The night after winning a wild meeting in Nashville for the first half of the Big Showdown, the Wings won a much tamer game at home, 4-2 over Nashville to take the Central Division lead by a point. Both teams, knowing the potential importance of each play and each goal, put on a bit of a chess match that was certainly wasn’t as exciting as the game the night before, though it was more gratifying as a Wings fan. For one thing, the officiating was much better, if you think fewer calls is a good thing (I do), though there were a couple incidents that had me wondering what was going on. More on those later. Of course, the most gratifying thing about the game was that the Wings won, even with another injury to a player who has been rising in importance over the last couple weeks (Valtteri Filppula).
Dominik Hasek got the start for the Wings and, with the exception of the first goal, put on a stellar performance. He was very sharp and made a lot of big saves at key times, maintaining the score and giving the Wings a chance to put the game away. At the other end, Chris Mason put on a great performance as well, though the first goal he allowed was probably one he’d like back.
Mike Babcock went with the top line to start the game, with Pavel Datsyuk playing between Tomas Holmstrom and Valtteri Filppula. Andreas Lilja, of all people, had the biggest scoring chance of the first minute, with a booming shot from the slot. About a minute and a half in, Niklas Kronwall got away with a penalty committed against JP Dumont, obviously not a good precedent. Play was end-to-end for a while, with the two teams running in to each other’s defense as they entered the zone. Robert Lang, Kyle Calder, and Jiri Hudler put on a nice rush that was turned away by the Preds, who took it up ice themselves. A nice backchecking effort by Hudler broke it up, though.
Lang had a big scoring chance down low about two and a half minutes in, getting off a backhand shot from the right side of the goal, but Mason made a good save. On the next shift, Darryl Bootland came over the boards and immediately went for Jordin Tootoo, challenging him to fight. Tootoo decided he wasn’t up to it and when Bootland kept pestering him, throwing off his gloves and holding on to Tootoo’s collar, there refs slapped him with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. It was the first of three penalties Tootoo would draw throughout the game. I do think, though, that Tootoo owed Bootland a fight, according to protocol, but maybe that’s not his thing. Bootland did try to make up for his defeat the night before, though, and that was good to see. Babcock obviously didn’t think so, though, because Booter only played one more shift in the game, finishing with a total of 1:25 in ice time.
Anyway, the Preds went on the power play, but the Wings had the better scoring chances during that stretch. Mason was caught in an undesirable position with the puck due to the trapezoid rule and couldn’t play it like he’d have liked. Filppula pounced on it, dished it out front to Datsyuk, who turned and passed it to Nick Lidstrom in the slot without even looking. Mason stopped Nick’s booming shot. The Preds had some trouble setting up for the rest of the power play, as it looked like they were a bit out of sync.
After the penalty was over, Mathieu Schneider turned the puck over in his own end near the blueline and it resulted in a long Tootoo blast which went wide of the net. Tootoo then went after the puck, but Schneider, who was tied up with Jarred Smithson, stepped up and leveled him, earning an unnecessary interference penalty. Two penalties drawn by Tootoo. Much as I hate to admit it, the kid was doing his job.
The Wings again had a good chance shorthanded, with Filppula taking advantage of a Jason Arnott giveaway by passing the puck to Datsyuk, who sent it just wide from the slot. Once the Preds got set up, they had a great chance of or two of their own. The first came on a nice setup across the goalmouth to Paul Kariya on the right side, but Hasek stoned him. Soon after that, Hasek stopped a Ryan Suter shot that came through a crowd. That Dom never saw it was evident in his surprised reaction when it hit his glove. JP Dumont pounced on the rebound, but Hasek stopped that as well. The Wings killed off the penalty
The game, at this point, was pretty tentative. Neither team was taking big risks, which meant there was a lot less intensity than the night before. Things heated up a bit around the 9:20 mark when JP Dumont got around Nick Lidstrom and got a shot off. A flurry resulted with players from both teams crashing the net. The puck ended up underneath the pile and the Predators came very close to getting a penalty shot with a Wing or two laying near the puck in the crease.
