overall.
Comments
The Wings certainly pulled out their “A” game and played up to the tempo of the night. It felt like a playoff game, and the home crowd was wild all night. They almost sounded like a University of Michigan hockey home crowd, chanting “Red Wings Suck” and jeering the Wings every chance they could. Lidstrom continued his stellar power play work with a goal and an assist. Legace was as good as he was before getting injured, and really kept the Wings in the game with his second period stand. The Wings probably had their best game of the season tonight. The win put them six points ahead of Nashville in the Central, and marked the mid-point of the season: game 41.
Yzerman got good ice time (13:28) on a line with Lang and Draper. Lidstrom had another multi-point night, with a goal and an assist. He also played 31:46. Lang led all forwards with 19:55 ice time. Chris Osgood will get the start for the Sunday evening game versus the Dallas Stars.
Lines
Yzerman-Lang-Draper
Datsyuk-Shanahan-Holmstrom
Williams-Zetterberg-Samuelsson
Datsyuk-Williams-Zetterberg
Lang-Shanahan-Samuelsson
Cleary-Yzerman-Draper
Holmstrom-Zetterberg-Williams
Zetterberg-Holmstrom-Datsyuk
Zetterberg-Samuelsson-Draper
Yzerman-Lang-Datsyuk
Shanahan-Lang-Williams
Cleary-Maltby-Mowers
Mowers-Zetterberg-Samuelsson
Mowers-Lang-Maltby
Draper-Samuelsson
Maltby-Draper
Zetterberg-Cleary
Lang-Draper
D-parings
Lilja-Lidstrom
Chelios-Schneider
Schneider-Woolley
Lebda-Schneider
Woolley-Lidstrom
Lebda-Lilja
Lidstrom-Schneider
Lebda-Chelios
Tonight is the first of eight games between the Wings and Predators this season. The November 21 game in Detroit was postponed after Jiri Fischer collapsed during the first period while on the bench, his heart stopping. The game was later rescheduled for January 23 in Detroit, which was at first a Nashville home game, with a March 30 game in Nashville replacing their home game.
The last time they played each other for a full game, the Wings finished up the first round of the playoffs with a 2-0 shutout win on April 17, 2004.
The Wings have won six of their last seven games, including a 3-0 win against St Louis last night. Manny Legace made his return to the ice, notching the shutout on only 15 shots. Captain Steve Yzerman also returned after a month-long absence, and got some quality ice time on a line with Cleary and Holmstrom (10:03 total). Lidstrom, who has been breaking 30 minutes of ice time more than the Wings would like with Fischer and Kronwall out of the lineup, got a bit of a break with only 25:15 of ice time. He had 31:24 of ice time Tuesday versus the Wild.
The Wings are 12-1-0 against Central Division foes, but now the Wings’ true test starts with the five games versus the Predators before the Olympic Break, and eight total before the playoffs start (that’s 8 of 42 remaining games). These games could very well determine whether the Wings are a #1 or #4 seed come playoff time. Says Zetterberg:
“It’s huge. We’ve got eight games against them and 16 points to play for. Probably the guys who win the most games is going to be above in the standings, so it’s going to be really important to win those games.”
Says Coach Babcock:
“We have an eight-game playoff series. We’re excited about it. They have a real good team. Let’s get there and get going.”
The Predators are also coming off a win versus the Blues, a 4-3 decision on Wednesday. Goaltender Chris Mason was pulled in favor of Tomas Vokoun after giving up two goals on three shots. Previous to that game, the streaky Predators had lost four straight, including close bouts with Vancouver and Edmonton.
The Predators trail the Wings 57-53 in the Central Division points race, so tonight’s game is an important one for both teams. Nashville has one game in hand. Vokoun will likely get the start tonight, facing off against Manny Legace, who is fresh off an easy shutout versus the Blues last night.
The Wings lead the league with a 24.9% power play efficiency, and are tied for second in penalty killing at 85.4%. The Predators, however, are only 13th in the league on the power play at 18.2%, with a 84.8% penalty killing mark that has them tied for fifth in the league. The Wings are 13-4-2 on the road, and the Predators are 16-4-0 at home.
The Wings did what they needed to do tonight and notched a solid, if rather dry, win over St. Louis at JLA. Manny Legace made the start for the team and looked sharp on the rare occasions in which he was called upon to make a save. He only needed to stop the puck 15 times to earn his third shutout of the season. His two others came October 15th over Phoenix and October 22nd over Columbus. It was probably a good thing that Manny didn’t have to stand on his head in his first came back from injury.
