On the Wings

Update (11:25 AM): George Malik has a post-game media roundup here. - Matt

The Red Wings fought through the thicket of Minnesota bodies and sticks to come back from a one-goal deficit late in the third period last night and capped the comeback off with a win in overtime. It was their eighth consecutive victory.

The Wild carried a 2-1 lead through the 18:39 mark of the third. At 18:40, Dan Cleary tied it up after he threw the puck at the net from the left-wing boards. It somehow found its way between Niklas Backstrom and the short-side post. It was Cleary’s 20th of the season and tied a career high set last season.

Minnesota held the Wings off for the remainder of regulation, but couldn’t stop them in extra time. Brett Lebda was the beneficiary of the great work of Cleary and Henrik Zetterberg, who wrecked wrought havoc in the Wild zone while #22 jumped up. With all five Minnesota players on the ice watching him to Backstrom’s left, Zetterberg sent a pass to a wide open Lebda, who netted his third of the season to win the game.

The Wings began the scoring at 9:58 of the first period with Johan Franzen’s 10th goal of the season. Backstrom kicked the rebound off a Tomas Kopecky shot right to the big Swede and he had an easy time of it putting the puck in the net. The goal came seconds after Franzen had hit the post on a feed from Kopecky.

The lead lasted only 1:12, however, as Derek Meech took a bit of a weak hooking penalty at 10:55  and the Wild scored a power play goal fifteen seconds later. Brian Rolston walked out of the right wing corner and stuffed the puck under Dominik Hasek, who had gone down on his side in order to take away the bottom of the net.

The game remained tied until Pavol Demitra scored the go-ahead goal at 5:36. The play began when Pierre-Marc Bouchard tripped Valtteri Filppula in the Minnestoa zone near the left point. The Wild defenseman then picked up the puck and sent it out to Demitra on the opposite wing. A 2-on-1 developed, with Andreas Lilja the only Wing back. Demitra beat Hasek high gloveside with a quick shot from 37 feet out.

The Wild would eventually fall back into a defensive posture, but immediately following their goal, they looked to press home the attack. They had the Wings on their heels a bit, but their push was interrupted by a four-minute roughing penalty taken at 9:48 of the second.

It was not the Wings’ best power of the season and could have been a back-breaker for a weaker team. They got off only a couple shots over the course of four minutes and were manhandled in front of the net by an ornery Wild defense. Jiri Hudler, taking the role of Tomas Holmstrom for the second unit, was roughed up by three Minnesota players when he refused to back down after the whistle had gone.

On the next shift, Holmstrom faced a similar situation. When Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg skated in to provide support, they too were mobbed. Brent Burns gave Zetterberg a completely uncalled-for facewash, nearly knocking him down. The end result of the fray was penalties to Datsyuk and Mikko Koivu, both for roughing.

At 18:03 of the second period, Datsyuk took his second penalty of the  game. This time, it was a weak holding-the-stick call. On the ensuing power play, Bouchard had a glorious chance in the slot, but he took too long to get the puck off and it was deflected high and wide.

The Wings looked strong in the third period, but the were competing with a tight-checking Minnesota squad. In an effort to get back in the game, Mike Babcock switched up the lines somewhat. Henrik Zetterberg centered Mikael Samuelsson and Dan Cleary on at least one shift, and Johan Franzen skated between Jiri Hudler and Tomas Kopecky. Franzen also saw time with Kris Draper and Samuelsson.

The team came close to tying it up a number of times throughout the period as they put up 16 shots to the Wild’s 3. Niklas Backstrom’s quick glove and Minnesota’s ability to get to loose pucks before the Wings made a comeback difficult. The Wild were well on their way to pulling off a win when Cleary’s bad angle shot suddenly changed the game.

Although he was kept off the scoreboard, Pavel Datsyuk had a strong night.

Dominik Hasek continues to allay fears about his ability to win games as he made a number of key saves throughout the game, keeping the Wings in it when the Wild had control of the ice. He had a couple huge stops on Marian Gaborik, including one on a breakaway in the second period. Somehow that one did not make it into the NHL’s highlight reel, but this one came just seconds later. He finished with 22 saves.

