On the Wings

Update (12:37 PM): Corrected CBJ goalie’s name. It’s “Leclaire,” not “Leclerc.” Stupid mistake. - Matt

Well. I hate it when I get a bad feeling about a game and it ends up being right.* All indications were that the Wings would win. They had the momentum, they had a history of beating the Jackets this season, they had the first three goals, they had it in the bag. But the Blue Jackets had the gall to score four times in seven and half minutes in the third period, becoming the first team this season to rally in the third against the Wings and end up with a win.

Pascal Leclaire became a hero in the shootout, stopping all three Red Wings shooters, and the Blue Jackets head home with a 5-4 win over Detroit under their belts.

The Wings were, in the first, efficient and businesslike, in the second, casual and sloppy, and in the third, arrogantly negligent and complacent. It was by far their most disappointing performance in months and ought to leave a bad taste in your mouth. It’s also a wake-up call and it’s good that it came now and not before it’s too late to fix. The Wings waltzed out onto the ice, expecting a win, and, after they scored a couple easy goals, forgot the game wasn’t actually over. I’m guilty of the same line of thought, thinking, “Gotta feel sorry for the Blue Jackets,” “The Wings make it look so easy,” “Maybe those Central Division weepers are on to something if only for the unfairness of these games,” etc. many times during the first and second periods. It was a bit of a shock to be reminded that the Wings can underachieve with the worst of them.

And now, a note to all the fat cats at the Joe tonight: Your sarcastic cheers for Chris Osgood when he made a couple routine saves after Columbus took the lead were a disgusting show of disrespect. When you were booing immediately after the goal, one could assume you were booing the team, which was right to do. But when you jeered Osgood, you stepped over the line. The skaters were at fault, not the goalie, got it? Many people with a better understanding of hockey would gladly take your place in those seats, “fans,” because you don’t deserve to be there. You had every right to boo the team for their lackluster performance but not to put the blame on Osgood’s shoulders only. Disgusting.

As I said, the Wings looked like they’d come to take care of business in the first period. They had control of the game and generated a couple scoring chances before getting on the board at 3:23. Pavel Datsyuk fought for the puck along the boards behind the net with Adam Foote and the puck squirted out to Brendan Shanahan, who sent it out front to Johan Franzen. The Swede, coming right off the bench, settled the puck down and then, moving right to left across the net, sent a shot at Leclaire, beating him to make it 1-0 Red Wings.

The Wings’ first power play of the game was pretty weak in the face of strong penalty killing by the Blue Jackets. The puck spent most of the period in the CBJ zone or at center, though it made it into the Detroit zone at times, causing Osgood to keep awake in case the odd shot came his way. The Wings were dangerous and looked confident, while the Blue Jackets could hardly get anything going until later in the period.

Detroit scored again, late in the period, to give themselves a two-goal lead. A nice effort by Jason Williams kept the puck in the Columbus zone, resulting in a shot by him that was turned aside by Leclaire. The puck ended up on Robert Lang’s stick and he sent it to Andreas Lilja literally on the blueline. Lilja released a shot from about as far out as he could be while remaining onsides and it was just barely tipped by Steve Yzerman out front. It beat Leclaire and was Yzerman’s 689th goal, at 19:37 of the first. All being well, he’ll soon tie and then pass Mario Lemieux for 8th all-time with his 690th and 691st goals.

The Blue Jackets looked better in the second but the Wings were still hustling at this point. They killed off the first Columbus power play with a solid kill and nearly scored a couple times after it, with some solid pressure in the Jackets’ end on a strong couple shifts. Nik Kronwall had a great chance with plenty of room at the blueline to work with but he had a spontaneous loss of coordination and fanned on the shot (while seemingly trying to decide whether he wanted to shoot or let the Columbus player nearest to him have the puck so he could play defense on him), looking pretty comical as he did so. It wasn’t his best game, I have to say.

Datsyuk had a great scoring chance at 9:59 but he took an almost lazy approach to it, going for a fancy finish rather than burying the puck in the back of the net. Not a good sign.

