Archive for September, 2010

Wings 3, Blackhawks 2

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First televised game = first win: Therefore the Wings will be 82-0-0 this year.

Jimmy: Since the hot topic for the first game was goaltending, I’ll start with James. He was sharp and, I have to say, much better supported than it seemed like Osgood was in Pittsburgh. He made some really strong saves and overall looked good. Still plenty of reason to believe he won’t be a flash in the pan (I think having to step in to carry the team last year is different than your typical rookie on a crap team tearing it up. Should produce a different 2nd year result).

Modano: Gotta be honest. I didn’t notice him all that much. One time that stood out toward the end: the puck came his way with an empty net and he didn’t pick up his pace or stretch for it at all. Not a big deal per se, but you kind of like to see a little more effort in a one-goal game in that situation.

As for the rest of his night, I’ll mark down his not standing out to his still trying to find his groove as a Wing. There was no way he was going to plop down in the lineup and just tear it up right off the bat. So he’s still got time before my expectations will be ratcheted up.

Smith: Near the end of the first period, the Hawks’ Ben Smith absolutely schooled Brendan on a break-in. Howard bailed Brendan out, but it was not a pretty play. My take on Smith remains that he still has a long way to go. He progressed enormously from the first day of camp to the last and if he keeps that pace up, he could be ready as soon as next season or even the playoffs, but right now, he’s green. The Ben Smith incident was just the most noticeable evidence of that last night.

He did get some time on the first power play with Nick Lidstrom, which had to have been cool for him. You can bet he was absorbing everything Nick was doing.

Salei: I think I heard his name once and noticed him another time. Granted, I wasn’t watching the game like a hawk, but even if he was noticeable 3 times and had his name called 5 times, he had a great night from a defensive defenseman perspective. So far, I’m liking the Salei signing a lot. He’s going to bring some security to the third pairing and that’s going to be hugely important going forward. Assuming he stays healthy.

MacDonald: Learned some bad lessons in New York and Toronto. Gave up a goal on the first shot he faced, though it was an odd-man rush so I can’t hold it against him too much. He’s fallen a bit from his last days as a Wing, sadly. But he should still be good for McCollum in Grand Rapids in terms of competition and mentorship.

Tatar: Another guy who’s green, but often makes up with it by putting in some of the best effort on the team. He lost his stick at one point, but didn’t quit, charging toward the puck and attempting a kick-pass to a teammate. Maybe not wholly successful, but I love the attitude. I can’t wait for him to be a Red Wings and can’t wait to watch him in Grand Rapids.

Helm: I noted this last night on Twitter, but it bears repeating: you forget just how fast the guy during the off-season. He turned on the jets last night on a breakout and I was floored. Just from last night and watching him all over the ice, I think he’s set to have a strong year.

Eurotwins+Homer: I want to say these guys will have a great year, too. They already look like a mind-meld out there as it is and it’s just the pre-season. Here’s hoping the other lines mesh so that Babcock isn’t forced to break up the band. A full season of the Flying Circus would be awesome. Right now, Datsyuk in particular looks like he’s just playing around, but even when he’s doing that, he’s so much better than everyone else. I look forward to when the games get serious.

Kronwall: Apparently attended Mikael Samuelsson’s School of Marksmanship over the summer. But aside from that, his knee doesn’t look to be bothering him. More physical play would be nice, though.

Jonny: The third star of the game, Jeremy Morin, wrecked a stationary, tangent-to-the-play Ericsson at one point, earning a CSN replay and Eddie O praise. I didn’t think Jonny was particularly terrible last night, but the Morin play still epitomizes where he is at this point in his NHL career: sort of out of the play and getting steamrolled.

No-goal: Helm had a shorthanded breakaway that ended up with the puck going off the post. It seemed like a goal live, but replays put that dream to rest. Then Holmstrom got a Kronwall goal waived off because his jersey brushed Crawford or something. It’s not hockey season until Homer’s been involved in a goal being called back.

Owens: He only had 4 PIM, but it seemed like he was in the box all the time. That 4 PIM can’t be right, right? It’s pre-season for the officials, too. Okay, maybe it is, but the point is Owns made his presence known in both good and bad ways: it was good to see how hard he works, but the penalties were kind of downers.

Murs(i)ak: First televised goal. Pretty easy one, too. He has a chance of making the team maybe someday. He got shafted, I think, with an elbowing call that should have gone to Owens in the first period. Unless he also elbowed someone. Of course CSN didn’t really show it. They were like Versus in that regard.

Overall: I thought the Wings did most of what they wanted to do in this game. They got their young guys playing time and mostly held control of the ice. They seemed to slip a bit toward the end, but it’s still pre-season so I’m not going to be too worried about that. If they carry it over to the regular season, though, it’s going to be deja vu all over again, as they say.

