On the Wings

The Wings ended their season series with Phoenix with a disappointing 5-2 home loss, continuing the trend that began November 5th with another home loss to the Coyotes in the second game between the two teams this year. Both teams finished with two wins and it is highly unlikely they will meet again before next season (the Coyotes need a miracle to make it to the playoffs).

It was a redemption game for Curtis Joseph and a “stayin’ alive” game for the Coyotes, who need the dominos to fall just right after having knocked over the first one with this win.

Before the game, the Wings held a recognition ceremony for their Olympic medalists at center ice. Robert Lang went out first, as the lone bronze medal winner on the team, and was followed by the five Swedes: Mikael Samuelsson, who left his medal in Sweden with his father, Niklas Kronwall, Tomas Holmstrom, Henrik Zetterberg and Nicklas Lidstrom. The JLA PA system played the Olympic anthem and what I’m guessing was the Swedish national anthem throughout all of this.

Mike Babcock’s starting lineup was the medalists sans Samuelsson, who is still out with a sore wrist and was once again replaced in the lineup by Mark Mowers. The other lineup change was Brett Lebda’s insertion for Jason Woolley. For Phoenix, it was the first game back for young defenseman Derek Morris, who has recovered from a knee injury.

Phoenix was sharp in the early going, getting a couple nice chances in the first couple minutes and generally looking like they wanted the win. This enthusiasm probably led to their first penalty of the game, an interference call that came at 2:56.

The ensuing Red Wing power play was decent and was highlighted by a near goal from Pavel Datsyuk, who just couldn’t stuff the puck past Joseph’s arm at the right goal post.

Kronwall had a fairly big hit at center ice at 5:04 or so. It would have been a lot bigger had Dave Scatchard not avoided the brunt of it. I’m looking forward to the days when people can’t avoid taking the full force of Nik’s hits. He’s getting there.

The Wings had the puck deep in the offensive zone and were cycling around before Mowers got tangled up near the net and lost the puck. It went the other way fast and the Coyotes scored on that rush. Legace made the initial save, off a tip-in of the shot from the left wing, but unfortunately kicked the rebound off his left pad right to a streaking Mike Comrie. Comrie made no mistake and sent the puck into the net past a helpless Legace, just before Mowers got to him on the backcheck. 1-0 Coyotes at 6:50.

Phoenix went back to the penalty box not long after that but the Detroit power play was cut short by an iffy hooking call on Pavel Datsyuk. Robert Lang, left all alone down low, had a nice chance from the left wing during 4-on-4 play but was stoned by Joseph for a nice save.

When the Coyotes went on the power play for 26 seconds or so after their penalty expired, Manny was forced to make a big save on Denis Gauthier, who was also left alone down low, but who fortunately didn’t get all he wanted on the shot. The Wings killed off the penalty but ended up giving up a goal before Pavel could rejoin the play from the box.

With the puck deep in the zone, the defense decided to attack Shane Doan, who had the puck and promptly dished it to Steve Reinprecht. Reinprecht was behind the Detroit defense by then and had former Red Wing Boyd “De-void” Devereaux with him. He passed the puck to Boyd and he roofed the puck over his former teammate to give his team a two goal advantage at 9:54.

One thing I hate to see in replays is a big #3 looking on aghast as the opposition scores on a helpless goalie. This goal was just another example of such an event. Lilja, do you have to try to be so useless or does it come naturally?

At this point Ken Daniels and Mickey Redmond starting comparing this game to Saturday’s, nothing how similar the two are but with the roles reversed. That kind of talk continued for a while.

Around 12:30, Pavel Datsyuk took a nice pass along the right wing and took the puck down the boards, cutting around behind the defense and skating in on net. He ended up sending it wide left, however, having got our hopes up for nothing. Geoff Sanderson had a similar chance going the other way almost immediately following. He too sent it wide left, much to Red Wings fans’ relief.

Brett Lebda found himself with the puck in the slot, wide open after it played pinball in front of the net, at 13:32 but his glorious chance went for naught as his shot hit Joseph’s shoulder from 26 feet out.

Thirty seconds later, the Coyotes were headed the other way on a 3-on-2. Devereaux centered the puck to Scatchard, who’s shot from the slot was in and out so fast it seemed like it hit the post. 3-0 Coyotes at 14:02. It’s gotten ugly.