Robert Lang scored at 12:53 to make it 3-0. The three forwards all took the puck in on a rush, with Yzerman carrying it down the right wing. Williams went to the net and Lang skated in the slot. The Captain centered the puck to Lang, who one-timed it a little awkwardly, beating Leclaire for a bit of a weak goal. Lang was laughing about it and I thought, “It’s like the Wings are playing a pickup game, laughing about goals like that.” At the time, I felt bad for the Blue Jackets, that the Wings could be winning so easily with such a casual attitude. I didn’t realize until later that I should have been worried.

Mark Mowers came to play tonight, though. He had a nice semi-breakaway a couple minutes later but just couldn’t get the puck to settle down for a clean shot. He still has jump.
Another Red Wing who came to play was Johan Franzen, who had that first period goal and was all over the ice most of the night.

Adam Foote took a cheap penalty at 15:35, when Zetterberg lost an edge right in front of him and the ref took it to mean Foote had tripped him. Shanahan had a nice chance right off the bat, but Leclaire’s glove hand was too quick. The middle part of the power play was pretty fractured but they set up again toward the end and got another nice couple scoring opportunities. Datsyuk had a glorious scoring chance, with a wide open net and everything, but he took his time and the puck ended up sliding off the heel of his stick before he could bury it. By the end of the power play, the Wings were outshooting Columbus 28-10.

Thirty-four seconds into the third, the Wings were on the penalty kill. They did a good job of it, though, and got a power play of their own four minutes later. The first unit was very solid, with a couple of very near goals but the second unit was pretty scattered.

Columbus broke the shutout at 7:08, when Rostislav Klesla scored off the right wing, beating Osgood stickside. If I remember correctly, it was deflected out front. Wings still lead 3-1.

After the goal, the Wings had the puck in the Columbus zone and Kronwall nearly scored down low. The Jackets iced it and after the ensuing faceoff, Kronwall had another chance, making up somewhat for his sloppy play earlier in the game.

At 9:50, Kris Draper’s shot went off the crossbar on a nice shift by him, Datsyuk and Shanahan.

Less than a minute later, Columbus struck again. David Vyborny deflected Klesla’s shot from the left wing at 10:39 to make it 3-2. I started to worry. I wrote “DET needs to focus,” in my notes.

Kronwall coughed the puck up in his own zone not long after that but Osgood came well out of the net to poke check it away, negating a good scoring opportunity for the Jackets and saving the rookie’s rear end.

At 14:10, Mikael Samuelsson, looking confident with the puck (I was thinking, “Ah, at least his signing a contract hasn’t had a negative effect on his play,” at that moment) turned it over just inside the Columbus blueline and David Vyborny sent it up ice to a streaking Rick Nash. Not a good thing. Nash beat Andreas Lilja (surprise!) down the right wing and turned toward the net. He cut across the front and stuffed it in around Osgood to make it a 3-3 tie at 14:16. Mike Babcock did not look happy. I wrote “Wings in trouble” and underlined it, noting it was just Columbus’ 18th shot.

Twenty-nine seconds later, Columbus took the lead. Somehow, Manny Malhotra’s shot went up and over Osgood on its way into the net for a freak goal, with Yzerman right there. The booing started and moments later, when Osgood turned aside a dump in, the “fans” at the Joe, cheered him like a bunch of jackasses.

Malhotra’s goal got the Wings out of their cocky lethargy and they began to play as though they wanted to win and weren’t just ordained to. Unfortunately for them, Leclaire seemed to be energized by his team and didn’t look like he’d be solved easily.

Shanahan had a nice shift immediately following the goal and had a couple good scoring chances but wasn’t able to bury it. He was slashed toward the end of his shift and looked to be in pain on the bench. Hopefully he wasn’t hurt on the play.