Steve Yzerman looked okay in his return. He didn’t stand out but he seemed to fit in pretty well. He looked healthy. He had a nice chance in the second period, about midway through, when a lane opened up in front of the net. He took a shot but the save was made and he did not score. Honestly, I did not notice him much other than that and the crowd didn’t really give him any special attention, for whatever reason.
The first period was probably the most exciting to watch, with the Wings getting a fair number of chances and the crowd still pumped for the game. The Wings scored on the power play at 9:42 when Pavel Datsyuk took a shot from the right circle that was deflected by the St. Louis defenseman out front. Initially, the goal was given to Tomas Holmstrom but they changed it later in the game. The Wings looked pretty good at this point and did not start the game out as slowly as they have recently.
Brendan Shanahan went off for high sticking at 18:05, a call that had many fans booing as though there were some doubt. Well, there wasn’t any doubt since Shanahan drew blood and got an extra two minutes. Fortunately for Shanny, Chelios and Draper hooked up 15 seconds later to give the Wings a two goal lead. Chelios took the puck in on a rush along the left wing and sent the puck across the net to Draper who redirected it into the net for the score.
The second period wasn’t so exciting. There were no penalties this period, a first this season, and all the Blues seemed capable of doing was dumping the puck into the Detroit zone. The Wings had a couple of good chances, Yzerman’s being one of them and a shot by Franzen off a rush with Draper being another. Probably the highlight of the period was Mo Cheese’s dance down by the zamboni entrance during a TV break. Always entertaining, though we just missed getting a picture since my sister was changing rolls of film at the time.
The crowd, though still pretty vocal at the exciting points, settled down a bit and the arena started to sound like a big restaurant, with running conversations constituting the bulk of the crowd noise. There was a near goal toward the end of the period that interrupted everyone’s conversations but the eruption as aborted when the puck did not go into the net.
At 18:58 or so, some wiseguy behind us asked, “Budd how much time is left?” Budd Lynch answered, “Last minute of play in the second period,” like he always does at 19:00. It was a good defensive period for the Wings and an okay one offensively.
Henrik Zetterberg opened the third period with a bang when he scored at 1:45 to put the Wings ahead by three. He had dished the puck to his linemate, Mikael Samuelsson, who took a shot that was stopped by Sanford. Hank skated across the net and stole the puck, then put it in the open net. After Budd Lynch announced the goal, they played “I’m Henry VIII I am” over the PA system.
Around 8:45, the “Fire Millen!” chant went up in our end of the arena (behind Sanford). A couple minutes later, this was replaced by a loud “Lets Go Red Wings!”
At 12:54, Brendan Shanahan ended up all alone with the puck in the slot. Everyone in the Joe took a deep breath in preparation for wild celebration but Shanahan shot the puck wide. We barely had time to express our disappointment when a flurry around the net immediately followed and Shanahan ended up backhanding in. The red light went on and we fans got started to celebrate. Then we noticed there was a scrum and some of the brighter ones noticed the goal horn hadn’t sounded yet. We cheered on the scrum but also wondered what the heck had happened to the goal. Someone behind me informed his friends that the play had been whistled down when Sanford seemingly had possession of the puck. This was confirmed a few seconds later when Budd Lynch informed us of the same. Needless to say, we fans were not happy and we let the officials know it. I say Shanahan should have scored to begin with, on the initial chance, but that’s just me.
Late in the game, Robert Lang of all people got into a scrum and got two for roughing, as did Barrett Jackman. Both of them left the game, though there were over two minutes left.
The arena was getting fairly empty, as the fat cats in the lower bowl decided the beat the everyman rush by making their own traffic jam.
Johan Franzen was rocked along the boards in the final goings of the game by Jamal Mayers (I think) as he carried the puck into the zone. The crowd loved that one, though I’m sure Johan wasn’t too happy. (Correction: apparently, it was Eric Brewer who hit Franzen, who was injured on the play but didn’t know it until the next day)
The Wings made it exciting at the end as they continued to keep the pressure on the Blues in the final minutes. Then, the horn sounded and the crowd cheered as they filed out of the arena.
