On the Wings

Just a few thoughts on the game:

… We’ve definitely established that the Wings don’t play their best hockey the second night of a back-to-back. Last night was no exception. They’ve had better games. They looked pretty lethargic in the first period and though they seemed to pick it up as the game went on, they never really struck that note of pure efficiency that has marked their best games.

… The difference between the October/November Valtteri Filppula and the December iteration is enormous. Although Fil has been a strong defensive player all season, his offensive forays earlier on ended comically more often than not: he inexplicably fell down, fanned on a shot, sent the puck wide of an open net, or failed to finish in some other way. Now, he’s a force out there and everything is going in for him. He’s become very strong with the puck, as his play on his first goal last night demonstrated, and looks like he’s picked up Henrik Zetterberg’s mantle in his absence.

This is the Valtteri Filppula we’ve been waiting for and if he can keep it up when some of the pressure to produce is off him at the return of Holmstrom and Zetterberg, the Wings are going to be even tougher to stop.

… I love it when Jiri Hudler breaks out his cannon of a shot as he did on his goal last night. He gives the impression of being strictly a wrist-shot-after-a-deke type of player, but he has that brute force side that will make him one of the team’s better finishers. He’s fun to watch because he has no idea just how small he is relative to nearly everyone else .

… Brian Rafalski: Please be more aware when you make a cross-ice pass.

… The problem with putting in a rookie like Derek Meech when Chris Chelios is a healthy scratch is that the kid has no veteran to play with. I don’t really think Meech should be paired with Lebda, but I don’t know what else Babcock can do. He can’t exactly put him with Lidstrom or Rafalski.

… It’s amazing to me that the Avs only managed to take one penalty last night. I know they’re the least-penalized team in the League, but how can a team with Ian Lapierre take only one penalty? I know I saw them get away with a lot last night, though, to be fair, so did the Wings. I guess it was just a case of the officials deciding to let them play.

Still, the Lidstrom tripping call in the third was as bogus as they come, and the referee missed a blatant penalty just before Samuelsson scored the empty netter. The Avs hauled Pavel Datsyuk right in front of the official and there was no call. At that point, it didn’t really matter, but you’d still like to see a penalty there.

… Peter Budaj is a strange goalie. It’s hard to describe what I mean. Maybe this example will help: on the Wings’ second goal, Nik Kronwall started things off with a nice play at the blueline followed by a shot. The rebound went to Filppula at the right side of the net, behind Budaj. From his knees, Budaj looked back, saw the puck on Filppula’s stick, and stood up, effectively conceding the goal. Sure, it was inevitable, but most goalies would have tried to dive back or something. Budaj often seemed to freeze or otherwise react strangely after shots like that.

… A win over the Avs always feels good. Especially when they have such an intense finish.

… To end on a personal note, I’ll be out of town this weekend (leaving southeast Michigan and heading to West Michigan) and won’t be posting again until January 1st at the earliest. I’ll probably be watching Saturday, but I’ll miss the New Year’s Eve game because I’ll be at Van Andel watching the Griffins.

This coincides nicely with the onset of a mild case of Blogger Burnout Syndrome that I’ve been feeling lately.

I hope everyone has a good weekend and a Happy New Year!

Links

• Highlights
• George Malik’s wrap-up
• Red Wings TV post-game interviews (breakdown here)
  • Mike Babcock
  • Dominik Hasek
  • Valtteri Filppula
  • Jiri Hudler
  • Nicklas Lidstrom
• In the Cheap Seats

Update (7:50 PM): Ansar Khan reports that Niklas Kronwall will be in the lineup Friday night in St. Louis, and that he will wear a full face shield for about a month as he recovers from the cut he received last night while hitting Marek Svatos. The cut is apparently, “near the end of his nose, below the bone,” and required “20-to-25 stitches,” to close. - Matt

Update (1:39 PM): Dave at Gorilla Crouch has a good look at the improving Central Division, as well as a picture of the result of Niklas Kronwall’s hit on Marek Svatos. - Matt

The Wings lost 3-1 last night to Colorado in Denver. It was their second loss in a row and second in two nights. The Avs looked energized while the Wings just looked tired, though they managed to keep the game close. It’s clear that they need the All Star Break after a busy month of January to this point.

