On the Wings

The Wings lost last night to the Predators, thereby blowing a chance at going up three points in the Central Division. They were awarded a point by losing in overtime, so the two teams are tied with 86 in 63 games. However, the Preds win the second tie-breaker by having more wins, and now lead the Western Conference.

Chris Osgood was in net for the Wings last night and looked very sharp - except on the first two Nashville goals. Unfortunately, I can’t really say the defense was lacking on either of them, as the shooter was well-covered in both cases. Osgood had zero chance on the second set of Predator goals, however, as the first was deflected and the second, the game winner, was just a great setup by the Preds. All in all, Osgood played a very good game and gave the Wings a chance to win. There were a number of times where the Predators flat out dominated the Wings in the offensive zone and they ran into great goaltending. Of the two teams last night, I’d have to say Nashville was more dangerous and had the better chances.

The tone for the game was set early when Pavel Datsyuk, yes, Pavel Datsyuk, retaliated on Peter Forsberg for the latter’s having fallen and run him over earlier in the shift. Pavel slashed Forsberg at the Nashville blueline and was given a penalty at 1:31. The game would degenerate into that kind of retaliatory crap often throughout the rest of the night.

The Preds had a few chances on the power play, but, to me, the most interesting part of that stretch of play was that Valtteri Filppula was killing the penalty for the Wings. Valtteri got no power play time last night, but he was on the ice for 58 seconds when the Wings were short a man. Very interesting.

Over the next few minutes, the teams traded chances, but the Preds seemed much more dangerous and likely to score.

At 7:17, Chris Chelios got away with an elbowing penalty when he nailed the Preds’ pest Jordin Tootoo up high. Tootoo went flying and I was immediately concerned about what he’d do to retaliate. However, he didn’t get a chance immediately, as the Preds had an offensive opportunity and he had to go to the front of the net. He wiped out and sort of fell on Chris Osgood, probably unintentionally. He was given a penalty for it, however, and as he got up, the camera caught him apologizing to Osgood. I was shocked too, but Osgood tapped him on the pads in return.

Chelios left the ice and the bench after that shift and only came back after the power play was over. Not sure why.

Following the Wings’ power play, I noticed the game getting a lot more physical: Kirk Maltby had a big hit on a Nashville player at the Detroit blueline, Henrik Zetterberg had a hit, Ryan Suter hit Pavel Datsyuk, etc. The legality of some of the hits was in question, I thought, but the refs were letting them play. The best sequence was Danny Markov’s hitting of Peter Forsberg hard twice in the same shift.

Chris Osgood was called for a slashing penalty at 14:05. The replay showed it was hardly more than his friendly tap on Tootoo’s pads earlier, but Martin Erat went flying like he’d been shot in the back by an elephant gun. Matt Ellis served the penalty.

Following the penalty kill, Henrik Zetterberg took the puck in on his own and tried to split the Nashville defense. Well, Shea Weber didn’t think much of that and decided it’d be best to cross check Hank to the face. Zetterberg’s head snapped back, his helmet almost fell off and the chance was negated. No call. The best explanation the FSN crew could come up with was that the refs hadn’t called Chelios’ elbow on Tootoo so they weren’t going to call Weber’s testing the breaking point of his stick on Zetterberg’s face. If that’s true, it’s a load of BS. Tootoo is only a pest and is worthless compared to Zetterberg, who is easily the Wings’ MVP this season, and maybe even a candidate for League MVP. Both plays should have gotten a penalty, but if only one of them was going to be called, it should have been Weber’s cross-check. It’s disgusting that the ref was right there and let it pass.

Anyway, not long after Weber tried rearranging Zetterberg’s face, Filppula had one of the Wings’ biggest scoring chances of the night. He carried the puck into the Nashville end along the left boards. Weber hit him hard, but he just bounced off, and Valtteri kept going. He walked unpposed in on the net and had a huge hole to shoot at as Vokoun, for some reason, left the top left side wide open. Unfortunately, Filppula couldn’t get the puck high enough on the shot from 7 feet out and Vokoun made the save.

At 18:06, Paul Kariya put the Preds on the board. Peter Forsberg carried the puck over the blueline and dished it off to Kariya just as he was hit by Markov. Kariya took it to the left faceoff got, released a quick snap shot and beat Osgood shortside with Nick Lidstrom in the process of funneling him to the outside. The shot was a bit unexpected, but you’d still like to see that save made.

The Wings seemed to score a goal at 19:32, but it was immediately waived off. There had been a delayed penalty call on the Preds and when Johan Franzen’s initial shot was stopped by Vokoun, the whistle went even as Franzen knocked in the rebound. Apparently, the ref considered the save to be a change in possession. There was some debate in the press box about it and Ken Daniels explained what had happened at the start of the second period. During intermission, he had called the War Room in Toronto and was told that, yes, it should have been a goal, but the referee was not aware of the GM’s recent decision that most saves do not constitute a change in possession. So, the Wings were robbed of a goal because the NHL has communication problems.

The Wings did score on the power play, however, so I suppose I can’t complain too much. Mathieu Schneider took the initial shot, Pavel Datsyuk took some whacks at the rebound and when Vokoun fell on his back, Tomas Holmstrom was able to lift the puck over him and make it 1-1 at :38.

On the ensuing faceoff at center, Vernon Fiddler was called for slashing and the Wings went right back on the power play. It took them a little longer to score, but score they did, at 2:27. The goal came on a 5-on-3 power play as Dan Hamhuis had taken a hooking penalty at 1:02. Tomas Holmstrom deflected a Schneider blast to score his second goal of the night and put the Wings up by one.

