On the Wings

Update (5:15 PM): I had written and email to Ansar Khan because I had been wondering why the Wings called up Howard without making sure he would play a game, given the fact that he’s just returned from an injury and could use the playing time. He responded thus (in part):

I’m guessing they called up Howard instead of Liv because they wanted to see how MacDonald would play Sunday before declaring him the starter in Philly. If MacDonald would have s#!t the bed against Calgary, they surely would have started Howard against the Flyers. In that case, it would have been kind of awkward to suddenly send Liv back down to GR after the Flames game and rush Howard to Philly. Howard wouldn’t have been able to fly out with the team Sunday night and would have had to fly to Philly Monday morning, not a good thing.

That makes sense, and if I’d have checked, I would have seen that Jimmy wouldn’t have played even if he had stayed in GR. The Griffins don’t play until Friday, so the question of lost playing time is moot. - Matt

Update (2:15 PM): Ted Kulfan writes on the Detroit News Wings blog that Joey MacDonald will in fact start tonight, contradicting his earlier report. Also, Danny Markov apparently will not be back. - Matt

The Wings won a wild one last night, beating the Calgary Flames 7-4 and extending their home-win streak to 12 games. It was much more of a blowout than the score indicates, as the Flames controlled play for only about 3:00 in the third period, scoring three of their goals then, when the Wings had let up. It was as much a case of the Wings dominating as it was of the Flames playing bantam hockey.

Joey MacDonald was in net for the Wings and hardly got any work through two periods. He looked steady, though, when he did face a shot, and made the stop when needed. When the Flames started scoring, the first two goals were the result of bad defense, but the third was a little weak. All in all, Joey had a strong game, and it was good to see the Wings’ take the task of defending for him seriously.

The first couple minutes of the game were pretty choppy as there were a couple stoppages due to off-sides and icings. At 3:03, play stopped again for a Stepha Yelle elbowing penalty and the Wings got their first power play. The Wings didn’t do a lot with it and they had to be careful with picking the puck up in their own zone as the Flames were forechecking hard. At 4:54, Robert Lang took his customary hooking penalty and we got 9 seconds of 4-on-4 hockey before a Calgary power play. The Flames had trouble setting up and the Wings did a good job of killing it off.

The Wings got on the board at 8:43 after Miikka Kiprusoff misplayed the puck behind the net on a slow shoot-in by Dan Cleary. Jason Williams picked it up and saw Henrik Zetterberg in the high slot. He sent it to him and Hank wasted little time releasing a snap shot that beat Kiprusoff inside the left post. Kiprusoff had taken his sweet time getting back, but should have been set. It’s not often you see him beaten like that.

The Wings struck again four minutes later. Zetterberg took the puck in on a nice rush, distracting the defense by the right point, before dishing the puck to a streaking Tomas Holmstrom in the middle. Homer didn’t get all he wanted on his shot, but Kiprusoff didn’t control the rebound and Pavel Datsyuk was able to get his stick on it. He slammed it into the net and made it 2-0 Wings at 12:44.

Right after the goal, Johan Franzen nearly made it 3-0 as he hit the post on a shot down low. Kiprusoff was slow to react and Johan had a half-empty net to shoot at, but couldn’t finish.

They did get a third goal not long after that, as Robert Lang, Jason Williams, and Dan Cleary forced a faceoff at 13:48. Four seconds later, Mathieu Schneider’s shot careened off Dion Phaneuf and into the net to make it 3-0 Wings. By that time, Jim Playfair had seen enough and Kiprusoff was pulled in favor of Jamie McLennan. It was very much an uncharacteristic game for Kiprusoff, who seems unbeatable whenever the Wings play him.

The Wings didn’t waste much time before testing McLennan. Within a minute, Datsyuk and Zetterberg flew into the zone, with Hank dishing the puck off to Pavel, whose shot rang off the corner junction.

The rest of the period consisted mainly of the Flames giving up the puck and the Wings getting chances as a result. Zetterberg, Datsyuk, and Holmstrom seemed to be out there every other shift, but they didn’t look tired at all as they continued to dominate Calgary.

The Wings began the second period with a four-minute power play. Apparently, Craig Conroy had been involved in some extra-curriculars at the 20:00 mark of the first. They looked a little sloppy in the first two minutes, but they soon got their fourth goal in the second half of the power play. Nick Lidstrom took the initial shot and Mathieu Schneider raced to the net in an effort to knock in the rebound. The rebound on his shot went right to Henrik Zetterberg, who snapped it into the net at 3:16.

Johan Franzen had another great chance after Hank’s goal. He got off one shot and then sent the puck through the crease on the rebound. He was burned on the same shift, however, by Alex Tanguay, who picked his pocket out in front of Joey MacDonald. Tanguay turned and his quick shot beat Joey gloveside at 3:58, putting the Flames on the board. Franzen was sufficiently upset to slam his stick on the left post.

Brett Lebda was called for tripping at 4:51, but the Wings had an easy time killing off the penalty as the Flames were pretty inept at setting up.

Just as the Flames looked to be warming up a little, Jason Williams took the wind out of their sails with a goal at 11:02. Dan Cleary carried the puck over the blueline before dropping it to Williams, whose snap shot was deflected off Brad Stuart before beating McLennan, who did not appear to be impressed with his new teammate.

The Wings struck again 38 seconds later after a Zetterberg face-off win. Nick Lidstrom’s shot from the point was deflected by Tomas Holmstrom out front, changing direction pretty drastically as it went from being at best a 5-hole attempt to beating McLennan just inside the left post. Homer has really made the tip-in an art form this season.

