by true Citizens of Hockeytown
I have a post on today’s roster movement up over at the FanHouse.
One thing I forgot to mention in that post is that Bruce MacLeod lists Ty Conklin as the starter tonight against Montreal. This is in keeping with the goaltender rotation announced yesterday. For the record, I recant my comment about a goaltender controversy in this post. Garth argued me into a corner on that and then the news broke about the rotation.
Both Helene St. James and Ansar Khan report that Tomas Holmstrom has been sent home early so that he can undergo an MRI tomorrow. If it’s bad enough to send him back now, it doesn’t seem likely he’ll return to the lineup this week.
Helene St. James reports that Niklas Kronwall (ankle) will return to the lineup tomorrow after skating today in Calgary. This is great news since we all know Nik’s injury history. A game here and there is a fair return on all of those season-ending injuries he suffered prior to last year.
Tomas Holmstrom (back spams), on the other hand, will not play against the Flames. He’s still feeling the effects of having an Oiler fall on him Monday night, and told St. James that “[i]t feels like somebody stabbed a knife in the back.”
Derek Meech will get at least another game in the lineup, though this time he’ll suit up as a forward, apparently for the fourth line. This obviously neutralizes any hope of seeing Ville Leino or another Griffin join the forward corps, for now anyway.
It looks like Tomas Kopecky remained on the top line in practice today. Unfortunately, Jiri Hudler is still on the third line despite the fact that his recent offensive contributions have overshadowed Mikael Samuelsson’s.
It’s possible that the goaltending situation could be heading for a controversial patch, as Ansar Khan reports that Ty Conklin will start versus the Flames. It seems Mike Babcock may not feel Chris Osgood’s play improved enough over his break last week. Osgood will play Monday in Vancouver, however, so he’s not too deep in the doghouse; he’s just not the automatic starter at the moment. With the Wings shaping up defensively, Osgood needs to be careful to improve apace or he may be charting faceoffs more than he’d like.
Also, this is beyond my skill set, but the Official Blog has a contest going that you might find interesting if you’re capable in graphic design. The goal is to create an “I Voted” badge to be placed on sites by fans who cast votes for the six Red Wings who are on the All Star Game ballot. The prize is an autographed picture by the current Wing of your choice. The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, November 25th.
I have some commentary on the game over at FanHouse in the form of a Defending the Cup feature.
So reports Ansar Khan. No surprise there.
Update (3:40 PM): Ted Kulfan has some quotes on the move from Ken Holland. Its function is to allow the Wings to quickly clear up the cap space needed in a situation requiring the call-up of Jimmy Howard. - Matt
Update (1:51 PM): I’ve been distracted enough so far this season that it slipped my mind: Mac was waived last month as well. So, yeah, this is just an administrative move and one that is likely to keep happening throughout the season. - Matt
TSN reports that the Wings have put Darren McCarty on waivers.
With two players (Chris Chelios and Dan Cleary) still out with injuries and McCarty playing well over the past few games, it’s unlikely Mac will actually head to Grand Rapids if he goes unclaimed. This is a move to allow for flexibility once Cleary and Chelios do return. If he clears, McCarty can be sent down in the coming weeks without any hassle.
Others in the Wings blogosphere have noticed that the official team blog is back, though at a new home apart from the NHL cookie-cutter site.
The most recent post has the team asking fans how it can better connect to them through online social media. That they’re asking is a good sign for an organization that has not been very open over the years.
Another good sign is their long-awaited acknowledgement of blogs as illustrated by the inclusion of links to some Wings bloggers in the sidebar.
It’ll be interesting to see where they take the blog this season.
Update (1:42 PM): Also be sure to check out George Malik’s post-game comments here. His wrap-up is here. - Matt
Update (1:10 PM): Bill’s post-mortem at Abel to Yzerman is well worth your time. - Matt
I don’t know about you, but I got cocky last night when the Wings were up 5-2 in the third. I loved that the Wings were ahead and looked poised to reemphasize their dominance over the Pens. When Evgeni Malkin scored, my smile faded a little, and when Jordan Staal kicked off this third period hattrick, it faded even more. Jiri Hudler’s goal, however, had me smiling again. Then Jordan Staal scored two more times and forced overtime with 23 seconds left. My outlook on the game changed completely as a result. I knew what was going to happen.
The always-astute Bruce MacLeod notes that last night’s was “[s]]uch an unusual game that you have to forget about it,” citing the blown third-period lead, Pavel Datsyuk’s getting schooled by Jordan Staal (more on that to come), and Nick Lidstrom’s losing the puck in his feet as reasons to let it go. A good point, except that these things are more common this season than they have been since maybe 1999. So it’s not a simple matter of letting it go. This team simply hasn’t got it together yet and the one reason it’s only mildy alarming is that it’s still just November.
On the other hand, if only it were a simple matter of just forgetting this happened and moving on. You know that Pittsburgh fans and the hockey media at large won’t let that happen, and maybe that’s the real loss to come out of this game. Still, Wings fans, we have the Cup, which is why I titled this post as I did. A November loss means nothing in light of that.
And now for a random assortment of thoughts on the game:
… Jiri Hudler had one of his best games in the Winged Wheel, I thought. His assists on the Johan Franzen and Henrik Zetterberg goals were perfect, and his goal was a classic example of powering a shot through a goalie.
… As pointed out by Bruce MacLeod, Pavel Datsyuk did not have his best game. One obvious exception was his schooling of Sidney Crosby just prior to his second period goal. It looked to me like Crosby didn’t know which way to turn and second later, Datsyuk was calling for the puck and sending a rocket inside the post.
As shocking as it was to see Datsyuk stripped of the puck in overtime by Jordan Staal, it was even more shocking to see no call on the play. After Staal had the puck, he tripped Datsyuk as he turned around. It doesn’t matter if it was accidental or not, that play is called all the time. Just not last night. No comment as to why not, but you know.
… Bruce MacLeod has an interesting section on Henrik Zetterberg in this post. I still think it would be a good idea if Babcock threw Hossa on a line with Zetterberg at some point.
… Speaking of Hossa, he was slightly disappointing last night. Is it just me or did it seem like the Pens were in his head somewhat?
… Johan Franzen is an angry, angry man. And I love what that means for his play. He looked good in his first game back, I thought.
… Call be a biased, whiny Wings fan all you want, but if the officials are going to call Brian Rafalski for not getting out of the way when Jordan Staal decides to cut across his body, they should call the Pens for tripping Henrik Zetterberg in the slot in overtime.
… Al in all, a good game for the average hockey fan, but definitely a disappointing one for this Red Wings zealot. Give me a relatively drama-less regulation Detroit win over an “exciting” overtime loss any day, obviously.
Good thing there’s a rematch February 8th in Pittsburgh.
