Comments on: Wings 2, Blackhawks 3

By: GameDay: vs. Chicago (40-33-8, 88 Pts) 12:30 ET at On the Wings

GameDay: vs. Chicago (40-33-8, 88 Pts) 12:30 ET at On the Wings — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 15:13:12 +0000

[...] lead the season series 5-2 with wins October 6th (4-3 SO), October 12th (3-2), November 11th (3-2), November 17th (5-3) and March 2nd (6-2). The Wings won the January 6th (3-1) and March 11th (3-1) [...]

By: GameDay: @ Chicago (38-33-8, 84 Pts) 8:30 ET at On the Wings

GameDay: @ Chicago (38-33-8, 84 Pts) 8:30 ET at On the Wings — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 11:00:30 +0000

[...] the season series 4-2 with wins with wins October 6th (4-3 SO), October 12th (3-2), November 11th (3-2), and November 17th (5-3). The Wings won the last two meetings, 3-1 on January 6th, and 3-1 again [...]

By: GameDay: @ Chicago (19-18-3, 41 Pts) 7:00 ET at On the Wings

GameDay: @ Chicago (19-18-3, 41 Pts) 7:00 ET at On the Wings — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:12:37 +0000

[...] The Hawks lead the series 4-0, with wins October 6th (4-3 SO), October 12th (3-2), November 11th (3-2), and November 17th (5-3). The remaining three games will be played on March 11th, April 2nd, and [...]

By: Matt Saler

Matt Saler — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:41:08 +0000

Firebettman,

I didn’t notice Lilja having a particularly bad game. Yes, he was caught without a stick a few times, but the fault for the goals rests on more than just his shoulders. I remember Zetterberg being in prime position to prevent the first goal and a couple people failed to clear on the other.

HockeyTownTodd,

Yes, I did notice Pavel’s lack of takeaways, every time he went in to strip the puck but failed. It was definitely unusual.

The Wings generally are awful at dump-and-chase. There’s something about that whole “chase” part that is too much. They would have had even more trouble than usual with that style given the Hawks’ hustle.

The Wings’ passing was off the whole night and, when you play a possession style game, bad passing screws things up. A lot of it had to do with the Hawks standing up on the blueline, but everyone from Lidstrom on down was making bad passes 2/3 of the time.

By: GameDay: @ St. Louis (7-7-0, 14 Pts) 7:30 ET at On the Wings

GameDay: @ St. Louis (7-7-0, 14 Pts) 7:30 ET at On the Wings — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 10:49:28 +0000

[...] Register « Wings 2, Blackhawks 3 [...]

By: firebettman

firebettman — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:52:55 +0000

“Out of line”??? calm down. I didn’t blame Lilja for Chicago’s success… I just said that he made bad mistakes that helped lead to Chicago’s goals. If he would have cleared that puck like he should have on the one goal, Chicago wouldn’t have scored. He also seems to lose his stick quite often, which hurt him both times on those goals. I don’t know how you can overlook that… re-watch the game and you’ll see it plain and clear.
Overall though, the whole team is to blame… they definitely weren’t on their “A” game.

By: HockeyTownTodd

HockeyTownTodd — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 19:08:24 +0000

Chicago was very good on the boards last night (again), and the wings spent an awful lot of time chasing. Anyone notice Datsyuk’s take aways were missing from this game. Hawks were very efficient at stopping the rush in center ice, and the wings are not used to so much center ice play. Why they didn’t change to a little dump and chase after failing to make the blueline 17 times is one of Babblecocks weak points. Wings are seeing crappy calls in 2/3 of the games and overcoming them. The failures I mentioned above had nothing to do with the Officiating.

With Lang gone, Lilja has become the scapegoat for all the GM wannabees who fail to notice all the things he does right. I like Lilja, and the inexperinced hockey fan never notices all the mistakes leading up to him looking bad.

FireBettman: You are out of line blaming Lilja for Chicago’s success. Two of those goals were on the PP, and the PK’ers failed miserably on the boards and attempts to clear the puck. The 4 differnt PK forward pairings, are all usually adept at stopping the rush at center ice, not last night

Matt: St Louis is scary, gotta agree. But not because of the Windy city effort, it is just that Andy Murray can outcoach Babcock anytime.

By: firebettman

firebettman — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:05:42 +0000

I’ll add that Lilja had a TERRIBLE game. And after last year’s playoffs, I was just getting excited about his play and reliability. On two of the goals scored, he didn’t have his stick… having a stick could have helped prevent both of them. And on one of the goals, it was his responsibility to clear the puck out of the zone and he didn’t… it just made it to the blue line and the Hawks kept the puck in… leading to Lilja losing his stick and thus, a goal.
I was impressed with Filpulla’s and Kopecky’s play last night… there was one play where Fil hashed it out behind the Hawks net for like 3 minutes with multiple guys trying to knock him off the puck, but he prevailed and came away with the puck and I think there may have been a scoring chance out of it.

I’ll agree on the officiating last night… way too many weak calls and some obvious missed ones. Let them play and get the calls right!! I feel like I’m saying this after every game now.

Oh well, one loss after such a great streak was bound to happen… it just scares me that we have lost so many games to the Hawks.

GO WINGS!!!!!!!!