Well, I can’t say I didn’t expect it, after predicting it before Game 1. It still hurts, though, especially given how it happened. Dave of Gorilla Crouch put it best in the comments on the Game 3 preview post:
“Bill McCreary has been Calgary’s best threat. He assisted on both PP goals.”
Exactly. Don’t get me wrong, the Flames played well and probably deserved to win, but the fact that they scored goals on two power plays that never should have happened make this loss taste even worse than normal. More detail and explanations on why I think so later. The officiating was much too large a factor in this game for my taste.
As for Bertuzzi: I think it was a mistake to put him in for Hudler, even though he played with physicality. It didn’t go well, overall.
Other snap reactions: Cleary/Draper/Maltby = great all night, Zetterberg/Datsyuk/Holmstrom = not so much; Lilja = good, Lidstrom = an off night; Lang = useless; Babcock = bad line mixes, bad decision to put Lang out at the end, and again, bad decision to change the lineup by taking a fireplug like Hudler out.
I expect a pissed off Wings team on Thursday ready to steal a game on the road.
I’ll have a summary up as soon as I can tomorrow. I’m heading to bed now.
Yep. Phantom call on Markov. Phantom call on Calder. Two goals for Calgary. No call on Zetterberg held in the Calgary zone, Iginla runs down and scores. When I saw McCreary dropping the puck in the opening faceoff, I knew we’d lose the game.
Yep. Maybe Calder should have gotten the penalty there, but Kiprusoff should have been called for diving as well. It should have been 4-on-4 hockey at worst. That and the Markov call were bad enough, but the blown call on the hold on Zetterberg was the worst, in my mind.
I’m totally with you on the penalties, especially the Markov call. The Calder call should have at least been matching minors, but I would have rather seen no call on that play. In all honesty though, even with all of the calls against the wings, and the lack of calls on the flames, Detroit still needs to step up on the power play. 0 for 4 last night on the power play, meanwhile Calgary has scored all but 1 of their goals on the power play. Special Teams need to step it up.
I’ve really been impressed with Lilja. He’s been solid. Can’t complain too much about Detroit’s effort. One even-strength goal allowed in three games is pretty solid work.
The next game is going to be huge obviously. Detroit was very close in Game 3 and if they can pull out Game 4 they are going to be in very good shape. I’m somewhat bummed by the loss but I can’t complain at all about how Detroit played.
It’s really how the Wings lost that irritates me. They did not lose because they played badly. They did not lose because Calgary played better than them. They didn’t even lose because they took too many penalties. They lost because they were given too many penalties. Granted, the PK needs to come up huge on that. But those calls just should not have been made. Especially since Calgary was given free reign to have their way with us, particularly Zetterberg. It’s no wonder our top line couldn’t get anything going. They always seemed to have a Flames hanging from them. That no call on the hold on Zetterberg (which was just an example of they way it had been going since the start of the second and especially the third) directly led to the Calgary goal. If Zetter is not held, he gets to the puck first. Instead, he’s taken down and the Flames end up with it. Yes, Iginla beat Lidstrom (and I can’t really hold this against Lids, since it’s the first time in the series this happened) and yes, Hasek should have had that. But the fact is, it never should have gotten that far. All three goals came from bad calls or non-calls.