Posts filed under “Game Reports”

Wings 1, Coyotes 3

Posted by on . No comments

Very briefly:

Overall: Another one for the “generally unimpressive/uninspiring” column. The Wings came out reasonably well, but gradually lost their legs while the Coyotes worked them. They didn’t seem to be on the same page from a passing standpoint and were mostly disjointed in their own end. They gave up an embarrassing shorthanded goal on a play that began with Zetterberg throwing a too-hard pass to nowhere and was compounded by a White/Kronwall collision. That was emblematic of the Wings’ relative cohesiveness in this one.

MacDonald: Didn’t get a win, but looked very sharp and further built up the confidence stock I have him him. He gave up two goals, but his teammates didn’t score more than one so I’m not going to hang this loss on him. I think he earned another start.

Special Teams: They managed one PPG, but they’re still horrible with the man-advantage. Fixing the power play has got to be a priority and it needs to be a priority now.

And I’m not too interested in being positive about the PK success in this one. The Coyotes suck on the PP.

Franzen: Scored, but his giveway led directly to the empty-net goal that sealed it for the Coyotes. Not his best night. Way to live up to the goal scorer stereotype, Johan.

Zetterberg: Continues to mystify. I’m starting to wonder if his wrist issues aren’t flaring up. He’s just not himself.

The Race: The Wings weren’t competing directly against a Central rival last night, with everybody else idle, but they blew a chance at two points and to improve their road record. They’ve got some padding in the lead built up, but they can’t afford many more nights like that.

Travel: They’ve got an easy schedule left from a travel standpoint, so hopefully we’ll see less of this late trip focus loss crap, which seemed to be the story last night. They no doubt saw home shimmering on the horizon and that colored their focus against the Coyotes.

Wings 4, Oilers 5 (SO)

Posted by on . 9 comments

First: The two highlights of the night.

Kronwall’s Hit: Kronwall’s hit. Clean, textbook standing a guy up. Perfect.

Bertuzzi’s 2nd: Bertuzzi’s 301st. Made this guy look like a pylon. Beautiful. Now if someone could just make Andy Sutton look like a retired hockey player…

The Game: In summary, this was a classic Red Wings trap game against a lesser opponent. They came out flat and the Oilers took advantage. They gradually improved over the course of the game and were able to mount a successful comeback in the third period, which was slightly off script.

But they wrote that new script into a blown lead in the final minute. So, they got a point that didn’t seem likely after a 1-3 first period, which is great. But.

Conklin: They may have blown any chance they had of relying on Ty Conklin in Howard’s absence. Conklin appears to be a goalie bereft of all confidence and being hung out to dry by teammates that can’t be bothered to play from the first whistle is not going to help.

Neither is his being yanked one period into his brief tenure as emergency starter. I get that in the microcosm of this one game, pulling the goalie is a way of shaking things up and maybe the best choice. But I wonder if it didn’t just put the icing on the Conklin-is-shot cake. We’ll see.

MacDonald: Meanwhile, Joey MacDonald acquitted himself quite well and looks like a goalie that can handle being hung out to dry by his teammates, because he still has some measure of confidence in himself. He kept the game close and made a number of strong saves that boosted my confidence in him, and from what I saw on Twitter, I was not alone.

It would not be surprising at all to read that Babcock is going with Ty Conklin again tomorrow night, but Joey MacDonald probably should be the guy. At least in a test capacity. Conklin has had time and time again opportunities to show he has what it takes to spell Howard with a competent outing, and he’s so fair failed to do that more than about once. Without that background, I’d say it’d be unfair to leap to conclusions on MacDonald after just one game, but it’s hard not to. Joey just looked better.

The Shootout: I was afraid MacDonald would be a bust in the shootout, because he hasn’t looked good in them while in GR, but he showed up pretty well. The Oilers have some real skill, so I’m not going to hold those goals he did allow against him. I will, however, hold Cleary’s attempt against him. What was that, Danny? The Wings are used to winning these things in just a few rounds, so maybe it’s to be expected that when other guys are put on the spot, it won’t turn out well.

Thug Oilers: What a bunch of children. The Kronwall hit elicited the trademark sign of a dumb team, then Smid runs Zetterberg into the boards like a donkey.

The Power Play: Remains pathetic. The Potter/Smid sequence should have been an automatic goal or two, but they came up completely empty-handed. It’s seriously embarrassing.

I’m going to try to make it a policy to stop complaining about missed calls that would have given the Wings a power play, because it’s not like they would have done anything with it anyway.

And I added a new entry to my new site/Twitter glossary. See “PP”. Right?

Breakaway: Helm had a breakaway that he totally Helmed in the first period. Of course.

