The latest episode of The Obstructed View is up now. Check it out here. Seriously, check it out.
Bill from Abel to Yzerman, George Malik from Snapshots, and Jessie from Bingo Bango are on with Chris Hollis of Motown Wings and Brian Kiernicki. Topics covered include the week in review, players of the week, goaltending, Pinkygate and H2H.
Warning: I’m on next week.
Update (1:18 PM): MacLeod’s update to the below linked post: No Fil tomorrow (as expected) but Saturday’s likely, if cleared. Also, the lines probably won’t remain as listed since Ritola hasn’t played center in years. - Matt
Bruce MacLeod reports that Valtteri Filppula participated in drills with the fourth line this morning. He skated and took part in some drills last week, but it sounds like he was more seriously involved this time. That’s a good sign that he’s on schedule for a return next week.
By the way, Ritola rotated in on the fourth line. It seems he’ll be the center of that unit tomorrow night. A lot of pressure for the guy coming in for a look to play a different position.
The project to bring Guilherme to Detroit for a Wings game is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time. Awesome. Update on the effort here. If you haven’t already, check out Red Wings Brasil.
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.
I’m a bit out of the loop because I missed the game yesterday while Up North, so I’ll keep this to a minimum.
… Despite a miraculous level of health considering this season’s injury trends, Chicago is just six points ahead of the Wings. They do have two games in hand so that’s not quite as close as it looks, but this is an opportunity to gain in both categories.
… The Hawks’ position will definitely be helped by the arrival of Marian Hossa in the lineup. He’s got 10 points in 11 games. Another reason head-to-head meetings between these teams are important: the Wings have a direct say in the Hawks’ record and can work to shut down guys like Hossa.
… Chicago is without such luminaries Adam Burish, Dave Bolland and Ben Eager due to injury.
… Cristobal “Sorry, guys” Huet will be in net tonight for Chicago.
… The Wings are coming off a 4-3 loss to the Stars last night. I missed the game, but check out The Production Line’s take.
… No new injuries. I hope I can write that tomorrow too, but maybe that’s hoping for too much given Chicago’s collection of punks.
… Darren Helm returned from a wrist injury in Dallas and got 19:16 in ice time. Should be up there again. His speed and physicality will be helpful tonight.
… Todd Bertuzzi has 10 goals as of yesterday. Crazy, huh?
… Chris Osgood gets the start tonight. Right into the fire, Chris. Hope your head’s in it now.
… The Wings battled hard Thursday night against Tampa Bay and pulled out a win despite losing their 1B leader, Henrik Zetterberg, to a shoulder injury in the first period. They’ll need to dig even deeper tonight to be at Chicago team that is, admittedly, good (if overhyped).
Expect it (the digging). They’re going to be motivated tonight. As will be the Hawks. Should be a good game.
… If you don’t have FSD+, you’re out of luck on this one. Stupid, considering this is about as big as regular season hockey games get. Putting it in the FSD+ ghetto seems a bit idiotic.
George has the number list here, if you do get it.
In a surprising turn of events, Darren Helm will be back tomorrow against Dallas, reports Ansar Khan. Goes against what Babcock indicated last night, but at least it’s good news. And it means no call-up.
Also, Jimmy Howard starts again. Osgood will get to start Sunday against Chicago. Into the fire, Oz.
Zetterberg: First off, the hit was clean. I haven’t seen anyone say otherwise, but thought I should be sure to say that. Hank put himself in a bad position, which sucks, but Ohlund pasted him well within the rules and in a clean way. Shoulder-to-shoulder and everything. Unfortunate decision by Hank to extend himself out like that, but at least it’s not a really bad injury. That’s something.
Eaves: I was already becoming a big fan of the guy but his defense of Hank added to the list of great things about him. I normally hate it when teams get all pissed about clean hits, but I’ll make exceptions for defending top tier stars. Kudos, Patrick.
He had some great patience on the goal, too. It was funny after the game to watch him talk about Nick’s play on that one. Still in awe of the guy, which is just what you want to see.
Howard: I’m not there yet, but I have to admit Jimmy’s becoming a real NHL goaltender. Every game he plays like that is adding another wrinkle to the goaltending situation in Detroit. I’m not convinced he’ll beat out Osgood for a playoff role, but that’s assuming Osgood’s given a chance. Thus far, Howard’s kind of made it hard for Babcock to justify giving Oz that chance.
A great first shutout for Jimmy. Harder than you’d think with all the talent the Lightning have up front.
Effort: The whole team really stepped it up last night after the Hank injury. They looked a bit shell-shocked in the second, but managed to hang on and ended up with a strong third effort that should have led to mixed feelings on the game. On one hand, you have the Zetterberg injury. On the other, you have a team that found a way to win in spite of that.
It wasn’t a mistake when they said something about “Henrik Zetterberg and the Wings” before the game. Sure, Nick’s got the C and is the top leader, but Zetterberg’s not far behind. To have him go down and then see the team react like that is a great sign of what could be when everyone’s healthy. If they maintain that drive and desire to win even when they’re restocked, they’ll be freaking hard to beat.
If they get back to taking things for granted, not so much. But the effect brought on by the adversity through the first half of the season and beyond may have some staying power.
Miller: Rafalski deserves a lot of credit for the pass, but Miller should get even more for knocking it down and making the play. Sheer awesome.
Bertuzzi: The confidence is there and the goals are coming. Here’s hoping he can keep scoring so that the confidence remains. That’ll be huge for the wings over the coming weeks.
Big weekend: They’ve got a chance to pull away from the Stars tomorrow and a shot at gaining some ground on the Hawks Sunday. It’s a huge weekend for this team and without Zetterberg and the 8 other regulars, it’s going to be tough. Should be interesting to watch their focus level.
Unfortunately, we won’t be able to see it against Dallas since we’ll be Up North through Saturday night. Should be able to catch the Chicago game, though. For that one, I’m looking for Stuart to introduce a certain Slovak to his shoulder.