Archive for the 'Canucks' Category

4/15 Links

Published
by
Matt Saler
on April 15, 2008
in Avalanche, Canucks, Fabian Brunnstrom, Links, Marty Turco, Penguins, Playoffs, Senators and Wild
. 0 Comments

Update (8:12 PM): At the Globe on Hockey blog, James Mirtle has more on Fabian Brunnstrom. I’m starting to wonder if this kid isn’t overrated. - Matt

Update (3:21 PM): The guys at Orland Kurtenblog have been looking for the greatest hit in NHL history and after five months of polling, a consensus has been reached: Scott Stevens’ hit on former Red Wing Slava Kozlov in the 1995 Finals. - Matt

Update (2:58 PM): If you’re into hockey stats, check this site out. (via Mirtle) - Matt

Update (2:41 PM): I missed posting reactions to the Nonis firing from two of the biggest Canucks bloggers because I got distracted and then forgot. Sorry.

Alanah of Canucks and Beyond, and Orland Kurtenblog. - Matt

… The Fabian Brunnstrom sweepstakes may not be over after all: the Canucks fired GM Dave Nonis last night in a surprise move.

Brunnstrom had apparently narrowed his choices down to Vancouver, but this latest development has him reconsidering, as Ken Holland told Helene St. James.

My guess is he’ll still opt not to come to Detroit for the same reason he was rumored to be headed to Vancouver: guaranteed playing time. The Wings still can’t give him that, but whoever takes over in Vancouver may be more amenable to the idea.

… Reactions to the Nonis firing: James Mirtle, Tom Benjamin, Eric McErlain,

… Elliotte Friedman discusses the speculation that Brian Burke could return to Vancover to fill the vacancy left by Nonis.

… I thought the Senators hit a low point with that mural near the visitor’s lockerroom. I was wrong (video here).

… Speaking of the Senators, Pittsburgh is on the brink of eliminating them from the playoffs after last night’s 4-1 win.

… Marty Turco’s not a fan of asking the crowd to wear black tonight in Dallas.

… The Avalanche/Wild series went to overtime for the third straight game. Minnesota came out on top for the second time to take a 2-1 series lead.

4/13 Links

Published
by
Matt Saler
on April 13, 2008
in Canucks, Ducks, Fabian Brunnstrom, Hockey Media, Links and Stars
. 2 Comments

… Steve, the Media guy at Kukla’s Korner, has some hard words for those who say NBC’s coverage of the Wings/Predators game yesterday was biased in Nashville’s favor.

He presents a good argument, but as someone who watched the game, it was hard not to come to the conclusion that the NBC people were disappointed the Predators didn’t win.

… The Ducks are in trouble after losing 5-2 at home to the Stars last night. They are down 2-0 in their series. Awesome.

… Not so awesome: apparrently, Fabian Brunnstrom is about to become a Canuck. Obviously, I’d love to see him come to Detroit and add to our Swede total, but if the kid wants guaranteed playing time, I can’t blame him for chosing Vancouver. Even if the organizaiton leaves much to be desired.

… “The Red Wings are ripe for the pickin’,” says Aaron Portzline. That guy really hates Detroit, doesn’t he?

… With the Griffins wrapping up their season with a pair of wins, the Wings have called up a group of players to help sharpen things up in practice: Jimmy Howard, Jonathan Ericsson, Jakub Kindl, Kyle Quincey, Cory Emmerton, Darren Helm, and Matthias Ritola.

Emmerton and Helm, by the way, looked great Friday night.

The coaching staff and equipment manager have also been called up.

Jeff Cowan suspended for hit on Derek Meech

Published
by
Matt Saler
on February 26, 2008
in Canucks, Derek Meech and Suspensions
. 1 Comment

According to TSN, the NHL has seen fit to suspend the Vancouver Canucks’ Jeff Cowan for his hit on Derek Meech  at 11:45 of the first period of Saturday’s game. Cowan received a charging penalty on the play. The hit had Meech in pain until well after he returned to the bench. He turned out to be okay before long, however, and returned to play a strong game.

Cowan will miss the Canucks’ home game against Colorado on Wednesday and will forfeit about $3,815.79 of his $725,00 yearly salary.

