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GameDay: @ Nashville (10-8-2, 22 Pts) 8:00 ET

Published
by
Matt Saler
on November 22, 2007
in 2007-2008, Blues, Game Reports, GameDay and Predators
. 1 Comment

Update (7:50 PM): You can watch the game live online on NHL TV here. - Matt

Update (5:50 PM): HockeyTownTodd has his preview posted. - Matt

Update (2:20 PM): Over at Snapshots, George Malik has a nice roundup of all the post-game media from the win over the Blues. - Matt

Tonight is the second of eight games between these two teams this season. The Wings won the first meeting, 3-2 in a shootout on the 7th. They’ll meet again in December (1), February (1), and March (4).

Since losing to the Wings on the 7th, the Predators have posted a 3-1-1 record. The three wins came in a row after leaving Detroit and included two games over the Blue Jackets. Since beating the Blackhawks on the 15th, however, the Preds have dropped two in a row. First, they lost 3-2 to the Blues in a shootout on the 17th, and then they lost 2-1 to St. Louis again, in regulation, two nights later. Nashville has been playing Central Division opponents since November 4, but they’ll finish that stretch up tonight.

Radek Bonk leads the team in goals with 8, but David Legwand leads in points and assists with 18 and 12.

It looks as though Chris Mason will be the starter tonight.

For the Nashville perspective, see Pred-Joe, On the Forecheck, and the official Predators blog.

The Wings are 3-3-0 since beating the Predators earlier this month. They dropped three consecutive games, but have since won two in a row, including last night’s game in St. Louis, a 3-0 decision. Chris Osgood was in net and only needed to make 12 saves to post his 44th career shutout. He was great when needed, though, and continues to exude confidence. Henrik Zetterberg opened the scoring just 22 seconds into the game with a nice powerplay goal and the Blues never got back in the game. They took two penalties, including a couple double minors, and could never find their rhythm. The Wings, on the other hand, were pretty dominant. Mikael Samuelsson and Dan Cleary scored the Wings’ other goals. Cleary’s was a particularly nice breakaway effort.

See post-game comments from Mike Babcock here, from Chris Osgood and Dan Cleary here, and see the highlight reel here.

Tomas Kopecky left the game with a shoulder injury that they’re saying is minor. Apparently, he wouldn’t have played tonight anyway, as he and Dallas Drake were slated to sit in exchange for Matt Ellis and Aaron Downey.

Dominik Hasek is slated to start tonight.

The Wings will need to try to pick up where they left off last night. The Predators are rested, which will make things difficult, especially given their speed, but if the Wings are smart defensively, they should be in good shape. If the Wings can’t limit the shots like they usually do, it may not be a bad thing, as Hasek apparently prefers to face a lot of shots rather than, say, 12. Given that the Wings will keep their opponents to under 20 shots on most nights, you have to wonder if a goalie that can’t thrive in that system is the best for the team. Chris Osgood has no problem with facing 12 shots. Just sayin’.

Oh, and happy Thanksgiving!

GameDay: vs. St. Louis (11-7-0, 22 Pts) 7:30 ET

Published
by
Matt Saler
on November 21, 2007
in 2007-2008, Blues and GameDay
. 3 Comments

Update (9:49 PM): Tomas Kopecky has left the game due to a shoulder injury. He won’t return, which leaves the Wings short a forward. - Matt

Update (7:36 PM): If you’re trying to watch the game online, try the broadcast on Yahoo! If you’re in the blackout area, try watching it on NHL TV here. - Matt

Update (7:05 PM): As usual, there’ll be a liveblog of sorts going on over at Abel to Yzerman. - Matt

Update (6:22 PM): Red Wings TV has some game day comments from Mike Babcock here. - Matt

Update (6:03 PM): HockeyTownTodd has his preview of the game posted. Also, be sure to check out Baroque’s latest post over there. - Matt

Update (12:56 PM): Bruce MacLeod has the “probable lines” over at Red Wings Corner. Matt Ellis and Aaron Downey are both healthy scratches. - Matt

Tonight is the second of eight games between these two teams this season. The Blues won the first meeting, 4-3 in St. Louis on the 13th. The remaining six games in the series will be played in December (3) and March (3).