It was looking pretty bleak until Pavel Datsyuk scored out of the blue at 18:10. He entered the zone by himself and let loose a rocket from the top of the circles with Foote in front of him. The puck deflected immediately off Foote’s stick and fooled Leclaire enough to go into the top left corner. The Joe was rockin’, with Osgood’s falsely perceived sins forgotten for the moment.

Columbus put on some solid pressure late in regulation and Osgood was forced to come up big a couple times, no doubt causing many in JLA to turn to their neighbor and say “What a save!” with the same mouth they jeered him with five or six playing-time minutes earlier. The Wings had their time before the end of regulation as well, with Shanahan nearly scoring during the last 10-12 seconds, but the horn sounded and we headed to overtime. Again.

Overtime was exciting, as usual, and too fast paced to get down all that happened. Highlights included Osgood’s big save on Ron Hainsey 46 seconds into the extra period. Hainsey had been left wide open by Lidstrom and should have scored. Pavel had a near breakaway but a nice play by Hainsey prevented it.

Neither team could score in OT so we headed to another stupid shootout.

Jaroslav Balastik went first for Columbus. His wrist shot went in off the post, beating Osgood to his right.

Pavel Datsyuk was next, for Detroit. He deked backhand to forehand and tried to slide the puck past Leclaire as he skated past the net but it didn’t work. No goal.

Rick Nash was second for Columbus. He missed wide left.

Jason Williams, the Wings’ “Mr. Shootout,” was next up. He took a sharp angle attack and it backfired, as Leclaire was able to pokecheck the puck away. Williams is now 4-for-5 in shootouts.

David Vyborny was the last shooter for Columbus. Osgood stopped the puck with his shoulder and gave the Wings a chance to force a sudden-death round.

Henrik Zetterberg had to score to keep the game alive but he couldn’t. Leclaire turned aside his backhand shot and the Jackets won, 5-4.

Because the loss came after regulation, the Wings got a point and now lead the league with 102 points. All I have to say is they need to get this game out of their system if they intend on keeping that lead.

Next, we have the Blues, Monday at 8:00 ET in St. Louis. Either the Wings rebound from tonight’s loss and destroy the Blues or they fall even further and lose again. Which will it be?

Abel to Yzerman game report

*From the SJS summary: “Next up, we have Columbus at home tomorrow night at 7:30 ET. A should-win game and therefore one to worry about.” I was a little more confident in the preview for this game: “Most years, this game would be a doubtful one because the Wings should win. However, this year, the Wings haven’t disappointed in their games against the Jackets so hopefully tonight will be more of the same. The Jackets’ win last night could cause some concern but the Wings ought to be able to handle it.”

Although they started out somewhat slowly in the first period, the Wings did what they needed to do tonight, winning their third in a row by shutting out the Blue Jackets 4-0 in Columbus. The game showcased high quality goaltending at both ends and skillful penalty killing in the Detroit end.

Chris Osgood was one of the two best players for the Wings tonight, making 26 stops, a number of which were pretty tough. The Blue Jackets, especially in the first, had some good scoring chances and Ozzie stood on his head. What that means for the goaltending situation, I don’t know. It’s going to be hard for Babcock to pick a #1 goalie when each of them continue to come up with performances like that.

The other player who had a particularly good game was Nick Lidstrom. He finished with just one point but was very good with the puck, looking more like a forward than a defenseman at times. He notched a whopping 31 minutes of ice time and seems to be intent on taking the opportunity presented by Bryan McCabe’s groin injury, and the resulting re-focusing of that spotlight, to show the League why he’s the best defenseman it has.

At the other end of the ice, Columbus goalie Pascal Leclaire put on a very good performance of his own, despite the final score. If it weren’t for his stellar play, that score would be a lot more lop-sided than it already is. The Wings sometimes made it easy on him by shooting the puck high or wide but when they got it on the net, he made the stop 37 times out of 41. He’s a good goalie.

Right out of the gate, both teams were skating hard up and down the ice while trading chances. It didn’t take too long, however, for Columbus to take over a bit.