Not long after that, the Predators generated some pressure in the Wings zone, but the puck was finally carried out by Niklas Kronwall, who ended up chasing it down in the Nashville zone. He was interfered with heavily as he skated in, but there was no call. Jason Arnott, however, was called for an inconsequential interference call seconds later, a penalty that would have ticked me off had it been against a Wing. Why call that but not the interference on Kronwall? It makes no sense. Aside from a booming shot from Schneider which was stopped by a Mason kick save, there wasn’t much to report about this power play.
Around 13:00, Wings fans saw their lives flash before their eyes when a long bomb pass nearly connected with a streaking Paul Kariya. It would have been a clean breakaway. Scary. After that, action was end-to-end as things picked up a bit. At 14:53, Darcy Hortichuk had a glorious scoring chance after he took a pass from Tootoo. Hasek stoned him at the right post, however, thereby bailing out Chris Chelios, who had pinched up just before a turnover at the Nashville blueline.
Brett Lebda got lucky a couple minutes later when he whiffed on the puck just outside the Predator zone. Fortunately for him, the Nashville player over-skated the puck, or else it would have been quite the break for the Preds.
(Note: My apologies to those of you viewing this in a feed reader. I have to break this post up because it’s too long for this site’s homepage and since the new WordPress also applies the break to the feed version, you’ll have to click through to read the rest. This is one of the few times where an OtW post won’t fully display in the site feed. )
The Predators got on the board with a surprise goal at 18:06. Nicklas Lidstrom dumped the puck off at center to Mikael Samuelsson, who mis-handled it and turned it over to Alexander Radulov, who turned on the jets and broke into the Detroit end. Andreas Lilja came back and tried to disrupt the play, as did Nicklas Lidstrom, but Radulov got a shot off and beat Hasek far side. Dom immediately threw his head back in disgust at allowing the goal, obviously having thought he had cut the angle down enough. He more than made up for it as the game went on, however.
Not long after the Radulov goal, Pavel Datsyuk skated in with Valtteri Filppula flying wingman. Fil had a great scoring chance, but Mason made the save. In the final minute, the Wings turned “it” on and generated a couple more good scoring opportunities, though nothing came of them. At the end of the period, Kirk Maltby and Kimmo Timonen exchanged pleasantries.
A minute into the second period, Vernon Fiddler had a big scoring chance on Hasek and in the process, he was pushed into the net by Kronwall. Soon after that, Kirk Maltby and Kris Draper got into it with Fiddler and Smithson. Fiddler challenged Maltby to a fight, but Kirk turned him down. Why is that okay when it wasn’t for Tootoo to do so? Because Tootoo owed Bootland a rematch, whearas Maltby didn’t owe Fiddler anything. In any case, they both got penalties so we were treated to some 4-on-4 hockey.
The faceoff after the penalties was in the Nashville zone. Pavel Datsyuk won it back to Nicklas Lidstrom, who waited until Paul Kariya skated in front of him before releasing a blast that beat Mason clean on his glove side. It wasn’t tipped or anything, as far as I could tell, so Kariya’s screen must have been what fooled Mason. 1-1 at 1:16.
With the teams still skating four a side, Paul Kariya got a break in which he beat Mathieu Schneider by a step. Schneider, in a last ditch effort, dove and swung his stick, which just barely went over the puck as it hit Kariya’s feet. Kariya went down heavily and had to be seen by the trainer, but he got up and skated off pretty quickly. For some reason, the official did not assess a penalty shot, but he did give Schneider a tripping penalty, which meant the Preds got a 4-on-3 power play. The Preds had only one big chance, which came off a hard Arnott shot that was stopped by Hasek. Once it became a 5-on-4 power play, the Wings handled it pretty well, with Kyle Calder busting his butt to get the puck cleared.