It was not a perfect game by the Wings. They were beaten to loose pucks more often than not and were too easily defeated by the Wild’s poke-check defense. The power play struggled once again and the penalty kill on the Rolston goal was less than stellar. Although the stats (such as the shot totals) would indicate they deserved to win the game, it’s probably more fair to say that they stole this one from the Wild.

Despite the fact that it was not their best game, the encouraging thing is that they are still finding ways to win.

Next up, the Wings face the Kings at home Thursday. LA activated Mike Cammalleri from the IR yesterday, so they should be more dangerous than they were on January 22nd. During the broadcast last night, they said that Thursday is 80’s Night at the Joe. If you’re going, you know what to do.

Links

• Highlights
• Gorilla Crouch
• No Pun Intended
• Red Wings Corner
• Snapshots on Hasek
• Snapshots wrap-up
• LetsGoWings
• DetroitHockey
• The State of Hockey News
• Wild Puck Banter

Not much to say about this one. Despite the fact that they hung in and kept it a game, the Wings didn’t deserve to win this one anyway. It was one of their weaker defensive performances of the season, to be sure, and was all the more disappointing in that it came against the imposters from “Farber’s Hockeytown.” Fortunately, the Wings will have the chance to cleanse themselves of this on February 5th.

A few thoughts:

… I’m not sure what happened to the team defense last night, but the Wild had 28 shots  and though it’s an exaggeration to say that 20 of them were excellent scoring chances, that’s how it seemed. The Wings had little or no presence in front or behind their own net, as the Wild were setting up plays from Wayne Gretzky’s Office™ all night. It got so bad that frickin’ Todd Fedoruk scored from the slot on the setup from Matt Foy.

… Marian Gaborik showed over and over again last night why he’ll be on All Star teams for years to come (as long as he stays healthy). He’s an electrifying player and when he had the puck on his stick in the Wings’ zone, I was sure something was going to happen.

… Chris Osgood didn’t have much of any chance on the Wild’s goals, but it was still unusual to see him get shelled like that. I don’t think he’ll pull a Miikka Kiprusoff and start tanking now that he’s signed an extension, but last night wasn’t exactly an auspicious beginning to the last stage of his career.

… Seeing the Wings tie it up a little over a minute after the Wild went up 1-0 was encouraging. I’d love to see Brett Lebda make more passes like that.

… Valtteri Filppula scored one of the best goals of the year to bring the Wings within one late in the second. He may have fanned on his initial shot, but his individual effort leading up to that point and the goal scored on the second try ought to have the play on the end-of-the-year highlight reels.

And didn’t I say he’d break out of his slump spectacularly?

… Dallas Drake’s goal? Talk about coming out of nowhere!

…  After Niklas Kronwall’s goal made it 4-4, I was skeptical of Jacque Lemaire’s decision to pull Nicklas Backstrom. After seeing Josh Harding’s performance in a relief role, I understand. That kid has to have the Fastest Glove in the West. And the Wings kept shooting at it, which was maddening.

… Dan Cleary’s go-ahead goal at 18:52 was quite awesome. The relief was short-lived, however, as Eric Belanger scored at 19:11 to tie things up. Just after Ken Daniels said, “And we’re headed to overtime,” the Wild took a long shot on Osgood and I thought, “… he scores!”  because it seemed like that kind of night. Fortunately or unfortunately, it didn’t happen and we had to sit through a tense overtime period.

… The shootout was frustrating. Datsyuk tried a glove-side deke and failed. Demitra sent the puck off the side of the net, but probably had Osgood beat. Zetterberg  tried that idiotic Forsbergian deke (one of his his two shootout moves) and Harding was with him the whole way. Complete failure, Hank. Rolson’s blast startled Osgood. Hudler proved the only Red Wing with a shot faster than Harding’s glove as his snapper ripped through to set up the final showdown with Gaborik. Osgood didn’t really have a chance.

… Congratulations to the Wild for the win. Just don’t let it go to your heads.

… Let’s all hope the Wings’ performance in this game was a one-time thing because they’ll get lit up on Saturday if it wasn’t. If you don’t already know, they’re traveling to Ottawa for a showdown with the #2 Senators. It would be a very bad time to hit a slump.

Links

• Highlights
• Boxscore
• Post-game interviews
  • Mike Babcock
  • Niklas Kronwall
  • Chris Osgood
• Kent Youngblood

The Wings once again put the Wild in their place with their second dominant performance against the boys from “Farber’s Hockeytown.”  The Wild stayed roughly competitive for a little over a period and a half, but the Wings pulled away in the final five minutes of the second and never really looked back. It was a return to the “A” game.

