On the Wings

Because I did not take notes on the game last night, I’m going to skip the full recap and jump right into the preview for tonight’s game, with some thoughts on the win over LA included. Be sure to check out Dave’s recap over at Gorilla Crouch.

Tonight is the second of four games between Detroit and Anaheim this season. The Wings won the first game, 3-2 in a shootout on October 3rd. The loser of this game will have to wait until January 23rd to get revenge.

Since losing to the Wings, the Ducks have posted a 1-3-0 record. They lost on October 5th to the Blue Jackets and fell to the Penguins the next night before rebounding with a win over Boston on October 10th. They were shut out by the Minnesota Wild last night, losing 2-0. Needless to say, it has not been an auspicious start for the defending Stanley Cup Champions.

The Ducks had one player return to the lineup last night, but lost another to injury. JS Giguere made his debut and posted 23 saves, but Todd Bertuzzi took a hit from Derek Boogaard and did not return. The LA Times is reporting that Bertuzzi suffered a concussion, but it’s also possible that his back was re-injured on the play.

Giguere should get his second straight start tonight.

The Wings have gone 3-1-1 since beating the Ducks in their opener. Both loses came to Chicago, 4-3 in a shootout on the 6th and 3-2 in regulation on the 12th. They beat Edmonton (4-2) and Calgary (4-2) between their loses. Last night, they beat a weak LA team, 4-1. The Kings, while dangerous offensively, struggle in their own end and they were saved from a blowout by a combination of dumb luck, the at times average play of the Red Wings, and the play of their 19-year-old goalie, Jonathan Bernier. The Kings’ ineptitude with can be seen in the fact that they were credited with 27 giveaways last night, compared to the Wings’ 10. It was really quite pathetic how easy it was for the Wings to strip the puck. In the other hand, the Wings had a little too much trouble with a team they should have steamrolled. The Kings offense forced Osgood to make a number of big stops and the Wings at times narrowly escaped losing their lead.

The big line of Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, and Tomas Holmstrom stood out in a big way again last night, posting 8 of the teams 9 points. They continue to make it difficult to justify separating the line into two. Bill at Abel to Yzerman says we need to think of a name for the line. Any ideas?

Mikael Samuelsson was out with a groin injury and his replacement, Aaron Downey, helped spark the Wings’ fourth line to an impressive showing. Matt Ellis, Dallas Drake, and Downey gave the Kings fits, especially in the first period, and showed great chemistry. There’s a possibility that Samuelsson could return to the ice tonight, but if he doesn’t, the Wings will have a great energy line to create headaches for the Ducks.

Dominik Hasek will start tonight. It’s a bit of an odd choice, given that he won’t be able to go through is full pre-game regimen because the team won’t have their normal pre-game practice, having played last night.

This is the Wings’ first big test of the season. The Ducks are struggling at the moment, but they’ll be on their home turf and didn’t have to fly across the country to get there. The Wings generally don’t do well on back-to-back games in general, and seem to have special trouble when out West. They’ll be in trouble if they start taking a lot of penalties because of fatigue. Hopefully, the early start last night will have helped them settle in out there. Should be an interesting game.