Archive for February, 2007

Wings 3, Predators 4 (OT)

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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.

Tkachuk traded to Atlanta

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Update (3:00 PM): This means the Wings won’t be getting Bill Guerin because the Blues will demand the same, if not more, for him, and that price is just too high. - Matt

Via Spector’s: “… in exchange for forward Glen Metropolit, Atlanta’s 2007 1st round pick, 3rd round pick, a 2nd rounder in 2008. There is also a conditional pick based upon whether Tkachuk resigns in Atlanta or not….”

The Kronwall hit on Lupul

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Update (25. Feb, 1:53 PM): Joffrey Lupul has been quoted in the Edmonton Sun as saying he thought the Kronwall hit was borderline dirty, but said he wasn’t going to complain. By contrast, his head coach, Craig McTavish told the paper,

“People have long memories at this level and it’s not something we’ll quickly forget. He’s got a history of that. When you blindside guys like that viciously, that says something and we’ll remember it.”

“He’s got a history of that”? When, pray tell, has Kronwall given a guy a concussion with a shoulder-to-head hit before, McTavish? It was not vicious, it was just unfortunate timing and placement. If you want a suspension because it was a headshot, say that, but don’t spew that kind of whining crap. - Matt

Update (9:47 PM): I’m obviously not the only one who wants the League to rethink their policy on hits to the head, but I think this is the first time a person in authority has spoken out against it.

The recent Senators/Sabres conflagration was kick started by a headshot on Chris Drury by Ottawa’s Chris Neil. Drury is out with a serious concussion now and Buffalo’s owner has written a letter to the NHL asking for change.

Neil’s hit was far more malicious than Kronwall’s hit, so the fact that he went unpunished is far more telling than the fact that Nik didn’t for his check, which didn’t demonstrate an intent to injure. - Matt

Someone has YouTubed a video of Niklas Kronwall’s hit on Joffrey Lupul. Dirty or not dirty? See for yourself.

Call me biased all you want, but I say more ill-advised than dirty. It was all shoulder and, though he did power through it with his legs, it wasn’t malicious and it would have just been a big open ice hit had Lupul not just dished off the puck and looked away.

Still, at the risk of being called a Red Wings heretic (but I’d rather be wrongly accused of being a heretic than rightly accused of being a hypocrite), I will say that it was not a safe hit or a smart hit, and almost certainly one deserving of a suspension as a head-shot. However, the League doesn’t punish hits to the head because of an irrational and ridiculous fear that it would make the game less physical. Like I wrote in November, I think it’s criminal of the League not to police hits like that more, regardless of whether or not a Red Wing is delivering them, and regardless of intent. Hits to the head should not go unpunished, period.

GameDay: @ Nashville (40-18-4, 84 Pts) 8:00 ET

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Update (2:40 PM): Ansar Khan has more on the Cleary and MacDonald situations. Basically, MacDonald is excited about the opportunity to get more playing time in Boston, and Johan Franzen will replace Cleary on the second line tonight. Also, we shouldn’t expect Stefan Liv or Jimmy Howard to get called up at all for the rest of the season, as Hasek will be backup whenever Osgood plays, though it’s unlikely he’d ever enter the game off the bench.  - Matt

Update (1:57 PM): More on Cleary. Ansar Khan via email: “… Babcock said it’s a lower-body injury and wouldn’t provide any info except that he’s being looked at in Detroit.” So, he won’t be on the two-game road trip, unless he joins the team in Chicago for their game there on Tuesday. - Matt

Update (1:50 PM): MacDonald has been claimed off waivers by Boston, according to TSN. That’s very unfortunate, as Joey is a better goalie than his stats indicated. The Wings have depth to spare in the goaltending department, but it was good to have MacDonald around. I wasn’t expecting any team to take him, though, because he is still unproven at the NHL level. Boston must remember the season had had last year in Grand Rapids.

Anyway, Hasek will now back up Osgood tonight. (thanks to Mike for the link). - Matt

Update (1:40 PM): I was right about Cleary being injured, though I was wrong about how. Bruce MacLeod, posting in the Red Wings Central forums, reports that he’ll sit out the game with a “lower body injury” sustained in a hip check last night. The spearing the stick gave him had nothing to do with it. (via. Gorilla Crouch). - Matt

Tonight is the fourth of eight games between these two Central Division rivals this season. The Wings lead the series 2-1, with wins November 10th (3-0) and January 17th (5-3). The Preds won the November 25th meeting, 6-2. They will play each other four times next month, including a home-home series on the 13th and 14th.