Where Confidence Meets Arrogance: I tend to think these trap games that we can so easily predict are a sign of an attitude problem. The Wings know they’re better than just about anybody and they know they have the talent to pull victory from the jaws of defeat on short notice. The old “slow start, frantic finish” model we see. So. Often.

I don’t know if last night is specifically a case of that, but another, related angle on this is the fatigue excuse. I say related because I’m starting to wonder if some of these nights where the storyline can be “they’ve played x games in y nights, they’re out of gas” are really nights where the storyline is “they’ve played x games in y nights, so they’re proactively holding back until late because they know they can.” See the difference?

I love a Wings team that’s confident and has swagger. What I don’t love is a growing suspicion that they’ve crossed over to at least a mild form of arrogance that says they don’t have to take anyone but the most skilled opponents seriously. As Babcock himself has pointed out, teams these days are far closer than they’ve probably ever been before. I guess it would be great if the Wings could play like they believe that more often, even against teams as far back in the standings as the Oilers.

Because that “slow start, frantic finish” model? It doesn’t always work.

The Race: The one point put them at 72, which is 4 over Nashville (regulation winners at home vs. St. Louis),  5 over the Blues and 7 over the flagging Blackhawks. They’ve got a buffer and can afford a game like this in terms of The Race, but they need to get their defensive house in order around the current goaltending situation as soon as possible. Meaning, tomorrow night in Phoenix.

Wings 4, Canucks 3 (SO)

Posted by on . No comments

First Off: The big story, which is the Howard injury that no one knew about until this morning. I’ve kept this post updated, so that’s where the latest is. Basically, it’s not as bad as the initial fears projected. Which is great.

But I’m not going to apologize for that reaction and I don’t think anyone should. Jimmy Howard is that important to this team and we all know that. Hence the visceral, overwrought reaction. Anything less than a freakout would have been disappointing. The prospect of a Howard-less team is that horrifying.

Anyway: The game. The Wings dominated statistically and in the scoring chance department, but the margin was much closer in the finishing department. They had, what was it, 5, solo opportunities that were blown thanks to a combination of a sharp Roberto Luongo and bad puck luck/cement hands. On a just night, the Wings win it by a few in regulation. But the Canucks hung in there despite managing just 11 shots through two.

The Canucks: I can see why the rivalry between the Canucks and Blackhawks is so heated. A playoff series between the Wings and this Canucks squad would stoke the fires of hatred to white dwarf levels. Seriously. Those guys are incredibly hateable due to all their stupid antics. Add in their ridiculously expressive and entitled* crowd and you have a recipe for an all-out hate fest.

Zetterberg/Kesler: If we played the Canucks any more than we do, I have to say the battle between those two would be known League-wide. They were chopping at each other all night, and it wasn’t all sweetness and light on Z’s side. Many more encounters and maybe one of them does something he regrets.

Watching it was the final nail in the coffin containing any positive thoughts I ever had for Ryan Kesler. American or not, back off the Bearded Swede, jackass.

Kronwall: I didn’t notice any particularly nasty encounter involving Nik, but the general thrust of the Canucks’ play was petulant, over-large-and-dangerous child. I have to assume the hit had something to do with that.

I guess the Kesler slash at the end of the first would count as a nasty encounter in some books. But it was no worse than that.

Cleary: Sweet goal. More of that, please.

Hudler: Dude’s on fire. I love it.

Miller: Coughed up the puck to set up the Burrows goal and then scored on what must have been his next shift to make it all better.

UnPower Play: The Wings were handed four power plays by the Canucks and took advantage of exactly zero of them. That’s unacceptable. And this is dead-on. I remain far more concerned with the Wings’ inability to make teams pay through special teams than I am with their weakness on the toughness front.

Which Brings Me To: The fights. I assume Lapierre started it with Abdelkader. I just wish Justin had skated away. The fight came right after a Red Wings goal and could have negated the momentum swing. It turned out okay in the end, but Abs has to be smarter than that.

As for the Bertuzzi match, it was underwhelming. But this is a great picture.

The Points: I would have rather the Wings won this one in regulation and in a more emphatic fashion, but they got another win on the road and got two points, which is the important thing. Even better, they did it on the night both Chicago  (to Sam Gagner) and Nashville (to Philly) lost.

They’ve now got six points on St. Louis and Chicago, and five on Nashville. That’s a buffer that will be key with Jimmy out at least two games. They’ve done a great job positioning themselves at the front of the pack in the race. They just need to keep going.

*Shut up. It’s not the same.

Wings 3, Flames 1

Posted by on . No comments

First Off: I have to say again that the Brad McCrimmon ceremony was very, very well done. Great job by the Flames. Such a tragedy. Ugh.

Sleepy Game: And it wasn’t all about the late start. Though it had its energetic moments, in general the tempo of this one was down as both teams eased back into their jobs like us normal people might do the Monday after a long weekend. That it was a late game did not help its watchability.

