On the Wings

Update (3:48 PM): HockeyTownTodd has some great stuff in the comment he left below. The stats he gives are not encouraging. - Matt

The Wings dropped their second straight intra-divisional game last night, losing 4-3 to the St. Louis Blues. Their 40 minutes of decent hockey bookended a second period in which the Blues not only stormed back from a two-goal deficit, but took a two-goal lead of their own. Detroit controlled the play in the first, for the most part, but allowed the Blues to get back into the game in the second. By the third, both teams were playing pretty well, with the Blues just beating back the Wings efforts at a comeback.

… Jiri Hudler stood out again as having a good game. He finished with two assists and was heavily involved in the offense. His helper on Valtteri Filppula’s goal was particularly nice. His confidence is way up and you get the feeling something’s going to happen when he has the puck.

… Dan Cleary also continues to play well. His goal in the first period was a great one and he caused trouble the rest of the night.

… I thought Niklas Kronwall had one of the best games of his career. He finished with 25:07 in ice time and two assists. He looked extremely confident in both ends of the ice. Perhaps it was a relief to be cut loose a bit without Andreas Lilja as his partner.

… Henrik Zetterberg’s point streak ended at 17 games. The last time he was shut out? February 8, 2007 against the Blues. Manny Legace was the goalie that night, too. He did have six shots, which is something, I guess.

… I didn’t think Pavel Datsyuk had a particularly good night. He scored a bit of a fluke goal, but wasn’t much of a factor aside from that. The Blues did a good job of silencing him.

… Derek Meech filled in ably tonight. He’s a steady young defenseman. I like the idea of Babcock using him every once in a while. I think Lilja plays better hockey when he gets the idea his job isn’t guaranteed.

… Manny Legace recovered rather nicely from the Wings first two goals. Good for him, if it was bad for the Wings.

… The loss does not rest entirely on the shoulders of Dominik Hasek, but he gets a hefty share of the blame. He had no chance on the first goal and was interfered with on the third, but he should have stopped the 2nd and 3rd. You can blame the second on a defensive breakdown (it was really just a nice breakout by the Blues), but Dom has to make that save. That’s why he’s in Detroit. I don’t know what the heck happened on the fourth goal, but that should have been a routine save, heavy shot or not.

Dom wasn’t on top of his game last night and Babcock made the right decision to pull him. When the Wings skaters are being outplayed by their opponents, the goaltender is supposed to give them a lift, particularly when that goaltender is Domink Hasek. Didn’t happen last night.

… The Wings kept the Blues away from Chris Osgood for the most part, but Ozzie looked sharp when needed.

… The team has until Saturday to get back on track and I hope they can because they’re facing Chicago again that night.

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