Update (09. Jan, 3:55 PM): Corrected Denis Savard’s name below. - Matt
Unfortunately, I don’t have much time today, so this will be brief.
… It was good to see the Wings exorcise that demon last night. You could tell from the onset that the game wasn’t going to be a repeat of their four losses to Chicago. They came out looking determined to put to rest any doubts about their ability to take care of the Hawks and looked nothing like a team that had played a pretty hard-fought game the day before. They had an energy normally reserved for games following a two- or three-day rest.
… Henrik Zetterberg’s goal at :50 of the first period was a thing of beauty, as was the play that set it up. However, you have to wonder what the heck Chicago was thinking to let Hank sneak in completely uncovered like that. I mean, he dishes the puck off to Jiri Hudler at the blueline and suddenly all eyes are on the little Czech. Then Jiri passes it across to Andreas Lilja and all five Hawk skaters turn to watch the most defensive defenseman in Detroit, while Zetterberg skates in completely unmolested. A nice Swede-to-Swede pass later and Hank is netting his 26th.
… Chris Osgood was strong once again and very much deserved the shutout. It’s a real shame he didn’t get it.
… Dan Cleary’s looking like a goal-scorer again. I hope he can keep it up when Tomas Holmstrom returns and he’s not a lock to play with Zetterberg or Pavel Datsyuk.
… Who knew Nikolai Khabibulin was so vicious? Tomas Kopecky joined Tomas Holmstrom and Martin Lapointe in the ranks of Red Wings who’ve had goalies freak out and attempt to make them eunuchs. How Khabibulin didn’t get booted is beyond me.
… Valtteri Filppula has returned to his habit of falling to the ice inexplicably. He also seemed to have trouble carrying the puck in open ice last night. Put him in a crowd and he’s suddenly a stickhandling genius, but give him space and the puck just falls off his stick.
… The Hawks never gave up last night, but the Wings never took their foot off the pedal, so it didn’t matter. Khabibulin was pulled late in the game and the Wings came close to putting it in the empty net twice before Chicago iced it with 30 seconds left. They then pulled Khabibulin again with 14 or so seconds left. Not sure what they were trying to accomplish there. Two goals in 14 seconds? It’s been done, but wasn’t exactly likely. Maybe it had something to do with Denis Savard’s idiotic comments yesterday.
… Again, it was good to see the Wings do what they should have done four times before: beat the Chicago Blackhawks. Now they can turn their attentions to another injury-depleted team, the Colorado Avalanche.
Links
- Highlights
- Snapshots wrap-up
- LetsGoWings
- Red Wings TV interviews
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