Around 5:3, Brett Lebda nearly scored on a Jiri Hudler feed, but he sent the puck wide down low. Soon after that, Paul Kariya beat the Wings defense in a chase for the puck and would have had a good scoring chance if Hasek hadn’t come way out to play it. At 6:35, Dumont and Holmstrom collided at center, with both players going down obviously hurt. Holmstrom probably took Dumont’s knee in the gut, because he was already falling due to being tied up with Dan Hamhuis, while Dumont may have been hurting from his shoulder impacting Holmstrom’s head. Whatever it was, both players got up eventually and returned to the game before long.
Not long after the two injuries, the game became a little more physical, with Draper laying a big hit on Tootoo, followed by Hortichuk hitting Chelios hard. The offense picked up as well, with Jiri Hudler getting a couple nice scoring chances followed by Matt Ellis. Nick Lidstrom made an extremely long pass to Mikael Samuelsson around the mid-period mark, but nothing developed from it.
Seconds later, the Preds took a 2-1 lead. JP Dumont dished the puck out front to a jumped-up Kimmo Timonen, whose shot was stopped by Hasek. Jason Arnott, who was also down low, swung his stick at it and knocked it into the net. Hasek immediately questioned the goal because he thought maybe the puck had gone in off Arnott’s glove, which would invalidate it. Replays showed that the puck went in off the shaft of his stick, just below his right hand, making it a legal goal. I’m glad they did review it, though, just in case. 2-1 Preds at 10:12.
Following the goal, the Lang line put on a good shift, generating a few good chances, with Schneider helping keep it going by stopping two clearing attempts. The Preds finally got it out, only to have to face down Pavel Datsyuk’s line. Datsyuk passed it across to Holmstrom in the slot and Shea Weber’s attempt at intercepting the puck as a little too enthusiastic, as his stick chopped Holmstrom in the mouth hard. No call. Soon after that, the Predators had 6 or 7 guys on the ice, but, again, no call.
Paul Kariya showed some resiliancy around the 13:30 mark when he got off a good shot while at the same time getting knocked on his can. Dom made the save.
At this point, the Wings were having trouble getting things going as they didn’t seem able to connect at center. This allowed the Predators to take control for a while. Hasek was forced to come up big on a dangerous Kariya backhander around 15:30 and not long after that, Tootoo surprised everyone with a rocket of a shot that forced Hasek to be sharp. Hortichuk and Smithson broke in on a 2-on-1 seconds later, after Chelios stepped up. Hortichuk’s shot was stopped by Hasek, however.
Going the other way, the Wings scored to make it 2-2. Robert Lang carried it down the left side and dished it to Kyle Calder out front. Calder got off a point-blank shot, which was stopped by Mason, but the rebound came out to the bottom of the left circle. Hudler cruised in and found a hole in the crowd, scoring at 16:23.
At 17:14, Jordin Tootoo completed his penalty-drawing hattrick by goading Andreas Lilja into elbowing him in the head. Tootoo sold it well, as it wasn’t that hard a hit, but it was an elbowing penalty. The Preds on this power play were too cute to start off and the Wings easily cleared the zone. On the next set up, Schneider got away with a possible boarding call on Kariya. Then, Radulov had a big chance that Hasek stopped, and then he broke his stick on the rebound.
In the final seconds of the period, it was back and forth, with both teams getting some good chances. As the period ended, Fiddler came by Chelios and tried to knock him down, Cheli stumbled and then chopped with his stick in response.
I missed the first minute of the third period since I left the room to do something thinking I had more time than I did. Sorry.
Kirk Maltby, Matt Ellis, Kris Draper, Chris Chelios and Brett Lebda had a good cycling shift two minutes in. It was followed up by a nice chance by Mikael Samuelsson, whose shot was stopped by Mason. The Predators iced the puck to relieve the pressure.