A couple thoughts:
Usually, the linesmen do a good job of making calls at the blueline but there were two instances where I thought they made the wrong call and it hurt the Wings by whistling the play dead when it should have continued. I know they were a lot closer to the puck than I was but I would swear the Wings kept it in on those two occasions and the rest of the fans at the Joe would agree with me.
Now that the fluff game against the Blues is over, the Wings can turn their attention to Nashville, where they’ll be heading tonight for the game tomorrow. It’s the biggest game of the season so far and whatever they have done so far this year won’t mean much if they can’t at least put up a good performance there. A win would be very good but even more important, I think, is that they show up to play and bring their “A” game with them.
Hopefully, nothing like what happened last time these teams met will take place tomorrow night. It’s hard to believe the Wings have played the Preds this season, if only for 12:30. In case you forgot, the home game the Wings lost when Jiri Fischer’s collapse resulted in the cancellation of the November 21st game was rescheduled for January 23rd. The Predators will start the game leading 1-0.
My sister got a lot of pictures tonight. We’ll see how they turned out when we get them developed. I’m hoping to do that tomorrow and have them up by Saturday
Lines*
Shanahan-Datsyuk-Williams
Maltby-Draper-Franzen
Yzerman-Cleary-Holmstrom
Samuelsson-Zetterberg-Lang
Maltby-Franzen-Zetterberg
Datsyuk-Holmstrom-Zetterberg
Franzen-Shanahan-Datsyuk
Shanahan-Samuelsson-Zetterberg
Datsyuk-Shanahan
Maltby-Draper
D-parings
Lilja-Lidstrom
Chelios-Schneider
Woolley-Lilja
Lidstrom-Lebda
Schneider-Woolley
Lebda-Chelios
Lidstrom-Schneider
Schneider-Lilja
Lidstrom-Chelios
Lidstrom-Woolley
*compiled by Brian.
Update (06. Jan 06): About half of the pictures have been uploaded. They are linked to in the top right corner of the page.
Tonight is the fifth of eight games between Detroit and St. Louis this season. The two teams opened the season against each other with two games, both of which were won by the Wings: 5-1 on October 5th at home and 4-3 the next night in St. Louis. They didn’t play again for a month but the Wings won again, 4-1 in St. Louis, on November 6th after an unsuccessful homestand. The Blues got a little revenge later in the month when they visited the Joe and handed the Wings their fourth straight loss (3-2, November 19th).
The Wings had a nice five-game winning streak going before it was halted Tuesday night by the visiting Minnesota Wild, who won a frustrating game 4-2. The Wings did not play well and started the most important month of the season so far, January, off totally wrong. Tonight’s game will the last “easy win” (with the exception of the Columbus game on the 18th) until February first, when they play St. Louis for the sixth time. Between now and then, they will face some of the league’s best teams, including Nashville, New York (Rangers), Philadelphia, Dallas and Carolina. Fourteen games and a possible 28 points to begin with, now it’s just thirteen games and 26 points with Tuesday night’s loss.
The Blues are one of the biggest disappointments of the year and are in the middle of a nightmare season. They are 1-2-1 in their last four and have basically alternated wins and losses since December 20th. They started January off on the right foot with a win against the Canucks on Monday (4-2) but lost to Nashville two nights later, 4-3. The Preds had lost four in a row going in to that game and evidently the Blues thought they could get a fairly easy win. They were wrong. St. Louis kicks off a five-game road trip tonight, one that will take them next to Colorado and then out East to play three teams in the Southeastern Division.
Manny Legace will get the start in place of Chris Osgood tonight. Legace has been out with a sprained knee since November 25th.
Steve Yzerman is slated to make his return to the ice after going down with yet another groin injury December 9th.
Brendan Shanahan has been having some back spasms and apparently was a game-time decision Tuesday night, though the papers made no mention of it until today. I guess that explains why he hasn’t scored in four games. He did not practice yesterday but is expected to play.
Jason Woolley also did not practice, though he also is expected to play.
The Wings need a win tonight if only to have some momentum going in to tomorrow’s game against the Predators. Although the Blues are struggling, Detroit cannot take them for granted and expect to roll over them. They need to play a disciplined game and pull off the win.
I will be at the game with my sister and was expecting to be able to utilize her camera to get some good pictures but it looks like the Joe has pretty strict rules that may not allow us to bring her good camera in. So, we’ll see what we can get.
