Archive for October, 2009

Game Day Notes: @ Colorado

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We have family coming in to help move the last bit of furniture, so this’ll be brief.

… Colorado is 1-0-1 since beating the Wings in Detroit last week. They followed their Saturday win with a Wednesday overtime loss in Minnesota, but pulled out a win last night at home against Carolina.

… They retain their lead in the West with 16 points.

… The lineup for the Avs should be the same, except that Darcy Tucker will be out after a vicious Tuomo Ruutu hit. Tucker’s got a concussion and will miss some time.

… Peter Budaj was the goalie last night for the Avs, so Craig Anderson should be in net tonight.

… The Wings have played only one game since losing to the Avs last week and it too was a loss. They kicked off their road trip in Phoenix on Thursday and blew a one-goal third period lead before losing in overtime.

… Brad May will return to the lineup, and it may come at the expense of Justin Abdelkader, who Khan claims was the odd-man out at practice.

… Jimmy Howard will be in net for the Wings. He hasn’t played for three weeks. The Wings need a big game out of him.

… The Wings managed to throw away a pretty strong effort by letting their foot off the gas Thursday. They can’t do that again tonight. “60 minutes” needs to be the goal tonight.

The Morning After

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Nope, a partial night’s sleep did nothing to change how I feel about the game (which I’ve only shared on Twitter so far). This wasn’t about the BS tying goal. It wasn’t about Osgood’s fanning on the game-winner. This was about a team that got complacent.

They’d played a pretty solid 50 minutes and decided that was enough. Just be “solid.” Don’t worry about killer instinct and putting the game away. I knew the longer they left the score at 2-1, the greater the Coyotes’ chances were of coming back. They needed another goal or two for the longest time and failed to act on it. Had they tried and made Bryzgalov really work, that might have been enough. But they didn’t. It was Shell Red Wings.

The tying goal was a load of crap, but it never should have mattered.

Also, Osgood’ll get fragged today for that game-winner and justifiably so, but it shouldn’t overshadow the fact that he kept the Wings in it. Phoenix had higher quality chances all game than the Wings did and he was there. Osgood showed up for a full 60 minutes. Just not for a little under 65…

I may have more on the game on my lunch break, but today’s the final day for that project at work, so I expect a flurry of busyness. I may not have time.

Game Day Notes: @ Phoenix

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… Tonight’s the first late-night test of your dedication: a 10:00 p.m. ET start. Fun times, eh?

… The Coyotes are off to a pretty strong start in spite of all the distractions of the summer that have bled over into a season of organizational uncertainty. They’re 5-2-0 and sit in 8th place in the West, just 1 point back of San Jose for the Pacific Division lead.

… The ‘Yotes have been off since Saturday, when the beat the Bruins at home 4-1.

… They’re winning, but doing it in front of very few fans. They hit 17,532 (official)  in the home opener, but fell to 6,899 (official) for the second home game. Apparently, the tally for that one was closer to 5,000 in actuality. Their most recent game supposedly had 9,162 fans in attendance, but like the other two numbers, that includes unused season tickets.

Those numbers are quite pathetic, obviously, but given how those fans have been jerked around over the past few months, I can’t blame them. It’s easy for me, as a fan of a team with zero chance of ever moving, to say, “Well, why don’t the fans rally and prove their team belongs there?!” Like I said, they’ve been jerked around all over the place throughout this process. And there wasn’t a massive herd of them to begin with.

… There should be some more fans there tonight, though, since the Wings are in town and the Coyotes know games against Detroit are popular enough to enforce “Premium Gate Pricing” for them. As far as I can tell, the Wings are the only team they do it for. Nice, huh, Michigan expats?

… Ilya Bryzgalov hasn’t been confirmed as the starter yet, but you know he’ll be in net. He’s 3rd in the League this young season in save percentage at .953 and fourth in goals against average with 1.14. He was the NHL’s First Star of the Week last week. He’s tough to beat.

… I’m not aware of too many Coyotes blogs, but Five for Howling should suit your needs if you’re looking for their perspective.

… Like the Coyotes, the Wings haven’t played since Saturday. Unlike the Coyotes, they lost that night. It took them blowing a two-goal lead and a one-goal lead in succession, and failing to stop a puck in the shootout, but they did it.

… Tonight they’ll look to get their season back on track and, we can hope, find a way to string a few wins together so this win-loss wave can end. Getting away from any distractions in Detroit should help, as should the team’s being forced to spend more time together off the ice. With so many new faces, some bonding’s obviously got to be done.

… A big boost should be provided by the scheduled return of Pavel Datsyuk to the lineup. He missed two games with an upper body (probably shoulder) injury and, if he’s in tonight, should be amped to go.

… Chris Osgood will start tonight. As a side note, I have to comment on something I missed yesterday due to the move: the question of Osgood and number retirement. I say “yes.” Megan pointed out that the current banners, with the exception of Yzerman, are all players from that ’50s dynasty. You’d obviously want guys instrumental in the 1990s-2000s dynasty to be up there next.

