First Off: Couple things need to be gotten out of the way.
Kronwall: This should have been a charging penalty. Kronwall clearly leaves his feet before making contact, which takes away the usual defense of his hits. Namely, his feet-leaving occurs as a means of powering through a hit already initiated. This time, he’s airborne by the time he and Kesler make contact. Fortunately for everyone involved, Kronwall somehow managed hit Kesler, uh, back-to-shoulder.
So it wasn’t a headshot. But Kronwall has no business leaving his feet before a hit. I’m glad he didn’t target Kesler’s head, but the method of this hit wasn’t cool.
And I’m glad he didn’t fight Kesler.
Hansen: This was total bull. Zetterberg was there, but actually had the sense to pull back rather than shove Hansen into Jimmy. Hansen still managed to plow into the net and run over the goaltender. Completely blown call and it cost the Wings a goal-against.
The Reaction: In the heat of the game, and apparently after it, there was much feeling that it would have been sweet if someone other than Jimmy had gotten pissed with Hansen for that and laid down some kind of law. And throughout the game, cries of regret for the Wings’ lack of toughness were ringing throughout the Twittersphere. Believe me, I was feeling it too. But as I said last night, it’s not going to happen.
What the Wings are missing is not some guy who can take care of business in a post-whistle scrum. They’re missing the killer instinct of their best iterations of the past decade or so that says, “oh, so you’re going to get physical with us, eh? Well, we’ll take that penalty, thank you very much, and make you pay in the only way that matters in this game: goals.” That’s been sufficient for this team for years, occasional bemoaning of the fact notwithstanding. Think of how the Wings dealt with the Flames in 2007: “okay, you go and do that. We’re going to go ahead and win this game. And the series.”
Ken Holland is not going to deal a player on this team for someone who can bring it to a scrum unless they’re going to entirely change the organizational philosophy. What that means is that we fans don’t get the physical catharsis many other fans at least get when their team doesn’t show up, but when they do show up, we’ve got a team that does showing up better than just about anybody else. I’ll take that in the longrun, even if I sometimes wish for the other thing.
Anyway: Moving on.
Uninspired: I get that the Wings were victims of a scheduling quirk that had them flying from Edmonton to Vancouver and staring down a flight to Calgary after the game, but whether it was because they were caught looking ahead to tonight or because they were just tired from playing Monday, there’s not much excuse for how they came out in this one. The Canucks were far more into the game from the start.
Kronwall Again: Go watch the Canucks’ first goal and keep an eye out for Kronwall’s backchecking. Note who scored the goal. Note who could have prevented that with a 15% effort level. Note who gave approximately 5%. Yeah.
Nik was not good last night. I’m much more confident in him leading the defense in the post-Lidas era, but nights like these are stark reminders of how big the fall-off is going to be. Nick’s had as many bad nights in 20 years as Nik’s had this season. I exaggerate only slightly.
Censorship: Speaking of Kronwall, this was funny/sad:
@AnsarKhanMLive: Howard has made some big stops to keep the Wings in this one. Kronwall not having a good night. (#)
@DetroitRedWings: RT @AnsarKahnMLive Howard has made some big stops to keep the Wings in this one. (#)
@onthewings: Nicely censored. RT @DetroitRedWings: RT @AnsarKahnMLive Howard has made some big stops to keep the Wings in this one. (#)
@AnsarKhanMLive: @onthewings @DetroitRedWings @AnsarKahnMLive Exactly. Why bother retweeting only part of the statement? (#)
The official account, not afraid to not ever, ever criticize. Yep.
Also notice that in the process of editing Khan’s tweet, they messed up his name. How’d that happen?
Cleary: Blew it on the Canucks’ second goal when White got caught standing up at the Vancouver blueline. Cleary was supposed to cover defensively, but he turned his back on the puck at center and wheeled back up ice, thinking the Wings had won the battle for the puck. Seconds later, Hodgson’s breaking in for his slap shot goal. Sharp.
Helm: The overhead view of the Burrows goal is depressing. As the Canucks develop the play into the Detroit end, Burrows takes a wide arc along the left wing with Helm shadowing him. Something shiny to the right distracted Helm, however, and Burrows was able to set up uncovered to take a Sedin pass that made it 3-1.
The Shift: The shift leading up to the Wings’ second goal was the highlight of the night for them. The third line really did some excellent work. I would love to see more of that tonight.
Miller: A lot of The Shift was Miller. He’s looking very, very good lately.
Next: If the Wings’ excuse last night was fatigue, tonight’s sure to be a blast. But let’s hope they find it within them to come out hard before the break and finish the trip with a pair of wins, maybe even one they earned with a full game’s worth of solid play.