The Blues are 3-0-0 since beating the Wings a week ago. They first beat the Blue Jackets, 3-2 on the 16th and followed that up with a 3-2 shootout win in Nashville the next night. Two days later, they beat the Predators at home, 2-1. That win put them at 5-3-0 in November.

Brad Boyes leads the team with 12 goals, but Paul Kariya leads in points with 20. Barrett Jackman has one point through 18 games and is now minus-9.

Former Red Wing Manny Legace should be in net for the Blues tonight. Since the last time we saw him, Manny has improved to a 2.22 GAA (from 2.27) and a .918 save-percentage (from .914).

For the Blues perspective, check out Note Speak, St. Louis Game Time, The Hockey Chick, and The Checking Line.

The Wings have gone 1-2-0 since losing to the Blues last week. On Sunday in Columbus, they snapped a three-game losing streak in which they lost to the Blackhawks twice, once before the Blues game, and once after it. In a stretch of games in which they have exclusively played Central Division teams, the team is 3-3-0. They play in Nashville tomorrow night and will face Columbus on Saturday.

Henrik Zetterberg leads the team in goals, assists, and points with 14, 16, and 30, respectively. Pavel Datsyuk and Nick Lidstrom also have 16 assists.

It looks like Aaron Downey will sit again after a strong performance Sunday night. Expect Dallas Drake and Tomas Kopecky to fill out the fourth line with, it looks like, Jiri Hudler.

Chris Osgood will start tonight.

For more of the Detroit perspective, be sure to stop by Snapshots, Gorilla Crouch (though Dave is traveling), Abel to Yzerman, HockeyTownTodd, Gloveside, Behind the Jersey, No Pun Intended, yzerman is god, and Winging It In Motown today.

The Wings just need to come out and play their game. If they run into penalty trouble, hopefully their having focused on that in practice yesterday will help. With a confident Chris Osgood in net, they should be in better shape than they were last time, when Hasek’s shaky play resulted in his getting yanked.

Wings 3, Blues 4

Published
by
Matt Saler
on November 14, 2007
in 2007-2008, Blues and Game Reports
. 4 Comments

Update (3:48 PM): HockeyTownTodd has some great stuff in the comment he left below. The stats he gives are not encouraging. - Matt

The Wings dropped their second straight intra-divisional game last night, losing 4-3 to the St. Louis Blues. Their 40 minutes of decent hockey bookended a second period in which the Blues not only stormed back from a two-goal deficit, but took a two-goal lead of their own. Detroit controlled the play in the first, for the most part, but allowed the Blues to get back into the game in the second. By the third, both teams were playing pretty well, with the Blues just beating back the Wings efforts at a comeback.

… Jiri Hudler stood out again as having a good game. He finished with two assists and was heavily involved in the offense. His helper on Valtteri Filppula’s goal was particularly nice. His confidence is way up and you get the feeling something’s going to happen when he has the puck.

… Dan Cleary also continues to play well. His goal in the first period was a great one and he caused trouble the rest of the night.

… I thought Niklas Kronwall had one of the best games of his career. He finished with 25:07 in ice time and two assists. He looked extremely confident in both ends of the ice. Perhaps it was a relief to be cut loose a bit without Andreas Lilja as his partner.

… Henrik Zetterberg’s point streak ended at 17 games. The last time he was shut out? February 8, 2007 against the Blues. Manny Legace was the goalie that night, too. He did have six shots, which is something, I guess.

… I didn’t think Pavel Datsyuk had a particularly good night. He scored a bit of a fluke goal, but wasn’t much of a factor aside from that. The Blues did a good job of silencing him.

… Derek Meech filled in ably tonight. He’s a steady young defenseman. I like the idea of Babcock using him every once in a while. I think Lilja plays better hockey when he gets the idea his job isn’t guaranteed.

… Manny Legace recovered rather nicely from the Wings first two goals. Good for him, if it was bad for the Wings.

… The loss does not rest entirely on the shoulders of Dominik Hasek, but he gets a hefty share of the blame. He had no chance on the first goal and was interfered with on the third, but he should have stopped the 2nd and 3rd. You can blame the second on a defensive breakdown (it was really just a nice breakout by the Blues), but Dom has to make that save. That’s why he’s in Detroit. I don’t know what the heck happened on the fourth goal, but that should have been a routine save, heavy shot or not.