I don’t see how Osgood could be excluded. Sure, he wasn’t here his whole career, but his departure was due to Hasek falling in the Wings’ lap and forcing him out for a couple years. Two Cups with him in net means something, however. I’d think he’d be under consideration, for sure.

As a further sidenote, other guys I’d like to see receive that honor:

Lidstrom – lock, lock, lock.

Fedorov – As George has said, a likely lock if he and the team can get past their differences. Big if.

Shanahan – Doesn’t quite meet the criteria as an outsider originally, but he was the final piece.

Holmstrom – No one short of Yzerman sacrificed more of his physical health over the years and not many guys are more responsible for wins without showing up on the scoresheet than he is. That said, I doubt the Wings’ll look at him.

… Anyway. This is where it needs to start for the Wings. It’s true that the season has barely started, but the sooner they can right the ship, the better. Get it done, guys.

… I do plan on livetweeting again tonight: @OtW_InGame.

Soft Break

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Between moving into our first house and last-minute flurries on a big project at work, I’m short on time this week in a big way (the reason for no post yesterday). So, posting will be light-to-non-existent today and tomorrow. Not to say I won’t post if something interesting comes up, or I have a minute to spare, but it’ll be quiet here for a couple days.

I should be able to pick back up on Thursday for the game.

Wings 3, Avalanche 4 (SO)

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I don’t have a lot to say about it. I will say that I think this one bothers me more than the loss to the Sabres. Teams have their off-nights and as sucky as they are, the Sabres game could have been written off as one of those off-nights. Not this game. Through two periods, the Wings looked as they should: in command of the puck, up there in effort, in control of the game. Call it 85%-90% of what they’re capable of.

Then, the third period. Total collapse. Total. Teamwide. Collapse.

The turnover and sequence of play that led to the Avs’ first goal? Horrific hockey right there. Abdelkader should be ashamed of himself for that turnover. Ericsson should be embarrassed at his chosen way of playing defense on the ensuing rush. The only skater who did his job on that play was Lebda.

Stuart’s play on the Avs’ second goal? Powder-puff. Give him all the space he needs, Brad! Thanks.

The line change on the Avs’ third goal? How does that happen? They made Galiardi look like Genius, Starter of Breakouts, Destroyer of Apathetic Defenses. Disgusting.

Where was the offense? Congrats to Filppula for making it 3-2. Give the kid a medal. Now, who else? Where was the leadership when the game was obviously collapsing around the team’s ears? It was Zetterberg’s best game of the season. But where was he in the third? Lidstrom? That was the kind of situation, where rookies are throwing the game away and the young guys are scrambling, to step it up and take command. But it didn’t happen. Not cool.

So, I’m angry and over-generalizing. But this lead-blowing crap has to stop. I’d rather they play like crap the whole game than have to watch this.

As a side note, I’m sick of them leaving Osgood out to dry and then having to hear about how Osgood sucks and how he’s being exposed. The only thing about Osgood that was exposed last night was how much he sucks at shootouts. But we already knew that. You can’t blame him for this loss because it never should have gotten to that point. He showed up in the third, even when his teammates decided they didn’t have to.

I’m absolutely with George here: this group needs this road trip. They need to get away and spend their days together, bonding or whatever the heck professional athletes do on the road. They need to get away from whatever distractions are infringing upon their ability to play basic hockey and start getting their heads on straight. Fast. Yes, it’s only seven games in, but if they don’t handle this now, we’ll be saying “it’s only 20 games in,” then “it’s only half way through the season,” then “they’ve still got 20 games,” and then what?

I know this team can get it in gear and I know they will. But they need to get on it. Use this trip, guys.

Turns out I had more to say about it than I thought. The power of Rant…

Game Day Notes: vs. Colorado

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Briefly:

… The Avs are 5-1-1 and leading the Western Conference at this early stage with 11 points. Their hot start began with Joe Sakic Night in the first game of the season, which may have something to do with it. Kicking off the year on with an emotional high like that probably helps last year’s crappy team turn it on now.

… Bill already commented on this: The Great Quincey Ring Snub of ’08. I’m sorry, Kyle, what? You played in six games for the Wings. Those games for the Griffins where you were too busy crying about your lot in life to play half-decent. What a joke.

… John-Michel Liles is out for two weeks with a shoulder injury. Quincey’s role will increase as a result. What’ll he do when Liles returns and his role is reduced again is the question.

… Craig Anderson will be the starter for Colorado. He had a groin injury scare a week or two ago, but has been strong so far this season.

… George has more on the Avs here.

… The Wings are coming off a decent win over LA on Thursday and need to follow it up with an even better effort today.

… Pavel Datsyuk is out for the second straight game tonight, but he’s supposed to be back Thursday.

… Osgood is the starter tonight.

… Brad May will return to the lineup. Patrick Eaves will be the scratch.

… This is the second game in a row against a team that is looking more dangerous than they were last year. The Wings need to remember that and play appropriately.