Realism: I got pretty pumped about this game, drawing way too much confidence from the team’s performance against a crappy-but-talented Tampa Bay team and blindly projecting it on a meeting with a squad that has it together much more than the Lightning do. In retrospect, that was dumb.
The Wings’ chances of beating a mostly healthy Chicago team while down nine key regulars were pretty slim. Add in the fact that they’d played a road game the day before and the chances get even slimmer. So last night was a nice slap in the face from reality: the Blackhawks can beat a majorly depleted, unrested Detroit team with a rusty goalie on home ice.
Kudos, Hawks. Feel good about that one, Chicago fans.
Osgood: I thought Osgood played well—except, you know, for those three plays where he apparently blacked out or something. He was getting next to no support for the bulk of the game and has never been the guy to win games outright in a Hasekian manner, but wow. Three weak ones aren’t going to cut it, Oz.
John W. put it well in the comments:
If we can’t get a motivated Osgood after Howard is threatening his job, then when can we? It looks to me that he is taking for granted the notion that he is automatically the playoff starter. What he fails to see is that the playoffs are not a lock this year, and neither is his default status as the starter.
I don’t like getting on Osgood and singling him out, but I stand by this other comment from John W.:
The team as a whole did not play well, but that’s when you need the goalie to step up, not sabotage the team from behind.
On the team didn’t play well note: They really didn’t. It’s one thing to admit that the odds were stacked against them given their roster depletion, but it’s another to come out flat and remain that way the bulk of the game. Chicago came to play and were obviously highly motivated, but a better effort by the Wings would have made their job more difficult. A weakened roster isn’t an excuse to not bust your hump on every shift.
Stupid “traditions”: The “Detroit sucks” chant is really classless, tradition or not. Chicago fans should be better than that.
Wednesday: It’ll be interesting to see how the Hawks do in slightly less friendly environs on Wednesday against a slightly altered Detroit team. Howard will be in and Matthias Ritola will be as well, having replaced Kris Newbury as the Current Forward Call-Up.
I hope the Wings come to the rink with a better effort in hand. Maybe they can force a different result.