A few thoughts on the game:

… Dominik Hasek got the start for the Wings and made 18 saves. He  didn’t have to make many big stops, but he was there when required and improved to 9-0-2 in his career against the Wild. He looked a little out of position on the lone Minnesota goal, but it was deflected in off Chris Chelios so it may not have made any difference. With the Wings dominating the puck, Dom was mostly along for the ride, anyway.

… At the other end of the ice was Niklas Backstrom and I think he deserves a good chunk of credit for stopping 47 shots, many of which required monster saves. He robbed a couple Wings, including Jiri Hudler and Valtteri Filppula, though the Wings scored a split second later on that latter chance. Backstrom is the only reason this game wasn’t a rout on the scoreboard as well as just about everywhere else.

… As I wrote above, the Wings’ first goal came just after a glorious Filppula chance was denied by Backstrom. Fil had the whole right side of the net to shoot at, but Backstrom managed to knock it down with his glove and stick as he dove across. He didn’t control the puck, however, and Pavel Datsyuk immediately followed up by knocking it into the net. You can’t fault Backstrom for that one, as the puck squirted out to Filppula after coming at the net from the left point and Datsyuk was left unmolested in front of the net.

… It doesn’t appear in the play-by-play, but early in the second period, while on the power play, Brett Lebda put the puck in the net at the tail end of a flurry that included the bowling over of Johan Franzen by a Wild defender into Backstrom. Backstrom ended up essentially on his back with the puck between his legs. The down low official stepped up, into the crease, to see if it was still live. It ended up getting picked up by Lebda, whose shot glanced off the officials calf on it’s way in. That ref signaled it was a goal, but the play went immediately to review because of the ref at center ice.

At first, the consensus was that something was being called on Franzen for having fallen into Backstrom. However, that theory was soon ruled out as it was noticed that the puck had gone in off the ref. The goal was waived off because of Rule 85.4:

If a goal is scored as a result of being deflected directly into the net off an official, the goal shall not be allowed.

Okay. I can accept that. I just want to know what the heck the ref was doing in the crease. That was a major brain cramp on the part of that official (I’m not sure if it was Chris Lee or Dennis LaRue).

… At 15:14, Johan Franzen made it 2-0 with a nice individual effort. Jiri Hudler intercepted a Wild outlet pass sent it to Mikael Samuelsson, who dropped it Franzen along the left wing boards. Johan carried the puck around behind the net and back out front on the right side. For whatever reason, Backstrom didn’t hold the post and Franzen roofed it on what should have been a fairly routine save. The goal pretty much came out of the blue.

There has been some debate in the media about the value of second assists and I have to say that Hudler’s was deserved on this one. Had he not made the play on the Minnesota pass, Franzen never would have had a chance to make Backstrom look foolish.

… The Wings scored again 45 seconds later. This time, it was Dan Cleary, who benefited from a beautiful long pass by Nick Lidstrom and broke in on Backstrom all alone. He put a quick blocker-side wrister into the net  with Brent Burns trailing to make it 3-0 Wings.

Brett Lebda got the second assist and this time I think it was a bit of a crock, since the puck did nothing more than glance off his skate when the Wild shot it into the Detroit end. Lidstrom’s great pass was all the assistance Cleary required. Nick’s awareness that Minnesota was going through a line change, which was well-outlined by the FSN crew, and the accuracy of the pass made it all happen.

… At 18:27, Valtteri Filppula was called for holding. I don’t recall ever seeing a holding penalty called when neither of a player’s hands ever left his stick, so this was new to me. Fil was trying to split a pair of defenders and used his right arm in a battle for the puck, the possession of which he had only just lost. I believe it was the official behind the play that made the call, which may explain it. It looked like an innocent battle for the puck from the front, but perhaps from the back it looked like that most heinous of all hockey penalties, the offensive-zone hold.

What made the penalty even more unfortunate was the fact that the Wild scored on the subsequent power play. The really unfortunate part of that sequence of play was that a Red Wing clearing attempt was masterfully blocked by the linesman. The puck stayed in the zone and it wasn’t much later that the Wild got within two. The puck went in off a diving Chelios and left a somewhat out-of-position Hasek with little chance at stopping it.

