On the Wings

The Wings looked a little more tired than expected coming off an energetic victory in Dallas Friday, but still got the job done, pretty solidly beating the Blues in St. Louis last night. Chris Osgood made the start for the Wings opposite his former teammate, Manny Legace, and looked good. With Dominik Hasek playing well in Dallas and Osgood doing the same in St. Louis, we Wings fans should have a little more confidence in the team’s goaltending than we have of late. Legace played well himself, having little chance on each of the Wings’ three goals. He did not get the support he deserves.

Mike Babcock demonstrated his confidence in rookie Valtteri Filppula by starting him on Henrik Zetterberg’s left wing with Kris Draper on the right. Nick Lidstrom and Danny Markov made up the first defensive pairing for the Wings. The first units didn’t get much done offensively, with only a couple small chances getting produced. The Blues got the first shot of the game, a short wrister from Keith Tkachuck that Osgood stopped.

At 4:33, Tomas Holmstrom put the Wings ahead 1-0 with a rocket slap shot from the slot after receiving a nice drop pass from Pavel Datsyuk. The puck went in over Manny’s glove hand and came out so fast that Ken Daniels’ was slow to call it a goal. Nice play by Pavel to get the puck to Holmstrom, whose shot was a great one. Legace had little chance to stop it, even with his fast glove hand. It was the Wings’ first shot of the game. 1-0 Detroit.

Just after the goal, Jiri Hudler dished the puck in the offensive zone to Robert Lang, who sent it just wide of the net for a nice chance. On the same shift, in the defensive end, Lang took a stick to the face, and the trainers came onto the ice to check him out. He had a small cut below his left eye but was otherwise okay. It was Brett Lebda’s stick, which had been caught up in a Blues player trying to get between him and Lang. Robert went down the tunnel to the lockerroom but was soon back on the ice.

At 6:32, Valtteri Filppula scored a beautiful backhand goal, showing why Mike Babcock so adamantly insists he should be in the NHL. Niklas Kronwall began the play with a nice up ice pass to Kris Draper at the St. Louis blue line. Draper tipped the puck to a streaking Filppula, who took it in down the left side, split the defensemen, cut across the net while switching to the backhand, and lifted it into the upper right corner. It was the second time Legace was beaten high on the glove side and it was the Wings’ second shot. 2-0 Detroit.

Not long after the second goal, Ken Daniels pointed out that the Blues had been down 2-0 in each of their three wins so far this season, and he wasn’t the only one who remembered that little stat. St. Louis was not ready to give in, and put some good effort toward a comeback. At 9:29, Billy Guerin rang a shot off the goalpost and for the next few minutes, it was mostly Blues chances. At 13:15, Holmstrom gave away the puck and Doug Weight sent a long slap shot at the net, forcing Osgood to make a quick glove save. Weight had another great chance two minutes later, but, again, Osgood’s glove hand was too fast.

Going the other way, the Wings had a great scoring chance when a Draper pass to Filppula went under the Finn’s stick (which had been lifted by the St. Louis defenseman) and on net. Legace redirected the puck out to his left, where Zetterberg happened to be. Hank got his stick on it and deflected it back on net, but Legace made it across in time to make the save. Had Zetterberg gotten more of the puck, it may have been a goal. Great chance, though.

The refs really let the teams play in the first period, allowing much of what would normally be considered penalties. Definitely not a good thing. Filppula was very noticeable this period, seemingly always involved in the play whenever he was on the ice, which was a lot (he finished with 15:22 in ice-time). It would be hard to imagine the Wings being interested in sending him back down to Grand Rapids after a game like last night’s. Even though Brad Norton would have to clear waivers (and he probably would clear), it’s probably worth sending him down instead, though Valtteri will probably not get as much ice time when Mikael Samuelsson returns.

Apparently the officials decided during the first intermission that it wasn’t acceptable to go a whole period without calling anything, because just 55 seconds into the second, they called high-sticking on one of the men least likely to commit a penalty: Nick Lidstrom. So, the Wings went on the penalty kill for the first time, but had little trouble killing it off.

The Wings may not have much problem on their first PK but they were sloppier offensively early in the second than they were in the first. A good example of this came around 3:40 when Robert Lang whiffed on a pass out front. They got their first power play at 5:18, though little came of it beyond a strange chance that resulted from a Lidstrom shot that totally missed the net and hit the backboards. Johan Franzen picked it up and sent it out front to Jiri Hudler, who got it on net, but Legace was there to make the save. Other than that, this PP was pretty anemic.

At this point in my notes, I have, “51 nice hustle at center,” written in response to seeing Filppula bust his butt to catch up to the puck carrier on a quick transition by the Blues. He showed some good speed there and an impressive effort. I liked what I saw from him more and more each play. While the game was slowing down and the Blues were taking it to the Wings physically, Valtteri was one of a couple Detroit players who had real intensity.

Also at this point in my notes is a mention of FSN’s Check of the Game, which came early in the game but was a good pick. I’m not sure when it happened but the check involved Weight and Guerin trying to sandwich Filppula. He somehow evaded both of them, causing the two Blues forwards to collide, thus earning their efforts the honorable status of the game’s best check (or, most humorous).

At 10:08, Dennis Wideman took a holding-the-stick penalty, and put the Wings back on the power play. This one was even worse than the first, with their initial efforts at setting up failing miserably and their eventual setup failing purely due to Jason Williams’ incompetence on the blueline. I have no idea why Babcock insists on putting Jason on the point during power plays, but he does, and there is no doubt in my mind that it is one of the reason’s the team’s PP percentage is so awful this year.