Since losing to the Wings last month, the Preds have posted an 8-6-1 record, which was largely inflated by a four-game winning streak immediately following the January 17th game against Detroit. During that stretch, they beat the Hawks twice, and the Jackets and Blues once each. In February, they have been winning alternate games, except for their consecutive losses on the 16th and 17th, first to St. Louis and then to Minnesota.

The Peter Forsberg Era began on February 15th and thus far, the Preds are 1-1-1 with their new star. Forsberg has been held pointless in those three games and is a minus-2. He was not even on the ice for any of Nashville’s five goals in their most recent game, a 6-5 shootout loss to Montreal.

Tomas Vokoun was in net for the loss to the Canadiens so it’s possible that the “backup,” Chris Mason, will get the start tonight.

The Wings are coming off a disappointing 4-3 shootout loss to the Oilers last night. It was a horribly officiated game, with the refs dealing out 20 minutes of penalties in the first period alone. At one point, they sent an Oiler (Pouliot) to the box who was not responsible for the penalty that caused the center ice official to put his arm up. I believe it was Smid who roughed up a Detroit player at the blueline, at which point the ref signaled a penalty, but the play was not stopped until after a minor bit of contact between Pouliot and another Wing. At that point, Pouliot was sent to the box instead of Smid. The refs seemed bent on making calls where there were none last night, in the first period especially.

There was a dangerous moment in the first where Joffrey Lupul passed the puck up ice just before getting nailed at the blueline by Niklas Kronwall. Nik’s shoulder went square into Lupul’s face and sent him flying onto his back. Kronwall didn’t leave his feet to make contact, but he did after contact was made. Lupul began to bleed and had to leave the game with a concussion. Kronwall has given an interference penalty on the play, but the Oilers didn’t get a power play because Raffi Torres’ retaliation earned them a penalty of their own. Another hit to the head, though I honestly don’t think it was as malicious as Torres’ hit on Williams earlier this season was.

Mike Babcock mixed up the lines a bit, but Dave at Gorilla Crouch has more on that.

Anyway, it was not a very exciting game until overtime, when things opened up and both teams nearly put it away. In the shootout, the only shooter to score was Ryan Smyth, though Dominik Hasek had made the save. His backwards momentum took him into the net, however, and the puck went with him. The Wings got a point when they really could have used two.

Chris Osgood will start tonight and I suspect Joey MacDonald will be backing him up, though he’s been waived. Based on what Ansar Khan wrote yesterday, it seems MacDonald can still play before getting sent down, if he clears waivers. I don’t think the Wings are ready for Hasek to back Osgood up yet.

Matt Ellis has been called up, which seems to indicate there’s an injury among the forwards. It could be Dan Cleary, as I wrote earlier today.

This is an important game for the Wings, who’ll have to dig deep and find it within themselves to play a better back-to-back game than they usually do because a loss would mean they’d once again fall behind the Preds. A win would put them 3 points up and, with Nashville’s inconsistency this month, give them a little breathing room.

Matt Ellis called up

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Update (1:45 PM): See 1:40 PM update on today’s GameDay post. - Matt

So says the AHL transaction page. Someone must be hurt, because Josh Langfeld isn’t going the other way, at least not yet. It could be Dan Cleary, who took the butt-end of a stick in the gut last night on a freak incident along the endboards. The blade of the stick had somehow gotten wedged underneath the back of the net and caught Cleary in the stomach as he skated by.

MacDonald put on waivers

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Update (24. Feb, 1:50 PM): See 1:50 PM update on today’s GameDay post. -Matt

Update (24. Feb, 11:35 AM): Ansar Khan reports that since the Griffins will have trouble giving MacDonald playing time, the Wings will try to loan him to another AHL team or perhaps even send him down to the ECHL.

The main topic of Khan’s piece is the trade deadline, and it’s looking less and less likely that the Wings are actually going to be able to acquire anyone:

“There are prices we won’t pay,” Holland said before the Red Wings hosted the Edmonton Oilers at Joe Louis Arena.

“We’ll just sit on the sidelines and do nothing. I’m hearing that Monday or Tuesday as we get closer to the deadline and teams are sitting with players, prices will come down. If the prices don’t come down, we’re just going to sit on the sidelines and go into the playoffs with this team. It’s ridiculous right now.”

My stance on this remains the same as it was during the rumor storm with Peter Forsberg: the Wings could probably use an addition, but I don’t want to see them throw away their future for a rental. - Matt

Update (24. Feb, 1:17 AM): It turns out that I totally misread the situation yesterday afternoon, having been set off on a certain track by Khan’s post and extrapolating it into an overreaction.

