by true Citizens of Hockeytown
Bruce MacLeod has a look at Marty Turco’s puck handling ability here.
It’s certainly going to be a challenge for the Wings and one players like Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg are no doubt looking forward to facing. Marty will have to be careful where he puts the puck when those two are on the ice.
Mark at Andrew’s Dallas Stars and NHL Blog has the latest on the Stars injury situation.
Update (4:50 PM): Kukla’s Korner has transcripts of the Dave Tippett and Marty Turco/Brenden Morrow calls. - Matt
Update (3:11 PM): Alanah at Kukla’s Korner has the transcript from Henrik Zetterberg’s conference call posted. It’s a long read, but a good one. - Matt
Bruce MacLeod reports that Valtteri Filppula (twisted leg) did not skate for the second day in a row. Filppula told Helene St. James, “I feel better,” and that he’ll try to skate tomorrow.
Although Mike Babcock is telling the media he expects Filppula will play Thursday, the team continues to prepare for his possible absence by using all new second and third lines. This is just prudence in action because Fil’s status for Game 1 is dependent on whether or not he can make the Wednesday skate. If he can’t, it looks like the team will have to go with the adjusted lineup and hope that three practices is enough to gel the units together. Given the experience level of all six forwards involved, that shouldn’t be a problem, however.
On the Stars side of things, Mark at Andrew’s Dallas Stars and NHL Blog, has an update here. On a semi-related note, my series preview is coming Thursday, early in the afternoon.
Paul Kukla has the NHL press release on the officials for the Conference Finals here.
Also, via Snapshots comes the latest on the Fabian Brunnstrom sweepstakes. Basically, we should know where he’s headed in a week to ten days.
Lastly, the NHL hosted media conference calls with Mike Babcock, Henrik Zetterberg, Brenden Morrow and Marty Turco, and Dave Tippett today. I expect transcripts to be made available soon. I’ll post them when they show up on the Media site.
With Brendan Morrow’s goal in the fourth overtime last night, Dallas defeated San Jose 2-1 and advanced to the Western Conference Finals to face Detroit.
The schedule (via Mirtle):
Game 1: Thursday, May 8 in Detroit
Game 2: Saturday, May 10
Game 3: Monday, May 12 in Dallas
Game 4: Wednesday, May 14
Game 5: *Saturday, May 17 in Detroit
Game 6: *Monday, May 19 in Dallas
Game 7: *Wednesday, May 21 in Detroit
More to come.
The San Jose Sharks defeated the Dallas Stars 3-2 in overtime last night to stay alive in their series. They play again on Sunday, so we’ll have to wait at least until then to know who the Wings will play in the Conference Finals.
Also, the Wings are hoping the third round will start on Thursday so they can rest and recover from various aches and pains. Just so long as they pick up where they left off.
Update (3:57 PM): “Is the President’s Daughter Dating a Ranger?” asks Eric McErlain. - Matt
Update (3:49 PM): Tom Benjamin has more thoughts on the firing of Dave Nonis. Meanwhile, Nonis defends his actions as Vancouver’s GM. - Matt
Update (12:13 PM): According to the Washington Post’s Tarik El-Bashir, former Red Wing Sergei Fedorov will play between Alexander Ovechkin and Viktor Kozlov tomorrow night in Philadelphia.
Rookie Niklas Backstrom has been moved down to the second line. - Matt
Update (8:31 AM): George Malik has the latest on the Brunnstrom saga. - Matt
… The Sidney Crosby Beard Watch: Day 8.
… The Sharks avoided going down 3-1 in their series with Calgary last night with a 3-2 comeback win.
… And San Jose’s Evgeni Nabokov continued his excellent post-season by … allowing two goals on ten shots. Maybe playing him in 77 games was a mistake, Ron Wilson.
… The Avalanche took apart the Wild 5-1 last night. It was the first time in the series that the game did not go to overtime. It’s now tied up 2-2.