Dom wasn’t on top of his game last night and Babcock made the right decision to pull him. When the Wings skaters are being outplayed by their opponents, the goaltender is supposed to give them a lift, particularly when that goaltender is Domink Hasek. Didn’t happen last night.

… The Wings kept the Blues away from Chris Osgood for the most part, but Ozzie looked sharp when needed.

… The team has until Saturday to get back on track and I hope they can because they’re facing Chicago again that night.

GameDay: @ St. Louis (7-7-0, 14 Pts) 7:30 ET

Published
by
Matt Saler
on November 13, 2007
in 2007-2008, Blues and GameDay
. 1 Comment

Update (8:00 PM): Noticed a few minutes ago that Derek Meech is playing at the expense of Andreas Lilja. Bruce MacLeod reports that Lilja is a healthy scratch, so it looks like Babcock is sending a message to the big Swede. - Matt

Update (7:40 PM): Catch the game live (okay, delayed 30-40 seconds) on NHL TV here. Already, the lines are different than reported today, as Kris Draper started between Dallas Drake and Kirk Maltby. - Matt

Update (5:39 PM): More from MacLeod. This time it’s a quote form Mike Babcock on the practice before the Chicago game:

“Zetterberg calls it the joy factor. … There’s a lot of fun. Our guys are laughing and abusing each other and fooling around. The day before in practice, we went out and no one was bugging each other. They were paying attention and we weren’t executing. I know right away when they’re attentive that something’s going on. Usually, they’re goofing off, having fun. There was no energy. Just because the schedule says we should be all right, we’re not.”

I guess that sort of explains the Wings’ sloppiness Sunday. Sort of. Despite the fact that we don’t know why the players weren’t in their usual mood, it’s always good to hear details like that. We know so little about practice dynamics way out here behind the wall.

Anyway, the team did not skate yesterday, but went bowling instead. Let’s hope they got the right amount of goofing off and abuse in. They did skate today, however, though MacLeod doesn’t offer any observations on the mood among the players.

By the way, Jiri Hudler has the hot hand in bowling as well as hockey at the moment. He won with four strikes in a row and a score of 183. - Matt

Update (1:56 PM): Bruce MacLeod reports that Mikael Samuelsson has flown home to Detroit to be with his wife and their newborn daughter. As a result, Matt Ellis will enter the lineup as the center of the fourth line with Tomas Kopecky and Dallas Drake. Jiri Hudler will move up from the fourth line to skate on the second with Valtteri Filppula and Johan Franzen.

Ellis will make the fourth line tougher to play against, which is a good thing going into a rebound game. Hudler has earned a spot on the second line, so it’s good to see him get it.

Congratulations to the Samuelssons! - Matt

Tonight is the first of eight games between these two teams this season. The 2006-2007 series ended in a 4-4 tie. They play once more this month, three times in December, and three times in March.

The Blues have had a bit of a bipolar season. They lost their opener to Phoenix, but won their next four. Then, they hit a 3-3-0 stretch where they alternated losses and win. Their last win came November 1st in Minnesota and since then, they are 0-3, having lost to the Blackhawks twice and Columbus once in that span. The Blues’ 7-7-0 record is good for fifth in the Central Division, five points back of the 4th-place team, Nashville.

Brad Boyes leads the team with 9 goals, but free agent acquisition Paul Kariya leads in points with 16. Keith Tkachuk isn’t far behind, with 13. 2003 Calder Trophy winner Barrett Jackman has one point through 14 games and is minus-7.

Former Red Wing Manny Legace has posted a 6-5 record this season, with a 2.27 GAA and a .914 save percentage. He should be the starter tonight for the Blues.

For the Blues perspective, check out St. Louis Game Time, The Hockey Chick, and The Checking Line.

The Wings had won nine in a row going into Chicago Sunday night, but couldn’t win a tenth as the Blackhawks outplayed them just about the whole game. They are now 0-2-1 against the Hawks this season and have lost to just one other team, the Ducks. Tonight is the fourth in a nine-game stretch in which they play only Central Division teams.

2003 Calder Trophy runner-up Henrik Zetterberg is tied with Sidney Crosby for the league lead in points with 27. He leads the team in both goals (13) and is tied for the team lead in assists with Pavel Datsyuk (14).

There are no Red Wing injuries and it’s not likely there will be any lineup changes, as Tomas Kopecky and Dallas Drake have been playing well.

