Update (10:45 PM): I don’t want to make this into a diatribe against the officials, but this is too much: Coyotes take 2-1 lead on a goal by Derek Morris, with a Phoenix forward in Hasek’s face. No call. The inconsistency there is staggering. - Matt
Update (10:30 PM): I’ve officially lost all faith in the officiating of the National Hockey League. The goaltender interference* call on Tomas Holmstrom at 9:13 of the first period was perhaps the worst call I’ve ever seen. Not only did it send Holmstrom to the box for doing absolutely nothing wrong, it robbed the Wings of a goal by Henrik Zetterberg. What a load of BS. I’m completely disgusted.
*It’s listed in the boxscore as “interference,” but that makes even less sense. - Matt
Tonight is the first of four games between these two teams this season. The Wings swept the series last year, 4-0. They’ll wrap things up with two games in December and one in January.
After winning their opener, a 3-2 decision over St. Louis, the Coyotes dropped two in a row. The first was to Boston, 3-1, and then they were shut out by Columbus, 3-0. They came back after losing to the Jackets with a 6-3 win over the Predators in Nashville on the 11th. In the two games since, they’ve lost both times. Both were at home and both were to Northwest Division opponents, the Wild (3-2) and Oilers (4-2). Tonight is the last of a four-game homestand, but they’ll only hit the road for one game, a match-up with the Ducks on Thursday, before returning to Phoenix.
The team has five players with four points, of which Fredrik Sjostrom has the most goals with three. Their 14 goals-for is less than half of the league leader, Toronto (29). They can take some solace in the fact that they are not too near the bottom in goals allowed, with 18 (Atlanta has allowed 30).
The Coyotes have divided goaltending duties between three men this year: David Aebischer (1 game), Alex Auld (3 games), and Mikael Tellqvist (2 games). Tellqvist has not played since the 6th, so it does not seem likely he’ll get the start tonight. Aebischer played in the team’s loss to Columbus, but Auld has been the guy since, with three games in a row. It looks like he’ll be the one tonight.
Tonight’s game is the last of a four-game road trip in which the Wings have posted a 2-1 record thus far. They kicked things off with a 4-1 win over LA on Sunday and followed that up with a penalty-filled 6-3 loss to Anaheim the next night. They were able to rebound with a solid 4-2 win over San Jose Thursday night, however, and because of that, have already had a more successful trip than usual. They get two home games this week (Canucks and Sharks) before embarking on a three-game Western Canada trip next week.
The team’s leading scorer remains Henrik Zetterberg, whose 15 points leads the league. Hank leads the team in goals, as well, with 6. The Wings have put up 27 goals this season, which is good for second in the league, but have allowed 22, which just shows they have holes to plug defensively.
The Wings will be without Dallas Drake tonight as he was sent home to be with his family and rest up after having his face planted into a stanchion Thursday night by Kyle McLaren. Mikael Samuelsson will be returning to the lineup to give the Wings 12 forwards. Because of the Drake injury and the fact that Johan Franzen is still recovering from a knee sprain, the team’s two injury reserves, Matt Ellis and Aaron Downey, will remain in the lineup.
It is possible that Brian Rafalski may sit out tonight, despite reports that he is okay after receiving a knee-on-knee hit from Joe Thornton in San Jose. He did not practice yesterday and if his knee is not 100% today, Babcock may insert Derek Meech.
Dominik Hasek should get the start tonight after sitting out in San Jose following a bad showing against the Ducks.
The Wings need to be careful tonight not to take the Coyotes for granted. Sure, they’re struggling and already look to be headed for another bad season, but they’d love to catch Detroit napping at the end of a long road trip. The Wings need to have a better start than they had in San Jose and just play their game.
A reminder: the Coyotes jacked up their ticket prices (scroll down) just for this game (and their other home game against the Wings). The price change ranges from $75 to $8. They do this for no other games this season.
Babcock needs to talk to the league about all these BS penalties. I think this is three goals disallowed now through only 9 games. This game could very well be 2-0 Detroit right now going into the 1st intermission. I remember two years ago, a referee got fired for allowing a goal that was obviously kicked in, ever after video review. If a ref can get fired for allowing a blatant non-goal, the league must be able to do something about a ref disallowing an obviously legitimate goal.
Even the Phoenix radio announcers were saying how bad the penalty was and that Zetterberg was robbed of a goal. (They obviously weren’t too sad though.)
I’d love to see Babcock say something about the officiating, but he probably doesn’t want to be fined. They didn’t show his reaction on the FSN feed, so I’m inclined to believe he didn’t vent his anger too much.
I don’t remember a ref being fired, but I believe you. I wish the NHL would return to a place where they’d be willing to do that. It’s always frustrating when a goal gets waived off like that, but tonight was particularly bad, I thought.