… Anaheim staved off a Dallas sweep last night with a 4-2 win on the road. Ah well.
… The Caps are having trouble carrying through on their impressive regular season finish. They dropped another game to Philadelphia last night, falling behind 2-1 in their series. They must now win on the road and display some defensive ability in the process.
… Montreal did what we hope the Wings will do tonight: go up 3-1 in their series.
… 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.
… I only caught the first period of the Wings’ 4-1 win over the Blues last night. I was reasonably impressed with what I saw, though it’s obvious they aren’t quite firing on all cylinders yet. Still, it’s a marked improvement over their February play, that’s for sure.
I have to say something about the phantom Pavel Datsyuk call that led to the Blues’ late first period power play. What the heck was that? I’d like to think that the official who called the penalty knows the difference between a trip and a player falling on his own. Apparently not.
In the end, it doesn’t matter, but my confidence in the officiating is waning. What with the missed call in the Sharks game Friday night, the play that was not stopped in Buffalo Sunday, and various phantom calls, how are we expected to trust in the referees? It’s not as though it’s just a problem in Wings games either. Just ask the Philadelphia Flyers. I hate to complain about the officiating, but to me this is a League-wide quality issue, not a Wings fan-specific gripe.
… I’ve been trying to cut Andreas Lilja some slack lately. I figure there’s a reason he remains in the lineup, despite his more visible blunders. With that change in mindset, I’ve been able to appreciate big #3 more.
On the Blues’ goal, however, I thought his attempt to knock the puck down was a little on the boneheaded side. It turned out to be a perfect redirect. I thought the conventional wisdom was that defensemen leave the puck alone if they can’t outright block it. With Stempniak right there, I can understand what Andreas was trying to do, but it just didn’t turn out so well.
… It wasn’t Brett Lebda that Mike Babcock sat in favor of Jonathan Ericsson last night. It was Derek Meech. I admit it, I was surprised. Meech apparently hit a high point against Edmonton last week, but his play since was still quite good, I thought. I assume Babcock was just demonstrating to Meech that his spot on the roster is not a given. Hopefully it won’t backfire, somewhat like we saw with Quincey.
… Giving Ericsson another game paid off, if only because of a little drop pass that kicked off the cycle leading to Pavel Datsyuk’s first goal. If Nick Lidstrom does return Sunday, however, last night was probably Ericsson’s last game in the Winged Wheel this season as he’ll be returned to Grand Rapids.
… Since I missed the second and third periods, I didn’t see the hit on Tomas Kopecky or the aftermath. It didn’t make the cut on the highlight reel, and neither did the Rafalski throwdown or Downey’s coming off the bench. Too bad. IwoCPO says he’ll have video later.
I’m glad to read that Kopecky’s okay. He looked good in the first period and I assume played a strong game in the second and third, as well.
… I don’t know what he looked like in the second and third, obviously, but you get the feeling that Jiri Hudler is finally going to break out of this horrendous slump. I thought he looked strong in the first.
… Where was Manny Legace’s head on Brian Rafalski’s goal? It just blew by him.
… The Dallas Stars lost at home to the Coyotes last night. That’s two home losses in a row for the second-ranked team in the Conference. Much ballyhooed trade deadline acquisition Brad Richards has zero points in both games since posting five in his debut with the Stars. That’s called being brought back to earth.
The Wings’ two consecutive wins have put them 7 points ahead of Dallas and they retain two games in hand.
Update (1:34 PM): NHL.com’s John McGourty looks at the match-up here.
Rob Shick (16) and Justin St. Pierre (45) will officiate the game. Tim Nowak (77) and Tony Sericolo (84) will man the lines. - Matt
The Detroit Red Wings and the Dallas Stars, the two top teams in the West, meet this afternoon on NBC in the Game of the Week. The Wings won both of the previous meetings, beginning with a 4-1 decision on January 2nd and continuing with a 3-0 shutout on January 5th. The fourth and final meeting will take place on March 13th in Detroit.
