The Wings finished up their Western Canada trip with a 4-3 shootout loss to Edmonton last night. It was another game in which the Wings dominated the Oilers in statistical categories such as shots (41-21), but this time, it wasn’t enough to win. Not the most exciting game, it nonetheless had some moments that should cause Wings fans some nightmares.
Joey MacDonald made his first NHL start last night and looked good after a slightly shaky start. It looks like he’s having some issues adjusting to the speed of the game with one goal resulting in his not getting to the post fast enough and another coming from his not being quite square to the puck and leaving the same post uncovered. On the first goal, however, he was left out to dry by Chris Chelios.
There has been much talk this season about how amazing Chelios’ continuing playing run is. Well, it’s all true, but the Wings’ injury situation meant Cheli had to play the second game of a back-to-back sequence and to be honest, his age showed. He looked notably tired and made a number of bad decisions with the puck, the most notable being the breakout pass that went straight to Ryan Smythe. Smythe dished the puck to Horcoff and the resulting slap shot blew by a helpless MacDonald to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead. Hopefully, Kronwall will be back this week so Chelios doesn’t have to play back-to-back games this Friday and Saturday.
I don’t know what’s gotten into Dan Cleary lately but he continues to impress at both ends of the ice. He’s been playing so well that Babcock has put him on the power play. Yes, that’s right, our penalty kill specialist is getting power play time, and last night wasn’t the first time: he scored a meaningless power play goal against the Flames Friday night. He was on the ice last night when the Wings were making a comeback push with an empthy net and it paid off. With time almost out, Cleary centered the puck from the right wing boards and found Jiri Hudler, who tipped it into the net with just over 3 seconds left. The goal tied the game at 3-3 and forced overtime. After OT, Cleary was given a shot in the shootout. He took full advantage, ripping the puck into the net through Dwayne Roloson’s 5-hole. The goal made up somewhat for his being robbed earlier in the game when Roloson dove across the net to make a glove save on what seemed like a sure goal.
Pavel Datsyuk looked good last night. He demonstrated some speed and actually used his moves, though his only point was an indirect second assist on the Markov goal.
It pains me to say it but I think Andreas Lilja had a good game last night. He was in on a number of offensive opportunities and apparently decided it was time to forego his award-winning impression of a pylon by actually playing pretty decent defense. Of course, it was probably a one-time deal so I’m not getting hopes up on seeing it again.
I hate, hate, hate the shootout. I did not need the heart attack-inducing tension after having my heart ripped out, stomped on, and partially eaten by Troy Smith and Co. earlier in the day. Seeing Henrik Zetterberg, my favorite player, mind you, successfully attempt the Forsberg shootout move only to see the puck slide into the post, was brutal. Seeing Raffi Torres score a possible winner and then watching Robert Lang try to even things up by sniping Dwayne Roloson (no deke, Robert?), only to fail, added insult to injury.
Sorry for the disjointed rambling. I guess I’m kind of in a daze after a terrible day of watching one team shoot itself in the face and another have a win stolen from them. Oh, and the spectre of an unholy amount of homework is rising. So, writing a coherent, in-depth game summary just isn’t in the cards today.
Oh, one more thing. Oilers fans = classless. When a player (say, Brett Lebda) takes a random puck to the mouth (off the stick of, say, Joffrey Lupul) and is spitting blood and teeth, the officials are going to whistle play dead. Booing a player for getting injured is about as classless as it gets.
Next up: Tuesday Wednesday versus Vancouver at 7:30 ET.
I completely agree on the shootout, it was depressing seeing Zetterberg’s move hit the post. I was even more surprised to see Datsyuk’s shot as well. I thought he’d make a better deke than that; however, the puck did roll up on him and it was difficult to shoot.
The most dissapointing thing to see was that the Wings weren’t shooting in the shootout. Numerous times the players could have easily beat Roloson high on a shot (can’t think of the names of the shooters right now), but instead they went for a deke or tried to thread the five-hole.
I also wanted to point out that I think Hasek has more than proven to be a good buy after all. I mean, we had some doubt at first (including me), but his stats are looking good for the most part. I know a lot of that is due to the defense as well.
Overall, I think the Redwings have a strong, young team. I’m excited to see how they’ll do in the playoffs this year (and yes, I’m assuming that they are going to make the playoffs.)
Yeah, after seeing Pavel have such a good game, it’s surprising he wasn’t able to put it in the net on the shootout. I expect a breakout game from him on Wednesday, though.
I agree about the shooting, firebird. If you’re going to try to snipe it, at least put it where it’ll go into the net. It’s not that easy to beat Roloson 5-hole on a straight up shot (I believe Cleary was the only one who did), unless you have a very quick shot.
Dom has turned out great so far. I always thought he’d be good while healthy. My fear was (and is) that his health could become an issue as the season progresses. And now we hear that Osgood may have a broken wrist. That would make our goaltending very thin indeed.
The Wings look like a playoff team right now. The question is whether or not they’ll continue along these lines.