At 5:40, Jordin Tootoo took a run at Henrik Zetterberg, but Hank saw him coming and sidestepped him as Tootoo carreened into the boards with a loud bang. I hate to think what the results of that hit would have been had Tootoo made contact. Scary.

Not long after that, the FSN crew noticed that Peter Forsberg was no longer on the Nashville bench. They said a few minutes later that they’d received word that Forsberg was walking in the tunnel without skates. He did make it back to the game, but had missed most of the period by the time he took another shift around the 16:00 mark. Whatever the problem was, it didn’t seem to hinder his play much after that, though I’d be a little concerned if I were a Predators fan.

The Preds tied the game up at 11:04 when Marek Zidlicky sent a beautiful pass up ice to David Legwand. Legwand carried the puck into the Detroit zone and drove to the net, with Robert Lang hooking him like crazy. Somehow, Legwand maintained possession and he was able to beat Osgood with a good backhand shot to the top left corner, across Ozzie’s body. A nice play by Legwand, but still a save you’d like to see made.

The feud between Tootoo and Chelios continued at 15:41 when the former bumped the latter as he skated by to take his spot on a faceoff. Chelios immediately slashed Tootoo in the leg and then then had to deal with Tootoo’s own retaliation. Both were sent to the penalty box, with Tootoo making a beeline and Chelios taking his time.

With the teams skating four a side, Datsyuk and Niklas Kronwall took the puck in on a rush and drew a Predators penalty in the process. The Wings didn’t do much on the subsequent 4-on-3 or the 5-on-4 power play, though Zetterberg did hit the post on the latter.

The Preds finished up the third period with some swarming of the Detroit end.

The Wings had some trouble with turnovers in the first few minutes of the third. Fortunately, the Preds weren’t able to capitalize, though they came extremely close around the 3:30 mark. Kris Draper made a lazy backhand clearing attempt that was easily intercepted at the blueline. The puck ended up on Peter Forsberg’s stick down low to Osgood’s left. He ended up sending it off the post, with Osgood down and out.

Matt Ellis took a high-sticking penalty at 6:12. The Predators had a very good power play and were really only kept from scoring by Chris Osgood, who made a couple big, big saves. The first was when Paul Kariya was allowed to just walk in on net after Forsberg drew Lidstrom to him and Chelios got pulled to the left, leaving the whole right side of the ice to Kariya. On the next setup, Shea Weber forced Osgood to make a good save, as did Forsberg on the rebound.

The Wings seemed to adopt a bit of a defensive posture after that, though they scored their third goal within a few minutes. Once again, it was Tomas Holmstrom who scored, earning the hat-trick, his second of the season. Henrik Zetterberg’s shot was deflected wide and off the backboards, and Homer picked it up behind the net, pulled it out front and dumped it in the net as Vokoun lost his balance. A great play by Holmstrom, who had just been knocked down and had gotten up just in time to complete the play at 14:52. The goal came on the power play, as Weber had been called for holding at 14:39.

At 15:21, Forsberg took a foolish and needless holding penalty when he mugged Valtteri Filppula from behind. Why he thought it necessary to grab Fil in a bearhug around the face from behind, I don’t know. Unfortunately, the Wings were unable to take advantage of the opportunity, though the first unit generated a good 1:30 of pressure. After the penalty expired, the Preds’ top line generated a lot of pressure in the Wings’ zone, but Osgood was equal to the task.

With just over a minute left, Barry Trotz pulled Vokoun for the extra man and within a couple seconds, the Preds scored to tie it. Dan Hamhuis took the shot from the blueline and Paul Kariya got his stick on it to deflect it off Osgood’s shoulder and into the net at 18:56.

So, we went to overtime. After a couple low-key chances for both teams, the Paul Kariya took matters into his own hands. With Datsyuk shadowing him, Kariya spun in the Detroit zone with the puck and headed at the net. Just as he separated from Datsyuk, he sent the puck to Peter Forsberg on the other side. The puck went between Niklas Kronwall’s legs and right on the tape before Forsberg slammed it into the net. It was Forsberg’s first goal as a Predator and it came at 2:11 of the extra period.

… Kariya’s goals were his first in 10 games, during which time the Preds were a 5-4-1. Let’s hope he hasn’t gotten going again now, because that will make it that much harder for the Wings to keep pace. The same goes for Forsberg, who had been pointless as a Predator until last night. …

… The ice looked terrible throughout the game, with the puck bouncing like crazy and players on both teams inexplicably wiping out at random times. …

… It’s a little frightening that the Wings had so much trouble with the Preds even when they were without Steve Sullivan and Scott Hartnell. Granted, it was their second game in as many nights, but the Preds really are a formidable team. Their defense is much better than I thought, as they have some superb passers on the blueline. We’ll see how the Wings do in games against them in which they’ve had a day or two of rest going in. …

… It looks like Matt Ellis could be with the Wings for a week or two, as Dan Cleary will be out 3-4 weeks with a sprained knee. With a forward or two possibly coming at the deadline and with Samuelsson due back in 10-to-14 days, both Josh Langfeld and Ellis should be back in GR relatively soon. …

As far as road back-to-back games go, this was actually one of the Wings’ better efforts this season. They outshot Nashville 44 to 29 and matched them fairly well physically. They had trouble handling the Nashville offense at times, but stood up relatively well considering they’d played the night before. They’ll now have a couple days off before they face the Hawks in Chicago on Tuesday.