Osgood made a very good stop on Sergei Fedorov about six minutes in when Sergei came across the net and switched from the backhand to the forehand a couple feet from the crease. Good play by Fedorov but Osgood was up to the challenge.

The Wings got their first penalty at 7:51 when Osgood gave up a rather large rebound, forcing Lilja to hook and get called for it. The Jackets were slow getting fully set up but finally did get a glorious chance as the power play wound down. Nikolai Zherdev had a sure goal standing our front on the right side of the net but he shot it low and Osgood just barely got his left foot out to make the save.

Detroit was kind of sloppy with the puck in this period, especially out front of their own net. They didn’t seem to be giving Osgood very much support and I was a little concerned about it until they assuaged my fears later in the game by tightening down.

After another Columbus power play, the Wings got a try of their own at 13:27. The power play started off very well, with good pressure right off the bat. Robert Lang had a chance out front and the puck ended up on Steve Yzerman’s stick to Leclaire’s left but he sent it off the side of the net due to the excessively sharp angle. After that initial burst, the puck was cleared and the Wings had a bit of a scattered remainder of the power play. The wrapped it up with some pressure that continued after the Columbus penalty expired but soon got another penalty of their own.

forty-three seconds later, they took another penalty, in their own zone, and handed the Jackets a 5-on-3 power play. They did a good job of killing it off, however, maintaining a very tight diamond formation. Babcock used Yzerman with Chelios and Lidstrom here, which I found a little surprising. The Captain doesn’t get a lot of PK time, though the other two certainly do. He did well, though, and is getting back in the swing of things big time.

In the final couple minutes, the Wings made a decent push but Leclaire was strong and didn’t allow a goal.

The Wings came out well again in the second but this time they sustained it. They went on the power play at 3:23 and set up a good power play but Leclaire made some very good saves. Tomas Holmstrom was absolutely in his face the entire time and he stopped a few pucks he couldn’t possibly have seen but a stopped puck is a stopped puck and it was all due to his strong positioning regardless of the screen.

For all his efforts, Leclaire would allow a goal on the next Red Wings power play, which came less than a minute after the last expired.

The Wings set up, cycled the puck and got the shot they wanted. Pavel Datsyuk, from his usual spot along the right wing, sent the puck to Jason Williams, who had manned the right point the whole PP but had slidden over to the left when Lidstrom went down low. Williams, who may not have the most powerful shot nonetheless has a very quick release, ripped off a shot. Holmstrom was rewarded for his fine work in front of the net and got his stick on the shot, deflecting it down and past Leclaire, who had very little chance to stop it. 1-0 Wings at 7:06.

Just a couple minutes later, Jason Williams connected with Pavel Datsyuk at the Columbus blueline and Pavel took the puck in, almost one step ahead of the Jacket defense. Adam Foote hooked Datsyuk and got a penalty but saved his goalie’s rear end by doing so.

The resulting power play was another good one, with Datsyuk making good plays but also with Leclaire making saves. Mikael Samuelsson made a nice moved around the Columbus defense and got off a shot at close range but was stopped. The FSN crew raved about Sammy after that, with Mickey Redmond saying that while he still surprises us, he’s starting to less and less “because we’re getting so used to seeing it.” I have to agree.

The Wings were on a roll, taking good shift after good shift. I’m serious when I say Leclaire was the only reason Columbus was still in it.

Rick Nash laid a dangerous hit from behind on Johan Franzen and got called for boarding at 15:24. The Wings didn’t score on the power play but did soon after, at 18:09.

Nick Lidstrom made a great play at the blueline along the boards on Sergei Fedorov and then sent the puck at the net. Mark Mowers somehow deflected it into the net and the Wings went up two on what looked like a harmless shot.

Columbus came right back, and I mean right back, with a very good scoring chance. Jason Chimera beat Andreas Lilja and broke in on Osgood all alone, letting loose a shot from 13 feet out. Osgood, deep in his own net, somehow made the save and though the Jackets got a couple more shots off immediately after that, that was the closest they came to scoring for the rest of the night.

