On the Wings

With the help of some mediocre officiating and average play, the Wings fell to 3-1-1 last night, losing 3-2 to Chicago at home. It was the second game the team has lost to the Blackhawks this season and the second time they blew a two-goal lead to do it. It was a frustrating game, because it wasn’t the Wings’ best and it didn’t help that the officials chose to call some chintzy penalties against them while often letting the Hawks have their heads in contrast.

The Wings started out sloppy in their own end, but managed to prevent any real Chicago scoring chances. Going the other way, Brian Rafalski made a nice between-the-legs drop pass to Jiri Hudler that wowed more than it resulted in anything. For the first few minutes, there wasn’t a whole lot of offense.

The offense for Detroit began, oddly enough, on the penalty kill. With Niklas Kronwall in the box for interference, Nick Lidstrom and Kris Draper both had solid scoring opportunities. Draper’s came off a turnover in the middle of a Chicago line change, but unfortunately, he was unable to convert. In the other end, Jonathan Toews pirouetted through the crease and Dominik Hasek somehow kept the puck out of the net while his arm got run over. Dom was in a flopping mood from the start, but it was working.

There was a scary moment not long after the Kronwall penalty when Jiri Hudler was ridden into the Chicago bench door frame by a Blackhawk. Jiri hit with his right hip and landed on his side, but got up soon enough and play continued. Dangerous situation, that’s for sure.

Brent Sopel opened the scoring at 7:26 of the first when Henrik Zetterberg took a pass from Tomas Holmstrom along the left wing boards, just about on the goalline. Hank centered the puck, and Sopel angled his skate just the right way to redirect the puck into the net. Fortunately, when the opposition does it, the goal isn’t waived off. I assume it must have been Pavel Datsyuk Zetterberg was just aiming for, but it’s so much more funny to have Sopel score on his own team, eh?

For the next minute or so, play was end to end. Then Nikolai Khabibulin put the Wings ahead 2-0. Kris Draper took a heavy shot from 53 feet out and Khabibulin managed to slow it down about 90% by nearly trapping it with his arm. The puck kept heading to the net, however, but it might have stopped had Khabibulin not tried to knock it out out of the crease with his blocker hand. As he fell back to do that, his hand slipped with the puck under it and he put it in the net, just before Dan Cleary crashed in and knocked it off. The goal came at 9:05 of the first.

Following the goal, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Chris Chelios had a nice shift in the Chicago end, resulting in a drawn penalty. The subsequent power play was highlighted by a Lidstrom shot that rang off the post.

Minutes after the power play, Khabibulin coughed up the puck behind the net and Dallas Drake almost made a play to one of his linemates, which would have made it 3-0.

At 13:11, Tomas Holmstrom was called for goaltender interference when he knocked over a Chicago defenseman on to Khabibulin. It was all in an effort to get to the rebound off a heavy Zetterberg shot that had been stopped by the Blackhawk goaltender. Homer did get to the rebound and did knock it in, but he had already committed the penalty so the “goal” was waived off. The power play than followed was dominated by Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, who were unable to score despite a couple of great chances.

I noticed Holmstrom the forecheck not long after that. He did a great job, which seemed a little weird, to be honest.

After a period of end-to-end hockey, there was a strange sequence of events in the Detroit end. With the Red Wing forwards headed out of the zone on a breakout, the Chicago forecheckers somehow forced a turnover. Lebda lost his stick, then Chelios fell, and Jason Williams found himself all alone with his old teammate, Dominik Hasek. Rather than sit there, Dom came out and dove across Williams’ path, knocking the puck away, but getting called for tripping in the process. I guess whether or not it was a penalty is debatable, but as it was, it was a good one to take, because it short-circuited a gift-wrapped scoring chance and the team was able to kill off the Chicago power play that followed. It was a penalty kill not without it’s tense moments, however, as Patrick Sharp whistled a shot over the net, and Patrick Kane hit the post.

At 19:47, Dallas Drake had his third fight of the season and second against the Blackhawks. This time, it was with Adam Barish, and Drake got the upper hand when Barish hopped to make a punch and then fell. Not sure what triggered the fight, but Barish got up with a smile on his face and there didn’t seem to be any lingering animosity.

The first few minutes of the second were sloppy and choppy. Draper and Maltby each had a nice scoring chance early on, but Khabibulin made the necessary saves. There was an awkward collision behind the Chicago net between Matt Ellis and James Wisniewski where the Blackhawk went feet first ito the endboards and somehow managed not to break both his legs. Perhaps coming to his teammate’s defense, Andrei Zyuzin saw fit to hold Ellis to the ice and received a penalty as a result. The power play was uneventful.

At 8:08, Burish went all out to draw a penalty on Lebda when he found the defenseman’s stick between his legs. He kept on skating hard and fell flat on his face, but got the call. Sometimes, that tactic seems just a shade or two away from diving. Andreas Lilja didn’t help matters when he took an “interference” penalty at 9:33. I say “interference” because it should have another name, preferably an obscenity describing someone monumentally stupid. This was no standard interference penalty, folks. Our glorious Fourth Defenseman saw fit to knock an abandoned stick into the path of a Chicago shooter. Not only is such a move illegal, but that stick was Draper’s and he was just about to pick it back up before Lilja decided to shoot it away. I’m sorry, but I don’t see any rational justification for the continued presence of Andreas Lilja in the lineup. The man evidently cannot find it in himself to play well unless he is either in competition for a spot, or covering for an injury such as he did in last year’s playoffs. He’s too comfortable and needs a shaking up.

