Oh Captain, Our Captain. An Ugly 3-2 Win in Overtime

There are games in the National Hockey League that grab you by the throat and toss you around for almost every second of 60 minutes. There are games in the National Hockey League that put you to sleep throughout. And there are games in the National Hockey League where, really, the end justifies the means. Tonight against Carolina was the third scenario. For the Wings fanbase, there are three things that legitimately need to be discussed concerning tonight’s game, and only three. No more, no less.

                We start with one, the first goal. Perhaps the ugliest goal Yours, Truly has seen since…well…Yours, Truly has squashed down a lot of bad memories of bad goals. It was bad. It looked like a goal that would be scored at the end of practice when everyone is messing around and getting the pucks put away. No one, and I do mean no one, in a Winged Wheel was really where they ought to have been. Jimmy poked when he should have stayed, Kyle Quincey just Kyle Quincey-ed. And after a run of good play for the Wings that just wouldn’t work, it was a double blow. A goal like that should be a once-in-a-season embarrassment. As such, it’s best to get it out of the way early. The team moved on, we can move on.

                In between the Things to Discuss, Carolina scored again and then we made it a one goal game. In Between the Things to discuss, we played like trash and Carolina, despite playing only slightly less trashy, continued to look like the eventual winner. But we aren’t going to discuss that.

                We are going to discuss the captain (not The Captain, chill). Zetterberg wanted this game. He wanted it more than most regular season games I saw last season, and that was incredibly encouraging. That’s not to say he was bad last season, not by any means. But I often felt he was out-worked and out-paced by Pavel, and I firmly believe a captain should out-work everyone. This season, though, Z is a hungry man. Thus far Henrik Zetterberg has 14 shots on goal, in two games. THAT is what we need to see out of our captain: Leading from the front, showing his guys exactly what needs to be done to conquer the East in year one.

                So what better way to lead from the front than scoring the game-tying goal with 17 seconds left, during one of those frantic scrambles where so often we just come oh so close but never quite close the deal. Z made damn sure we closed the deal this time. He showed us what grit, with a little bit of finesse, can do for a team that refuses to quit. And, from a technical standpoint, he was in the exact right place to do what needed to be done (something that plagued the Wings all game. But we aren’t discussing that.) He took us from a write-up about a really ugly loss to:

                Stephen Weiss’ overtime goal , his first in a Wings’ sweater. Another illustration of what being in the right place at the right time will do, he cleaned up some trash and gave the Wings a really undeserved win. What a way to open one’s scoring account for the year, and what an exciting end to what had been, for so long, a dreary game. And that’s it. That’s all I’m going to discuss from the game.

                Why? Why am I stopping there? Why am I not addressing all of the major, major issues the Wings had most of the game? It was a dreadful, ugly game. There is a lot more to discuss, sure. Many of the exact same issues from last year were still woefully on display tonight.  I could write them all in list form, all the things we’re so sick of we could puke, all the things that are so identifiable but are never fixed. I won’t discuss them tonight, though. I won’t because sometimes, a team needs to win ugly. If a team can’t win ugly, they won’t win it all, it’s as simple as that.

So, while it’s early in the season and we can still use that as an excuse, I’m going to continue to give the Wings the benefit of the doubt. If Zetterberg keeps playing like he wants it, it may rub off. If Smith finally gets it through his head what he needs to do, he may turn it around. It’s so early, we really can’t know about anything. Except that Kyle Quincey will continue to be awful, we’ll always know that. But for now, I’m going to bask in the happiness this game gave us. It was horribly, horribly ugly. But ugly is so much more beautiful and enjoyable when it’s worth two points. 2-0 and I’m not looking back, I’m looking ahead to Boston.

Wings Bully Buffalo, Claim Win in Home Opener

In what could only be called a lop-sided affair, the Detroit Red Wings did exactly what coach Mike Babcock asks for always: Start on time.  Mikael Samuelsson and Pavel Datsyuk scored :36 apart in the 1st period and never looked back as the Red Wings defeated the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 in their first match of the season.

Detroit dominated the puck for the majority of the game, which says as much about the Sabres as it does the Red Wings, considering the Wings were booked for seven penalties before the end of 40 minutes, including two 5 on 3 chances for Buffalo.  Detroit kept their composure through it all, the PK units working splendidly and were perfect while a man (or men!) down.

Samuelsson opened Detroit's scoring with a wicked redirect off of a Cory Emmerton shot, beating Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller up high.  Not long after, the magic man weaved his skills yet again as Pavel Datsyuk gobbled up a loose puck and wound a ridiculous backhander past Miller to extend the lead to 2-0 just before the 13 minute mark of the game.

The Red Wings locked things down fairly well for the remainder of the match, until a miscue by Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard ended up in front of his gaping net. Playing the puck behind the cage, his attempt to rim the puck around the boards was blocked and flew out front.  Despite his best efforts, Jimmah wasn't able to get to the shot from Zemgus Girgensons, and the lead was cut in half with about 7 minutes left to play.

The Wings managed to hold the line despite some obvious scrambling after the Buffalo goal, and even as Ryan Miller left his net in the late stages of the 3rd, Detroit persevered and held off the Sabres for their 1st Eastern Conference win.

I'll quickly go over what stuck out to me as I wrap things up for the night:

The Alfie-Weiss line is going to be scary - I'm not talking some of the time, I'm talking ALL the time.  No production on opening night, fine...but WOW did they ever pressure Buffalo all night long! Alfredsson came to Detroit hungry, and does it ever show as he let total howitzers go every chance he got.  Weiss was hard on the puck as well, getting a number of quality chances.  If they can mange to motivate Johan Franzen, their vegetable of a line-mate, they will be a fearsome line to try and defend against.