The Wings put on some pressure and drew a penalty as a result. They set up the power play and got another penalty, resulting in a lengthy 5-on-3. They got set up again and very pretty patient with the puck, doing a good job of cycling it and keeping it in despite Phoenix’ best efforts. The result was their first goal. It came from Pavel Datsyuk, who one-timed Schneider’s pass and beat Joseph from the right wing. Lidstrom had the other assist (his 600th career assist) on the goal, which came at 16:32 and put the Wings within two.

Detroit looked better as the period wound down, getting a few nice chances that nevertheless were balanced by a very big Phoenix scoring opportunity with nine seconds left. Henrik Zetterberg deflected the puck high on what would have almost surely been a back-breaking goal.

The Wings outshot Phoeix 12-8 in the first but weren’t playing so hot on defense and were down by two as a result.

Mark Mowers opened the second period with a play he definitely wants back: he had Joseph down and out but sent the puck off the cross bar instead of into the net where it should have gone. Ah well.

It didn’t take long for the Wings to make up for Mark’s blown play, though. When Phoenix failed to clear the zone around 2:40 or so, Kris Draper picked up the puck and took it along the boards to the back of the net, where he centered it to Brendan Shanahan. Shanny was wide open in the slot and one-timed the puck but Joseph made the save. The rebound came right back to Brendan, though, and he one-timed that, this time scoring in the top right corner to put his team within one at 2:53.

After that, the pace quickened, with both teams getting chances. The Wings went on the power play just before the halfway mark of the period and though they put on a good show, they were unable to score. There was a bit of a scare when Steve Yzerman was roughed up by the Phoenix punks in front of the net. He skated off and went straight to the dressing room but he returned a couple playing-time minutes later, seemingly okay.

Somewhere in here, I noticed an interesting choice for a defensive pairing by Mike Babcock: Brett Lebda and Niklas Kronwall. A lot of youth and inexperience there, but it seemed to work out pretty well. A climes of the future (and a bright one at that).

The Wings started to get into some penalty trouble as the game wore on and it began to get in the way of their comeback attempts. Two penalties by defensemen in the second half of the period didn’t help, with the Coyotes looking to finish the kill.

The third began with some fairly even play in the zones but Tomas Holmstrom began an unfortunately timed parade to the penalty box at 4:47 and the Wings spent most of the first half of the period killing off penalties when they should have been focused on a comeback.

The Coyotes scored again during Jason Williams’ high sticking penalty, a tip in by Comrie off a shot from the point by Michalek. Manny didn’t have any chance on that one, it’s just unfortunate his teammates put him in the position of having to make the save when shorthanded. 4-2 Coyotes at 9:05.

After that goal, Gretzky’s team went to a 1-4 defensive posture as they settled down, confident they would win.

The Wings had another power play but couldn’t score, though it wasn’t a bad effort.

At 14:57, the Wings were awarded a penalty shot on a strange play. A Phoenix player had lost his stick and Comrie had moved it in the way of the puck while in the defensive zone, resulting in the call. Because Mark Mowers was the last Red Wing to have possession, he was awarded the shot. I initially thought the Wings had the choice of whom to send out and when I saw Mowers head to center, I wasn’t too thrilled. Anyway, Mowers tried much the same shot Lidstrom tried on Thursday, with the same result. Joseph turned the puck away easily with his blocker and the score remained 4-2 Phoenix.

Not long after that, Schneider went off for interference and the Coyotes got their last goal as a result. Somehow Shane Doan ended up all alone out front and he had Legace at his mercy. Manny fell pretty quickly and Doan put it over him as Lidstrom and Maltby tried desperately to get back in time to stop him. 5-2 Coyotes at 15:51.

To cap off the night, Brendan Shanahan was given an unsportsmanlike conduct and a game misconduct penalty at 17:08 and was booted from the game. Steve Yzerman served the penalty.

It was a disappointing game and proof that I probably went too far when I said the guys were over any Olympic hangover.

I hope they play better on Thursday against the Kings. I’ll be there with my Dad, having just bought a pair of tickets.

