On the Wings

Update (2:41 PM): George Malik has posted his Wings-Oilers wrap-up at Snapshots. - Matt

The Wings lost to the Oilers 4-3 in a shoot out last night in one of the least exciting games of the season. Neither team played all that well, but Detroit looked particularly flat and were lucky to get a point. Edmonton played a high-energy, physical game and the Wings were unable to do much of anything on their own terms. They did outshoot the Oilers 42-25, which I suppose is something.

… Dominik Hasek made 22 saves, but I didn’t think this was his best game.

On Edmonton’s first goal, he was too far out of the net and he gave up just enough of a rebound off the Sheldon Souray lob that Ales Hemsky had an easy time of it putting the puck in.

He had no chance on the Joni Pitkanen goal, which was just a nice play and an unstoppable shot.

On the third goal, however, he was not holding the post when Sam Gagner made a nice pass to Fernando Pisani out front. Despite the fact that Brett Lebda was draped all over him, Pisani had a relatively easy time of it putting the puck over Dom’s right shoulder.

In  the shootout, Dom made a solid save on a tricky Gagner, but was beaten blocker-side by a straight-up shot by Hemsky. I don’t blame him for the loss, not by a long shot, but it looks like he’s still got a kink or two to work out.

There was a bad moment in the third period when Shawn Horcoff drove to the net, lost his footing, and slide skate-first into Hasek’s chest. It was immediately evident that Dom was hurt on the play and when FSN zoomed in on his face, he looked to be in some serious pain. Chris Osgood immediately got ready to go in and was about to step on the ice when Hasek got up, seemingly none the worse for wear.  Even with Chris Osgood playing as well as he has, an injury to Hasek is one of the last things the Wings need. They dodged a bullet there.

… Mark Hartigan scored his first goal as a Red Wing in just his second game. It came as a bit of a surprise, as the play looked harmless enough, but Roloson dropped his shoulder and gave the AHL call-up just enough space to squeeze the puck through. It was more bad goaltending than anything else. I’m glad he scored, but I’m going to go on record as saying I don’t like Mark Hartigan. My fiancé and her best friend are experts on the Griffins and they have nothing good to say about the guy and because I’ve learned to trust their judgment on all things Griffins, I’m not signing up for the Mart Hartigan Fan Club.

… Henrik Zetterberg scored two goals and tied the game up both times, but I did not think it was his best game. Too many poor decisions with the puck, in my opinion, not the least of which was his decision to rip a slap shot in the shootout. However, he was more noticeable than Pavel Datsyuk, who was mostly neutralized by the Oilers, though he did, at least, come close to beating Roloson in the shootout.

… The Eurotwins played some with Mikael Samuelsson last night, but had more success with Dan Cleary. Sammy’s hit one of the worst dry patches of his time here in Detroit. Valtteri Filppula finished with 19:45 in ice time, but remains all but completely ineffective. I don’t know what it’s going to take to get those two going.

… Aaron Downey was twice the victim of some Academy Award-worthy acting on the part of  Dwayne Roloson as he received two penalties for bumping the Edmonton goaltender. He made contact on both occasions, but was pushed into him by the Oiler defense each time. Still, it’s not characteristic of Downey to put himself in that kind of position, which is further evidence that the Wings were off their game last night.

… Even Nick Lidstrom looked a little off last night, as he was beaten by the Oiler speed at least a couple times and just did not look as smooth as he does normally.

… The Wings need to figure out a different power play strategy for times when Tomas Holmstrom is out of the lineup. No one else on the team can come close to doing what Homer does and when they try for the same plan of attack on the man-advantage despite his absence, that fact is never more obvious.

… I hate it when teams play for the shootout like the Oilers did last night. They hardly tried to score in overtime, despite the fact that they had a couple solid chances.  Their shootout record may look pretty impressive, but really it’s pathetic, as they’ve had to rely on a gimic to get nine wins. They have just six wins not tainted by the shootout, while the Wings have 19.

… The Wings have notched at least a point in each of their last nine games, but they were fortunate to get the last three. In Nashville, they barely held on and emerged with a win and at home last night, they were outplayed by the NHL’s youngest team. Hopefully they’ll fare better against one of the League’s worst, Washington, Florida tomorrow.

Links

• Highlights
• HockeyTownTodd
• Red Wings TV interviews
  • Dominik Hasek
  • Henrik Zetterberg
  • Mike Babcock
• Media roundup at Snapshots