The Stars are 7-1-0 in February, with their only loss coming on the 14th in Phoenix. The loss snapped a seven-game winning streak that went back to January and included wins over Vancouver (2x), Edmonton, Calgary, Minnesota, St. Louis, and Phoenix. The night after their loss to the Coyotes, they put down the Ducks in Anaheim, 4-2. They are kicking off a three-game homestand this afternoon.
Dallas leads the Pacific Division with 77 points. Anaheim and San Jose have 71 and 70 respectively. They are ten points behind the Wings for the League lead and are four points ahead of Ottawa for second place overall.
Mike Ribeiro leads the team in assists (43) and points (67), but his 24 goals are tied with Brendan Morrow. Six other Stars have 10 or more goals: Niklas Hagman (20), Mike Modano (16), Jussi Jokinen (14), Antti Miettinen (12), Jeff Halpern (10), and Steve Ott (10).
The Stars will be without Sergei Zubov (groin/foot) and Phillippe Boucher (shoulder).
Mark Fistric (face laceration) is scheduled to play.
The starter has not been announced, but it looks like Marty Turco is a good bet.
For the Stars’ perspective, see Andrew’s Stars Page (preview here), Razor with an Edge (official), Stars Blog (Dallas Morning News), and Stars Scene.
The Wings fell to 3-4-1 in the month of February with their fifth straight loss Friday night. In what was supposed to be a recovery game, they got shellacked at home by the Columbus Blue Jackets, 5-1. Rather than gradual improvement, the team’s play has seemingly fallen off more with every game they’ve played lately. As recently as a week ago, they looked like they could pull out a win. With bad losses to Nashville and Columbus, however, this team has never looked less like the dominant force it has been most of the season.
Today’s game kicks off a five-game stretch of road games, though they will return home following tomorrow night’s game in Denver. After that, they don’t play again until Friday in Calgary.
Despite their current nose dive, the Wings still lead the League by ten points. If that’s not a mark of their previous dominance, I don’t know what is. Let’s hope they can recover it soon.
Henrik Zetterberg leads the team in goals with 33, but he has not scored in his last four. Nick Lidstrom is now the team leader in assists with 50, but Pavel Datsyuk is not far behind him with 48.
Jiri Hudler is goalless in 13. Valtteri Filppula is goalless in nine. Those two have to get going.
The Wings will be without Niklas Kronwall (clavicle) for the ninth straight game. Derek Meech will continue to fill in for #55.
Brian Rafalski (groin) is expected to sit out for the second game in a row. If he does, Kyle Quincey will fill in.
Dan Cleary (broken jaw) will miss his third straight. It looks like Aaron Downey will dress again.
Projected lines (via Khan):
Franzen-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Filppula-Zetterberg-Samuelsson
Kopecky-Draper-Maltby
Hudler-Drake-Downey
Projected pairings:
Lidstrom-Chelios
Lebda-Lilja
Quincey-Meech
You can expect some mixing there, as Quincey and Meech will probably see time with more experienced defensemen throughout the night.
Jimmy Howard will start today. By the way, today is the first time this season I’ve been disappointed in Chris Osgood. His comment to George Sipple about his record against Dallas was very out of character for him and something I hope does not become a habit.
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, and Winging It In Motown.
OklahomaWingNut’s GDT is here.
This is obviously a big game for the Wings, who need a win badly. I would love to see the Wings put on a great performance on national TV and make up for last week’s debacle. Can they do it? Sure. Of course. Will they? I don’t know. At this point, I’m with IwoCPO:
But don’t fret. There’s always Turco.
But that’s not going to be enough. I’m thinking we’re looking at 6.
I hope we’re wrong, because I’m not looking forward to hearing the same people who called the Wings the most dominant team in hockey start hailing their downfall, as if that’s what a losing streak means.
I want to see the Wings pull out of this skid and doing it while backstopped by Jimmy Howard would make for a great story, even though it may create some controversy.