Abel to Yzerman’s game summary

Lines*

Lang-Zetterberg-Holmstrom
Datsyuk-Shanahan-Draper
Franzen-Maltby-Cleary
Williams-Lang-Yzerman
Zetterberg-Mowers-Holmstrom
Draper-Datsyuk-Shanahan
Shanahan-Yzerman-Lang
Cleary-Datsyuk-Shanahan
Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom
Yzerman-Lang-Holmstrom
Datsyuk-Franzen
Cleary-Franzen
Maltby-Draper
Shanahan-Draper
Lang-Zetterberg

D-pairings

Kronwall-Lidstrom
Kronwall-Schneider
Kronwall-Lilja
Kronwall-Chelios
Chelios-Lidstrom
Lidstrom-Lilja
Lidstrom-Schneider
Lidstrom-Lebda
Lebda-Kronwall
Chelios-Schneider
Lebda-Schneider
Lebda-Chelios
Lebda-Lilja
Schneider-Lilja
Chelios-Lilja

PP

Datsyuk-Williams-Zetterberg-Holmstrom-Lidstrom
Cleary-Shanahan-Draper-Kronwall-Schneider
Datsyuk-Lang-Holmstrom-Schneider-Lidstrom
Shanahan-Yzerman-Zetterberg-Kronwall-Schneider
Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom-Schneider-Lidstrom
Yzerman-Lang-Shanahan-Lidstrom-Schneider

*compiled by Brian

The Wings wrapped up their three-game West Coast swing with a dominating 7-3 win over Phoenix last night. They showed some real jump early but got into penalty trouble and had to withstand some persistent pressure from the Coyotes, who did not want to give up the whole game.

Five Wings finished with multiple points but most notable was Nicklas Lidstrom. His goal and two assists likely cemented his place as the forerunner for the Norris, though I’m sure it won’t be as certain as it should be because of the Canadian media’s love affair with Bryan McCabe. Lidstrom now leads all NHL defensemen in points with 58.

Mikael Samuelsson missed the game due to a sore wrist but was replaced in the lineup by Mark Mowers, who played on the line with Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom. Less than a minute in, Holmstrom took the puck down the right wing and sent a nice backhand pass to the front of the net. I initially thought Zetterberg redirected the pass over Curtis Joseph (I’m not the only one) but it turns out it was Mowers, who gave the Wings a 1-0 lead at :59.

The Wings continued to dictate the pace of the game for the next couple minutes and this resulted in another goal. Pavel Datsyuk was hooked with the puck out front, resulting in a delayed call, and Lidstrom moved up as a result, taking the puck and letting loose a shot that was stopped by Joseph. The rebound went right to Brendan Shanahan in the slot, who ripped the puck into the net and punished the Phoenix defense for ceasing to play when the ref’s arm went up. 2-0 Wings at 3:26.

Six minutes into the game, the Wings were outshooting Phoenix 6-1 but things began to even out as the refs began to make some calls.

The first came at 6:06 and the resulting penalty kill was a good one, with Manny Legace making a couple great saves. Andreas Lilja was called for holding the stick with 18 seconds remaining on the initial penalty but the subsequent 5-on-3 was uneventful.

At 10:23, Chris Chelios was called for interference but this was killed off as well. Immediately following the Phoenix power play, the Wings took the puck down the ice in an odd-man rush. Henrik Zetterberg took the puck down the right wing and looked to center it to Pavel Datsyuk but it was blocked by the Coyote defenseman, who had fallen in a desperate attempt to cut off the pass. The puck came right back to Hank and he had a wide open net because Joseph had committed to Datsyuk. Zetterberg put it in the net and gave the Wings a 3-0 lead.

The Coyotes really began to lay on the body after this, determined not to bow out of the game gracefully. They nearly scored at 17:58, when Mike Ricci’s shot gave Manny a little trouble. The play was reviewed but was ruled no-goal. The Wings went on the penalty kill, however, because the play happened on a delayed call.

The ensuing Phoenix power play was a good one and resulted in another Red Wing penalty 22 seconds into it, when Chris Chelios was called for cross-checking. The Coyotes wasted very little time in scoring on the 5-on-3, making it 3-1 at 18:38 off the goal from Shane Doan.

