On the Wings

Update (6:09 PM): If I sound pessimistic it’s because I’ve watched the Wings outplay Edmonton in both games only to barely win in the first and lose in the second. All Edmonton has to do is keep capitalizing on Red Wing mistakes and they’ll keep it close enough to win, if the Wings’ luck runs out. All Detroit needs to do is find a way to score from the perimeter, something they have been completely incapable of doing so far. I know it’s not best-of-three but I think the Wings need a confidence win in Game 3 or they’ll have a real hard time scoring through that trap in Game 4+ after Edmonton starts to smell blood. - Matt

Update (3:36 PM): Anyone going out to Edmonton for Games 3 and 4? If so, drop me a line. - Matt

Did you really think this would be a sweep? I didn’t per se but I wasn’t expecting a loss like yesterday’s. I’ll stick with the mini-summary I posted earlier:

The Wings were solidly in control until a couple lousy turnovers killed them in the second and they couldn’t recover. They were much more physical than we’ve seen them for most of the year and actually ended up out-hitting Edmonton. Scary thing: Edmonton opened the game up a little to make their comeback and then went back to the trap. Either way, the Wings’ offense was muted. No one really stood out offensively, though guys like Schneider and Chelios did defensively. Schneider’s shot is not a given goal any more. Datsyuk not a positive factor, looked tentative, still somewhat in pain. Legace looked bad on the third Edmonton goal. The Oilers wrenched momentum away from the Wings and are now in charge of their own destinies as they head back home with the series tied 1-1.

More on Manny: He’s got to make the save on that third goal. Just has to. He looked good other than that but allowing that shot to go in from the top of the circles was killer. That doesn’t mean he should be yanked but it means he needs to rebound with a stellar game tomorrow night. The Wings aren’t making a ton of defensive mistakes but when they are making them, the Oilers are pouncing. It’s Manny’s job to fill in on the lapses. I’ll pass over the second Edmonton goal because it was much more sudden but on the game winner, there was a significant delay between the turnover and the goal. More than enough time to get set.

More on Pavel: he was hardly noticeable yesterday. He had a couple nice plays but beyond that, he was pretty out of it. Just watching him skate up ice was enough to know something is still wrong. I don’t know if it’s because the injury is still that bad or if he’s just being tentative in his first game back. I assume his conditioning is off and that is probably a factor but I would have liked to have seen a better game from him. If it was just first-game-back jitters, he’d better be stellar tomorrow night.

The Swedes started the game and Pavel followed them up centering Brendan Shanahan and Kris Draper. There wasn’t a whole lot of offense in the first 2-4 minutes as the Wings couldn’t get much going with Edmonton pressuring the puck so well. Play was pretty continuous with both teams changing quickly.

The Oilers got the first real scoring chance but sent the puck through the crease. Jason Williams got the first for the Wings, just a shot off the left wing that was blocked into the netting. Henrik Zetterberg nearly entered the zone on a break all alone at about 5:40 but the Edmonton defense closed him off.

It didn’t take long for the game to get physical. Seven minutes into the period, Raffi Torres nailed Datsyuk at center and was immediately hit in return by Shanahan (would like to see more of that). Ryan Smyth (or was it Jason Smith?) took the body to Chelios here too.

Just after that, there was a bit of an odd-man rush that resulted in a solid save by Manny on Torres’ shot from 17 feet out. As a result of the sudden hitting, the pace picked up considerably but because both teams were playing pretty tight defensively, this didn’t necessarily translate into more scoring chances.

The Wings got a little sloppy with the puck around the halfway mark and a giveaway by Draper led to a high-sticking penalty at 11:08. The Oilers set up and got off a point shot that was stopped. They cycled the puck a little more, got off another shot and forced a face-off. Ales Hemsky got tied up with Chelios on the draw and was called for high-sticking himself, making it 4-on-4 at 11:42.

50 seconds later, Chris Pronger released a blast from the point that somehow found it’s way into the net. Not sure about that one, Manny. It looked like Radek Dvorak may have gotten his stick on it but the box score says it was Pronger’s goal so I guess it went in clean. There wasn’t much of a screen, either. 1-0 Edmonton at 12:32.

The Wings got a short power play after Draper’s penalty expired but only got one shot off (Lidstrom).

Jason Williams tied it at 14:50 with a totally random goal. From the side of the net to Roloson’s right, he took a shot that was stopped by the defenseman’s skate. It bounced right back to him and he kicked it back out front. The puck went off the defenseman again before heading on net, where it bounced off Roloson’s skate and across the line. Very weird. But it counted and negated a delayed call on the Oilers at the same time. 1-1.