FSN didn’t show the hit from a very good angle, even on replay. So I can’t say whether  I think it was really a suspendable offense, though when the NHL does hand out a suspension, it’s usually warranted.  I just wish  the League saw fit to suspend Dion Phaneuf for his reckless and vicious hit on Tomas Kopecky the night before.

Anyway, TSN must have Meech confused with Garrett Stafford, as the current version of the article on this story says, “The game was Meech’s first in the NHL.” (see this screenshot for verification if a correction is made) Actually, it was his27th and 23rd this season. That night was Stafford’s first appearance in the NHL.

On a semi-unrelated note, the Wings are fortunate Aaron Downey did not face League discipline after he instigated a pre-game exchange of pleasantries at center ice Saturday night. His jab of Cowan’s Alex Burrows’ shoulder with the blade of his stick should have been good for a game, I would have thought. Maybe Downey owes Meech one for having ticked the Canuck off.

(via LetsGoWings)

Wings 1, Canucks 4

Published
by
Matt Saler
on February 24, 2008
in 2007-2008, Canucks and Game Reports
. 0 Comments

The Detroit Red Wings lost their second in a row and eighth in nine games last night as they were defeated by the Vancouver Canucks at GM Place. The loss, together with the Dallas Stars’  6-3 win over Nashville, cut the Wings’ League and Conference lead to just six points.

The game looked promising before it even started, as a scrum around center ice instigated by Jeff Cowan and Aaron Downey seemed to indicate a spirited contest was coming. It remains to be seen whether the two teams will face disciplinary measures for the incident, however. Downey, in particular, may find himself in trouble as he jabbed Cowan with his stickblade at one point.

Both Roberto Luongo and Jimmy Howard were called upon to make big saves early on. Henrik Zetterberg was robbed by the Canucks goalie at 1:06 following a centering pass from Mikael Samuelsson. Seconds later, Luongo made another key save on rookie Ericsson. At the other end, Howard  stoned Mason Raymond at 1:49. It was Howard who got the most work early in the game. He look very strong.

Despite determined efforts, the Canucks did not get on the board until 14:26 of the first. The goal came just after an offensive zone faceoff. Daniel Sedin won it back to Mattias Ohlund, who slid it across to Alexander Edler. His shot deflected off Jonathan Ericsson out front and beat Howard to put the Canucks up 1-0.

The Wings’ efforts at making a comeback were hampered  by an awful turnover by Andreas Lilja in the defensive zone. Somehow Howard managed to make the save on Ryan Shannon at 15:17. Not long after that, the Canucks had a nice break into the Detroit zone, with Henrik Sedin ripping a shot that was just deflected high and wide by his #33 counterpart, Kris Draper.

Johan Franzen injected some excitement when he stole the puck in the Vancouver end and turned it into a nice scoring chance. Mike Weaver’s diving attempt to knock the puck away resulted in the big Swede going down and a Detroit power play. Franzen still managed to get a shot off, but he sent it wide.

On the subsequent power play, the Wings took a criticism of their passing crispness in Calgary to heart: they sent the puck rocketing around the zone as they cycled it. The puck ended up on Tomas Holmstrom’s stick below the goalline and he sent it out to Derek Meech at the point. Meech pump faked for a second and then released a blast that tricked through Luongo and into the net. At first it looked like Meech’s first NHL goal, but it was later determined that Pavel Datsyuk had gotten his stick on it. The goal came at 16:54.

Meech, who was already having a strong game, looked particularly good in the minutes following his apparent goal. He had a great shift with the top line in the final minute of the period and continued to look like he belonged out there.

Some end of the first festivities resulted in the teams skating four a side to start the second. Both teams got some good chances in this time, but neither converted.

During five-on-five play, a nice breakout started by Andreas Lilja and Derek Meech resulted in a power play when Tomas Kopecky was tripped up at center as he  tried to get around Henrik Sedin.

Brett Lebda had a great chance at putting the Wings up 2-1 early in the power play, but he took too long to shoot and Luongo had an easy save. At 6:07, the Canucks took another penalty and gave the Wings 59 seconds of 5-on-3. They put on a good show, but they couldn’t convert. One of the more obvious reasons for this was Pavel Datsyuk’s overly hard passes that even Henrik Zetterberg couldn’t handle. Meech looked like  a solid power play quarterback here. When Sedin came out of the box and the Wings had a regular power play, they could barely get set up. A definite wasted opportunity.