Not long after that, one of the biggest BS plays I’ve ever seen took place. At the end of the play, after the puck was shot into the benches, Pavel Datsyuk and Jordin Tootoo, who had been tangled up at center, separated. Tootoo, however, was not finished, as he came up behind Datyuk and hammered him in the upper back with a two-handed cheapshot, the kind of thing that’s illegal in any sport. Pavel’s head snapped back and he went flying onto his stomach. Somehow, some way, the refs did not slap Tootoo with at least some kind of penalty for what he did. I haven’t been that pissed off about a hit in months. Pure BS and all the more so because of the blindness of the officials. I’ve rarely seen such disrespect, and shame on Mike Babcock for not sending Bootland out to take care of that punk.
It was around this time that Valtteri Filppula’s absence was missed.
Jiri Hudler scored his second of the night at 5:41, putting the Wings up 3-2. It was a beautiful play by his linemates, from Robert Lang, who carried the puck in, to Kyle Calder, who headed to the net and drew the attention of the Predator defensemen. Hudler took a route down the right wing and around toward the net on his way to receiving a nicely-threaded pass from Lang. Jiri then roofed the puck so hard that it went in and out fast enough to require a brief review. Great, great goal.
After that, the Wings kept up the pressure. Chris Chelios got in on the action, making a rare appearance down low in the offensive zone, and almost had a good scoring chance but the pass didn’t connect. The Wings’ top line generated a nice bit of pressure after that, but nothing came of it.
JP Dumont, at the other end, had a major scoring opportunity around 7:50, but he was stoned by Hasek. Dumont almost scored on the rebound, but sent it through the crease instead. As we headed toward the mid-period mark, the game began to pick up. Jiri Hudler loosed a heavy shot at 10:30, forcing Mason to be quick, and seconds later, he sent another off the post.
Vernon Fiddler took a run at Datsyuk at center, but Pavel, obviously riled up from the Tootoo cheapshot, stuck his elbow out and knocked Fiddler down. Good to see Pavel display some anger.
The Wings assumed a defensive posture for the final eight or nine minutes, but they were forced to kill off one of Robert Lang’s usual penalties beginning at 13:43. During the penalty kill, JP Dumont two-handed Chris Chelios across the thumb, but there was no call. Cheli showed everyone on the ice his thumb, including Dumont (“Look what you did to me,” “Look what he did to me,” etc.) but the official didn’t really give a rat’s behind. Chances are, Chelios’ thumb is broken, but he finished the game.
Anyway, the Wings killed off the rest of the penalty. The Preds kept trying to make a push, but the Wings were pretty solid defensively. With the game still on the line, Mike Babcock demonstrated his new-found confidence in Jiri Hudler by playing him in the final minutes. That was good to see. Dumont stole the puck behind the Wings’ net with 1:20 or so left, but had no support and couldn’t do much with it.
Trotz pulled Mason with 50 seconds left and they tried to pull out the stops. Tootoo tripped Hasek behind the net (no call), but it didn’t matter because the puck ended up on Kirk Maltby’s stick at center. He stepped over the red line to be safe and sent it into the empty net to put it away. 4-2 Wings at 19:23.
The last seconds were a formality. The Wings came out victors again, despite suffering yet another injury to a key player.
… Before the game, FSN had an interview with Jiri Fischer. He looked and sounded great, but he isn’t any closer to finding answers on his condition. He still wears the defibrillator and still hasn’t ruled out a return to hockey. Good to see him after so long. … Todd Bertuzzi has been sent down to Grand Rapids to practice with the Griffins while the Wings make their trip to Canada. He cannot play for the Griffins due to stipulations in the CBA, but the Wings obviously wanted him to stay in shape while they’re gone. They didn’t want him to fly out with them because the flight could be problematic for his back. … All you anti-Wings folks out there might like this: for the second intermission, FSN showed a feature entitled “Ken Holland on Building the Empire.” … Gorilla Crouch … Abel to Yzerman … Behind the Jersey … On the Forecheck.
So, the Wings have now taken the Western Conference, as well as the League, lead. They’ve played two great games against a strong competitor and should now have some momentum going into the final, final stretch. They need to be careful not to stumble, now, though, especially since they’re flying out to Western Canada, where they often have trouble winning. The team ought to be getting more healthy in the coming weeks and hopefully everything will be in place for a strong playoff run.