On the Wings

In the first game of the season, the Wings earned a bit of revenge for the Conference Finals last night, as they beat Anaheim 3-2 in a shootout in a tomb-like Joe Louis Arena. As noted by Bill over at Abel to Yzerman, the dominant storyline in the media today is going to be the empty seats, so I won’t say anything more than this: it’s pathetic that the place wasn’t sold out for the opener, especially given the opponent. Pathetic.

The Wings, on the other hand, were far from pathetic last night. There are still some kinks to work out, but overall it was a solid start to what will hopefully be a great season.

… I missed the first couple minutes, but when I finally got in front of the TV, I saw two teams playing a playoff-style, high-tempo game. The Ducks looked a little more dangerous in the early going, but Dominik Hasek looked alert and sharp.

… The Ducks were getting away with what seemed to be some pretty obvious interference, holding, and tripping calls, but it wasn’t until Andy McDonald put a very weak hold on Chris Chelios that the Wings got a power play. 18 seconds later, Henrik Zetterberg ripped a shot from the right circle and beat Ilya Bryzgalov to put the Wings up 1-0, at 9:46. Great shot by Hank and great work by Tomas Holmstrom out front.

… There was a moment a few minutes later where Holmstrom pissed off Chris Pronger, who shoved Homer into Todd Bertuzzi of all people. Rather than continue the shoving, Bertuzzi sort of looked at Homer like he was about to ask, “How was your summer” but instead remembered they weren’t on the same team.

… Not long after that, Pronger greeted Tomas Kopecky at the Ducks blue line, using his rear end. It was a big hit and shook Kopecky up a bit. He’s lucky he didn’t have his head down.

… Kirk Maltby, who had a great game as a whole, really stood out on the Wings first penalty kill. His work on the forecheck resulted in a stolen puck and a great chance on net.

… Right off the bat in the second period, Mikael Samuelsson knocked down Pronger, picked up the puck, and earned a solid scoring chance. It was one of a few times where Sammy stood out on the forecheck, though he was pretty quiet in just about every other way.

… About a minute and a half into the period, Pavel Datsyuk had a great individual rush down the middle. He went for a backhand shot, but probably would have had a goal if he’d been able to get one more move in there. He looked sharp all night.

… After Corey Perry shoved Dallas Drake head first into the boards, the two had a fight. Drake immediately dropped his helmet, but Perry kept his on. Perry ended up gaining the edge in the fight and Drake finished up on the bottom. It looked like the two would have a run in later in the game, but that’ll probably come later in the season. According to Bruce MacLeod, the incident stemmed from a suspension Drake received a couple years ago after elbowing Perry to the head. Perry obviously has a long memory, but little class, as his refusal to take his helmet off demonstrates.

… One thing from last night that bodes well for the season was the Wings’ power play. Both of their regulation goals came on the power play and when they weren’t scoring, they were coming close. The talent they can put on both power play units is, quite frankly, scary, and given that they are also good at drawing penalties, it looks like they’ll have a pretty good percentage with the man-advantage this season.

… Unfortunately for the Wings, it was Todd Bertuzzi that tied the game up off a Ducks rush. With the Wings clumped off to Hasek’s left, Bertuzzi found himself uncovered in the slot and made good use of a pass from Perry. Hasek didn’t have much of a chance on that one. It would have been nice to have seen some better coverage on that play. Jiri Hudler was the nearest wing to Todd at the time, and probably couldn’t have done much, though.

… Dom didn’t have any chance at all on the Ducks’ go-ahead goal. Again, the Wings’ coverage left much to be desired, as Getzlaf was left wide open. Granted, it was on a power play, but he still seemed awfully alone out there. Bertuzzi’s centering pass was an easy one-timer for Getzlaf to blast past Hasek.

… At 4:04, the Wings tied up the game at two a mere six seconds after a Pronger penalty. Zetterberg won the faceoff back to Rafalski, whose shot went wide and bounced off the backboards, off Hank’s skate, and, I think, off Bryzgalov. Holmstrom picked it up and put it into the net.

… The remainder of the game was pretty even, with both teams getting solid chances to put it away. The shootout was a foregone conclusion by the half-way mark of the extra minutes. In the shootout, Hasek stood out and looked very confident. Bryzgalov was lucky he wasn’t scored on before Hudler roofed the game winner.

…. I didn’t think Henrik Zetterberg had one of his better games. He made a number of poor decisions with the puck, especially in his own end, and generally wasn’t consistent. He had a few really great plays, but I didn’t find him all that impressive, to be honest.

… Pavel Datsyuk, on the other hand, really stood out. He looked as smooth as ever and I didn’t notice any glaring mistakes.

… Valtteri Filppula also had a solid game. He’s maturing very quickly and it’s great to see.

… I noticed a few defensive lapses on Rafalski’s part, but his offensive instincts are very good and it’s looking like he’s going to be big on the power play. He’s a strong and creative passer that just needs to be sure he gets in position defensively.

… Like I wrote above, overall, I thought it was a good start for the Wings. It would have been nice to have seen them pull out the win in regulation, but I’m just glad they beat the Ducks.

On Saturday, they’ll pay a visit to old friends such as Robert Lang and Jason Williams in Chicago.

Be sure to check out Bill’s thoughts on the game.