The Wings got their first full-length power play starting at 15:27 and did a pretty good job with it. They got a couple good shots off after cycling the puck but couldn’t score. Shanahan and Staios had a little scrum in front of the net as the game got chippier.

Legace made a big save on a Dick Tarnstrom tip-in with 1:44 remaining. At this point, the battle between Ryan Smyth and Chris Chelios became very obvious as they had a pretty physical shift.

Edmonton took another penalty at 18:25 and the Wings put out a pretty good power play to start with. The Oilers put on some good shorthanded pressure, though, and caused some trouble in the process.

It wasn’t a bad period. Both teams looked pretty good defensively if a little anemic offensively.

The Oilers continued their shorthanded pressure at the start of the second and ended up getting a power play themselves just 40 seconds in, when Steve Yzerman went off for hooking.

They set up and cycled the puck around and got off a couple shots. Manny made two big saves, first on Pronger and second on Smyth. The fans started chanting, “Manny! Manny!” and the penalty expired.

Raffi Torres had a nice shift after that and only a good defensive play from Mathieu Schneider prevented a dangerous play. Niklas Kronwall had a Bobby Orr Moment at 4:40 when he took the puck down the left wing and got off a shot, though it went wide.

Tomas Holmstrom, of all people, nearly had a breakaway at center but was tied up minutely by Staios. After a little embellishment on Tomas’ part, the ref called Staios for hooking and the Wings went back on the power play. The Edmonton bench was screaming for a diving penalty but I felt Holmstrom’s acting looked worse in slow motion than in real time.

The initial setup constituted a shot by Lidstrom that was blocked and followed up by Edmonton carrying the puck out of the zone. It looked like a good kill for the Oilers until the Wings scored at 7:11. Kronwall took the initial shot from the point and Roloson stopped it. The puck went up in the air and Roloson just sort of sat there until it fell on top of him and rolled down his back. Fortunately, Zetterberg was johnny-on-the-spot and knocked it in. The Oilers had to love the fact that Holmstrom, the man responsible for their disadvantage, was right in front of Roloson the whole time. 2-1 Wings, off another fluke/weird goal. Noticing a pattern?

The Wings were handling the puck well, if tentatively, but Edmonton was playing the trap very well through mid-period, forcing the Detroit to the outside on practically every rush and limiting their shots to the perimeter. The good thing was that the Wings were matching the physical play of Edmonton, surprisingly enough.

Yzerman’s line, with Schneider, had a nice shift with about 7:20 left but it amounted to a missed shot and a failed opportunity.

Edmonton broke out of the trap with about six minutes to go and put some good pressure on in the Wings zone. Manny was solid, though, and the Wings took it the other way, with Datsyuk’s line getting a good chance on net but failing to score.

I had just written down, “DET good in their end -> clearing puck well, limiting EDM chances,” when the Oilers scored on a seemingly harmless play. Michael Peca pressured Kirk Maltby behind the goal to Legace’s right and stole the puck. He sent it immediately out front to a wide-open Fernando Pisani, who had no trouble one-timing it past an off-balance Manny Legace. Okay. 2-2 tie, at 17:49.

Less than a minute later, the Oilers struck again. This time, Jason Williams turned it over to Pronger after failing to clear the zone. Granted, he took an elbow the face but that was after he could have gotten it out. The puck ended up on Winchester’s stick and he had a clear shot on Legace. He took a hard wrister from 44 feet out and beat Manny glove side. Just like that, the Oilers have a 3-2 lead and are back to running the trap.

The period ended on a pretty sour, note, needless to say. This time, the fans didn’t even bother to boo.

Two minutes into the third, Dan Cleary and Tarnstrom had a little scrum that resulted in offsetting minors. During 4-on-4 play, Datsyuk showed up to play for really the first time. He carried the puck over the blueline on one rush but lost it and was dumped. Then, he and Steve Yzerman hooked up for a nice play. Pavel entered the zone at the far blueline and dropped the puck off to The Captain, who proceeded to drive on net, around Chris Pronger. A2Y described it this way:

Yzerman muscles his way by Pronger and time stops. Frame by frame we see the Captain pulling us even, willing his way to the crease, falling, holding on to the puck, burning Roloson, waiting, horizontal now, sliding it toward a tie game and an explosion at the Joe.Off the post.

And he got up limping slightly.

Cleary and Franzen had a good shift after a Torres turnover six and a half minutes in but they couldn’t put the puck in the net. Chris Chelios laid a big hit on Sergei Samsonov at center ice at 7:28, drawing criticism in today’s Edmonton Journal.