At 10:09, the referees made it up to the Canucks for having given the Wings a 5-on-3 by calling an atrocious roughing penalty on Kyle Quincey. They may as well have called it “2:00 for playing defense” because that’s all Quincey did. Unfortunately for the Wings, they were unable to hold the Canucks off on the power play. They scored and took the lead at 10:39 off a beautiful set up to Sami Salo. Howard had no chance of stopping it.

Not long after the goal, Derek Meech rang a shot off the post for a brief moment of excitement.

Pavel Datsyuk drew a penalty at 14:33 that had the Canucks fans crying “dive!” The Wings put their “pass first” mentality to good use on this power play, as that was about all they did: pass. Their best chance came late in the power play as Jonathan Ericsson unleashed a monster of a shot. It resulted in nothing, however.

The Wings returned to the power play at 18:01 and did somewhat better to start. Ericsson had a great chance as he jumped up in the play, but Burrows lifted his stick just in time. After that, the Canucks mostly controlled the puck. Not the best power play, overall.

The Canucks came out strong in the third period and countered any Detroit chances with offensive opportunities of their own. They extended their lead at 3:31 following a horrible Brett Lebda turnover at the Vancouver blueline. Ryan Kesler broke in to the Detroit end down the left side with Henrik Zetterberg trailing. Kesler cut across the net  and put the puck under Howard to make it 3-1. It was a bad turnover and a fairly clear breakaway, but that’s one you’d like to see Howard stop.

The Wings looked out of it after that as the Canucks refused to let off the gas. Howard really had to work to keep the score as it was. When the Wings managed to get an offensive chance, Luongo hardly ever gave up a rebound. This made a comeback unlikely as the best Detroit was able to do was shoot the puck at Luongo’s chest, with no hope for a follow-up.

Tomas Kopecky took a weak penalty at 11:24, but the Wings fortunately killed it off. There  was a bit of an injury scare as Andreas Lilja took a shot off the leg and limped around for a while. Fortunately, he shook it off and finished the game.

The Canucks finalized the scoring at 17:00 on a play similar to their third goal. This time it was Lilja who was beaten at the blueline and Pavel Datsyuk who was desperately trying to get back. Kesler cut across the net again, but this time he drop-shot it and beat Howard under his right leg.

The game wound down after that, with the Wings making only feeble attempts to cut the lead.

There was a bit of an injury scare at 11:45 of the first, as Derek Meech found himself on the wrong end of a Jeff Cowan hit. Meech hunched over and seemed to be favoring his ribs, though it looked like it was his shoulder that received the brunt of it on the replay. Fortunately, he returned and whatever it was did not seem to be bothering him. He played yet another strong game with 22:17 in TOI.

Jonathan Ericsson looked good again, though perhaps not so good as he had in his first game. I’ve noticed that he’s a little casual with the puck in his own end. Hopefully that’ll get corrected soon. He played 20:39.

Kyle Quincey was solid, though not spectacular, and played only 13:39. Garrett Stafford did not stick out much, but he only played 8:29, so you might say he was underutilized.

It was not Brett Lebda’s best game, but the reason for that is simple: he played a heck of a lot. 28:17, to be exact. That’s far more than another other skater.

Andreas Lilja played 20:42 and was himself.

I’d like to see Mike Babcock utilize Aaron Downey more often. 4:47 seems kind of low when the team could really use the spark he provides.

Pavel Datsyuk had an off night, despite scoring the Wings’ only goal. He was trying too hard, as his passing indicated. He was rifling the puck around and made it very difficult for this teammates to take his passes. With the offensive already out of sync, having the team’s best forward passer ripping the puck around doesn’t improve the situation.

I think my confidence in the team’s ability to overcome fatigue was a little misplaced. They were obviously tired, from the veterans down to the rookie defensemen. Hopefully they’ll be able to rest up sufficiently for their game Tuesday night in Edmonton.

Although the young defensemen are playing well, there is an obvious disconnect between  them and the forwards on breakouts and in-zone setups. The team will have today off, but will practice together Monday and that will hopefully solve at least some of the problems.

