Panthers Pounce Shorthanded, Win in the Shootout

The Panthers just kept coming as the clip the Red Wings 5-4 in a shootout.

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In the first period, Sean Bergenheim got behind the defence and scored his 12^th of the season, setting the pace of the game early on. The Panthers continued to play solid, forchecking hockey and kept the Red Wings at bay. The Red Wings couldn’t get any sustained pressure as Thomas wasn’t really tested. All things said, the Red Wings came on stronger in the latter half of the period and we had the making of another one-goal game.

In the second period, Nyquist put his team on the board, as he picked up a Franzen pass and beat Thomas five-hole for his 9^th of the season. And then, the unthinkable happened; the ever elusive Dan Cleary, who got the call he was playing 15 minutes before the game, won a face-off that led to the Alfredsson goal that made it 2-1 Red Wings. And Cleary wasn’t the only one who had a good game, as the kids – Jurco, Sheahan and Tatar – were getting it done. The aforementioned Sheahan finished off a play by Tatar who scored on a spin-o-rama, on the powerplay and made it 3-1 for the Red Wings.

The third period had some more jump to it. Boyes and Gilbert had some chances early on Gustavsson, who stood tall, but he couldn’t help letting a Winchester shot get through him, making it 3-2 at 9:12. Cleary, never one to be upstaged, did his best Tomas Holmstrom impression and had a goal waived off for after a questionable goaltender interference call.

As the period progressed, the Panthers came on stronger, heavily outshooting the Red Wings early on but as in all good things in life, it had to come to an end. Tatar finished up a nice Sheahan play at the top of the circle and it was 4-2 for the Red Wings. Drew made "Shore" that he kept his team in the game, as he snapped a shot into a wide open net at 14:19 to make it 4-3. The Red Wings then got caught up on an odd-man rush on the power-play and shootout player extraordinaire Brad Boyes scored a short-handed marker, making it even at 4-4 at 16:14 in the 3rd.

Overtime solved nothing and Florida eventually won it thanks to a Bjugstad goal in the shootout.

All in all, there were two things I noticed in tonight’s game. One, Mike Babcock seemed to be relying on his 2^nd line of Jurco – Sheahan – Tatar all throughout the game, 5 on 5 and on the powerplay and the kids responded. They finished with a very solid 5 points and +3 overall. The other positive thing is that Kyle Quincey went unnoticed throughout the game, which is a very good thing. He played a defensively sound game, even though he finished with an even rating.

Wings Sting Stanley Cup Champs in Shootout

The first portion of the game was terrible.  The finish was fantastic.

Detroit came into last night's match a heavy underdog, but how could they not?  Heavily under-manned and facing the Chicago Blackhawks, one of the most prolific offensive teams in the league this year, the analysts had this one wrote off before it even began.  Surely it seemed they would be correct after the Hawks jumped out to a 2-0 lead early in the 1st, but then when it all looked like the same old song, something magical happened.

The Red Wings played like the Red Wings.

Detroit managed to tie the game at 2 with goals from Tomas Tatar and Patrick Eaves before the end of the 1st.  Then, after giving Chicago the lead again in the 2nd, the Wings not only tied the game back up but actually took their first lead of the game with another pair of goals from Kyle Quincey and Gustav Nyquist.  It was lucky for us that the Wings found all this offense at one time, because the lead did not carry long into the 3rd period, as Jonas Gustavsson, who had fought the puck all night, gave up another goal to tie the game at 4 apiece.

The scoring would stop there for regulation time, and overtime drew no solution.  Alas, back to the dreaded shootout we went.  But wait...all of a sudden, we're scoring goals in the shootout, and Monster is somehow making stops at the most critical junctures, even making two saves on Patrick Kane's attempt!  Eaves and Bertuzzi banged home a pair to keep us in the game as the shootout went to extra rounds, marking save after save, until finally it was Darren Helm's turn, and he did not disappoint.  A quick snap of the stick and the puck was past Corey Crawford.  With a clutch save by Gustavsson on Andrew Shaw just previous, Helm locked up the win for the Wings over their hated enemies, as well as 2 precious points to tie them for the final wildcard spot in the East.