Dominik Hasek should get the start tonight after backing up Chris Osgood Sunday in Chicago. He is 5-2-1 with a 2.47 GAA and a .883 save-percentage.

For more of the Detroit perspective, be sure to stop by Snapshots, Gorilla Crouch, Abel to Yzerman, HockeyTownTodd, Gloveside, Behind the Jersey, No Pun Intended, yzerman is god, and Winging It In Motown today.

The Wings were as flat as I’ve seen them all season Sunday night and can’t expect to get away with that again tonight. The Blues are a well-coached team, as pointed out by HockeyTownTodd in the comments yesterday, and have plenty of talent, as well. Paul Kariya, in particular, will make the Wings pay if they don’t bring their “A” game. That said, with the exception of Chicago, the Wings have looked fairly good against the Central this year and hopefully that will continue tonight as they play the Blues for the first time.

No suspension for Nieminen

Published
by
Matt Saler
on March 26, 2007
in Blues, Brett Lebda, Hockey Bloggers, Links, NHL and Ville Nieminen
. 2 Comments

The League has decided not to suspend Ville Nieminen for his hit on Brett Lebda Saturday afternoon. If I didn’t know not to expect justice from the NHL, I’d be shocked and angry. Now, I’m just disgusted. Once again, the League drops the ball on dealing out proper punishment. (via. Kukla’s)

Wings 2, Blues 3 (SO)

Published
by
Matt Saler
on March 25, 2007
in 2006-2007, Blues and Game Reports
. 0 Comments

Like I said, no game recap from me. I had the game on in the background and saw most of the important stuff through the end of regulation, but don’t have much else to say aside from I’m glad Brett Lebda wasn’t hurt worse than he was and I hope Ville Nieminen gets a hefty suspension for that hit.

Also, I think Todd Bertuzzi is going to break out soon. He’s getting too many chances to just score one goal when the puck finally starts going in.

Lastly, the Wings flat out need to start playing a full game. This “it’s the first period so we’re going to suck” and “it’s the third period so we suddenly want to win” crap has to stop. It’s starting to make me nervous, with the playoffs just around the corner. Chris Chelios’ first intermission interview was perfect. All he could say was how bad they’d played and that it was weighing so heavily on his mind he couldn’t think of or say anything else. I hope the other guys felt the same.

Dave has a good recap of the game over at Gorilla Crouch, including a picture of the referees and review booth officials that handed the Blues the win in the shootout. I didn’t catch the shootout, but from what I hear, it sounds like the Wings got ripped off.

IwoCPO has a good appraisal of the Wings’ current situation over at Abel to Yzerman, including a “final tidbit” especially worth checking out. I fully agree, Iwo.

GameDay: vs. St. Louis (30-31-12, 72 Pts) 2:00 ET

Published
by
Matt Saler
on March 24, 2007
in 2006-2007, Blog, Blues and GameDay
. 7 Comments

Unfortunately, I have too much homework this weekend to be able to cover the game like I usually do. So, I won’t be able to do a game preview or a report, though I may check in on the game at times and catch something worth reporting tomorrow. We’ll have to see.

Anyway, I’d like to treat this post like a game day thread, if anyone wants to post comments throughout the afternoon about the game. It looks like I won’t be able to do the Anaheim game on Monday, either, but I should return to regular coverage on Thursday for the Predators game.

Dave of Gorilla Crouch should have a preview up soon.

Guerin to San Jose

Published
by
Sarah Baker
on February 27, 2007
in Bill Guerin, Blues and Sharks
. 2 Comments

Update (Matt, 1:55 PM): Hockey’s Future’s recent Sharks NCAA prospects update has a small profile on Barriball, who sounds like a pretty good prospect, though young and inexperienced. Still, I think the Sharks got off a lot easier than the Wings would have had they been intent on getting the Blues to give Guerin up to them. - Matt

Update (1:25PM): Sportsnet reports that the Blues apparently got more than we thought from San Jose. On top of a prospect and a draft pick, the Blues got Ville Niemenen. That may very well have been the difference between San Jose’s offer and Detroit’s — Ken Holland is not willing to give up another roster player. The prospect the Sharks gave up was Jay Barriball, their 7th round pick (203rd overall) in the 2006 entry draft. - Megan

Update (12:29PM): Now that I think of it, the the Blues probably didn’t want to deal Guerin to a divisional rival (as Bill has been reminding us since yesterday) unless the compensation was just too good to pass up. I doubt the Wings would have been willing to give much more than San Jose did and San Jose had the advantage of being a time zone away. - Sarah

Looks like you can scratch Guerin off the list of potential trades for the Wings.