Links

GameDay: @ Vancouver (31-22-8, 70 Pts) 10:00 ET

Published
by
Matt Saler
on February 23, 2008
in 2007-2008, Canucks and GameDay
. 4 Comments

Update (6:22 PM): The official blog reports that Garrett Stafford will wear #36, though the author appears to leave the defenseman’s status for tonight in doubt: they write Stafford “may play in his first NHL game tonight.” (my emphasis).

Not sure what that’s about, since neither Brian Rafalski, Niklas Kronwall, Nick Lidstrom, nor Chris Chelios are set to return and the Wings are thus short a defenseman. Must be a typo. - Matt

Update (5:24 PM): If Garrett Stafford’s name sounds familiar, this is why. (via the comments at Abel to Yzerman) - Matt

Update (5:17 PM): Helene St. James reports that Chris Chelios (right leg) could miss up to a week with what the team is calling a “chip on the fibula.” Chelios told the media that his leg is swollen:

It’s mostly the swelling that’s basically prohibiting me from using the muscle in that leg.

Piet Van Zant said that the nature of the injury is such that the team cannot be sure how long he’ll be out (meaning he’s technically day-to-day), but it does not seem likely he’ll return before the March 1st February 29th game against San Jose.

Also, it looks like Aaron Downey is okay after all, as Ansar Khan reports that Garrett Stafford and Jimmy Howard will constitute the only lineup changes tonight.

Both beat writers report that the team has officially offered Darren McCarty a contract for the league-minimum. If he accepts, he’d earn about $100,000 for the rest of the season. Khan says he’d stay in Grand Rapids on a two-week conditioning stint. After that, presumably, the team would waive him to keep him in GR, as they appear to have no intention of bringing him to Detroit during the regular season. - Matt

Update (4:02 PM): George Malik’s scouts the Canucks here.

News to me: Markus Naslund (groin) missed practice yesterday and may not be able to go tonight. That would be a definite plus for the Wings. - Matt

Update (3:02 PM): George Malik has a great roundup of the Flames game here. - Matt

Update (2:44 PM): The guys at Red Wings Brasil have captured the spirit of the moment. I can’t read Portuguese, but the headline speaks for itself.

This is reminiscent of the 03-04 season, where the Wings were without nine regulars at one point. - Matt

Tonight is the fourth and final meeting between the Detroit Red Wings and the Vancouver Canucks this season. The Wings lead the series 3-0, with wins October 24th (3-2), October 28th (3-2), and January 17th (3-2 SO).

The Canucks improved to 5-1-3 in February with a 3-2 shootout win over Nashville on Thursday night. They began the month with a pair of shootout losses, 4-3 in Florida on the 1st and 3-2 in Dallas on the 5th. They won their February 7th meeting in Atlanta, 2-1, but lost two nights later to the Avalanche at home, 6-2. They beat the Blackhawks 3-2 in a shootout the night after losing to the Avs, and lost to Northwest Division rival Minnesota, 5-4 in a shootout, on the 14th. Since then, they’ve won three straight, including a 4-2 decision over Edmonton and a 3-2 OT decision over the Wild on Tuesday.

The Canucks’ 70 points are good for third in the Northwest Division and 8th in the Conference. They are just three points behind Minnesota for the Division lead, however, and would vault to third place in the West  if they take that lead. This is a possible first round matchup.

The Sedin brother leads the team in points, with Henrik’s 62 putting him in first and Daniel’s 60 putting him in second. Daniel’s 26 goals are team-leading, while Markus Naslund is not far behind with 22. Ryan Kesler (14), Taylor Pyatt (13) and Henrik Sedin (12) are the only other Canucks to crack the 10-goal mark.

Vancouver will be without Aaron Miller (foot), Lukas Krajicek (shoulder), and Brendan Morrison (wrist).

Roberto Luongo should get the start tonight.

For the Canucks’ perspective, see Canucks and Beyond,  Canucks Fangirl, The Canucks Genome Project Blog, Canucks Hockey Blog,  Orland Kurtenblog,  Stick in Rink,  Waiting for Stanley, and  Yet Another Canucks Blog.

Detroit fell to 4-6-1 in February with a 1-0 loss to the Calgary Flames last night in Alberta. Despite the loss and their offensive troubles, overall it was an impressive game for the Wings, who played most of it with only five defensemen, three of whom were rookies. Chris Chelios went down in the first period after blocking a shot with the back of his right leg and, despite an incredible pain threshold, he was unable to return.