Yzerman, who had been fairly quiet most of the night, looked strong in the third as he tried to spark his team to make the comeback. It seemed to be working as the Wings’ started to have good energy, but a Cleary penalty at 10:08 killed it.

The penalty was pretty easily killed off by the Wings, who had a nice scoring opportunity when Henrik Zetterberg intercepted a pass at the blueline and took it the other way. Marc-Andre Bergeron got back in time to force a weak backhand shot, however, and Roloson had a pretty easy save. It looked like Bergeron threw his stick but the refs didn’t call anything.

As the period progressed, the Wings got chances but just couldn’t finish on them. The Oilers did a very good job of shutting the game down as time started to run out, forcing the Wings to continually take outside shots.

Babcock called a timeout with 1:05 left or so but it didn’t result in anything. Legace was pulled with 50 seconds left but Edmonton just scored an empty net goal as the Wings had trouble even gaining the zone, despite having an extra man. Not a very impressive finish for the Wings.

Edmonton controls this series, folks. They nearly won Friday night by dictating their terms to the Wings and did it again yesterday, coming out on top as a result. The Wings need to find a way to beat the trap and they need to do it soon. I would love to see some more crashing the net but I’m afraid they don’t have the size to do it. They certainly don’t have the toughness. Maybe they ought to call up Don MacLean again, if that’s even possible. The Griffins need him but the Wings could use his size.

Also, the consensus seems to be that the Wings ought to dress Cory Cross tomorrow night. I agree. Lebda brings energy but he also brings rookie mistakes and the Wings need to be able to match up better physically with Edmonton at the moment. Cory would be fired up to play in the playoffs in Edmonton, I’m sure.

Chris Pronger has been great for Edmonton, which is very disconcerting. I keep expecting a meltdown and keep getting disappointed. He seems to be a man on a mission and is causing a lot of trouble. They need to get under his skin more.

Of course, this loss means the Wings no longer have home ice advantage in this series. Maybe that shouldn’t be worrisome. They’ve been good on the road all year but will they be now? I sure hope so.

If they lose tomorrow, the series is essentially over. If they win, and in convincing fashion, they ought to be able to salvage it. The offense needs to perform. That’s it.

Abel to Yzerman summary

Our first Red Wings playoff hockey in almost two years had a little bit of everything we’ve come to expect from them in the postseason: an early lead followed by a blown lead, brilliant play followed by average play, a one-goal deficit accompanied by a seemingly unbeatable goalie, a junk goal to tie it in the third, a strong overtime period after surviving the first minutes, a second overtime with a sudden game winning goal off a harmless looking play, scored by an unlikely hero. And stress for Wings fans throughout.

I’m going to say right up front that I think the Wings got lucky last night. You’re going to point to their 57 shots and say, “What are you talking about?! They dominated.” No, they had a lot of shots. Most of them were not challenging for Dwayne Roloson, who had a great game, I’ll not deny him that but his defense deserves more credit, and most were not followed up. Edmonton forced the Wings to play on their terms last night and very nearly won the game. They capitalized on two Detroit defensive lapses and were well on their way to a victory, despite having allowed all those shots, before Kirk Maltby scored at 13:43 of the third period.

Manny Legace played very well last night, I think we can all agree. He had zero chance on either of Edmonton’s two goals, which were purely the result of defensive lapses by veteran Red Wing defenseman, as I’ve already said. He made a few very timely saves at various points in the game and though he didn’t see the puck as often as Roloson did, I think he had to stop better scoring chances. Way to start the postseason off on the right foot, Manny.

The Wings began the first period strong, with a good first shift controlling the puck for 35 seconds or so. The Oilers took it the other way, though, and Radek Dvorak forced Manny to make a great save right off the bat, at about :50.

Just 2:28 into the game, things got a little ugly. Maltby ended up bumping Roloson in the crease after being pushed and Roloson responded with a vicious slash to the groin that earned him a slashing penalty. Maltby got goaltender interference, though, which would have evened things out had Marc-Andre Bergeron not been called for roughing at the same time.

So. The Wings’ all-powerful power play took the ice for the first time. They set up, got a shot off which was blocked and the puck was cleared. They brought it back in and then knocked it down with a high stick, causing a faceoff way down at the other end. Just as I finished writing, “not a great PP,” they scored.

Either Schneider or Lidstrom (I didn’t write down which it was, the replays online are utterly unhelpful and at the moment I can’t remember which of them plays the right point on the power play. After a whole season, that’s sad, I know.) took a shot from the point that went wide of the net. Brendan Shanahan picked it up behind the goalline and skated to his right, sending the puck out front to Steve Yzerman. The Captain was in the slot and instead of taking the pass, he used his skate to deflect it to Robert Lang to Roloson’s left. Roloson, who was apparently keyed up for a shot from Yzerman, had no chance on the goal, which was a slam dunk for Lang. 1-0 Wings at 4:05.

