Big Red Machine

They’re bringing out their brooms in San Jose.  The Wings are teetering on the edge, down 0-3.

You don’t need to make history tonight, Detroit.  One game, one chapter at a time, you just have to start writing it, not complete the book.

Let’s Go Red Wings.

The Wings will get it done in the desert tonight.

I believe.

Kind of quick, slap-and-dash post here, since I’m at home for lunch, but I need to run back in time for a 1pm meeting.

For the first time in 10 years, the Red Wings are starting the playoffs on the road, rather than in the friendly confines of the Joe Louis Arena.  Instead they’ll be at Jobing.com Arena (winner of the worst arena name possible) in Phoenix.

But we all know that in Phoenix, when the Wings come to town, it might as well be a home game.  I know there are some calling for Wings fans to “stay away” but they can shove it.  I’ll be looking for Serven, Bingo Bango Jessie, and Sullyosis to be proudly sporting the red and carrying the flag for the Wings tonight.

Starting on the road will not be the only difference this year.  Last year we all wondered if the Wings, specifically Chris Osgood, could flip the switch and play like the team that won 2 years ago.  This year the Wings had a monster post-Olympic season, and are on a roll.  They haven’t relaxed, sitting pretty on top of the division, resting their stars in preparation.  They’ve been pushing their way up the standings, fighting for their playoff lives, and playing what are essentially Game 7 situations every night.  I like it.  I like that they’re ready for what’s to come, and that they’ve had a certain level of intensity up to this point.  I like that they won’t have to flip the switch from completely dark to on.  They should be warmed up, and ready to gun it tonight when the puck drops.

James Tiberius Howard has never seen a second of Stanley Cup Playoff ice time in his life.  He will be up against Ilya Bryzgaloz, who has played 16 career SCP games with the Ducks in 06 and 07.  I’ll freely admit that I’m more worried about Bryzgalov than I would have been about the Wings facing Luongo.  I think he could steal a few games if the Wings aren’t careful, don’t drive the net, and aren’t all over him with Homer’s ass parked directly in front.

Going back to the Golden Boy for a moment, he’s exhibited remarkable poise this season.  I know, I know, he’s 25, but he’s still a rookie, especially when it comes to post-season play.  Can he keep up his solid play and not have a crisis or a meltdown under the pressure?  I’m interested to see what sort of leeway Babcock gives him if he does.  Osgood, afterall, has been relegated to a statboy, more or less, charting faceoffs more than he actually sees minutes on the ice.  This is Howard’s time to become the Red Wings goaltender, and make it his team.

Other players I’m looking at to have a strong series:
Pavel Datsyuk, after something of a disappearance last year due to injury.
Johan Franzen for his absolutely clutch playoff performances.
Tomas Holmstrom will be key in terms of getting to his office and driving Bryzgalov nuts.
Todd Bertuzzi, please remind us why Ken Holland thought it was a good idea to sign you.

The Wings will need secondary scoring IN ADDITION to production from the top lines with Datsyuk and Zetterberg.  Clearly, this is stating the obvious, but guys who are being paid to chip in a few goals need to actually do that.  These include Williams, Bertuzzi, Filppula, Cleary, and maybe Eaves.

Also?  Big Rig Jonathan Ericsson.  Everyone gushed over him after his playoff performance last year, and he’s had a rocky regular season.  I want to see him channel some of that awesomeness and play like the defenseman we saw back then.

Ultimately, I just want to see a cohesive team, where the parts all work together smoothly rather than a bunch of jumbled lines and parts and pieces doing things on their own.  Bring it, boys.

Let’s Go Red Wings.

Before I get any further, I’m just really glad I didn’t have to watch the end of that Edmonton game.  GameCenter Live crapped out on me, and as I saw the tweets that Edmonton had tied it up, I was actually more relieved that I wasn’t watching.  I don’t think I could have handled that crap.

This is the first of three games against Columbus in the remaining 6.  With my astoundingly brilliant mathematical skills, that’s half of the games left in the season that will be against the Blue Jax.

