On the Wings

The Detroit Red Wings started the postseason off on the right foot last night as they skated to a 3-1 win over the Nashville Predators. Statisically, the Wings dominated, but the reality was somewhat different. Nashville was able to keep it close until the third period.

Johan Franzen opened the scoring following a long shift in which he and his linemates at the time, Dan Cleary and Jiri Hudler, had the Predators scrambling. After about three clearing attempts by the tired Nashville players, Cleary ended up with the puck behind the goalline.

He sent it out to Niklas Kronwall on the left point. Kronwall threw it back and on its way there it was tipped by Hudler. Cleary took a swipe at it, but it hit a body and fell to the front of the net. Nashville goalie Dan Ellis had reacted to this initial shot and was positioned on the right side of the net. Franzen pounced on the puck and knifed it into the open side to make it 1-0 Wings at 5:58.

The Predators did not respond with a goal of their own until 17:47 of the second period. It came just after a Nashville rush-and-dump-in. Chris Chelios stopped the puck along the near-side boards, but his clearing attempt was stopped by Greg Zanon, who threw it toward the net. The puck went off Jordin Tootoo about 30 feet out and beat Dominik Hasek 5-hole.

The Wings regained the lead at 6:54 of the third on a bit of a fluke play. It began when Henrik Zetterberg sent the puck up to Pavel Datsyuk along the near boards at center. Datsyuk chased it into the Nashville zone where Shea Weber got to it first and attempted to knock it out across the blueline.

The puck instead hit the linesman, who was standing on the blueline, and the play was by default ruled onside by the fact that the official was too busy flinching to make the call. Weber went at it again, but his stick was knocked down by a latecoming Zetterberg. The puck ended up in Datsyuk’s possession as Zetterberg headed to the opposite wing, inadvertently tripping Weber in the process with his stick. With Weber out of the play, Datsyuk slid the puck across and Zetterberg one-timed it into the net to make it 2-1.

Two interesting points about this play. First, there’s the obvious question of whether or not it was onside. Replays on FSN weren’t conclusive (to me anyway), but the point was made that the linesman who was hit by the puck was the only guy who could have made the call and he was busy flinching. At best, the puck hit  the onside side (so to speak) of his body when he was straddling the line. At worst, his body was just outside the zone. Either way, it was a lucky bounce and a fair return for the Predators’ goal, I think.

The other interesting point was the fact that Henrik Zetterberg got away with an obvious trip. 9 times out of 10, a penalty is called there. I’m not sure how that was missed. It was the second time in the game Hank got away with a pretty obvious trip (the other coming in the first period).

Zetterberg closed out the scoring at 19:41 of the third with an empty netter. It came off a neutral zone face-off and was a bit of a gift from Barry Trotz. After putting Ellis back in for the faceoff, the Nashville coach pulled him again at the last second and left the net open. It was a gamble that did not pay off.

The game was split between long periods of Red Wing puck possession that were occasionally broken up by lengthy shifts of sustained pressure in the Wings’ zone by the Predators. The Predators did not get many shots in these shifts, as evidenced by their final shot total, but the pressure was at times significant. The Erat-Bonk-Radulov line was particularly effective at making the Detroit defense scramble. The Hlavac-Arnott-Dumont line, on the other hand, was largely neutralized by Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Holmstrom.

Niklas Kronwall caused a stir at 12:54 of the third when he made the ill-advised decision to step up and hit Rich Peverley while the Wings were on the power play. The hit was devastating and got the crowd excited, but put Kronwall in the penalty box for elbowing. Replays showed that it was Kronwall’s shoulder that hit Peverly squarely on the chin in a hit similar to the famous Scott Stevens hits at center. Peverley was, fortunately, none the worse for wear.

Dominik Hasek was very strong. He was actively involved in the play and seemed to be on top of his game. When the media spoke to him afterward, the disappointment that he only faced 20 shots seemed evident in his voice.

Dan Ellis was also very strong. I thought he looked a little shaky in the first period, but he seemed to settle down as the game went on. It helped, of course, that maybe half  of the Wings’ shots were longer and unscreened. They will need to do a better job of getting him moving side to side with low cycling in Game 2.

Aside from one hit in which he charged Tomas Holmstrom and left his feet, Jordin Tootoo was not as reckless as I was afraid he’d be last night. He did get into a few scrums with Darren McCarty, though. There is sure to be a full fight between those two before the series is over.

Speaking of charges, Jerred Smithson got away with one late in the first period when he hit Kris Draper high.

Mikael Samuelsson had a strong return from his groin injury, I thought. He registered eight shots, which lead all skaters, and looked pretty smooth with the puck.

Brian Rafalski, on the other hand, did not look so strong. Evidently, sitting out the 82nd game was not helpful to him.

I was a little skeptical of the decision to play McCarty over Aaron Downey, but it worked. Mac did a good job of policing.

Tomas Holmstrom had a very strong game. He was all over the place and looked like his old Demolition Man self.

Henrik Zetterberg had a strong third period as he seemed to take it upon himself to win the game whenever he was on the ice. His play on the empty-netter was very emphatic.

I also thought Valtteri Filppula looked strong. He had a good playoffs last season and if last night was any indication, he’ll have a repeat performance this year as well.

Jiri Hudler looked confident with the puck. Perhaps he’ll have a good postseason to make up for his awful regular season.

Brad Stuart wasn’t anything special in his return to the lineup. Nothing negative to say about him, really, but nothing too positive, either.

Johan Franzen was his usual self. He still has the hot stick.

All in all, a good start for the Wings. As Hasek said after the game, it was good to get the first win out of the way. They have some things they could improve upon, such as adjusting their offensive strategy, and better passing in their own zone, but overall there isn’t much to complain about. They’ve set the bar and they just have to keep getting over it.

The Predators don’t have to change much for Game 2. Their strategy seems to be to forecheck hard and rely on Ellis to save them in the other end. Given that the kid made 38 37 saves last night and the game was close down to the last minute, I’d say their strategy worked pretty well.

They did lose a key piece of their forward corps in Scott Nichol, however. He went down with an arm injury in the first period. They managed to cope without him for the remainder of the game, but it remains to be seen what effect his absence will have in Game 2, if he can’t make it back.

Links

Behind the Jersey liveblog

Bruce MacLeod

Gorilla Crouch

PredJoe

On the Forecheck

James Mirtle

Highlights