I’ll be part of the FanHouse panel liveblogging the Wings/Sharks game night if you want to stop by.
If you’re like me and you watched the Wings lose to the Ducks last night, you’re probably not looking forward to this one. That’s for a couple reasons.
It’s not much of a stretch to say that as well as the Wings have played offensively, they’ve played at the opposite end of the spectrum defensively so far this season. For whatever reason, what looked like the best defensive corps in hockey on paper prior to the season has not produced on the ice. The forward units also aren’t contributing defensively like they were last year and it’s led to some unnecessarily close games.
Some theories as to the cause of this are bouncing around online Hockeytown, and I tend to lean toward blaming Brad McCrimmon (and by extension Todd McClellan for leaving) when I’m at my most pessimistic. Other times, I mark it down to early season rustiness. Time will tell which it is, or whether it’s some combination of the two. The defensive issues make going up against Joe Thornton and Company less than appealing.
Compounding that out-standing issue will be the fatigue the team has to feel today after what looked like a very tiring match with a very rough Anaheim team. The game would have been hard enough to follow up had it not turned into a penalty fest, with the Wings acting as the pinata. So, because of the ridiculous NHL schedule, the Wings have to go up against their only real rival in the West with less than a day’s rest from playing the roughest team in the conference and having to kill off penalties seemingly all game.
It will be a nice test of their stamina, but don’t be too surprised if it goes badly. And don’t read too much into it if it does. However unpleasant it may get tonight, it doesn’t matter.
If they win handily (or otherwise), the Sharks will simply get more early validation of their own inflated sense of self and the hockey world will once again be all a-flutter for the Sharks (”This year, the Sharks are the team to beat!”), as it has been every season for about a decade now. Come May, the headlines will read: “What went wrong in San Jose.”
Meanwhile, regardless of the outcome, the Wings will go on to finish their trip, return home, and right the defensive ship before going on to do what they do best: win when it counts.
On the topic of Wings defensive woes, it’s mostly been a community effort. Lidstrom’s playing the worst he has in a decade, Rafalski’s being exploited whenever he’s not with Lidstrom, and Stuart’s playing like a third-pair defenceman. Lilja’s the only one playing well so far, and that’s probably just because he’s playing against third and fourth line scrubs instead of the quality opposition he faced most of last season.
Draper, Cleary, and Hudler have all been terrible defensively. Might not be surprised by Hudler, but Draper and especially Cleary were supposed to be good at this stuff. That third line has been brutalized, and anyone who played on it has been brutalized, and it’s not just because of the defencemen they play with. Zetterberg’s been unbelievable offensively (over 5 gf/60 at even strength, and that number probably went up last night), but consider that when he’s off the ice, the Wings give up the fewest even strength goals. Franzen’s probably been worse than Zetterberg.
And the goaltending has been bad bad bad. And all that is why I’m not too worried about it in the long term. The incredible success of the first line shows that it hasn’t been a failure of the Wings’ system, just a failure of the Wings’ players. So many players have a lot of room for improvement, and most of them aren’t likely to play any worse than they’re playing now. I can’t give you a reason for it, but I’m confident it’ll even out before long.
The goaltending has been incredibly spotty, but it’s not all their fault. The defense is letting them down on all fronts. Every time I see Lidstrom on the penalty kill he’s just stands their as the puck goes in. The 4th and 3rd lines are playing terribly defensively and offensively.
The whole system seems to me to rely on the fact Osgood or Conklin on average will let 1 goal in for every 10 shots on average. Detroit is bleeding penalties and turn overs, and barely out shooting their opponents. They’ve got the highest Goals allowed in the league.