Big Red Machine

I don’t know if it was just because it was a late game, or what, but I felt just as wiped out as the Wings looked.  I half paid attention in the second and third periods, and may have spent a little more time slinging “Super Troopers” quotes around the Twittersphere.  That kind of says something about the Wings’ level of play last night.

The Wings did look tired, especially in the first, though they still managed 47 shots.  Let’s not kid ourselves, they could have won it if Hiller hadn’t been playing lights out.

Quick recap from me today, as it’s a bit busy at work.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Pavel Datsyuk (pp; Rafalski)
Anaheim: Ryan Whitney (Getzlaf, Ryan); Kyle Chipchura (Eminger, Marchant); Bobby Ryan (Getzlaf, Perry)

This whole Fighting After A Clean, Hard Check thing is absurd. Ericsson had a great hipcheck, and Bodie decided he needed to be dealt with? McKenzie had a very good piece on this the other day.  It’s just stupid.  I also had an instant fear that he was going to break his hand or something again.

That Chipchura goal was a load of shit.  He batted the puck in, but it still counts?   Did they change the rule book again when we weren’t looking? The puck can bounce in off a leg or torso (or face, in Draper’s case), but Chipchura waved his hand at it.   You cannot hand pass in the offensive zone, so I fail to see any circumstance in which he took his hand off his stick to reach for the puck as legal.  Especially not when the explanation was that “the batting motion happened after the puck was in the net.”  George has video of the goal.

Ducks announcer described Pavel going end to end as “coast to coast like buttered toast.”  Yeah, I know.

Oh Pavel.  His first break away attempt ended with a great save by Hiller.  Tried it again later in the period and pops the water bottle.  Awesome.  He’s now tied at 15 with Homer and Bertuzzi for most goals.  That thought depresses me.  Moving on…

Flip had a great game, even though he couldn’t score.  7 shots on net, he had some of the best chances out of any forward.

Brad May’s going to be gone once everyone gets back.  He has to be.  If Babcock wants to carry toughness for the playoffs should we make it, he need look no further than guys like Eaves, Ericsson, Abdelkader who will be brought up for the postseason, and even Maltby.  They’ve shown more grit and willingness to stand up for themselves than May has all season.

I hate Corey Perry.  Just sayin’.

Wings had a crap effort tonight.  But at least for me, my mood was tempered some by the fantastic, amazing overtime win by the Under-20 USA team who stole gold from Canada at the World Junior Championships today, ending Canada’s 5 year streak.

Changing up the formatting a little bit for a more linear form.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Valtteri Filppula (Lidstrom, Datsyuk)
Anaheim: Saku Koivu (sh; unassisted); Matt Beleskey (Brookbank, Festering); Corey Perry (Getzlaf); Kyle Chipchura (EN; Neidermayer)

– Jimmy looked awful for the first time in a long time. Let up a shortie, and another soft goal as he flopped around the ice.  2 goals in just over 7 and a half minutes.   Nick saved his ass, too, on the first Duck’s PP.  Jimmy was fighting the puck a lot in the first, but he managed to get himself together a little bit for the rest of the game.

– Hey Brad May, nice of you to leave the fighting and rabble-rousing to Doug Janik and Derek Meech.  May didn’t even get in a real fight, he just sort of fell on top of Brookbank and ended up with a double minor for roughing.  Nice fight by Janik against the much larger Troy Bodie, and it was… interesting watching Meech go around with Nokelainen.  Bertuzzi tried, towards the end, but like May, couldn’t even get into a real fight and was also slapped with a double minor.

– Rafalski got owned by Saku Koivu on multiple occasions.

– Ridiculous goalie interference call on Maltby. Nokelainen knocked him in. Ducks announcers claimed it’s the onus is on the attacker, but Maltby had nowhere else to go except into Hiller

– Pavel had an atrocious game.   I called him out in the podcast, and I unfortunately don’t have the influence that Hollis does, where when he rags on someone they go out and prove him wrong.  Instead Datsyuk just reenforced my point that he’s had an off season. Ducks announcers claimed that the Ducks had done a good job on him defensively but I’m sorry–when Pavel feels like it, he can dance around and walk through anyone.   He just sort of floated around listlessly.   The Ducks really didn’t do much against him.   He had a D zone turnover, and was stripped of the puck a couple of times.  I noticed him for the first time when he fell over.

– I hate Corey Perry. What a friggin douche.

+ Ok, I feel the need to at least try and not have an entirely negative recap, so CONGRATS TEAM USA!!!

+ Oh, and I was actually glad it was a west coast game, because it meant I could watch the end of the WJC gold medal game and not get too far behind on the Wings game live.  And I worked so late today I would have missed puck drop if it’d been any earlier.

Didn’t get to watch this last night, so no full recap from me.  I’m DVRing the NHL Network re-air (Ducks broadcasters, ugh), though.

I get the ESPN score alerts on my phone, and when saw that Bertuzzi scored 2 goals, including the game winner, I wondered if I was more drunk that I originally thought.  My friend Kyle left me a Facebook message that said:

I find it very erie (sic) that you mentioned sacrificing Bert to the hockey gods the other night, and then he comes through with 1 + the GWG tonight

Guess Bert heard wind that several of us were all volunteering him as human sacrifice to appease the hockey gods.

I’ve read a lot today that Datsyuk needs a new stick.  He’s been trying out a bunch recently, from what I heard, so fingers crossed that he finds one he actually likes.  Not exactly a ringing endorsement for Reebok, if one of the best stickhandlers in the league doesn’t like any of your sticks.

The Wings head to Nashville.  I’m assuming Osgood is getting the start on the second game of a back to back.  He should be chomping at the bit to get some games in, so I’m expecting him to play well.

And according to George over at Snapshots, Lidstrom is positive that he’ll snap his drought soon.  Tonight looks good, Nick.

I had wondered before last night’s game if it the be as chippy and intense now that Pronger has left the Ducks.  Clearly, he was a big part of their identity (particularly given that they’ve been something of a mess this season).  They do still have guys like Perry and Getzlaf though, to pick up the slack when it comes to taking stupid penalties.

I’m short on notes today because honestly, I can’t remember everything I was planning to say last night.

Pluses
+ Henrik Zetterberg was un-friggin-believable.  A hat trick and a 5 point night for Zäta, he was a force all night.  Mick kept calling him “Curly Fries” towards the end of the game, and he got the empty netter to grant the wishes of Detroiters everywhere.
+ Cleary’s continued to play strong.  In fact, that whole line of Leino-Zetterberg-Cleary has looked good.  Leino’s looked much better since being bumped up.
+ Stuart was a defensive beast.  Except for when I guess he just slid into Howard’s net towards the start of the second and couldn’t get out for a moment.  Murph had a riot over that.
+ Jimmy’s started three in a row, and has won all three.  Gotta be a confidence booster for the kid.  That being said, there were still some negatives regarding his outing.

Minuses
- They looked really tired in the second period, and Ericsson’s gift-wrapped turnover gave Anaheim their first goal.
– What the heck happened to the Rahmani commercials featuring Pavel?  I’ve only seen ones with Ben Gordon this season, which are decidedly less awesome.
– The 3rd was a bit of a barnburner, which I expected.
– Jimmy’s returned to planet earth, having let in 4 goals.  Still, it’s to be expected with him having started 3 in a row.
– Love how the referees called the too many men penalty after Helm came off the ice.  Because, you know, don’t see why the same call couldn’t have been made in last year’s SCF against the Penguins.