This game was as refreshing as it was entertaining.  We finally got a game where injuries were no excuse, the guys on the ice just worked their asses off and got the job done.  It wasn't the prettiest of wins, but it sure was satisfying.

Wings Left Wanting in Beatdown from Blues

As one is normally able if they look, the tone of the hockey game last night was evident from the first 10 minutes of the match.  Sure enough, Detroit was transparent yet again.  The St. Louis Blues came into JLA like they owned the place, and from what transpired they basically did, never letting up on the Red Wings as the Blues decimated Detroit 4-1 Monday night.  Gustav Nyquist got the lone Red Wings goal, while Jimmy Howard did his best to keep the Wings in it till he left with a lower-body injury.  Petr Mrazek finished the game, giving up the last of the 4 St. Louis goals.

It was a pitiful sight, to be sure, with the only real fight coming from the energy guys: Helm, Sheahan, Eaves, Glendening and so on.  With so much top-tier talent still on the shelf, those who remain are obviously getting focused on and bore down upon, and it's choking the life out of this team.  One thing that really stood out to me was the distance from which the Blues were scoring most of the night.  Only 1 goal came from around the net front, with the other 3 goals originating from back along or near the blueline, screens or deflections all.  Why does that stand out?

Because we don't get those goals, not recently anyway and not with any consistency.  Ericsson is the only big name D-man still out, so injury isn't the problem there.  We need our defenders to start getting pucks through bodies for scoring chances.  Too many times do you see Kindl or Smith or Lashoff just bang it off someone's shin guard and back comes the opposition with an odd-man rush.  Lidstrom might've been the best, but he wasn't the ONLY one who could get a puck from the blueline to the net on this team, so someone needs to figure this out now.

The Wings will get Ericsson back for tomorrow's tilt against Chicago.  The Wings desperately need to steal some points through the remainder of this homestand and finish as high as they can before the Olympic break, and taking a point or two off the Champs would be a sweet time to do it.

Powerless at the Pond, Detroit Defeated by Ducks

The yo-yo season continues for the Detroit Red Wings.

After a great showing against the Kings on Saturday, the Wings had a chance to end the California road trip with a majority of wins, but all that determination seen in LA was wasted in Anaheim as Detroit simply could not pull the trigger against the Ducks.  Despite many excellent chances, a good number of them went by the wayside as Wings players did not converge and own the middle of the offensive zone the way they needed to against a Ducks team that kept Detroit neutered along the perimeter.  Petr Mrazek got the start in net for the Red Wings and made this one a game Detroit could've taken hold of but they never did, losing 1-0 and gifting the hot-handed Jonas Hiller with a shutout and his 14th straight victory.

The biggest concern of the evening, however, had to be the Red Wings' impotence on the powerplay.  Detroit is now 0 for its last 21 PP chances, and it has seemed to matter little whether all the big guns are on the ice for the man advantage or not.  The struggling powerplay for the Wings has been a constant problem and Assistant Coach Tom Renney seems to have done almost nothing to change the flaws in the system.  We still see too much passing, not enough puck retrieval after an initial shot, and sparse movement by the defense to open up the middle of the ice.  Just last night in Anaheim, the Wings went an unacceptable 0 for 5.  Teams cannot squander that many PP opportunities and expect to go far and if this, as well as the number of other obvious problems this team has faced all year, are not addressed at the trade deadline then this may end up a very depressing year for Wings fans.

Detroit is off now until the 16th when they travel to New York to face the Rangers.  They will be without the valuable services of Tomas Tatar who will be in Slovakia to attend his father's funeral.  Hopefully we will get word in the meantime that other Red Wings, such as Pavel Datsyuk and Darren Helm, will be ready to go by then.  All we can do till then is believe in the team and hope things start getting consistently better.