The third period began with the Wings on the penalty kill, a carryover from the previous period. Columbus generated some good pressure but Osgood was strong and the Wings killed it off.

Four minutes in, the Jackets went on the penalty kill themselves. The Wings set up and got a goal within 39 seconds. Pavel Datsyuk got the puck in the left corner and headed to directly behind the net. But before he got there, he sent a quick pass out front and connected with Holmstrom, who was on the doorstep. Homer one-timed it past Leclaire, who had no chance on that play: it happened too fast. 3-0 Wings at 4:52.

Datsyuk went to the box less than a minute later. After Columbus set up, Kris Draper intercepted a pass at the blueline and got a clear breakaway. And, in vintage Draper style, he sent it about three feet wide on the backhand. Seriously, one of the guys most likely to get a breakaway can’t score on them to save his life. I almost died of shock when he did it last season. I guess he’s back to being the Kris Draper we know and love (and are immensely frustrated with at times like that!).

Draper wasn’t the only one missing the net. Not long after his penalty expired, Datsyuk had a nice chance but sent it high and wide. But it wasn’t on a breakaway, Kris.

Nick Lidstrom had a nice shift as the game neared its final ten minutes. He had the puck at the blueline and faced some pressure but he held on to it, skating around with it like he was the only one out there and out-muscling David Vyborny until the latter was forced to take a penalty. Fortunately for him, the Wings didn’t score on it but there wasn’t much else he could do, with Lidstrom set on keeping the puck like that.

After a couple minutes of four-on-four play (due to coincidental minors), the Wings started to slow the game down a bit for the final few minutes.

They didn’t slow it down so much that they didn’t try to score, though, and at 18:13, Mathieu Schneider put a cap on the scoring after taking a pass from Samuelsson. His shot from the blueline was slowed down by Leclaire but it trickled through nonetheless. 4-0 Wings on their 41st shot.

The Wings went right back on the penalty kill after that but obviously nothing came of it and the game ended with them on the right end of a 4-0 win. It was Osgood’s first shutout this season and his 42nd of his career.

Notes

Henrik Zetterberg did not play, as previously reported. Hopefully his hip problem is not a recurrence of the hip flexor injury he had during training camp. … There were no icings in this game until 2:59 left in the third period, when the Wings iced the puck. … Tickets for the post-poned November 21st Predators game will be honored at the re-scheduled game on Monday, the 23rd. If you have any questions, call the Wings at (313) 616-7575. … The Wings killed off all penalties penalties tonight and scored on two of seven power plays. … Mark Mowers made much of his 4:24 of ice time, with two shots, two hits, and a goal.

Lines*

Datsyuk-Shanahan-Draper
Franzen-Maltby-Cleary
Samuelsson-Williams-Lang
Mowers-Holmstrom-Yzerman
Williams-Lang-Yzerman
Samuelsson-Holmstrom-Datsyuk
Holmstrom-Samuelsson-Williams
Franzen–Lang-Shanahan
Franzen-Draper-Maltby
Lang-Yzerman-Shanahan
Mowers-Holmstrom-Datsyuk
Yzerman-Shanahan-Datsyuk
Draper-Shanahan
Franzen-Samuelsson
Yzerman-Lang
Lang-Cleary
Franzen-Maltby
Maltby-Cleary
Draper-Franzen
Maltby-Draper
Franzen-Cleary

D-pairings

Lilja-Lidstrom
Lidstrom-Woolley
Lebda-Chelios
Chelios-Schneider
Schneider-Lebda
Schneider-Woolley
Schneider-Lilja
Lidstrom-Chelios
Lidstrom-Lebda
Lidstrom-Schneider

PP

Holmstrom-Samuelsson-Williams-Datsyuk-Lidstrom
Franzen-Draper-Maltby-Lilja-Chelios
Holmstrom-Datsyuk-Samuelsson-Schneider-Woolley
Lang-Yzerman-Shanahan-Woolley-Schneider

*compiled by Brian