Of all the reasons to waive MacDonald, I didn’t think of what probably should have been the most obvious one, given the resent news on the goaltending situation in Detroit. According to Helene St. James, Holland said later Friday afternoon that there was no deal coming and Joey was waived mostly in an attempt to get him to Grand Rapids where he’ll get more playing time and will finish the season, barring an injury. That means the goalie situation for the Griffins just got a little more complicated, as Jimmy Howard and Stefan Liv have been strong lately, I’m told, and need playing time as well.

As far as the goaltending situation in Detroit goes, we’ll be seeing Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood from here on out, folks. Dom will obviously get the majority of the games, but he will also back up Ozzie at times, though I believe MacDonald will still be on hand for the game against Nashville tonight (which became even more important with the Wings’ shootout loss to the Oilers. More on that in the morning.).

St. James does mention that the move freed up $117,000 in cap space, which could come in handy should the Wings become frontrunners in trade talks for one of the top forwards on the market. So, while no deal was imminent, waiving MacDonald could help their chances of acquiring the “top six” forward they’re supposed to be seeking. - Matt

Ansar Khan reports that the Wings have put Joey MacDonald on waivers and suggests it could be a move to free up space for a trade.

He also notes that the timing is strange given the fact that Chris Osgood is playing Saturday and MacDonald’s usual job is to backup in those situations. Apparently, MacDonald could still be around if he clears waivers, which Khan says is likely, because he won’t have to be sent down immediately. I highly doubt they’ll have Dominik Hasek do the backing up so in the case that MacDonald is claimed off waivers by another team, expect one of the Griffins goalies to get the call-up.

This is interesting. Like Khan writes, it could mean they’re in the running for one of the more frequently-talked about trade options, such as Keith Tkachuk or Todd Bertuzzi. Keep an eye on the wire, folks. It doesn’t strike me as something Holland would do if he didn’t have a deal already cooking, because he could waive MacDonald at any time leading up to the deadline if he were only waiting for a good trade opportunity to come up this weekend. If a trade’s coming, and this move would be pretty pointless if one wasn’t, it won’t be long before it’ll be announced.

GameDay: vs. Edmonton (29-26-6, 64 Pts) 7:30 ET

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Tonight is the fourth and final game between these two teams this season. The Oilers lead the series 2-1, with wins October 21 (3-1) and November 18th (4-3 SO). The Wings won the November 8th meeting, 3-0.

The Oilers are 4-4-2 in February so far, with their wins coming against Colorado, Chicago, Atlanta, and Columbus. The win over the Blue Jackets, which came last night, halted a 0-2-2 stretch in which they lost to Boston, Buffalo (OT), Toronto, and Ottawa (SO), all on the road. Edmonton is nearing the end of a 7-game road trip that began on the 13th in Boston, and will end on Sunday in Minnesota.

They trail Calgary by 7 points for the last playoff spot.

Their leading goal-scorer is Ryan Smyth, who stands at the “when pigs fly” end of the Wings’ trade options spectrum. He scored his 30th goal last night and notched two assists.

Dwayne Roloson played last night and had 28 saves for his fourth shutout this season, but the AP suggests that Jussi Markkanen may play tonight.

The Wings have posted a 7-2-0 record in February thus far, with their only losses coming in St. Louis and Philadelphia. They have won their last three, including games in Dallas and Phoenix, and coming off a solid 4-2 win over Chicago on Wednesday. They’ll fly to Nashville after the game tonight to kick off a two-game road trip tomorrow night.

Because the Predators lost to the Habs in a shootout last night (6-5)*, the Wings remain on top of the Western Conference, though both teams have 84 points. Although the Preds have more wins (40), the Wings have won more (39) in fewer games (61 versus 62), so they win the tie-breaker.

The Free Press reports that Dominik Hasek will start tonight, but will not play tomorrow. The Wings are apparently not yet ready to start Dom in back-to-back situations, though there is talk that he will do so next month. Chris Osgood will be in net instead. I personally don’t have a problem any more with them going with Dom the first night because it’s all about keeping him healthy. The team doesn’t get a full workout tomorrow and since a good skate is a big part of a pregame routine that is designed to prevent injury, it’s better if Dom doesn’t play if he can’t go through that.

This is a important game for the Wings, who need to capitalize on the Preds’ loss last night and get some separation from the Preds going into the game in Nashville tomorrow night. The Oilers aren’t going to roll over, though, and so the concern is that the Wings will end up being too tired to handle the Predators tomorrow night. It’s going to be interesting to see how they deal with playing back-to-back games against such speedy and physical opponents.

*Update (12:16 PM): I just want to point out that Peter Forsberg wasn’t on the ice for any of the Preds’ five goals. Peter the Great has zero points and is minus-1 in three games with Nashville. That should make you feel happy. I know it makes me smile. - Matt