… Given that they scored at 19:51 of the second period, you would have thought the Wild would have had a boost going into the third.  Whatever they had hoped to do, however, was thwarted by  one of the Wings more impressive defensive performance of the season. Minnesota managed just two shots in the first eight minutes of the period and five total in the third. They had managed just seven in each of the first two periods. The Wings put up 16, 17, and 18 for a total of 51, dominating offensively while maintaining a high defensive standard.

… Tomas Kopecky rounded out the scoring at 9:59 with a gritty goal right on the doorstep. He seems to be getting better every night.

… In the absence of Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom, Valtteri Filppula and Dan Cleary really stepped up their play as they saw time with Pavel Datsyuk. Fil has been on the verge of breaking out all season and it appears we are finally witnessing his transition from a somewhat bumbling second-year  player to a mature two-way dominant force. Cleary is showing once again that he can both grind it out on the third line and skate with the stars.

… Another strong win for the Wings, who enter the Christmas Break on a high note despite uncertainty about two of their stars. The Wings obviously want Hank and Holmstrom back as soon as possible, but they showed last night that they can still win if other guys step it up. The Wings demonstrated their depth last night and showed why they have to be considered the best team in the NHL at this time.

That’s especially encouraging given the chance that Zetterberg’s back could keep him out of some games in the future. Personally, I’d like to think about that contingency as little as possible, but you know the Wings have considered it. If the trade deadline were tomorrow and the playoffs started the day after that, I wouldn’t change a thing about the team as it stands now, but with the news that Hank’s back isn’t always fine, trade (or free agent) possibilities  are on the table. Over at Abel to Yzerman, IwoCPO looks at some options.

There is, of course, always the chance that Hank’s back could turn out to be nothing to worry about and he may return to the lineup right after the Break, seemingly none the worse for wear. We can only hope.

… Other than the Links, I have just one more thing to point out. After the game, Kris Draper was asked where he was going. His answer?

“I’m going back to Hockeytown.”

Thanks to Erik for posting that in the GameDay post comments.

Links

• Highlights
• Boxscore
• Shot chart
• Helene St. James
• Ted Kulfan
• Matt Schwartz
• Michael Russo
• Derek Felska

The boys from Hockeytown destroyed the impostors from Minneosta last night in one of their most dominating performances of the season. Henrik Zetterberg lit up Wild goaltender Josh Harding with three beautiful goals for his second career hat trick and Dominik Hasek showed the NHL that he’s back to form with his 77th career shutout.

… At the beginning of the game, the Wild were pretty effective at slowing the game down to a mind-numbingly dull  poke-checking trap-fest. And they were very open about it, with Brian Rolston telling Larry Murphy that they were “trapping it up pretty good.” Indeed. But the Wings top line gradually wore the Minnesota defense down and finally cracked Harding at 17:53 of the first with Zetterberg’s first.

… Hank’s first goal came just after the expiration of a Detroit power play and on a delayed penalty. After the Wild failed to clear, the puck ended up on Pavel Datsyuk’s stick on the far side. He sent it across the ice to Zetterberg, who was all alone to Harding’s right. Hank picked the puck up from around the feet of the ref and then put it over Harding, who was still moving across the net on his knees. Larry Murpthy told Hank at the intermission that he’d never seen anything like it, which was probably some hyperbole on Murph’s part, though it was a unique goal.

… Zetterberg’s second goal came at 5:31 of the second period, while the Wild were on the power play. After the Wild turned it over at the Detroit blueline, Hank took it up ice with Franzen trailing. He dropped the puck off to Johan, who ripped a shot wide of the net from the slot. Franzen picked up the rebound off the backboards  and dished it to Zetterberg out front. Hank moved across the goalmouth right-to-left and waited until Harding committed before banking it in off the far post. The best of his three, in my opinion.

… 1:10 later, Jiri Hudler put the Wings up 3-0  on another Minnesota delayed penalty. With Hasek on the bench, Huds came over the boards as the sixth man. He found a dead spot at the bottom of the left circle and one-timed a pass from Filppula through Harding to score. I have to say, Hudler has a very hard shot when he gets a chance to use it.