Looking at what’s left:

In the first three meetings between the BJs, Detroit has the advantage, 2-0-1, including that glorious 9-1 smackdown way back in November.  However, the last time Detroit and Columbus met, it was a pretty insane goaltending battle, so hearing the noise that Mason is rounding back into form, the Wings need to be wary and on their game.

The Winged Wheelers rolled through March with a 12-2-1 record.  They should be able to keep that up against Columbus, who is hanging on towards the bottom of the conference at 14th.  The Blue Jackets, however, have won their last 2 games, including a 4-2 victory over Chicago.  This game, and the other two, aren’t necessarily going to be a cake-walk: the Jax are 10-5-4 under their new interim coach, Claude Noel, and it doesn’t sound like they are willing to just fade into the background as an end to the season.  I think they could easily take advantage of a distracted Wings team in one of these three upcoming games.

According to The Dispatch, Steve Mason will be in net for Columbus.  Portzline also says to “expect no changes” for the Red Wings, which suggests that we’ll see Howard again.  This also means Cleary will not be back, most likely.  Helm and Williams had maintenance days, but will be playing.

Babcock is apparently “just worried about playing better,” and he’s not alone in that regard.  The Wings have more or less secured a spot in the playoffs, but that doesn’t mean they can afford to sit back and relax in this final stretch, like they usually can.  6 points back from a somewhat slumping Chicago, it’s feasible that they could still make a run for the division.  But they can’t go out and play like they did in the second and third periods of the Oilers game, or Rick Nash will walk all over them.  Let’s hope they’re motivated after that dismal performance, and inspired by the post-season around the corner.

This will be quick, as I’ve got to go run to the grocery store, bake a cake, and head off to a friend’s for dinner… which means I’ll be missing most of the game as well.

The Red Wings haven’t won a single game against the lowly Oilers this year, something that I hope they’ll take into consideration tonight.  Babcock told the Freep:

“We get beat like a rented mule,” coach Mike Babcock said Monday. “They just slap us around every time we play them. We’re usually down two after about 6 minutes.”

Well, maybe bring out the (non-rented) Mule tonight and hope that he can do some damage against the Oilers and turn the table on them.

Helene’s also reporting that Meech will be joining Eaves and Helm, which moves Draper up to center Miller and Williams (I have the worst time remembering about Williams.  Whenever I’m running through lines and the roster in my head, I’m constantly missing someone, and without fail, it’s J-Wills).

It sounds like Cleary will be taking a longer time to come back from this aggravated groin injury of his, as to make sure it’s fully healed this time around.  That said, he still doesn’t have a time table for return.

Jimmy is starting again, for the 23rd time in a row, which leads me to believe that we will not ever see Osgood between the pipes again, unless Howard falters in the playoffs.

Playoff Implications
If the Red Wings win this, they will move up to 93 points, to sit one behind Nashville, so long as the Preds lose to the Kings.  That’s a bit of a crappy game right there, and one you can only hope doesn’t go to OT.

The Wings have won 5 straight–can they make it 6 against a team that’s had their number all season?

Look at that and tell me that this matchup tonight is not the most important games of the season for the Red Wings.

We saw them bring it last Thursday against Nashville in a huge game; can we officially shed them of the Jekyll and Hyde moniker after tonight?

That’s all I got.  They need to play like they did in the second period against Chicago.  I know it’s obvious, but if the Wings can bring that level of play for 60 minutes, we’re good.

Well, the Olympics are over and it’s back to the regular season grind.  The Wings are sitting in 10th seed, tied at 68 points with Dallas who has the tie breaker (they had to go all the way to Goals For, strangely, and sadly, Dallas cleaned up in that department), and 1 point behind Calgary.  Colorado is is at 6th with 76 points.  Suffice it to say, it would be great for the Red Wings to start back up on the right foot and get two points in regulation.