The Wings’ young blueline performed admirably, however, with the only hiccup coming when Kyle Quincey turned the puck over the Alex Tanguay behind the Detroit end. Tanguay threw the puck out front and it rode up Pavel Datsyuk’s stick, hit Brett Lebda’s shoulder, and found its way into the net for the only goal of the game.

The Wings spent the first and second periods looking like they just wanted to survive the game with no more injuries, but in the third period, they really took it to the Flames offensively. Were it not for about three shots ringing off the post at various points in the game, the Wings would have won.

The Flames did their best Anaheim impression as they played as rough a game as any the Wings have been in all season. Dion Phaneuf’s vicious hit to Tomas Kopecky’s head was the pinnacle of the night’s nasty physicality, but Jarome Iginla made a nice showing of classlessness with a childish crosscheck/two-handed slash on Mikael Samuelsson late in the second period. I hear all the vaunted language of respect that is constantly used to describe Iginla and I’d like to believe it. It’s just that every time I see him play, I find reason to respect him less.

Aside from Chelios’ injury, there were at least three other injury scares last night: just as Megan, Sarah, and I were talking about how the injuries seemed exclusive to the defense, Kopecky went down on the Phaneuf hit. Impossibly, he came back seemingly none the worse for the wear. Chris Osgood appeared to hurt his shoulder while diving across the net at one point and favored it for quite a while. Aaron Downey took an elbow the face while chasing a Flames defender around the back of their net. He looked pretty out of it as he got up and skated to the bench. I believe he only played one shift after that.

The Wings will be young again tonight, as Chris Chelios (leg) will not play. Garrett Stafford has been called up from Grand Rapids to take his place in the lineup.  Stafford has 18 assists and 25 points through 47 games this season. Don’t let his -2 status put you off: only a couple Griffins are in the positives this season due to poor team defense. He wears #7 in GR, but he obviously cannot wear that in Detroit. Maybe he’ll go for #77. Bruce MacLeod points out that Stafford will be making his NHL debut.

Niklas Kronwall (clavicle) is close to returning, but the Wings aren’t taking any chances. Derek Meech will fill in for the 12th time since Kronwall’s injury.

Brian Rafalski (groin) will not be back this trip. Kyle Quincey will fill in for the third game in a row.

Nick Lidstrom (knee sprain), of course, remains out. They’re now saying he could be back as early as two weeks. I’ll believe it when I see it. With no injured defensemen returning, Jonathan Ericsson will get his second NHL game under his belt. He looked like a veteran last night and  will hopefully continue to do so tonight.

Dan Cleary (broken jaw) will miss his sixth consecutive game. I suspect we’ll see Mark Hartigan tonight, as Aaron Downey was evidently not capable of finishing the game last night. Five shifts and 3:14 in TOI is low even for him.

Projected lines:

Franzen-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Filppula-Zetterberg-Samuelsson
Drake-Draper-Maltby
Hartigan-Hudler-Kopecky

Projected pairings:

Ericsson-Lebda
Meech-Lilja
Quincey-Stafford

Jimmy Howard will start tonight.

For more of the Wings’ perspective, see Snapshots, Abel to Yzerman, HockeyTownTodd, Behind the Jersey, No Pun Intended, Red Wings Nation, yzerman is god, Detroit Hockey, LetsGoWings, Red Wings Brasil, and Winging It In Motown. OklahomaWingNut’s GDT is here.

The Wings weathered the storm pretty well last night, but they face a tough task in Vancouver. The Canucks are on a roll and as much trouble as the Wings had with Miikka Kiprusoff last night, they’re likely to have more with Roberto Luongo.  I would say that this will be a stiff test of the endurance of the young defensemen, but Quincey, Ericsson, and Stafford are used to the AHL practice of playing three games in three night, so it may not be as big a deal as you’d think. Obviously this is an entirely different level of play, but my confidence in the blueline is pretty high after last night and I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on that.

The offense is going to have to find a way to be more productive tonight. They looked somewhat disjointed last night and that’s not going to fly against Luongo.

The Wings can do this.