Jimmy: Looked very sharp, especially later in the game when the Flames were pressing for a comeback. A good start to the post-Break stretch run for him.

Hudler: He was the beneficiary of a great rush  by Filppula, but he started that rush with a good breakout pass that Fil made golden. That’s three goals in two games for Huds, who could really use a strong stretch run himself as a means to really cement his status as returned to viable NHL player.

Filppula: Meanwhile, Fil’s continuing his breakout season, which is cool.

Fourth Liners: Nice to see all three combine on a goal to open the scoring. Emmerton probably bought himself another game after possibly looking at sitting in Vancouver if Holmstrom’s back.

Third Liners: Pretty sweet breakout by Helm and Cleary to set up Miller’s goal. They played give-and-go a couple times before Clear gave it to Miller for the finishing touch. With the big guns quiet on the points front, having that kind of scoring contribution was a good sign. Maybe the Wings are gearing up for a big finish, as Jeremy Roenick kept suggesting over the Break.

Commodore: Should sit Thursday on the basis of that “fight” alone.

Kipper: Had some bright spots or else the game could have been more lopsided, even as easy as the Wings were playing. The Flames are not good.

Important Points: The Predators won last night to pull ahead of Chicago (OT losers in Vancouver) and the Blues with 66 points. The Wings’ lead is at 3. It’s important that they maintain ground on the chasers and that picks up again against the Canucks tomorrow. The Blues are off until Friday, but the Predators and Blackhawks are both active tomorrow, too.

It’ll help if the Wings are sharper in Vancouver than they were in Calgary. They got their easing-in game out of the way and now it’s time to get back to business.

Wings 2, Canadiens 7

Posted by on . 2 comments

I’m going to go Babcock’s route and throw this one out without my typical recap format.

In any given season, there are plenty of losses where we can say it was a throwaway game. Sometimes, the loss circles back around to being worthy of getting angry about or whatever, but much of the time, bad losses are outliers with this team. I have to think this is one of those games.

The biggest reason is this:

The second point in there is mildy disturbing (obviously, the ideal is that the Wings would be focused all the time, but that’s unreasonable), but still valid. Apart from Jimmy and Pavel, these guys are finally going to get a chance to be with their families without feeling rushed. Their human as much as they are professional so if they got caught looking ahead, so be it.

The other factor is the absence of Nick Lidstrom. Not in the “oh crap what are we going to do when he retires?” way, but in the “oh crap he’s sick on short notice and we have no one better to plug in than Mike Commodore I hope we can cover that gap” way. Lidstrom being out of the lineup on such short notice was going to have an effect that rippled down the lineup. And so it did.

And no, it’s not a preview of things to come. When Nick retires, the team will have the bulk of an offseason to prepare in ways ranging from gunning for free agent defensemen to re-scheming the way they play. No doubt there will be a drop off, but if they can win the Suter sweepstakes this year (for sake of argument), it won’t be to 7-2 losses in Montreal levels. Even if they don’t get a Suter, it shouldn’t be.

Anyway. If the Wings pick up in Calgary on Tuesday where they left off in Montreal last night, then I’ll be concerned. This one gets tossed out otherwise.

Wings 3, Blues 1

Posted by on . No comments

Stewart/Stuart: Okay, after my earlier downer of a Stuart post, I’ve got to lead with this. Also because it’s the pivotal sequence of the game.

The video starts with Stewart jumping Stuart. More on that in a second. The kickoff point for all of this is Stuart owning Pietrangelo about here in the video. That, boys and girls, is a clean hit. And a catalyst-style one, a probable bit of lighter fluid on the flickering flame the Wings had going at that point. What follows is Chris Stewart pouring jet fuel on top of that.

This is the best replay of the first leg of Stewart’s trip to the box. He starts from the bench and makes a beeline for Stuart all the way across the ice. According to the play-by-play, he reaches Stuart about 29 seconds after the hit that has him forgetting all about hockey.

For his trouble, he got a 10 minute misconduct, an instigator and a fighting major. Stuart got off with a major. And the Wings scored on that instigator power play to tie the game in the first minute of the second period on the carry-over. By the time the official directed Stewart to the box, the game had already changed.

All because of Stuart’s hit and Stewart’s immaturity.

Backing Up A Bit: The Blues came out of the gate looking more prepared. They buzzed early and it wasn’t much of a surprise that they opened the scoring. The Wings looked a bit out of it or taken aback by the Blues’ energy. Thankfully, Chris Stewart was around to change that. The Wings responded much more in line with their usual way of dealing with thuggery and though the remainder of the game wasn’t all Wings, it went from being this kind of game to a much more likely win.

Jimmy: Notched his belt’s “win” row for the 30th time this season and earned another notch for the “scrappy goalie” section. He only faced 22 shots, but looked sharp and held the course he’s set for this season. At the end of the game, he went berserk when a Blue bumped him, which led to this conflagration.