Joey MacDonald was in net for the Wings and looked very good. On the two goals he allowed, he was the victim of a couple bad bounces and flurries that continued longer than they should have. Other than that, he was very sharp and made a number of key saves. In some ways, he was thrown to the wolves, such as when the Avs bounced back from a 7-2 deficit in shots with 10 unanswered, but he fought them off well, you might say. He certainly gave the Wings a chance to win. However, the Wings were too exhausted to take advantage of that chance, especially with Peter Budaj playing so well. They were able to capitalize on one of Budaj’s few mistakes and tie the game late in the first, but he was too good beyond that.

The Wings were not helped by the fact that they only had five defensemen for most of the game. At 8:54 of the first period, Niklas Kronwall devastated Marek Svatos at the Detroit blueline along the left wing. It was a great hit, but had a very unfortunate result, as Svatos’ skate came up as he fell and cut across the bridge of Kronwall’s nose. Nik immediately went to the bench, where a towel was applied and soon after, he was heading down the hallway to the lockerroom. FSN’s John Keating told us later in the period that there were reports of Kronwall being taken to an ambulance. Later, they confirmed that he was in the hospital being treated for a deep cut across the nose. The Wings’ defense, already missing Mathieu Schneider, adapted fairly well, but because they were already tired, it was not an ideal situation.

The Avs took a 1-0 lead at 9:45 of the first period following a Brett McLean blueline shot. MacDonald made the intial save, but Ian Laperriere pounced on the rebound and forced Joey to make another save. Laperriere fell in an effort to get at the second rebound and he was able to knock it in from his knees with a backhand dig. Kirk Maltby wasn’t able to make it back in time to clear the puck. You’d like to see MacDonald handle rebounds a little better, but the Wings’ defense didn’t do an adequate job of clearing the front of the net.

The Wings’ answered a little five and a half minutes later on a surprising play. Johan Franzen stole a Colorado outlet pass at center and carried the puck the other direction, crossing the line and throwing it at the net from 54 feet out along the right wing. Budaj redirected the shot to the left wing, but he’d apparently forgotten the fact that Valtteri Filppula had been streaking down that side. The puck went right to him and he got it into the net, though to Budaj’s credit, the shot was almost stopped as he got over very fast. Jason Williams followed the play up and made sure it counted. 1-1 at 15:25.

The Avs took the lead for good at 9:52 of the third period. It didn’t count as a power play goal, but it might as well, because Andreas Lilja had only just gotten out of the box. Brett Clark took the initial shot from near the blueline and MacDonald made the save, but the puck went up in the air off his glove and fell on his back. Paul Stastny was able to get his stick on it an knock it over behind Joey to Andrew Brunette, who knocked it in despite having Henrik Zetterberg all over his back.

The Wings made a bid for the comeback late in the game by calling a timeout before a faceoff in the Colorado end and by pulling MacDonald for the sixth man. It didn’t work. The Avs controlled the puck more in the Detroit end than vice versa and it led to the third goal, an empty netter by Joe Sakic with 42 seconds left in the game.

… As the game wore on, the Avs were much more physical than the Wings, who were mobbed whenever they had the puck and inevitably lost it when they got nailed.

… Though not penalized that often, the Wings did take a couple dumb ones. Dan Cleary’s first period holding penalty was completley unnecessary, as was Robert Lang’s late hooking penalty at 15:46 of the third period.

… There were a few instances of offensive magic, though none of them resulted in anything. Examples: though not strictly on offense, Pavel Datsyuk’s nifty stickwork in his own end with three Avs around him about 5:00 into the game was impressive; on a good pressure shift by Pavel’s line a couple minutes later, he made Joe Sakic look like a fool as he came out of the corner and deked the Avs captain silly; Datsyuk had a nice carry through center in the second period that included a beautiful toe drag move, but it fizzled out when he ran into a pair of Colorado defensemen; Robert Lang showed a flash of brilliance when he put the puck through the legs of Kyle Comisky down low in the Colorado defense, stepping around him and walking in on net. His shot was deflected high, though.

… If you needed any evidence that the Wings were exhausted, look no further: Nick Lidstrom fanned on the puck about three times in his own end, with Milan Hejduk bearing down on him. Hejduk would get the puck and get a great scoring chance on that rarest of Lidstrom mistakes.

Despite their apparent tiredness, the Wings managed to play a pretty good game. They were mostly strong on defense and had some great offensive chances. It was really a close one-goal game and the final score is misleading. It’s unfortunate that they weren’t able to go into the Break with a win, but that at least now they’ll be able to rest.

Next up, they have St. Louis on Friday.