Wings 3, Canucks 2 (SO)

Published
by
Matt Saler
on January 18, 2008
in 2007-2008, Canucks and Game Reports
. 4 Comments

The Wings halted their three-game skid with a 3-2 shutout win over the Vancouver Canucks last night. We won’t know for sure until tomorrow night’s game in San Jose, but it looks like we saw something of a return to form. The game wasn’t perfect, but their performance was better than anything they’ve put on since the win over Colorado last week.

Some thoughts:

… I thought Dan Cleary was the best player in red-and-white. His level of individual effort all night was incredible and would have made him a star in my book even without his two goals.

… In spite of myself, I was impressed with Roberto Luongo last night. He played a heck of a game and made a number of incredible saves that weren’t necessarily a direct result of his physical size combined with large padding. The Wings kept him working hard all night and he was nearly the difference.

… At the other end of the ice, Dominik Hasek was strong as well. He wasn’t tested nearly as much as Luongo, but he was forced to make some good saves. He could have controlled the rebound on the Sedin goal better, perhaps, but he had no chance on Naslund’s goal as the puck went in off Rafalski’s skate.

… Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg were kept off the scoreboard, but I thought they played fairly well. Still the occasional  bonehead pass by Hank, but that’s not the end of the world. It’s interesting that Babcock will put a slumping forward with one of those two in order to get them going, while he’ll put them together if they’ve both hit a bit of a dry patch. If they continue to play on the same line, we can expect a breakout game sometime soon.

… Valtteri Filppula fell inexplicably at least three times last night. I’m thinking it’s time to keep track. And for someone to convince him to try different skates.

…  Still not sure about the Kronwall/Lidstrom, Rafalski/Lilja experiment. The latter two have some complementary flaws in their game that you’d think Babcock would want to avoid.

… Is it just me or does Datsyuk only use one move in the shootout?

… It was good to see Hank try a move other than the Peter Forsberg Deke™.

… I think this was a game that would have been a relative positive, even if the Wings had lost. They put forth a strong performance and have something to build on as they head into San Jose tomorrow night.

Links

GameDay: vs. Vancouver (25-17-4, 54 Pts) 7:30 ET

Published
by
Matt Saler
on January 17, 2008
in 2007-2008, Canucks and GameDay
. 0 Comments

Tonight is the third of four meetings between these two Western Conference teams. The Wings lead the series 2-0 with 3-2 wins October 24th and October 28th. The Canucks will play the host in the fourth and final game, on February 23rd.

Vancouver is 3-3-0 thus far in 2008, with wins over the Rangers and Islanders starting out the year. They followed that with a pair of losses beginning with a 3-1 decision in San Jose on the 10th and continuing the next night at home with the Coyotes winning 4-3. On Sunday, they went to a shootout in St. Louis and pulled out a 4-3 win. They then lost to the Blue Jackets 3-2 on Tuesday. They have not won in regulation since January 3rd at Madison Square Gardens. Tonight’s game is the last stop in a tour of three Central Division cities.

Henrik Sedin leads the Canucks in points with 48, but his brother Daniel leads the team in goals with 22. Three other Canucks have 10 or more goals: Markus Naslund (15), Ryan Kesler (12), and Tyler Pyatt (11).

Vancouver will be without Kevin Bieksa (cut calf) and Brendan Morrison (wrist) and may be without Mattias Ohlund (neck).

Roberto Luongo will get the start for the Canucks. Luongo has posted 6 shutouts, a 2.04 GAA and a .927 save-percentage through 38 games this season.

For the Canucks’ side of things, see Canucks and Beyond,  Canucks Fangirl, The Canucks Genome Project Blog, Canucks Hockey Blog,  Orland Kurtenblog,  Stick in Rink,  Waiting for Stanley, and  Yet Another Canucks Blog.

The Wings are 4-2-1 in 2008, with losses coming in each of their last three games. The skid began with a 6-5 shootout loss to Minnesota a week ago and continued with a 3-2 decision in Ottawa on Saturday. They failed to pull out a win on Tuesday, falling instead to Atlanta, 5-1. They will be looking to avoid going into a three-game road trip on a losing streak.

The team’s offensive leaders, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, have combined for just one goal over the three-game skid, though they have put together six points.