Update (2:18 PM): Well, after finding out that the don’t let Joe Blow take a half-way decent camera into JLA (because we might sell the pictures and rob the Illitches of tens of dollars), we tried the PR Department route. Our appeal was shot down when I was told that the Wings do not give credentials to independent media, not even a photo pass.
It’s outdated and frustrating but it’s the rule so we’ll have to stick by it. So, because the lense on my sister’s good camera is too “zoomy” (new word), we’ll have to use one of her lesser cameras and hope for the best.
It’s funny. The new blogger-type, independent media is getting recognition all over the place but I can’t get permission to bring a decent camera to a game I paid for with money I could have spent on textbooks. I’m not asking for a season press pass! Just one game and just for a photo pass at that!
Oh well.
The Wings began January very much on the wrong foot, losing 4-2 in un-inspiring fashion to Minnesota in front of their home fans. Detroit looked flat for the majority of the night and were out-hustled and out-worked by the Wild all night, despite finishing the game with a season-high 45 shots.
Chris Osgood again made the start for the Wings and played well, though two of the three goals he allowed were fairly weak. He had little chance on the first, however, which came from the slot off a quick centering pass from behind the net. Andrei Zyuzin was left all along out front and was handed an easy one-timer goal by the Red Wing defense at 5:55 of the first period.
The Wild scored again a little over a minute later, this time from Filip Kuba, who took a shot from the point. The goal came soon after a defensive-zone faceoff for the Wings and immediately after a television break so it’s not like they didn’t have time to prepare.
The Wings were especially flat for the first half of the opening period, though they awakened some in the second half. The teams traded power plays around mid-period but accomplished little. As Detroit started to come on a little, the Wild gave up their offensive posture and assumed a defensive one, sitting back and absorbing the Red Wing attack.
Detroit got a third power play at 16:40 but lost the chance when Jason Williams was called for interference ten seconds later. This led to a relatively uneventful period of 4-on-4 hockey as the period wound down.
The Wings went on the power play early in the second but failed to convert. The Wild were aggressive, winning battles for the puck and generally looking like they wanted a win. The Wings, on the other hand, floated and looked like they expected cute passing and skill to win the day all by themselves.
Detroit finally got a break, however undeserved, when Willie Mitchell accidentally high-sticked Brendan Shanahan. Mitchell initially got two minutes but when Shanahan showed the ref he was bleeding, two more minutes were tacked on, giving the Wings four minutes to work with starting at 5:33.
The Wings made good use of it, scoring at 6:14. Nicklas Lidstrom took a shot from the point and it was deflected out front by Tomas Holmstrom. The puck went in and cut the Wild lead in half.
The second minor penalty was killed off by the Wild fairly easily, though the Wings were able to set up and get a little sustained pressure.
As the teams headed to mid-period, the Wings, led by Holmstrom, began to win a few battles and generate a few quality chances. In each case, however, Roloson was there to make the save and the Wings’ comeback attempts were foiled.
The Wild handed the Wings another power play before the period ended but they did a very good job killing it off and the Wings began to float again as time ran out in the second. In the final seconds of the period, the Wings gave up a very good chance but the puck fortunately went wide as the Wild attempted to capitalize.
Detroit began the third period fairly well, with a good shift by Shanahan, Datsyuk and Woolley in the early going. Dan Cleary had a couple point-blank shots off a flurry early on as well but he was unable to convert.
The Wings gave up a 2-on-1 a little over five minutes in and it resulted in a Wild power play, though fortunately not in a goal. Henrik Zetterberg had a nice chance shorthanded, going into the Wild zone all alone and weaving through the defense but he did not score. At this point, the OLN signal blanked out for a moment, leaving the words “poor quality signal.” Nothing new for Wings fans, who have to deal with about one such blackout per game when FSN is doing the broadcast. At least OLN is prepared for it and lets the viewer know what’s going on. FSN sure doesn’t! As for the Wild power play, it was well-orchestrated, and forced Osgood to make a couple good saves.
The Wild took a two-goal lead at 8:04 when Jason Woolley made an ill-advised and badly planned pass in his own zone along the boards. Brian Rolston intercepted it and ripped a shot from the circle past Osgood, who apparently wasn’t quite set on the play. I didn’t think it was a good goal for Osgood to give up, despite the awful play by Woolley.
Robert Lang, who was alternately flat and sharp tonight, had a good shift playing with Samuelsson and Zetterberg after the Wild goal but they were unable to get the puck past Roloson.