Williams made a bad decision with the puck and it resulted in an easy clear by the Blues, who had it easy only because they sent it out past Jason, who can hardly keep the puck in to save his life. When the Wings got it back into the St. Louis zone, they set up a nice play, the culmination of their efforts, really, to Williams, who prompty blew it by hesitating rather than quickly shooting the puck. By the time he released the shot, the opportunity was lost and the Blues defenseman was able to block it. It was a bad power play that would have been redeemed by a goal there but it was not meant to be.

Note to Mike Babcock: if you like Filppula so much, please give him some PP time over Williams. I also would have liked to have seen him get some power play time over Franzen, who I don’t think is offensively-minded enough to be out there in that situation when you have a kid like Filppula on the bench.

About a minute and a half after the Wideman penalty expired, the Blues cut the Wings’ lead in half. Christian Backman took the puck in down the left wing and let loose a shot at the net that Osgood would have had easily had Guerin not gotten his stick on it 17 feet out. The puck beat Osgood, who had very little chance on the play, at 13:35, making the score 2-1 Wings.

The Wings responded with some offensive pressure that was momentarily killed around 15:00 when Andreas Lilja couldn’t handle an easy pass at the blueline. I don’t remember any other glaring mistake from the big defenseman, but that one was pretty sad.

At 16:14, the Blues took another penalty and Detroit went back on the power play. The first set-up resulted in Lang planting the puck in the crest of Legace’s jersey. The Wings kept the puck in the zone after the ensuing faceoff but it was cleared when Hudler fumbled a pass on the cycling stage. After that, the puck did not stay in the Blues zone for very long, and they were able to kill off another penalty. It was a better effort, but still not great, by the Wings.

With about 40 seconds left in the period, Danny Markov made a nice play on a 1-on-1 rush, diving to knock the puck away from the Blues skater, though Osgood had to make a save on the followup.

The Wings looked a bit more tired in the second, but maybe I was expecting too much after reading reports of their play in the Stars game.

The Blues came out strong in the third period, keeping the pressure on for most of the first couple minutes and drawing a penalty, a Datsyuk slash at 2:10. It was a good kill by the Wings, who allowed the Blues only hints at scoring chances. After that, the game entered a back-and-forth stage, with both teams exchanging reasonable opportunities at scoring.

The Wings put themselves up 3-1 at 6:34 when Holmstrom got his second of the night. With a couple Blues players converging on him at the far-side boards, Datsyuk sent the puck to Williams in the right circle. Williams wheeled and took a shot on net, which Legace stopped but didn’t properly absorb. An uncovered Holmstrom got his stick on the rebound and backhanded it - wait for it - in high on Manny’s glove side. Not very good defense by the Blues, to be sure. Legace was left out to dry.

About a minute after the second Homer goal, the Wings took another penalty and went back to the PK. The Blues set up and cycled the puck, coming very close to scoring when Wideman sent the puck off the post two separate occasions, one of which consisted of a ricochet off both posts. That particular instance resulted in the goal light coming on but the referee waived off a possible goal, and this decision was confirmed when they looked at it upstairs, though the St. Louis fans weren’t happy about it.

At 13:23, Brett Lebda took a holding-the-stick penalty and put the Blues back on the power play. Osgood made a good save on a Tkachuk tip-in on the initial St. Louis set up, and his teammates took the puck the other way. Back in the Wings’ zone, the Blues had a couple good chances but Osgood was sharp and they were unable to score. Detroit cleared it and pursued it down the ice, with Franzen leading the way. While Johan was along the near-side boards, Martin Rucinsky thought it good to hit him sort of from behind, with his stick held high and most of the hit going to Franzen’s head, which bounced off the glass. Johan was hurt on the play and was bleeding pretty badly from his nose, causing the ref to give Rucinsky a double-minor penalty. The Wings would have been better without it, however.

Apparently, the Blues chose to ignore the fact that they were at a disadvantage since they continued to press the attack. They got a couple chances but the Wings were able to clear the puck and take it the other way. While at center ice, however, Lang chose a most inopportune time to cough up the puck to Radek Dvorak, springing him on a two-man breakaway. Osgood gambled and went the poke-check route but failed, leaving himself vulnerable and making it easy for Dvorak to rip a shot past him. The shorthanded goal came at 16:34 and put the Blues within one.

They followed up the goal with another good chance down low, no doubt causing Wings fans everywhere to ask, “Whose power play is this, anyway?” Finally the Wings got a scoring chance of their own, with Holmstrom attempting to complete the hat trick. Legace made the stop, however, and the crowd really began to get into the game.

The Wings’ power play ended when Zetterberg took a holding penalty with 29 seconds left in the double minor and just under a minute and a half left in the game. With Legace pulled, St. Louis was prepared to make a big push, especially after they called their timeout. The Wings didn’t make it easy on themselves when they iced the puck just as the Rucinsky penalty expired and they officially went on the PK. They won the ensuing face-off and cleared it only to see the Blues bring it right back in offsides. The game ended with Johan Franzen battling for the puck in the Blues end. 3-2 Wings final.

… Chris Chelios did not play last night. I have not heard anything about an injury so he was almost certainly just getting a rest after playing the night before … Joey MacDonald was the back-up goalie tonight … Pavel Datsyuk has a four game point streak going (2-4-6) … Tomorrow night at 10:00 ET, FSN Detroit will air an episode of their “Spotlight” series that will focus on Henrik Zetterberg … The Blues outshot the Wings 30-25 … … Holmstrom’s first goal was his 300th career point … My three stars of the game: 1. Valtteri Filppula (first NHL goal) 2. Tomas Holmstrom (points 300 and 301) 3. Johan Franzen (possibly a broken nose but intense as ever) … Boxscore … Play-by-Play … Shift Chart … AP Recap

Next up: vs. Calgary Flames, Wed 01. Nov 06 @ 7:30 ET.