It looks like Dallas Drake (swollen knee)  will be out for the second game. Aaron Downey should be in the lineup again, as a result.

Bruce MacLeod’s projected lines are as follows:

Filppula-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Franzen-Zetterberg-Samuelsson
Cleary-Drpaer-Maltby
Hudler-Kopecky-Downey

He also provides projected defensive pairings:

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Lilja
Lebda-Chelios

Hopefully Babcock will stick with those. I noticed that he had Lidstrom paired with Kronwall and Rafalski paired with Lilja against Atlanta, for the first and second periods at least. I stopped keeping track after that. Needless to say, it didn’t go all that well.

Dominik Hasek will get the start tonight. He faced Atlanta on Tuesday after Chris Osgood was pulled and made seven saves.

For more of the Wings’ perspective, stop by Snapshots, Abel to Yzerman, HockeyTownTodd, Behind the Jersey, No Pun Intended, Red Wings Nation, yzerman is god, Detroit Hockey, LetsGoWings, and Winging It In Motown. Todd has his usual numbers posted at HTT and OklahomaWingNut has an excellent GDT posted at Kukla’s Korner Forums.

This is a big game for the Wings. They could really use a win here as they prepare to go fly to California for a three-game trip that includes back-to-back contests in LA and Anaheim next week.  The Canucks have not had an easy transition to the new year and should be vulnerable to a Red Wings team looking to get back on its feet.

The most encouraging thing the claim by the Vancouver Province that Roberto Luongo is off his game, as it has been three hot goalies that have caused the Wings fits during this skid. The fact that the Canucks’ offense isn’t humming along should also be a good sign, as the Wings’ defense has struggled during the loss streak as well.

Still, those things cannot be taken for granted and you can bet the Wings know it. The question is whether they’ll be able to put that knowledge into action and bring the level of play that’s been missing since their too-close 1-0 win over Colorado  last week. The noticeable drop in their game began against a Northwest Division team, deepened against another, and will hopefully end tonight against a third.

Wings 3, Canucks 2

Published
by
Matt Saler
on October 29, 2007
in 2007-2008, Canucks and Game Reports
. 3 Comments

Briefly:

… It was a hard-fought game for both teams. Each side had its moments of dominance and down to the final seconds it wasn’t clear which team would win. I recall the Canucks controlling play more often, so this game had the feeling of a bit of a steal. The Wings played well, though, and hopefully will be able to carry this strong start through the rest of this road trip.

… Chris Osgood was strong and continued his regulation winning streak, which puts him at 12-0-5 since his last loss in 60 minutes. His counterpart, Roberto Luongo, had a strong game as well and did a good job of keeping the Wings from pulling away.

… Jiri Hudler’s game winner was a great individual effort and definitely belongs on a highlight reel of the team’s best goals of the season.

… Tomas Holmstrom’s goal felt pretty good, coming as it did 12 seconds after the Canucks scored. Henrik Zetterberg got a secondary assist on the play, so the streak is still alive. The top line was skating circles around the Canucks all night and it’s only because they got too cute at times, and because of Luongo’s strong play, that they did not get another goal or two.

… Nick Lidstrom had one of his best games of the season, I thought. His stick was everywhere, ending rush after rush with a perfect poke-check. He was a wall.

… Derek Meech looked strong in his debut. He was a little more adventurous offensively than I prefer to see in a young defenseman, but he didn’t get burned, so it turned out alright. He made more than a few veteran plays and generally looked like he belonged out there.

… With the net empty in the final seconds of the game, Chris Osgood teed up the puck, maybe in an effort to go for a goal. It was a momentary lapse in judgment and one he immediately regretted when the puck went off a Canuck forward and created a good scoring chance. Fortunately for Ozzie, he was able to keep the puck out of the net long enough to get a whistle from the ref, though the Canucks knocked it in at about the same time. It was immediately waived off, however, because the ref had thought about blowing the play dead before the puck went in. Even if he hadn’t blown the whistle, the goal wouldn’t have counted because the Canucks pushed Osgood into the net.

… I was a little surprised at the silence of the Vancouver crowd. The place was packed, but it seemed dead. That may have been the feed, though. Things did get loud on a shift in the third period when the Canucks hit just about every Red Wing on the ice. The crowd also got vocal when the goal was waived off.

