I’ll comment on last night’s “game” later on in this post.
… This is where it all began: with the Blues. Maybe this game can act as a reset button on the season.
… St. Louis is 4-1-0 in their last five and 10-9-4 overall. They’re two points behind the Wings in 12th place in the West.
… They played last night and handled the Predators with a 3-1 win.
… The media notes for the game list DJ King as the only injury. Yahoo! tells me it’s a broken hand.
… Chris Mason played last night, so my guess is we’ll see our old budy Ty Conklin in this one.
… The Wings are coming off their third straight loss and their second straight shutout one. Last night they at least got shut out by one of the best goalies in the League, but before that it was Ondrej Pavelec. A good young goalie, to be sure, but not one that should be shutting the Wings out.
… They got 40 shots on Kiprusoff, but never really seemed in the game. They gave up a goal 28 seconds into the first period and 25 seconds into the third. The second goal allowed was a freak thing. The Flames did a good job of capitalizing on the Wings’ defensive miscues and the Wings couldn’t find a way to do the same at the other end.
… But they did score two goals that were disallowed. The first involved a shot from the blueline that beat Kiprusoff cleanly, but because Cleary was in the crease, the ref ruled incidental contact. No penalty, but no goal.
The second involved a flurry around the net that had Kipper’s glove over the puck for just a split second even in a slow replay. The ref whistled the play dead while the puck was still live and ping-ponging around. It ended up in the net, but the lightning-fast whistle cost the Wings another goal.
I guess I’d feel more upset about those things if the Wings were playing well, because I’d feel they earned a win but were denied it by incompetent officials. But they’re not playing well and the last thing I want is for those plays to be used as excuses.
… Osgood started in net for the Wings last night. Howard should be in tonight.
… Maltby got shaken up at one point, so he may be scratched tonight. I would certainly hope May would be in for this one.
… I consider Babcock to be the best coach in the NHL. He knows what he’s doing. But I can’t help feeling that his sticking with the same lines night in and night out is pure pig-headedness. That is his one obvious downside and it’s killing the team right now.
He has got to be willing to break up the Datsyuk line, for one thing. More importantly, he’s got to be willing to break up the energy Helm line: spread those guys throughout the lineup, as John W.’s been suggesting in the comments lately.
Maybe put Bertuzzi on Zetterberg’s wing. Maybe Pavel’s too cerebral for Todd and needs someone more straightforward with the puck. I dunno. But something’s got to change. Babcock and the team need to wake up and realize they’re pissing away points while they point to 40 shots on goal and other fluff stats. What matters is goals, guys, and you’re not getting them right now. Plugging away in the same old way with the same old lines isn’t cutting it and isn’t suddenly going to cut it.
… The Wings need this one tonight. More importantly, they need to need it, if that makes sense. Their mindset needs to be set to “all out.” You know the Blues’ will be.