Zetterberg and Samuelsson were involved in a flurry a few minutes later and came very close to scoring but again, Roloson made the necessary stops. The Wings were getting some good chances but had a distinct inability to finish that made it frustrating to watch. A prime example of this came at 13:53, when Shanahan found himself with the puck all alone out front. It was as glorious a chance as they come but he sent the puck over the net and missed an opportunity to cut into the Wild lead.
Around this time, the OLN crew started talking about Detroit “desperation” but if the Wings were desperate, they didn’t really show it. They certainly didn’t look as concerned as they did during the Atlanta game last month or even against Chicago a couple weeks ago. Anyway, they did score again, at 17:58. Apparently, it was Holmstrom again, though I swear Datsyuk got a stick on it first and at least deserves an assist. Regardless of what I think, the official stance is that Holmstrom deflected Woolley’s shot and made it 3-2.
Babcock pulled Osgood for the extra skater with a minute and a half or so left (a little early for my taste) but I didn’t realize it until Gaborik and Daigle were sprung on a 2-on-1 with Lidstrom playing defense. Daigle ended up with the puck and shot it into the empty net, crushing any hopes Wings fans may have had for a comeback at 18:39. Babcock is lucky the Wings didn’t score again because I’d have not been happy had his decision to pull Osgood so early resulted in a loss despite a comeback. As it was, the loss left a bad taste in my mouth.
The OLN crew did mention Jiri Fischer and reported that he has apparently never felt better. He is taking the advice of a friend and living one day at a time, while making preparations for tomorrow. They said he is very positive and apparently “symptom free,” though doctors continue to monitor him. So, good news on that front.
Even though the Wings’ loss was more due to the skaters than Osgood, I think we’ll see Manny Legace back in net Thursday against the Blues. I’ll be at that game, with my sister, who’ll have her camera and experience as a photography major to go with it.
Lines
Samuelsson-Zetterberg-Lang
Williams-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Cleary-Mowers-Holmstrom
Maltby-Draper-Franzen
Shanahan-Datsyuk-Williams
Shanahan-Lang-Samuelsson
Maltby-Mowers-Holmstrom
Shanahan-Datsyuk-Zetterberg
Franzen-Draper-Cleary
D-parings
Lilja-Lidstrom
Lidstrom-Woolley
Lebda-Lilja
Schneider-Lebda
Schneider-Woolley
Chelios-Schneider
Chelios-Lidstrom
IwoCPO takes a look at Mike Babcock’s use of young talent.
Link
Tonight is the second of four games between these two teams this season. The Wings won their last meeting, 3-1 on November 11th. Brendan Shanahan, Jason Williams and Johan Franzen scored for Detroit, who notched their 15th win that night.
The Wings are hot, having won their last five and eight of their last ten. Their winning streak began in Tampa Bay, where they won 6-3, on December 17th and continued with wins over Columbus (4-3 SO), Chicago (3-2 OT), Dallas (4-1) and Columbus again (5-2) to round out 2005. This game kicks off a huge month for the Wings, as IwoCPO of Abel to Yzerman pointed out yesterday. The Wings play 14 games in January, the majority of which are against playoff-bound teams. They will face Nashville three times and play three of the East’s best teams in a very short span (four days). This will be the last “easy” week our guys will have for a while, with tonight’s game and Thursday’s meeting with the Blues.
Minnesota are hot as well, with wins in six of their last eight. They had a three-game winning streak halted last Thursday when the lost 4-2 in Calgary but they rebounded Saturday with a 4-3 win over Vancouver. Manny Fernandez is among the mid-season contenders for the Vezina Trophy, posting a 2.05 GAA and a .930 save-percentage to go along with his 14 wins. Fernandez has been greatly helped by his teammates, who have allowed just 98 goals this season. Only Ottawa has given up fewer (88). The Wild penalty kill is an impressive 89.1%, which leads the league, having allowed just 23 power play goals this season.
Chris Osgood will get another start tonight and will hopefully continue his stellar play.
Don’t expect a thriller tonight. The Wild still play the trap and will play a very tight game defensively. The Wings will have to counter with a tight defensive game of their own because Minnesota will capitalize on any mistakes. The last meeting between these two teams was not very exciting either but if the Wings can out-work the Wild as they did back in November, they should be able to start off January on the right foot.
New Wings blogger IwoCPO hands out the NHL’s hardware as 2006 begins.
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