Just over a minute later, Michael Peca clotheslined Mikael Samuelsson in the Wings’ end, thus earning a trip to the box. The Wings set up only to give it away to the Oilers who tried to clear it but couldn’t get it past Lidstrom at the blueline. Lang took the pass from Nick along the left boards but coughed it up and again the Oilers tried to clear it. Yzerman picked the Edmonton player’s pocket and kept it in again. Some solid pressure followed but the Oilers finally got it cleared and the rest of the power play was pretty fractured. KO.

Halfway through the period, Yzerman worked some magic with Lang, who had a glorious scoring chance out front, but the result was a tipped puck that ended up in the netting. Not long after that, Edmonton iced the puck and lost the ensuing faceoff. Mikael Samuelsson had a great chance but didn’t score.

At 11:16, Mathieu Schneider was called for hooking and the Wings went on the penalty kill for the first time. It didn’t go well. Ales Hemsky took the puck in hard down the right wing with Maltby doing a good job of closing off his lane to the net. Draper, however, didn’t do such a good job of covering Sergei Samsonov, who was the beneficiary of a good centering pass from Hemsky, as he skated straight to the net. Samsonov one-timed the pass and the puck went in off Chelios’ skate at 11:44 to make it a 1-1 game.

The fourth line had a great shift starting at about 14:30, showing good energy in the Edmonton zone and causing some havoc. Cleary, Franzen and Maltby were among the best players on the ice last night, for sure.

At 16:30, Steve Yzerman was called for interference just as his line was starting to put the screws to the Oilers. It happened next to the net and looked like more of a case of the Oilers player trying to go through The Captain to get to the puck than anything else. Yzerman bitterly contested the call and I can’t say I disagree with him. Fortunately, the Wings penalty kill did a good job of defending and the penalty was killed off.

The Captain came out of the box fired up and got the Wings going strong to finish the period. Henrik Zetterberg had a nice chance late but it resulted in nothing. After the period ended, Yzerman went up to the officials to discuss that call again but after that, he dropped it.

I’ve been reading a lot of complaints about OLN’s signal but Fox’s signal wasn’t so hot either, it turns out. The first minute and a half of the second period was obscured by blurry and frozen shots so I have no idea what happened in that time span. Pretty lame.

The Wings looked alright for the first few minutes of the second period but they had a hard time getting their shots through the crowd of Oilers who were sacrificing their bodies to block shots. They went on the power play at 4:14 and got some good pressure but their shots were mostly blocked and the pressure was really only due to puck control, not scoring chances. Still, they were swarming. The fourth line had another great shift but a lot of time was spent making Roloson look good by giving him easy shots.

At 7:46, Chris Chelios hit Ryan Smyth behind the net and Smyth went down like a ton of bricks, face first into the boards. I don’t know if he lost his balance or what but Chelios didn’t hit him that hard. Regardless of what I think, though, Cheli was called for cross-checking and the Wings went back on the penalty kill.

Edmonton looked good on this power play. They set up in the zone and cycled the puck well. Somewhere in there, Symth knocked Legace’s head off without getting called for goaltender interference. Manny got up, a little shaken, and had to deal with Smyth standing right in his face. Chris Pronger, with the puck at the point, took a shot and it found its way into the net, past Legace who never saw it because of #94, who was left untouched by Nicklas Lidstrom and Andreas Lilja. 2-1 Oilers at 8:43.

The Wings still looked okay after that but their play soon slipped and the Oilers began to take over as they set up their 1-4 box at center ice.

With 2:45 left, Michael Peca went literally neck-first into the goalpost and got up without blinking an eye. Weird.

At 17:39, Georges Laraque nearly took Chelios’ head off with his elbow, thankfully drawing a roughing penalty on the play. The Oilers had a glorious shorthanded chance by Shawn Horcoff from 7 feet out but Manny made the save. The Wings’ power play was awful, with sloppy passes and much slacking off by the likes of Robert Lang. Learn to go to the net on the rush, Robert. You don’t have to drop the puck off every single time you cross the blueline. Two-foot passes are utterly useless in such cases. Give me a break.

By the end of the period, the Wings had outshot Edmonton 31-11 but were down 2-1. They were playing to the Oilers’ level and earning boos from their home fans. Not a great period.