Really looking forward to this game–I’m in Colorado right now, and will be making my first ever trip to the Dive.  Should be interesting.  Also, the Wings and Avalanche are the only teams playing tonight, the first day after the Olympics.  Neither of them had more than 1 player in the gold medal game on Sunday (Rafalski and Stastny), and Detroit had one more in Filppula who played on Saturday, along with Babcock from Sunday, but it still seems stupid that they couldn’t schedule it for Tuesday…

The Wings have a (virtually) complete, healthy lineup for the first time this season.  Maltby is officially on LTIR, and Andreas Lilja has been activated, and will play tonight.  It will be interesting to see how many minutes he logs, and also who he plays with.  According to Khan, that will depend on whether or not Rafalski rests or plays tonight.  Here are the two scenarios:

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Stuart
Ericsson-Lilja
Lebda and Meech healthy scratches.

If Rafalski doesn’t play, these will be the pairings:

Lidstrom-Kronwall
Ericsson-Stuart
Lebda-Lilja
Meech scratched.

I’m not going to lie, I’m very excited to see Lilja back in the lineup.  I have hopes that once he gets into NHL game shape, he will be showing some of that shut-down, stay at home defensive play that he was getting good at last year before he got injured.

Howard is starting in net.  Will he be playing at the same level he was before the break, or will his hot hand be cooled a little?  We will see…

Who I’m looking at to have a good game: If he play, Rafalski.  He was so good, both defensively and offensively for Team USA, and he needs to bring that level of play back to Detroit.  Also, Andreas Lilja, for reasons mentioned above, and Jimmy Howard, also stated.

Other Notes:
I know Matt already mentioned this, but Osgood had auctioned off a chance for some kids to come play shinny at his house and backyard rink.  They also got to hang out in his “Man Shack.”  There are a bunch of photos on Facebook, and  the Freep has a writeup of the event.

Brendan Shanahan wrote a couple blogs for NHL.com during the Olympics, with his usual wit, had this to say about Canada’s gold medal win:

Congratulations to all of the Canadian players and management, but especially my buddy Stevie Y. As Executive Director of Team Canada’s gold medal-winning men’s hockey team, maybe a nation will accept that the boy has grown up, and will finally start referring to him as “Steve.”

I doubt it. Way to go Stevie.

The big new is that Leino has been traded to Philadelphia for a 5th round pick (yikes) and defenseman Ole-Kristian Tollefsen.  And apparently OKT has already been waived and will be headed to GR if no one claims him.  Interesting that Holland picked up another defenseman, which is not exactly what they need right now.  I mean, they don’t need anything with Franzen and hopefully Lilja coming back, but McLeod wonders if he could challenge Meech and/or Lebda for a spot on the team.  He’s only played 18 games this season, due to an injured MCL.

Back to Leino, my opinion is good riddance.  We’ve discussed Leino to death on TOV, and I’m perfectly happy to have him gone, and even more thrilled that we didn’t dump him for free.  Philadelphia can deal with him.  Maybe he’ll blossom into the player we all thought he had the potential to be in Philly–sometimes it just takes a different environment or coach, or maybe he’ll be as spectacular of a failure with the Flyers as he was in Detroit.  Here’s what Leino had to say about the trade via the Flyers’ website:

“Sometimes things don’t go as you plan it with your team,” said Leino. “The trade happened, and I am happy to be going to a good team like Philadelphia. I have heard a lot of good things about Philly and I am looking forward to playing and proving myself to Philadelphia. I am pretty happy about this trade.

“I consider myself a skilled player. My talent is more on the offensive side of the rink, but I would like to consider myself as a contributor in the defensive zone, too. I am hoping to produce some offense and help the team get some points and win games.”

So the Wings are ready to get Johan Franzen back, which is the single greatest sentence I’ve typed all season to this point.  Andreas Lilja also says he feels great after playing 2 games in Grand Rapids, and while he’ll likely play a few more, Holland will have to do some shuffling with the roster again in order to make room for him.

Onto the Kings.