It was awesome, but I hope guys around the League don’t see that and decide to test Jimmy’s toughness by running him harder than ever. A scrappy goalie won’t do much good if some donkey in the League decides to pick up the gauntlet he lays down every time he attacks skaters.

That said, it made this happen.

NBC: I can’t go any longer in this post without mentioning the abject fail that was the NBC Sports Network broadcast. I already posted on this last night, but it bears repeating: it was amateur hour. And a serious embarrassment for the network the League has entrusted with the privilege of conveying the great game of hockey to the masses.

The League has a pretty sweet deal getting NBC mostly to itself, but the deal starts to feel less sweet when that network can’t even get the names of 20-year super stars right, quite apart from misspelling Abdelkader’s name or blowing off the lineup card. It’s one thing to present a skewed view of a game or something, but to publish such black-and-white errors is pretty ridiculous.

You misspell Nicklas Lidstrom’s name in two different ways, you hang your head in shame.

Monday Nights With Babcock: Babs opted to live out the dream of no doubt every coach who’s ever been bench-interviewed last night. This clip of him talking to Pierre McGuire is classic Babcock. He politely answers Pierre’s question in such a way that prevents further input from Pierre and firmly shuts him down on the possibility of a followup. A classy way of saying, “get out of my face.”

I missed that live since we had the game on FSD+, but it would have been worth it to watch on NBC Sports just for that.

Power Play Giant: Has it been awakened? Between the Wings’ shaming Chris Stewart and capitalizing on Carlo Colaiacovo’s stupidity, I’m starting to wonder. We’ll see what it looks like going forward.

Flashback: Watching the Blues unravel as the game went on reminded me of their Quenneville-coached days, where they’d so often just goon it up if they were behind later in the game. I’m a bit surprised Hitchcock allowed that. I wonder if that gets addressed.

The Points: The Wings ensured the best possible outcome for themselves, getting two points in regulation over a Blues team that’s not going to go away just because they were beaten on January 23rd. The Wings are in first place in the Central by 3 points, but need to continue their strong work in order to hold that lead. They’ve won  17 straight at home, where they don’t return for five games, and need to find a way to convert 7 consecutive wins into 8+ despite that. Not to mention the All Star Break is this weekend and could have a momentum-stalling effect.

The job’s not done. Keep at it.

Wings 3, Coyotes 2 (SO)

Posted by on . No comments

Briefly:

Once Again: The Wings go to a shootout with the Coyotes. This time, it was a rested Detroit team facing off against a Phoenix squad that had played the previous night. So, that it took a shootout to  beat these guys is not exactly something to write home about. But whatever. They  needed the points (especially with St. Louis beating Edmonton) and they got them. Even if it was a little too close.

Jimmy: Didn’t feel quite as unbeatable in this one, with the Torres goal being a bit of a squeaker you’d rather not see. The Brule goal was nice, but still. Nitpicking, I guess.

Power Play: The troubles continue, as they went 0-for, even with the Coyotes handing them three gift bench minors. Pretty sad. They’re at 14th in PP%, which is just not an acceptable rate. Time for something new, as Babcock pointed out. Maybe those two new guys on the bench have some ideas?

White: He’s been very active offensively lately and got a goal for all his trouble. Good to see. He’s a fit here.

Franzen: Took a puck off his foot in the third and had to leave the bench for a bit, but ended up coming back to finish the game. Something to keep an eye on.

Kindl: In for Commodore and I thought he looked pretty good. He finished with three shots, which isn’t bad for a third pairing rookie. Though he was -1. So it wasn’t perfect.

Emmerton: In for Mursak and looked solid in general, though he too was -1.

Smith: His save on Pavel Datsyuk in the shootout was sick. It was a save another former Star didn’t make on much the same move.

Bertuzzi: I know there are plenty of people around the League still unwilling to get on board with this, but I love (love) the quiet career redemption the Wings are able offer Todd. The guy’s having a good season and has been clutch at important parts. He’s a Red Wing.

Perspective: George offers it:

Too close, I think. Too sloppy. Lacking killer instinct or the ability to score when given golden opportunities to do so.

Then I remember that it’s January, that the Wings just played their 8th of 11 games played over the course of 19 nights, having concluded a 3-games-in-3-cities-in-4-nights stretch while all but playing games of playoff seeding-determining importance in [expletive deleted-ing] January, and I’m starting to believe that the Wings’ five-game winning streak is nothing to sneeze at, nor anything to “suck on.”

Still: The standard is high, and they need to meet it. Saturday’s yet another key game leading up to the, uh, keyest game since the last Chicago matchup on Monday. They need to beat the Blue Jackets and then beat the Blues and keep on winning, compressed schedule or not.