Between work bleeding over into my lunch hour and a post-lunch staff meeting across town, I’m short on time. So this’ll be brief. Also, given the Wings’ effort last night, I’m not inclined to spend a lot of brain wattage on this one.
I wonder if I shouldn’t do my reaction headlines this way going forward. I’m caring a lot less about numbers as these things meld together. Getting numb.
Osgood: The Detroit media chose to single him out with headlines and body copy so I guess I’ll start there.
First off, I’ll say I’m glad he didn’t spout off afterwards. The “just gotta keep plugging away” nature of his comments would normally piss me off, but as they’re a step down from his attack-ad worthy crap from earlier, I’m okay with it.
Second, the implication from headlines written by editors at Booth Newspapers and the News that Osgood was responsible for this loss is idiotic at best. Let’s be clear: this was a crap effort all around, from the whole team. Osgood was hung out to dry by his teammates on at least three of five goals. Even Babcock admits that.
I will say I feel he was slow to move across the crease on the final two, but even those smacked of defensive breakdowns and poor support. The Wild had a strong gameplan based around quick puck movement and to the Wings’ uncredit, they did nothing to disrupt it.
Top line: Yeah, they were the best on the ice for the Wings. I shouldn’t have to highlight that. Or qualify it this way: “good” last night was relatively relative. They didn’t kick it into that extra gear the team needs from them. I’ll put an arbitrary number on it: they played at 90% of their dominance capacity. Not good enough at this stage in the season.
Stupid: This is a small matter in the events of last night, but I hate the target Bertuzzi wears on his jersey. Oh, you don’t see it? You must not be a ref. I used to think that 90% of his penalties were because of his own stupidity. After watching him this season, I’ve found that while he’s no hockey genius, he’s not a stupid hockey player. Rather, he gets jobbed by the refs’ unethical interest in calling him for every little thing he does and in turning a blind eye to everything done to him.
Whatever you and I as outsiders might think, Todd Bertuzzi paid the price for what he did as set by the NHL. It’s not up to the NHL’s men in black-and-white to make him pay every night for it. It’s sickening.
But remember, the Burrows incident told us nothing if it didn’t reinforce the fallacy that the refs are completely objective and completely infallible. Todd and whatever team has him will need to deal with that handicap for however long he plays.
It’s just still horse manure on the NHL’s part.
Stuart: So, it sounds like things may not be so bad with him after all, as Stuart was pulled out of the game as a precautionary measure when the game went out of reach in Babcock’s judgement. Implications of that sort of read on a game aside, we may be looking at some less negative news than usual.
Break: I said this on Twitter last night, but I’ll say it again: I really wish the Olympic Break was for everyone. The leaders on this team are the guys not getting it done right now and it’s clear to me that they need something like the sabbatical granted to Osgood last year. The guys that are getting it done, the Eaves, Helms, Millers, etc. of the team, don’t have the talent to take this team places. And they don’t need the break. The guys that do have the talent to take this team somewhere clearly aren’t in this season yet. What’s it going to take?
So: One of eight needed points has been obtained thus far this week. What’ll happen with the next four?