… Be sure to check out the liveblog over at Abel to Yzerman, George Malik’s roundup at Snapshots, Dave’s recap at Gorilla Crouch, and the highlight reel.

GameDay: @ Vancouver (5-6-0, 10 Pts) 10:46 ET

Published
by
Matt Saler
on October 28, 2007
in 2007-2008, Canucks and GameDay
. 2 Comments

Update (4:50 PM): Ansar Khan reports that Niklas Kronwall will sit out with a groin injury. He’ll be replaced by Derek Meech, who will make his season debut paired with Chris Chelios. Brett Lebda will move up to the second pairing to play with Andreas Lilja.

Khan also says that Dallas Drake, though cleared to play, will not dress tonight because Matt Ellis and Aaron Downey are now ahead of him on the depth chart. I don’t imagine Dallas is too thrilled about that, but it’s good to see Ellis and Downey continue to be rewarded for their hard work.

Lastly, Khan provides an update on Johan Franzen, who asserted he’ll be ready to play Tuesday in Edmonton. If so, the Wings will be one man over the roster limit and would have to make room somehow. Khan points out that Dominik Hasek could be put on the IR, but that’s a little thin given the supposedly minor nature of his injury. Because of the roster problem, I suspect Franzen won’t be back until Hasek’s ready to go, at which point the the team can make room by sending Jimmy Howard back to Grand Rapids, as his services would no longer be needed. If Dom’s injury really is minor, Thursday doesn’t seem out of the question for a return date. - Matt

Tonight is the second of four games between these two teams this season. The Wings won the first meeting, 3-2 this past Wednesday at home. They’ll wrap up the season series in January and February. The game will start ten minutes later than usual, hence the unusual start time in the post title. (via Snapshots)

After losing to the Wings on Wednesday, the Canucks flew to Washington, where they beat the Caps 3-2 Friday night. Tyler Pyatt scored two of their goals, while Daniel Sedin scored the first. Roberto Luongo made 26 saves, extending his personal win streak against the Caps to 10 games and holding off a rally led by Alexander Ovechkin in the final minutes. The win put them at 2-2 over their last four.

Luongo should be in net again for the Canucks.

The Wings won their only game between Wednesday and today as well, rolling the Sharks 5-1 on Friday night. This game is the first of a three-stop road trip that will take them to Edmonton and Calgary Tuesday and Thursday.

Dallas Drake is listed as probable for tonight, so it looks as though he’ll be returning after sitting out two games. My guess is he’ll replace Aaron Downey in the lineup.

Dominik Hasek (hip) is still out, so expect to see Chris Osgood in net again, with Jimmy Howard backing him up.

The Canucks will be looking for some revenge for their loss last week and should be energized playing in front of their home crowd. The Wings need to pick up where they left off Friday night and put on another strong performance. It should be a good game.

GameDay: vs. Vancouver (4-5-0, 8 Pts) 7:30 ET

Published
by
Matt Saler
on October 24, 2007
in 2007-2008, Canucks and GameDay
. 0 Comments

Big test today so this will be short:

This is the first of four games between these two teams this season. The Canucks won the series last year, 3-1. They play once more this month before wrapping things up in January and February.

The Canucks have lost three of their last four, including their most recent game, a 3-1 decision in Carolina on Monday. Their last win the game before, in Columbus, 4-1. Tonight is the second-to-last game in a four-stop road trip for the Canucks, who will fly to Washington to face the Capitals on Friday.

Daniel Sedin leads the team in assists and points with 6 and 9 respectively. Brendan Morrison leads in goals with 4.

Roberto Luongo will be in net tonight for the Canucks.

The Wings have won three out of their last four, including their two most recent, both of which came on the road, first in San Jose, then in Phoenix. Their last loss came in Anaheim last on the 15th. Tonight’s game is one of two homegames the Wings have before they embark on their second long road trip of the month next week.

The Wings will be without Dallas Drake (cheekbone) and Johan Franzen (knee). It’s unlikely that Igor Grigorenko will dress tonight, as he has had little time to impress the team enough to insert him over guys like Matt Ellis or Aaron Downey.

Dominik Hasek will be in net tonight.

The Wings made a good showing on their road trip and they need to translate that into success at home. Tonight’s a good place to start.