Tonight: Chuck Pleiness doesn’t have tonight’s lineup for the Wings up yet, so that’s disappointing. I can only assume some variant of the Pittsburgh group will be out there tonight. And the Hawks will no doubt ice the top-end guys that sat out last night. So that should be interesting. Here’s hoping the result will be different than Wednesday’s.

I have family in town today and it’s looking like I won’t be able to catch the game. So no tweeting it and no first-hand thoughts on it tomorrow.

Game Day Notes: vs. Chicago

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… We’re the beneficiaries of the Wings playing the defending champions so early in the pre-season, as it means two broadcast games in a row. And as Drew points out, there is pretty much no excuse for not watching this game. Unless your only access to the internet is through the library and you don’t have NHL Network. And you don’t have any friends that have home internet or the Network. Then you have an excuse, I guess.

… The Hawks are coming off a 4-2 loss to Team Stevie Wednesday night in a game that was also broadcast on the Network. The Fifth Feather has Hawks-centric thoughts on that one, if you’re interested.

… The main news item to come out of that game was the Nick Boynton post-fight throat slash that earned him a one-game suspension. Not the knee-on-knee attempt that led to the fight (“I’m Brooks Orpik and I approved this message.”). But somehow he gets to keep playing pre-season games. Weird.

Also, Second City Hockey wins points for calling the sequence (knee-on-knee attempt included) a “hat trick of LAME.” Yep.

… Tragically, we won’t get to see Joe Louis Arena favorite Marty Turco tonight. Instead, it’s Corey Crawford, who apparently has something to prove. And it’s his time to shine. And he wants an NHL spot this year, bad. He’ll play the whole game, apparently.

… I have no idea what the Hawks’ lineup will be aside from Crawford, because the Blackhawks apparently haven’t told anyone. I guess we’ll see.

… The Wings dropped their first pre-season 5-1, as everyone knows by now. What we don’t know is how anyone really played. We can draw conclusions from the boxscore and from the audio record, but that’s pretty much limited to a generalization like “the defense played like crap and didn’t support the goaltending.” Not very deep. This game being televised fixes that issue.

… The other issue fixed by this game is the fact that the Wings’ top guys will be in the lineup. We’ll be watching starters from the forward corps to the net, with the top line, top pairing, and starting goaltender all suiting up. Should be a slightly more powerful group.

Full lineup here.

… Interestingly, Salei and Jimmy are both in again. Another chance to stop the suck, young Ericsson.

… Also: more Modano (with Ritola, Garth). I’ll have my eyes on him.

… And be on the lookout for Brendan Smith, who gets the benefit of playing with a solid-ish defensive defenseman in Janik. That should allow him some freedom to do his thing. Here’s hoping he continues his fast adjustment to the NHL game and has a solid night.

… Quick injury update: Meech remains out with a “mild” concussion (makes it sound more minor than all concussions actually are), Franzen and Hudler skated but are still pending, and Rafalski’s having a maintenance day for his back. He and Huds may play Sunday. Franzen’s three game recovery ends after the first Rangers game, but who knows if he’ll really be back against Toronto in a week the Rangers on Wednesday.

… So, it’s just another exhibition game, but it being Chicago adds to a general need for the Wings to start gelling as the pre-season goes along. They need to have a better night as a team than they did Wednesday, even if it is a mostly different group.

More from Mule

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Update (2:34 PM): Franzen Injury Alarm Update: looks like it’s a three-gamer charley horse. Could have been a lot, lot worse so I’ll take that gratefully. - Matt

He’s not mincing words. Also: dialing back the Franzen Injury Alarm to green. It really does sound like a charley horse for sure now.

Take on DET/PIT from a Wings Fan in Attendance

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Click through to A2Y, scroll down on the first comments page to the entry by BTCBen from 10:19AM. Points of interest, to me anyway:

  • The play of Osgood. It won’t silence the critics, but it’s there.
  • The play of Salei versus the play of Modano. Granted, Modano was playing with a depleted line, but still interesting.
  • The Bertuzzi fight. That’s dangerous territory for a guy like Todd to tread, but he defended a teammate in honorable fashion, it sounds like. Good to know he can.
  • The Franzen injury. Plenty of Pens fans in attendance claiming it was unintentional, but it depends on what you mean by intentional: was it an intent-to-injure? Probably not. But was it intent to stop a guy with a dangerous method? Obviously, yes. That kind of unthinking play got Ovechkin in trouble and ripped by hockey fans, so why shouldn’t it for Orpik?

Franzen Update

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For what it’s worth, Franzen himself says “It’s not a big deal,” and confirms statements Holland said to Ansar Khan about him resting for a few days. Still need to wait and see if there’s swelling and a sudden need for further tests, but for now we can probably safely dial back the Franzen Injury Alarm to yellow from last night’s red (or white—for nuclear apocalypse—depending on how you were feeling).