TSN is reporting that Bill Guerin has been traded to the San Jose Sharks. Details are scarce at the moment. Reportedly, San Jose gave up a first round pick and a non-roster player.

If that’s true, it doesn’t seem like the price should have been too high for the Wings (who seem to deal picks without a second thought), but perhaps the Blues were demanding a top prospect whom the Wings braintrust was unwilling to part with.

Bill Guerin beats Predators

Published
by
Matt Saler
on February 17, 2007
in Bill Guerin, Blues, Predators and Video
. 3 Comments

This was the only goal of the game in the Blues’ shutout of Nashville last night.

I have to say that I’m a bit more interested in Guerin after seeing that replay. He’s not making it any easier for the Wings to pursue him, though, by scoring goals like that. His price is rising fast.

By the way, he inexplicably reminds me of Staff Sergeant Martin from Band of Brothers. They don’t really look alike at all, do they? (via. St. Louis Game Time)

2/9 Notes

Published
by
Matt Saler
on February 9, 2007
in Blues, Chris Chelios, Henrik Zetterberg, Hockey Media, Joey MacDonald, Leafs, Manny Legace, Mark Messier, Peter Forsberg, Selke, Todd Bertuzzi and Trade Rumors
. 2 Comments

Update (10. Feb, 12:45 AM): Over at KK, Chuck Gormley has some more on the Forsberg situation. He believes that if Forsberg decides to ask for a trade to one of a list of teams, his preferences, “would probably be, in order, Detroit (Lidstrom), Vancouver (Naslund), Anaheim and San Jose.”

I’ve heard the Forsberg-Naslund connection talked up a lot (i.e., they’re childhood friends and used to hope to play together again for their hometeam, MoDo - which they did during the lockout), but not one with Lidstrom so much (it must be from their time together on national teams as they’ve never played together professionally). Interesting that Nick may be a bigger pull than Naslund, thought it could be more because of the Wings’ chances than anything else. If it’s true. - Matt

Update (2:50 PM): ESPN’s Scott Burnside has a take on the Mark Messier GM story that’s similar to my reaction, though his commentary is quite a bit less inflammatory than my knee-jerk rhetoric. - Matt

… The Wings were shut out for the first time in 176 games last night as the Blues beat them 1-0 in St. Louis. It looks as though they had another slow start to the game and never really recovered, despite strong goaltending by Joey MacDonald. Joey gave them a chance to win by stopping everything except for a freak goal that went in off Chris Chelios.

For Blues fans, the bad news is that Manny Legace was hurt during the second period in a collision with Thomas Holmstrom.

The Wings play Calgary at home next, on Sunday at 6:00 PM ET.

Since I did not see the game and cannot provide a first-hand account, I suggest going to Gorilla Crouch, where Dave will probaby publish one soon, and No Pun Intended, where Steph already has.

… Unfortunately for the Wings, the Predators did not lose last night. They beat the Leafs in a penalty-filled affair in Nashville and are again in the lead by three points. They can go up by five with a win over the Kings on Saturday.

…. Ted Kulfan suggests that Henrik Zetterberg could be in the running for the Selke Trophy this year. I agree, and thought the same thing last year. It’s the young stars in the East that get all the attention, and though they obviously deserve a lot, I’m with Wayne Gretzky in saying Zetterberg is flying under many people’s radar.

… Kulfan and George Sipple of the Free Press both mention the rumor that the Wings are interested in Todd Bertuzzi. I’ll be frank: I would be absolutely appalled if they do end up going that route. You know may recall my opposition toward acquiring Peter Forsberg due to the uncertainty about his health. Well, I’d take Foppa any day over Bertuzzi, ankle problems and all (even more so now that he’s found some kind of workable solution). Ugh. There is no reason to bring Todd and his baggage into the lockerroom. Please Kenny, no Bertuzzi.

Oh, and by the way, the Forsberg rumor is heating up slightly, with the story currently being that he would be willing to waive his no-trade clause for three teams only: Detroit, Anaheim, and Montreal.