Can they just flip a switch and win like that?
I hope so.
Update (2:14 PM): Mike Smith is in net for Dallas, by the way. - Matt
Update (1:56 PM): To be fair to Marty Turco, I should also point out Dominik Hasek’s record against Dallas: 8-10-1-1. - Matt
Update (12:15 PM): Mark Stepneski has some pre-game comments over at Andrew’s Dallas Stars Page NHL Blog. - Matt
The Wings and the Stars face-off for the second time this season this afternoon. They last met on Wednesday in Detroit in a game the Wings won, 4-1. The remaining two games are scheduled for February 17th and March 13th.
The Stars have dropped three straight and have been outscored 11-4 in that span. The loss to the Wings was just the second of those three, as they were knocked out by the Minnesota Wild, 6-3, the next night. Although they will be playing their third game in four nights, the Stars will be highly motivated to stop this slide, much like the Blues were on December 20th.
Since Wednesday, Dallas has fallen from first in the Pacific and second in the Conference to second in the Division and 4th in the West.
According to Mike Heika, the status of Sergei Zubov (hand) is uncertain. The defenseman has missed the last two games, but practiced yesterday and apparently kept it simple. He’s listed as questionable by the Dallas Morning News, though the notes section there says he’s a game-time decision.
Jussi Jokinen (knee), Jere Lehtinen (hernia), and Phillippe Boucher (shoulder) remain out.
Heika also notes that Dave Tippett switched up the forwards some in practice yesterday in an obvious attempt to generate some more offense.
As for the starting goaltender, that remains a bit of a mystery as Marty Turco has had two rough outings in a row, but saw the most time in practice yesterday. He was pulled after allowing three goals on four shots Thursday night and has beaten the Wings just once in his career. I’d say conventional wisdom would put Mike Smith in net today, but if Tippett wants to force Turco to overcome his demons, we’ll see #35.
For the Dallas side of things, see Andrew’s Stars Page, Razor with an Edge (official), Stars Blog (Dallas Morning News), and Stars Scene.
The Wings have been idle since Wednesday and so are well-rested as they head into this brief road trip. After the game today, they’ll head to Chicago to face the Blackhawks for the fifth time this season. Hopefully they won’t be caught looking ahead to that game when they have a motivated Stars team to deal with first. They’ll be looking to improve their 24-1-1 record against non-Central teams.
It looks like neither of the currently injured players will be returning today. Tomas Holmstrom (knee bruise) hopes to make it back tomorrow, but it seems Mike Babcock has Homer’s return pegged for Tuesday. The same goes for Kirk Maltby (back strain), who isn’t as adamant about wanting to return this weekend.
Dominik Hasek will start this afternoon. Chris Osgood will get the nod tomorrow.
For more of the Wings’ side of things, see 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.
HockeyTownTodd makes a good point in his latest:
Look for the Wings to return to a more basic game because of the crappy ice.A little more Dump ‘n Chase, very careful line changes (especially in the 2nd).This game could very well be determined by turnovers and takeaways.
The ice is a definite issue, but if turnovers and takeaways become a key feature in the game, the Wings should be in relatively good shape. Pavel Datsyuk is leading the League in takeaways with 64 and he’s more than capable of making something out of them. By the way, Henrik Zetterberg is the highest ranking Red Wing in giveaways at #56 with 30. That doesn’t surprise me, really. Hank can be a bit of a puck hog.
I thought the Wings played a solid game overall Wednesday night, so if they at least pick up where they left off, they’ll be in a good position to come out on top. The Stars will obviously look to elevate their play and they have the skill to make things uncomfortable for Detroit’s defense, but if they don’t catch the Wings napping, I don’t see them coming out of their tailspin just yet. If they can get Zubov back in the lineup and start Smith, they stand a better chance, but it’ll be tough either way if the Wings bring their “A” game.
Of course, we all know what happened last time the Wings faced a highly-motivated team that was looking to stop a losing streak.