The Wings kicked off the third with the Swedish line, which had a good shift that was followed up by another good shift by Yzerman, Lang, and Williams. The Oilers were very tight defensively, though, and were making this difficult.

Lilja got his penalty, a phantom call, at 3:31. The Wings killed it off pretty well, however. Just after the penalty expired, Horcoff had a great scoring chance all alone out front. Legace made a great save and kept it 2-1. Not long after that, Schneider took a penalty and the Wings went back on the PK. It was a good power play for Edmonton and at this point, they seemed to be fully in control of the game.

Kris Draper sparked the Wings on a bit at 9:29 when he got tired of getting bumped around and took it out on Bergeron, who had just given him a face-wash. Draper drove him to the ice, getting a roughing penalty in the process but because he was bleeding when he got up, the refs gave Bergeron a four-minute high sticking penalty. Unfortunately, the ensuing power play was pretty lame. The Wings were putting effort in but the Oilers had shut the game down pretty well using their trap.

The Wings finally got the goal they needed at 13:43. Johan Franzen took a shot from the left wing and Maltby, crashing the net, got his stick on it and redirected it in. The officials decided the goal needed review and took their sweet time about it, even though every single replay I saw pretty clearly indicated it was a good goal. Thankfully, they eventually agreed and let the goal stand.

The game opened up after that, with the Wings playing well and the Oilers doing a pretty good job of matching them. They traded chances up and down the ice and it was clear the next goal was going to win it.

Shanahan took a dumb penalty at 18:10 but his buddy Chris Chelios was a beast on the PK, as was Manny Legace. Cleary had a good chance shorthanded but Roloson made the save. Soon, the period ended and we went to overtime.

I was too absorbed in watching OT to actually write much down so I don’t have a lot of detail here.

The Wings looked a little sloppy to begin with but soon stepped up and began to control play. This is when Roloson really started to come up big, as the Wings were getting good chances to win it. The Oilers, though, had a couple flurries around the net in which they should have scored but didn’t due to some fortunate blocked and fanned shots.

Late in the first OT, the Wings had a flurry that ended with Holmstrom falling on Roloson, who was “hurt” on the play. He seemed to be okay after laying there for a few minutes, however, and it could have just been that he wanted to give his teammates a rest with a little acting.

The Captain was nailed by someone pretty early on in the second OT. Don’t like to see that.

The Wings still looked good and had some good shifts early. Then, they scored.

Kirk Maltby, along the right boards, took a harmless shot at the net that somehow beat Roloson 5-hole and snuck in just inside the far post. The goal came as a bit of a surprise, after watching the guy stop easy shots all night. It came at 2:39 and gave the Wings a 1-0 lead in the series. (Update - 12:37 AM, 22. Apr): The puck deflected in off Rem Murray’s stick, so it didn’t beat Roloson cleanly.

It wasn’t that the Wings played badly last night. They didn’t. They actually played pretty well. It’s just that they let the Oilers dictate the terms of the game far too much. I would like to see them pass better in Game 2 and defeat the trap with some real creativity, not the overly cute stuff they tried at times last night. Their power play is going to have to be better and so is their penalty kill.

Henrik Zetterberg is going to need to play better too. He was virtually a non-factor last night and was really a disappointment. Come on, Hank. You need to do better.

I’m looking forward to Pavel Datsyuk’s return, which had better be Sunday (suck it up, Pavel). I kept missing his stickhandling ability last night, which I know would have given the Oilers fits. Just the stickhandling of Steve Yzerman and Robert Lang was enough to frustrate Edmonton. Imagine what Datsyuk, if he doesn’t completely choke, will do to the likes of Chris Pronger?

Sunday should be an interesting game. The Oilers relied on the trap a lot and nearly won because of it but their speed lends itself to a more open game. Will they try that? If they do, it’ll help the Wings, who’ll take advantage of the open ice with their superior puck handling skills (theoretically, at least). If they stick with the trap, expect the Wings to have trouble. Luck is a part of any playoff run and the Wings are going to need it if they want to go far. Luck just has a way of benefiting the team that is working the hardest and the Wings need to be that team.

An important win for the Wings. They needed to win, no matter how, but the bad thing is that the Oilers have hope now. They know they were outplayed but they also see that they nearly won. They blocked 30+ shots last night which is very impressive, and many of the 57 shots they allowed were perimeter shots. That should be worrisome. Roloson was solid but his defense was what nearly won the game.

This isn’t going to be an easy series.

Abel to Yzerman game summary

Update (4:55 PM): I meant to mention this but forgot: The Oilers looked dead in overtime while the Wings were busy skating circles around them. So much for youth, eh? Says a lot about the Wings’ depth, I think.