They struck again 52 seconds later (still on the power play) when Steve Reinprecht redirected Zybnek Michalek’s point shot into the corner on Manny’s stick side. Legace had no chance on that one. 3-2.

So, after starting the period so strongly, the Wings allowed the Coyotes to storm back and put the end result a bit more in doubt.

The Coyotes controlled the play more at the start of the second period but neither team was really able to get much going. The Wings finally got a power play of their own four minutes in but it was pretty anemic to begin with. The third unit was solid, however, and ended up drawing another penalty, giving the team a short 5-on-3 opportunity. They weren’t able to score, however, and the Coyotes got a lift from conducting a nice penalty kill.

Phoenix was very tight on the puck and there wasn’t a whole lot of room most of the time. When they weren’t as tight, though, the Wings took advantage. They scored again at 11:29 and gave themselves another two goal lead with a goal by Steve Yzerman. For most of the game, the Lang-Williams-Yzerman line had been rather weak, in my opinion, but they were good on that shift. Not long before Yzerman’s goal, Jason Williams had almost scored after taking a pass from Chris Chelios and tipping it into Joseph’s face (essentially). Yzerman’s goal was the result of a nice pass from Robert Lang from behind the net. The Captain shoveled the puck under Joseph as he was bowled over to make it 4-2 at 11:29.

The Wings seemed pretty energized after that but the Coyotes didn’t care. They responded with another goal at 12:49 to bring themselves within one again. Ricci ended up with the puck, which had been bouncing around the zone, and beat Legace stickside from 13 feet out. Not much chance on that one, just unfortunate Ricci was left uncovered.

Not long after that, the teams went to four aside as Joseph and Maltby were called for slashing and roughing respectively. The 4-on-4 lasted less than a minute, however, because the Coyotes had another player go to the box, giving the Wings a 4-on-3 power play. The Wings put on a textbook example of how to run a man-advantage and it resulted in their fifth goal at 15:10. Zetterberg, Lang and Lidstrom played catch for a while before striking with a shot in the slot from Hank, who had all the time he needed to rip it past his old teammate. 5-3 Wings.

Fifteen seconds later, the Wings struck again. I was so absorbed in writing down the notes for the last game that I only saw the tail end of the play and I missed the replays because I was writing busy writing on that goal. All I know is that it was a bad goal for Joseph to give up, a pretty harmless shot from the point by Lidstrom that just beat him before he was set. And Curtis knew it was bad. He was very obviously frustrated after that and dealt out a couple cheapshots with his stick, only one of which was seen by the refs. 6-3 Wings.

At 16:56, Joseph was caught venting his anger and the Wings went back on the power play. Wayne Gretzky did something to tick off the referees and he was slapped with a bench minor so the Wings got a full two minute 5-on-3 to work with. They did a pretty good job but weren’t able to get much going until the end. Mathieu Schneider let loose a blast with one second remaining on the man-advantage, though, and it ended up going in off Brendan Shanahan to make it 7-3 at 18:57.

So, the Wings took a look at the Coyotes’ attempt at a comeback and laughed.

Curtis Joseph was pulled between periods and was replaced by Philippe Sauve for the third period.

Highlights of the third included:

Henrik Zetterberg’s near hat trick off a great personal effort at 7:50 or so. His shot rang off the post, though, and he was denied his 30th goal.

Manny Legace’s big saves on Tyson Nash not long after that, causing Ken Daniels to declare, “He’s the ‘Manny’ of the hour tonight!”

The Coyotes getting another 5-on-3 chance but giving up a near breakaway to Nick Lidstrom instead of scoring. The play resulted in a penalty shot, Nick’s first, but fortunately for Phoenix, not in a goal, as Nick was stoned by Sauve.

The final score was 7-3, with Steve Yzerman getting credit for the game winning goal.

The two teams will face off again on Tuesday night in Detroit.

Notes
… Henrik Zetterberg has scored a point in all but four away games (Chicago, Edmonton, Phoenix on November 1st, 3rd and 5th and November 16th at Calgary). He finished the night with two goals, one assist. … Other multi-point scorers for the Wings: Robert Lang - two assists, Brendan Shanahan - two goals, one assist, Matheiu Schneider - three assists. …