On the Wings

I apologize for my tardiness in getting this posted. I worked a 13-hour day today and only got home at 9:00. I’m pretty wiped out so this will be more brief than I’d planned.

… First up, something not directly related to last night: a lineup change for Game 3. Ansar Khan reports that Tomas Kopecky will take Kyle Calder’s place for the first game in Anaheim and says that it looks like he’ll be skating on the third line with Kirk Maltby and Kris Draper, in place of Dan Cleary. It’ll be interesting to see how big Kopecky does after not playing since December. You’d think Jiri Hudler would be a better choice in that regard, but his size screwed him over again. I just hope Babcock isn’t really planning on breaking up that third line. Calder either must be hurt or in the doghouse, because his minutes have been way down and he’s been about as effective as a pylon on skates.

… On the other side of center ice is the Ducks bench, which has lost Chris Kunitz for the rest of the playoffs. Kunitz didn’t play last night and the Ducks still won, so maybe it’s not such a big deal. Just kidding. He’s their top line left-winger and a strong player. Let’s hope the Wings do a better job of taking advantage of this.

… Anyway, on to the game. a word about the video-reviewed goals: the first one, I don’t have any problem with, except that I don’t like that the referees are using video review as a crutch instead of making a call on the ice. The second goal pissed me off. Hasek was clearly pushed into the net by Niedermeyer, but the referee did not make that call and because that was not a reviewable aspect of the play, the goal stood. That’s, quite frankly, BS. If the referee says Hasek was pushed into the net, it would have been no goal, and perhaps the Wings would have gotten away with a win they didn’t necessarily deserve.

… The game followed the now usual pattern for the Wings: get dominated in the first, even things out a bit in the second, control the play in the third. They were out-hustled, out-hit and and out-puck handled by the Ducks for 35+ minutes, only managing to put on a decent show defensively, if only by the skin of their teeth. After their 5-on-3 goal, though, they turned it up a notch and things were looking great until the Ducks scored again. Then, I wasn’t very confident that they’d pull off the win, because they looked somewhat deflated. They were run around in overtime and it would have required a real change in mindset for them to have pulled off the win, because they didn’t seem to have the wheels.

… Dom has to be better. He was too easily fooled by Getzlaf’s misdirection on the first Ducks goal and was awfully far back in his own net on their second. Can’t really blame him on the third, but he was too far off the post on the game winner, even if it was a nice shot by Niedermeyer. The great thing about Dom is that he rebounds from sub-par performances, so we can probably expect a strong game from him tomorrow night.

… One thing I hope the Wings work on is their puck movement. It’s seriously lacking thus far in this series and it’s disturbing because that’s one of their trademarks. They’re making stupid passes that are easily knocked away by the Duck defense and have been having serious trouble clearing the zone, something they’ve generally been pretty good at, once they have the puck. If they can’t stickhandle over the Anaheim blueline, they need to be able to put it in the corner and run it down. I don’t know how many times I saw them refuse to shoot it in and end up losing it because one of the four Ducks lined up their knocked it away, often making for an odd-man rush.

… I don’t know if the team is becoming fatigued or what, but they need to start skating more. I see them floating more than I’ve seen them do all year and that also means they’re hitting less. If it means shorter shifts and more minutes for the fourth liners, it needs to be done. Part of their problem with being unable to hold on to the puck is that they aren’t moving their feet enough.

… Another contributing factor is the tendency of guys like Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk to skate into a crowd of three or four Ducks and then try to get through it without passing off to the wing. It doesn’t work and I’m tired of seeing them try it. There are ways to be the hero, guys, and that is not it. Get the puck low and set up a slam-dunk play, or something. Don’t try to do it all on your own.

… Alright, lastly, the Wings need to find a way to be perfect on special teams, both offensively and defensively. They’ve been at their best up or down a man, and if that’s going to be the norm in this series, they need to capitalize whenever they’re on the power play and kill off every penalty.