… Johan Franzen’s goal at 9:50 came on the power play and was just a case of his being johnny-on-the-spot when Harding gave up a tiny rebound off a Kronwall shot. It was precisely the kind of goal you want to see Johan get.

… Zetterberg completed his hat trick just 41 seconds into the third period off the feed from Datsyuk. With Holmstrom skating across the front of the net, Hank’s one-timer from the right circle beat Harding after being tipped by his defenseman. For whatever reason, it seems like hat tricks don’t happen all that often in Detroit, while you hear of them pretty commonly around the rest of the league. There’s the Gordie Howe hat trick and the apparent Red Wings hat trick, which is two goals and a goalpost. It was great to see Hank get just the second in his career (the first came last February in the Wings’ 4-1 win over Phoenix), and I hope we’ll see that more often.

… With the Wings up 4-0, Todd Fedoruk tried to get Aaron Downey to fight at 12:58 of the second period and, surprisingly enough, Aaron accepted. However, he lost his balance and fell down before they could get started and the fight never happened. Fedoruk, to his credit, just tried to help Downey up rather than lay into him, but despite the willingness of both parties to go at it, the officials broke it up. Just over two minutes later, they went for it again and this time nothing interrupted them.

Both players got some good licks in, but Downey fell to the ice and probably lost. I was a little surprise Downey would even entertain the idea of a fight, given that it could have provided some spark to the Wild, but he must have felt they were in such control of the game that it didn’t matter. Fortunately for him, it did not come back to bite him.

… Dominik Hasek’s play at 17:41 of the third period was probably the highlight of the game. With the Wild on their way to their second straight loss, the puck ended up on the stick of Marian Gaborik at center ice and behind the Wings’ defense. Hasek, facing down a total breakaway, chose to come out and challenge rather than wait for Gaborik to arrive. Like he’s done so many times before, Dom attempted to slide-tackle the puck away and was successful, hitting the puck just before Gaborik collided with him.

(via Kukla’s Korner, my apologies for the song)

Gaborik hit Dom in his leg pads and went flying up and over, flipping and nearly landing on his head. Definitely a dangerous play, but a smart one by Hasek. Had Gaborik had his head up, he could have possibly maneuvered around the prone goalie, but as it was, he was caught looking down. Hasek was given a tripping penalty on the play and probably deserved it, but it was a worthwhile penalty, as Gaborik on a breakaway is far more dangerous than Gaborik on the power play. There is some talk that the League will review the play, but I think that’s just wishful thinking on the part of the Wild faithful.

Dom’s performance in the game was solid and encouraging, as he only had to face 19 shots yet did not give up a softy due to not having enough work. It seems he is adapting to the Wings’ defensive style, finally. It looks like he’s back, folks. He’ll get his third-straight start tomorrow against Carolina, while Chris Osgood will start Monday versus Nashville, at least according to Mike Babcock in his post-game comments. He says Osgood will go against the Preds because he usually plays well in Nashville, no other reason. Then, the rotation will start.

… Much hay has been made over the recent declaration of Minneapolis-St. Paul as “Hockeytown USA” by some Sports Illustrated hack. I won’t dignify the story with a link, though I will say a couple things about it.

“Hockeytown” insofar as it refers to Detroit, has always been a marketing thing first and foremost. It applied during a time when the Wings were the only competitive team in Detroit and thus received the most attention. With all four teams in Detroit at various levels of competitiveness, the accuracy of “Hockeytown” has declined a bit, but that does not mean it no longer applies. Despite the fact that the Joe no longer sells out, the Wings remain the team with the second-largest fanbase in the League (behind Toronto) and have hundreds, sometimes thousands, of their fans going to their games in every NHL city. Hockeytown, to me, refers to the fanbase everywhere, not just in Detroit.

Besides, the Wings have a pending trademark on the phrase, so whatever the Sports Illustrated writer says, it’s theirs.

… The Wings are on a roll, folks. They are as efficient as I’ve ever seen them and are dominating teams up and down the ice. It’s still early in the season, but it’s exciting to see.

Links

• Abel to Yzerman
• The State of Hockey News
• Highlights
• WingsCast recap+interviews (Hasek, Downey, Babcock, Zetterberg) (mp3)
• Post-game interviews
  • Mike Babcock
  • Dominik Hasek
  • Henrik Zetterberg