On the Wings

The Wings’ loss streak continued last night as they lost 2-1 to St. Louis in overtime. It was their third loss in a row and, with Nashville’s 3-1 win over Chicago, put them 7 points back of the Central Division-leading Predators. It wasn’t terribly exciting, as both teams played a conservative, defensive game, which was hardly surprising as the Wings were without four regulars and the Blues were trying to maintain momentum.

As reported just before the puck drop last night, Dominik Hasek did not play last night, having contracted the flu. Chris Osgood played instead and looked strong. Both goals he allowed were more due to defensive lapses than anything he did wrong, though he could have, perhaps, controlled his rebounds a little better. All in all, he did his job and it was the offense that failed to do theirs.

In my opinion, the Wings’ best line last night was made up of the Grand Rapids call-ups, Josh Langfeld, Matt Ellis, and Matt Hussey. They only got 9:59, 9:22, and 9:32 in ice-time, respectively, but it seemed like they pinned the Blues in their own end on almost every one of their shifts together. Part of that may have been due to the fact that they were relative unknowns to St. Louis, having been called up either the day of the game or the day before, in Langfeld’s case. However, most of it, I think, was due to their own hard work. They cycled the puck very well along the boards and generated a few scoring chances, with each of them coming close once or twice. Ellis and Hussey are back in Grand Rapids, however, where they will play the Toronto Marlies tonight. They could return to Detroit on Sunday, however, if Lang and Draper are not ready to play.

As expected, Jiri Hudler, Valtteri Filppula and Jason Williams composed the second scoring line last night, but they didn’t do much to impress and mostly squandered their 14-15 minutes on the ice, including significant power play time. Apparently, Filppula has gotten the flu himself, but the other two don’t have much excuse. Hudler stood out at times offensively and showed good effort on the backcheck, but Babcock was looking for results on the scoresheet. I can’t say Williams was disappointing because he’s been useless enough for months now that my disappointment has worn off and I’ve come to accept that he is going to bungle every offensive chance and blow it at the blueline on every power play he’s “quarterbacking.”

Kirk Maltby, Johan Franzen, and Dan Cleary looked pretty good together last night, and two of them were the only Wings to make it to the scoring category on the boxscore. Cleary came as close to scoring last night as he has in weeks and Franzen was pretty much a beast on the puck along the boards, shedding Blues like they were nothing. He exhibited some nice offensive skill on his goal in the second period, splitting the defense by stepping around Dennis Wideman and, after losing the puck momentarily, taking it back when Jamie Rivers tipped it right to him. He, in turn, tipped it past Legace at 9:59 and tied the game at one.

As far as disappointment goes, the top line, Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, and Tomas Holmstrom, probably top the list, though that’s only because expectations are so high. They showed magic at times, but were otherwise underwhelming and couldn’t generate as much pressure as the Grand Rapids Line. Of course, in contrast to the GR guys, they’re one of the most scouted lines in hockey, so it shouldn’t be surprising when they get shut down at times. Holmstrom did “score” a goal in the first period, but review showed the puck was knocked down with a high stick and it was negated.

The two Blues goals happened like this

1. Chris Chelios pinched on the play in the St. Louis zone and missed the puck. It ended up on Ryan Johnson’s stick and after a nice cross-ice outlet pass to Jamal Mayers, the Blues had a 2-on-2 rush with Brett Lebda covering Mayers and Pavel Datsyuk back covering Eric Brewer. Both did a decent job, and, though Mayers got off a good backhand shot in the slot, Osgood was able to make the save. With Datsyuk and Lebda sealed off by Mayers and Brewer, however, Johnson was able to follow up on the play and pounce on the rebound to Osgood’s left. He got to it and knocked it in before Henrik Zetterberg could make it back. 1-0 Blues at 8:03.
2. In overtime, Doug Weight took the puck down the right wing on a quick rush, 2-on-2. He took a long backhand shot at the net and Osgood redirected the rebound to the right wing, where Bill Guerin happened to be streaking in. Johan Franzen was right there but he somehow didn’t see Guerin early enough and could only put his stick out in a vain effort to disrupt the one-timer, which blew past Osgood and won the game for St. Louis at 1:09 of the extra period.

… FSN showed a replay before the game of Mikael Samuelsson blocking a shot in the first period of the Colorado game. Apparently, that’s when the injury happened, so I was wrong to assume it happened in the third period. … Niklas Kronwall chose to wear the cage rather than a full plexiglass shield last night. He looked good and didn’t seem to be too much affected by it. … The refs really let both teams, but especially St. Louis, get away with murder last night. Then they’d call something that was completely harmless. I hate that. … Ken Daniels said that one of the reasons the Wings are planning on playing Hasek more is because they have a couple five-day breaks over the last months of the season. That may be true, but I still think it’s a mistake to play him more often, even with those extra days of rest. … Brett Lebda made a great defensive play in the second period when Jamal Mayers took the puck in on a scoring chance. Mayers got behind him, but Brett switched his stick over his head to his left side and was able to disrupt Mayers’ shot, which went wide. Mayers fell on the play, and the fans wanted a call, but Lebda never touched his feet. Lebda is very underrated, I have to say. … Speaking of the fans, they were very spirited last night, but seemed very classless. They taunted Osgood often and booed Manny Legace when he allowed the Franzen goal. They booed at least one icing call and were constantly calling out for calls on plays that clearly were not penalties. It’s one thing to support your team, it’s another to be so vocal with crap like that. …

Next up, the Wings have Colorado tomorrow afternoon on NBC. Hopefully the Wings’ll be more healthy and able to put up a better effort.