Soon after the goal, Zetterberg took the puck around the back of the net and nearly scored on a wrap-around attempt. By this point, the Flames were getting a little ticked off and they started hitting people. Pavel Datsyuk had his helmet knocked off in the Detroit end by Stephan Yelle, but ended up being involved in a rush going the other way. Byron Ritchie bull-rushed Mathieu Schneider on his way to the net before falling skates-first into MacDonald, who was slow to get up.

Jason Williams was hit in the face by a puck around the 14:30 mark but he returned and finished the game.

Robert Lang took a slashing penalty at 15:08, but the only interesting thing to come out of the subsequent Calgary power play was the fact that Tanguay and Franzen were exchanging heated words. Once Lang came out of the box, the Wings had a great scoring chance but they tried to be too cute and passed the puck two or three too many times. Brett Lebda had a nice rush around the 18:00 mark, displaying his phenomenal speed as he got a chance on net. Niklas Kronwall made a great play on Phaneuf not long after that as the latter had a decent scoring chance himself.

At 19:34, three penalties were handed out as a result of an incident in the Calgary zone in which Henrik Zetterberg knocked Mark Giordano down. Giodarno reacted angrily and roughed Zetterberg up, earning the first penalty. Once the play was whistled, Andreas Lilja went after Giordano, earning the second roughing penalty. Then, Jarome Iginla decided it would be a good idea to get in on the action and he was slapped with the third roughing penalty. The Wings ended up with a power play, but couldn’t do anything with the 25.2 seconds left in the period so it carried over.

The beginning of the third was pretty eventful as far as scoring chances go. Right off the bat, Jason Williams put the puck on the net and it resulted in a flurry with Dan Cleary whacking at it before he was knocked down. After a faceoff, the Flames turned it over and Cleary was again whacking at the puck out front, with Lang nearly knocking it in himself. On their next set up, Lang sent the puck off the crossbar. After the subsequent faceoff, Lang was sprung for a breakaway down the middle. He opted for the straight-up shot, trying to beat McLennan 5-hole, but he wasn’t able to beat him. By the end of the power play, the Wings had 10 shots with the man-advantage alone, while the Flames had 10 total. They would end up outshooting Calgary 50-18.

Joey MacDonald made a nice save on Iginla through a crowd around 2:55 as the Flames started to get more offense going. The Flames took a penalty at 5:36, but the Wings couldn’t do much with it. Brad Stuart put his new team back on the penalty kill at 8:34 with a blatantly dirty cross-check to Henrik Zetterberg’s lower back. Pretty disgusting play, if you ask me. Unfortunately, the Wings didn’t make Stuart pay either by going after him or by scoring a goal.

The game seemed to slow down around the 11:00 mark. Mike Babcock had called off the dogs, so to speak, and the Flames seemed to have decided that the time remaining on the clock was only a formality. However, they changed their minds within a couple minutes as they began to capitalize on the Wings’ decision to sit back and “defend” their lead.

Craig Conroy got things started with a nice personal rush into the Wings’ zone. He beat Andreas Lilja, who played it pretty well, but Conroy’s centering pass found its way to Jeff Friesen’s skate and from there, it went into the net at 13:40. After a brief review, the goal stood. A nice play by Conroy, though it was unfortunate he was able to just walk in like that.

So, it was 6-2. No worries, right? Well, the Flames weren’t done. They scored again 16:13 on a nice play from Iginla to Tanguay to Hamrlik. MacDonald had no chance to stop the puck as Hamrlik was allowed to creep up and one-time Tanguay’s pass in the slot. Not very good defense by Kris Draper on that play.

6-3’s not so bad, though. It was a little worrisome, but it didn’t seem likely that the Flames could complete a comeback. Then they scored again. They took the puck into the Detroit zone on a 4-on-3 rush and it ended up on Giordano’s stick. His quick shot beat Joey high and put the Flames within two at 17:20. It would have been nice if MacDonald had made that save, but I guess I can’t really blame him.

At this point, I was definitely starting to wonder. The Flames were dangerous and nearly made it 6-5 when Iginla and Huselius almost hooked up soon after the goal.

Dion Phaneuf nearly took out Mathieu Schneider along the left wing boards, but Schneider submarined and avoided the flying Flame, though it still ended up being FSN’s “Check of the Game.”

Johan Franzen put an end to Calgary’s hopes for a comeback by scoring at 18:37. Kris Draper intercepted a bad Calgary pass at center and carried it into the Flames’ end. He sent it across to Franzen in the middle and Johan took a wrist shot at the net, beating McLennan glove side and making it 7-4 Wings. The game wound down after that, with little to report.

Definitely a strong game overall by the Wings, though the near-comeback in the third period was a little disturbing. Hopefully they won’t ease up so much next time around.

Tonight they’re in Philadelphia to play the Flyers for the only time this season. The Wings won the last meeting between the two teams, 6-3 on January 12th, 2006.

The Flyers are 2-1-2 so far in February, with their wins coming against Atlanta and St. Louis (their most recent game). They are dead last in the NHL with 36 points (14-33-8) and can only hope for this season to end. They had lost 13 straight at home before beating the Blues on Saturday.

It’s going to be an interesting night as the Wings will have a first-hand look at Peter Forsberg, who they are rumored to be pursuing. I know I’ll be watching him.

It looks like Antero Niitymaki will be in net for the Flyers, while Joey MacDonald is slated by Ansar Khan of mLive to get his third consecutive start for the Wings. However, Ted Kulfan writes that Jimmy Howard will get the nod tonight instead. I tend to believe Khan, especially in this case, as Ken Daniels of FSN also said MacDonald would start tonight. He may change his story today in a blog post, though.

Danny Markov was supposed to return tonight, but he’s listed as doubtful by the Freep, so he may not play.

Even though the Wings played last night, there’s no reason why they can’t play a good game and pull out a win tonight. They have a great opportunity to jump ahead of the Predators with a win tonight after pulling within a point with last night’s win.