Anyway, the Wings killed off both penalties, but the Hawks were starting to assert themselves in earnest. They took a penalty at 15:10, however, and would have had to put their comeback attempts on hold for two minutes had the ref not called Hudler for holding the stick at 17:03. At 17:33, the Hawks got on the board. While on the power play, a flurry developed out front, with Patrick Kane getting 3-4 whacks at the puck while Hasek made snow angels and the Wings’ defense watched, dumbstruck. Soon enough, Sharps swept in and flipped the puck over Hasek to make it 2-1.

A minute later, the Blackhawks tied it on an even more frustrating goal. Brent Seabrook threw the puck at the net from 1,000 feet out (really it was 66 feet). It floated between defensemen and forwards before gliding over Hasek’s right shoulder. It was not deflected or even screened too badly, but Hasek must not have seen it until the last second, based on his body language. And just like that, the Wings’ lead was gone.

Valtteri Filppula started the third period with Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom. They had a good shift and were followed up by Henrik Zetterberg, Dan Cleary, and Mikael Samuelsson.

At 2:20, Chris Chelios was called for holding. Evidentally, playing defense is a penalty these days, as Chelios did nothing remotely illegal on the play as he angled Sergei Samsonov around the back of the net. Worst call of the night. The Hawks looked pretty sharp on the power play there, but the Wings held them off. Chicago kept on swarming afterwards, though, and the Wings began to look to be a little bit in trouble.

Zetterberg and Hudler had a couple great scoring chances at the other end around the 5:50 mark, but Khabibulin was a combination of lucky and sharp, and made the stops. Kirk Maltby stole the puck on a nice play while on the forecheck, but nothing developed. Just another piece of evidence to show people who don’t think he has any value these days.

After some end-to-end hockey, Lilja took another penalty. This time, it wasn’t his fault, as Rene Bourque’s stick fell apart in his hands when Lilja’s happened to be on top of it. It must have broken just before that somehow, with the contact with Lilja’s stick doing it in. The official was looking the other way at the time, but when he looked back, he saw a broken stick and a big Red Wing defenseman and naturally assumed Lilja must have hacked his way through that rock-solid composite stick with all the rage of a berserker. If only. Second worst penalty of the night.

This time, the Wings paid for it. After a couple setups were thwarted, Robert Lang (curse him) put his new team up a goal. Our old friend unleashed a shot that must have contained all the resentment and hate built up over two seasons under Mike Babcock’s thumb, a shot that slammed into Hasek’s shoulder, popped up, over, and into the net. As Mickey Redmond said, it was an example of putting the puck through a goalie rather than around him. It would have been nice to have seen a few more of those when you were in Detroit, Robert. 3-2 Chicago at 9:19.

At 9:41, Martin Lapointe demonstrated great hand-eye coordination when he intercepted a clearing pass in mid-air and redirected it into the stands. After a brief debate, the Wings were awarded a power play for Marty’s delay-of-game. It wasn’t such a great power play, with the highlight being the spectacular shattering of Brian Rafalski’s stick at a key moment (when else do they break?).

Khabibulin continued to instill confidence in Red Wings fans everywhere throughout the period, beginning with a play in which he couldn’t handle a Tomas Kopecky shot and ended up giving out a monster rebound. Unfortunately, the Wings had trouble following up on plays all night and weren’t about to improve in the third. Pavel Datsyuk had a nice chance on a Khabibulin gaffe, but nothing came of the flurry that followed.

Hasek, apparently bored at losing by only one goal, took a stroll in the last five minutes of the game. He lost the puck and Patrick Sharp nearly scored, but shot it wide of the empty net.

In the final minutes of the game, the Blackhawks largely controlled play, with their offense keeping the Detroit defense awake and their defense doing a solid job of shutting down the Red Wing forwards. Patrick Sharp, in particular, stood out late in the game as he stole the puck from Datsyuk a couple times and was generally looking like a beast out there.

The Wings devolved into a dump-and-chase style near the end. Nick Lidstrom attempted to take command of the game by becoming heavily involved in the offense. He ended up as low as the bottom of the circles a couple times, but couldn’t do anything beyond generate chances.

Babcock tried to pull Hasek with a minute left, but Dom ended up staying in net as the puck headed his way. The Hawks iced the puck at 19:13 and the Wings called a timeout. Pavel Datsyuk beat Robert Lang on the draw, but the puck ended up frozen by Khabibulin at 19:22. Perrault beat Datsyuk on the next faceoff, but took a penalty with about 15 seconds left. Although the Hawks touched almost immediately, the whistle was not blown until 19:49. The Wings had come close to scoring in the flurry that led to the Perrault penalty. The Hawks took their timeout at this time. The Wings won the faceoff, but the puck was cleared and time ran out. 3-2 Hawks final.

One comment about the crowd: the atmosphere in that final minute at the Joe was great. The fans were on their feet and cheering, hoping to see their team come back. It was nice to see.

Anyway, not the Wings’ greatest game. For some reason, they bring out the best in the Hawks, but can’t find it in themselves to match that intensity. They were fortunate to get the two goals they did, but once they were up by two, they should have held the lead. The Blackhawks are obviously not pushovers any more, but blowing leads in two games is not acceptable. The officiating wasn’t great, but they still had the game in hand and could have walked out of there with a win if they’d just held defensively.

Next up, they face the Kings in LA as they kick off a four-game West Coast trip.