They’re on an 8 game winning streak, having ripped it up on their road trip, and continue to be hot.  I’m tired of saying how important these games are for the Wings, but they are.  Calgary is 2 points ahead of Detroit and LA is 9 ahead so a regulation win would be huge.  The Wings need to channel the play they had in San Jose (with the exception of the first period) and just bring it.  Unfortunately Niklas Kronwall is still out with his tweaked knee.

Jimmy Howard is in net again, I believe.  I don’t have much to say other than Get. It. Done.

I’ll be watching some, and be intermittently on Twitter, but I’m having company over so probably not much from me in terms of a game wrap up.

An interesting discussion on the new episode of TOV about this week’s “must win”. Casey mentioned that he wouldn’t be that upset if the Wings lost tonight’s tilt against San Jose. And it sounded like the general consesus was that it could be something of a throw away game.

I’m all about focusing on the teams right ahead and in back of us. But let’s not forget the most important thing for the Wings right now and that’s points. Regardless of the opponant.

Kyle made the point that yes, they can skate with the Sharks, and there’s no reason to think that they can’t win this game. It shouldn’t be about whether a team is on their radar, as Joe said. The Sharks may be unreachable in terms of points, but that doesn’t mean they should toss the game away, or not work to play their best. The Wings are a good team too. Look at the roster–top end skill even with Franzen still out. Babcock said it’s all mental problems and I agree with his statement that you don’t suddenly forget how to make a tape to tape pass or how to shoot. It’s mental, and if the challenge of the Sharks will shake the Wings from their stupor, all the better.

There is zero reason why the Wings shouldn’t win this game. They won the last meeting 4-1, without Zetterberg, without Filppula, Kronwall and more. We know what this team is capable of; don’t discount their skill level. Being in 9th seed and looking up the standings is not an excuse to lose against the team currently residing in 1st. Not for this team. They need to play hard every single game.

Anyway. Ericsson is a healthy scratch tonight.

Why I agree with this: he clearly has struggled all season long, and hasn’t been able to play himself out of whatever funk he’s in. I know the whole defense is a bit messed up but he needs to figure out how to average his playoff performance into an 82 game regular season.

Why I dislike this: it means we’re stuck with both Meech AND Lebda tonight.

Holmstrom is back! It will be refreshing to have that net-front presence back.

Howard is in net.

It’s been a long day, rife with computer problems at work.

As I’m certain everyone’s already heard, Abdelkader’s been sent down to Grand Rapids because he doesn’t have to clear waivers, and the Wings need the roster spot for J-Wills, who is making his return tonight.  Also sounds like Brad Stuart will be in the lineup, so good on that.

I think it goes without saying that we need 2 points here.

And with that, I’m taking the cheap way out and turning it over to a superior blog for the rest of the preview (cut me some slack, it’s been a crappy day):

Michael at The Production Line has created a masterpiece, mashing up the Red Wings and “Major League” together.  It all started with a comment about Kenny Lofton getting inducted into the Indians Hall of Fame, and snowballed from there into inspiration for Michael’s IR and healthy scratch nicknames.  Which, by the way, are always good when it comes to mixing pop culture references with hockey.

Secondly, make sure to check out the brand spankin’ new Herm 2 Hockeytown website at www.herm2hockeytown.com and donate!  Eric Duhatschek of the Globe & Mail also wrote about it:

AND FINALLY: Here’s a fun little story relating to the worldwide popularity of the Red Wings. For the past few months, Detroit’s on-line hockey community has been raising funds to bring a Brazil-based Red Wings blogger – Guilherme “Herm” Calciolari – to Detroit to see the Red Wings play. More than 100 fans sent in donations, enough to cover the cost of Calciolari’s trip to Detroit to see a game against the Minnesota Wild towards the end of March. With Calciolari’s expenses covered, the “Herm to Hockeytown” initiative has evolved into a charity event to raise money for Children’s Hospital of Michigan’s Child Life Program Fund. Donations will be accepted at http://www.herm2hockeytown.com up through Mar. 26.

Also, if you’re on Twitter, make sure to add the official H2H Twibbon to your avatar!