One in the Books

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Well, that wasn’t much fun.

The big story will be the Franzen injury and whether or not it’s serious. Unfortunately, all that’s made it out so far is that it’s a charley horse. That may or may not be a snap judgement/obfuscation. The final word has not yet been handed down. Here’s hoping it’s not too far off the charley horse story. More tomorrow, I assume.

But how much should Orpik be suspended for something as bush league as a stuck out knee? Not going to happen, but come on: this kind of crap should not happen in the pre-season.

Also, snap take: the defense is a little weak without three of the top four guys leading the way. And it doesn’t sound like Osgood followed up camp with a stellar night, though given how his defense seemed to play, maybe he wasn’t so bad.

Salei with his first goal, Ritola with another point in his favor. Bertuzzi with a fight in honor of Franzen. Modano with zero points and -2, but that doesn’t mean much given the loss of Hudler and general malaise the team was in apparently. Brian Lashoff’s -4 is unfortunate, though. First NHL game jitters, I guess. Jonny, for all the ripping him new ones yesterday, was even on the night, though Salei wins for being +1.

That’s about all I’ll have to say about this one, probably, given that it was a radio-only game (not that fun to listen to). Moving on to Chicago and a game on TV.

Game Day Notes: @ Pittsburgh

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Update (5:07 PM): Khan’s posted a story on this at mLive that includes some quotes.  He also pointed out via a followup email that the day-to-day thing is just what they’re saying today. Whether that sticks remains to be seen. - Matt

Update (4:36 PM): I emailed Ansar Khan about Hudler, and he replied with news that he’s just day to day with a bruised foot and that he’s not sure if he was in a cast (but let’s assume Drew’s friend was correct). He’s already had an X-ray, which showed no break, according to Ken Holland. So, good news, considering, but not good news for developing third line chemistry during the pre-season.

According to Khan, Ilari Filppula will be in the lineup instead tonight. I assume Ritola will move up to Hudler spot on the second line for this game. - Matt

Update (4:17 PM): Also, if this is true and Hudler’s out for a while, Ritola may have just had his ticket to the roster stamped. - Matt

Update (4:02 PM): Uh, maybe that third line chemistry will have to wait: Drew has it from a friend that works at the Joe that Hudler left today with a walking cast on. While it’s obviously good news that he wasn’t on crutches, the fact that he apparently needed a cast at all is troubling.

As of yet, I haven’t seen any other reports on this, but there’s no reason to doubt Drew’s friend. Details later, I hope. - Matt

Tonight’s the first Red Wings-on-Other-NHL-Team action since Round 2. Sure, it’s just pre-season action and not televised action, but it is action. Finally.

… As you may have heard, tonight’s the opening night for Pittsburgh’s corporately-named Consol Energy Center. What better way to kick off the Center’s tenure with a Red Wings win, eh?

… Via @RedWingsFeed, the Pens’ lineup for tonight is here, along with some other notes. It’ll be interesting to see how the Pens’ top guys do against the Wings’ second units and lower.

… As you can see from the lineup, Marc-Andre Fleury’s in net as well. The Pens are giving the home fans the big names in the first game, which I guess makes sense. Consider that a challenge to play spoiler, Wings.

… The Wings’ lineup for tonight is here, if you haven’t seen it. Here’s hoping an actual game scenario solidifies some kind of chemistry between Modano, Cleary and Hudler. Obviously, there’s plenty of time, but it’d be great if they hit the ground running. Looks like Babcock didn’t think to give the fans at the Joe a look at Modano Friday.

… And yes, that second pairing really does have Jonathan Ericsson on it. Have a big game, Ruslan Salei.

… Kindl showed himself to be more ready for the NHL than I thought while in camp, but I still think he’s on the cusp. Playing on the first pairing with Stuart against guys like Crosby and Malkin will be a bit like trial through fire for him, I think.

… As George pointed out, Franzen looked ready to run people over in camp. Here’s hoping that starts tonight. And doesn’t result in injury.

Interesting that Miller and Ritola are in the same lineup. Miller had a strong game camp with a couple goals, but Ritola got the last word with an assist in the Red and White game. Miller really needs to make an impression in the pre-season to stand a chance of beating out Ritola and his nebulous future potential. It’s a pretty tough challenge. Beings stuck on a line with noted smooth skater and hockey mastermind Aaron Downey isn’t likely to help.

Ritola gets a bit of a break with his third line slot. He’d be pretty screwed on the fourth line, where he’d be expected to actually, you know, work for the puck, but he could stumble upon some offense with speedy and hardworking guys like Helm and Eaves out there with him.

… I wish this game was televised so I could see Lashoff play again. I really liked him in camp, and even with Meech, he should be solid guy tonight.

… Osgood gets the start, but McCollum will get the third period. Oz needs to take advantage of the ice he sees and continue what he started in camp. He needs to start the season running, too.