This defensive corp is legit - When the Wings needed to lock things down, they did so.  A much younger group of defensemen than most of the Hockeytown faithful are used to have shown that they learned much from last year's shortened season.  What makes them seriously deadly, however, is how well they seem to be reading the play and pressing the attack.  Datsyuk's goal should show an assist from Jonny Ericsson, as him bull-dozing into the offensive zone set up the whole play.  Multiple times all night the Detroit defenders made similar plays driving deep into the zone when it was prudent to do so and help stimulate more offense.

Just because you're good doesn't mean you can be sloppy - A few of the calls I had reservations about, but Detroit could have very easily ended this game with far fewer penalties.  This was an issue at times last year, and it CANNOT persist this season. It's great that Alfie and Weiss helped out on the PK, but that is NOT why we brought them here.  We need to stay out of the box and keep generating pressure and generating goals.

We're only one game in, but things certainly look promising.  We'll see if the Wings can keep things rolling on Friday when Detroit heads to Carolina for a date with the Hurricanes.

Light the Torches, Cleary Re-Signs with Wings

This should be interesting.

I've decided that this latest bit of Wings news is just the thing to bring me out of my offseason hibernation, because wow, there's gonna be some wicked division in Red Wings Nation over this one...

Dan Cleary, who was reported to be as good as signed with the Philadelphia Flyers, has signed a 1-year, $1.75 million deal to remain with Detroit.

Wings management had made it CLEAR (I'm so funny) that they didn't want to see the 34 year old veteran head elsewhere, but couldn't meet the terms that Dan was asking for. The issue of cash and space, however, now becomes significantly larger.

Cleary's signing was unforeseen at this juncture, so fitting the Red Wings under both the roster limit AND the salary cap is going to be at the very least tricky and very likely also painful.

The number of solutions Detroit has at its disposal are not large, and many fans cringe at the thought of implementing many of them, from moving Gustav Nyquist and Danny DeKeyser down to Grand Rapids, to waiving or trading journeymen like Patrick Eaves or Jordin Tootoo.  I know I personally don't like either of those options, but the Wings have put themselves in this position. It's now up to Detroit to try and find the lesser of all evils to make this roster and this salary budget work.

And it's left to the fanbase to go to all-out war between those who agree with the added cap and roster strain of bringing Cleary back, and those who don't.

Feel free to turn the comment section below this article into a battleground, as I'm curious to hear people's thoughts on this sudden and surprising news.

Where do the Red Wings stand?

Alfredsson joins his Swedish
 teamate Zetterberg in Detroit

After signing Weiss and stealing Alfredsson from the Sens, most Red Wings fans are ecstatic with the prospect of next year's team. But what do they have to do before dropping the puck?

As they stand right now, the Red Wings have 2.3M left in cap space and they have to sign pending RFAs Gustav Nyquist, Brendan Smith and Joakim Andersson, so they have to make space to sign everyone.

The Winged Wheel's forwards, as they stand now, they have 14 forwards signed, plus 2 pending, making for 16 forwards. Here's what it looks like :

Abdelkader - Datsyuk - Zetterberg

Franzen - Weiss - Alfredsson

Nyquist - Helm - Tatar

Tootoo - Andersson - Miller

Extra : Eaves / Bertuzzi / Emmerton

LTIR : Samuelsson

Ericsson - Kronwall

Dekeyser - Smith

Kindl - Quincey

Lashoff

Howard

Gustavsson

This team is in a bind. Because of ''injuries'', Samuelsson can't be bought out; he's not going to play a lot and look for him to fill Ian White's role last year as the scapegoat who won't play unless a lot of injuries take a toll on this team. Also, look for Tootoo to get increased minutes. In the big bad East, goons like Parros, Thornton and to a lesser extent, Neil and Prust will always challenge stars and Tootoo, although he isn't a heavyweight fighter, will at least bring some energy and spunk and is willing to fight.

I do believe that the next year's Wings have a lot more going for them than last year's edition. First, the rookie will have more experience. Nyquist, Tatar, Smith and Andersson will all have bigger role entrusted in them, playing a solid 3rd line and being trusted, for Smith anyways, with bigger PP minutes. Second, next year's team will be more balanced, with Datsyuk and Zetterberg on the first line, plus Weiss, Franzen and Alfredsson completing the scoring, something Cleary (15pts in 48 games) and Filppula couldn't quite do last year. (Although, there is a rumor that Cleary is going to get re-signed.) Cleary is passed his expire date because of his knees and he is taking up a roster space that could go to a younger player, like Tatar or Nyquist. Holland has to let go of his loyalty to old players and let Cleary go to Dallas or even Anaheim.

Now, for what needs to be done.
Look for Emmerton to be sent down to Grand Rapids or waived. He was a serviceable 4th line C, but with the return of Helm, Andersson is going to be the 4th line C, plus Sheahan or Ferraro can be our first call-up.

Also, there has been a rumor of Edler being shopped and Detroit's interested. With the departure of Raymond and possibly the oft-injured Booth, Vancouver needs secondary scoring. A package of Tatar and Quincey, plus draft picks to even out, I think Edler could come to the Red Wings and it would help open up roster spots.

And here's a blockbuster that could help : Tatar / Nyquist + Quincey + 1st '14 for Zach Bogosian. He's young (22 years old) and would fit great with Kindl or even Kronwall, plus it would open up a roster spot.

I know it's clichéd, but it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings and the Red Wings are far from being done this summer.