Big Red Machine

I hate that stupid Fratellis song, “Chelsea Dagger.”  It makes me want to put a dagger through my eardrums, and I had to hear it 4 times this afternoon.

This game made me feel like an untreated manic depressive, almost entirely within the third period alone.  The first was pretty bland, the second was fantastic, and the third was just a mish mash of wild mood swings.  Matt had a great tweet that sums it up awesomely:

1st: ugh. 2nd: sweet. 3rd: ughwowyikesholycrapnoyesawesome.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Brian Rafalski (pp; Lidstrom, Zetterberg); Nicklas Lidstrom (Filppula, Bertuzzi); Jason Williams (Zetterberg, Rafalski); Valtteri Filppula (Bertuzzi, Miller); Pavel Datsyuk (unassisted)
Chicago: Duncan Keith (Seabrook, Kane); Andrew Ladd (unassisted); Andrew Ladd (Johnsson, Madden); Andrew Ladd (Keith, Madden)

- The Wings allowed Andrew Ladd his first career hat trick.  That says enough.  I mean, really?

- Afternoon games are ridiculous.  This game started at 11:30am local time.  No wonder the Wings looked asleep on their skates for the first period.  Quite frankly, I can’t even remember them getting 9 shots on net in that duration.

- Jimmy.  Please work on your rebounds.  Thanks.

+ Lebda actually does look like he’s been playing better with Lilja, interestingly.  He actually looks like an NHL defenseman.

- Almost immediately after I thought that, he overskated the puck, and forced Filppula to try and get it out, which resulted in a bad turnover and a Chicago goal.  As it turns out, going to Notre Dame doesn’t actually mean anything when it comes to hockey smarts.

+ The Wings really woke up in the second period.  I was half paying attention for a bit, working on some H2H stuff and being exasperated with how the game was going, when I realized that goals were going in at a rather alarming rate (in a good way).  Huet had a meltdown, unsurprisingly, and I’m wondering if the Blackhawks are wishing they’d picked someone up at the trade deadline.

+ Five unanswered goals by the Red Wings in the second period.
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Just pure dominance by the Wings, and Pavel’s goal was an exclamation mark on the period.  The Wings proved to Chicago that they still have a long way to go in order to challenge Detroit’s position as alpha in the Central division.

+ On that note, Rafalski looked more like his Team USA/Olympian self rather than the pinching, turnover prone Rafalski of the majority of the season.  Good.

= Speaking of, whereas Datsyuk’s been pretty jacked since getting back from the Olympics, Zetterberg has seemed a little… off.  He didn’t have a very good Olympics, and that seems to have spilled into the re-start of the season.  I hope he resolves it soon, be it an injury or just being snakebit.

+ The Wings… we… they had a goal called off against them.  That is to say, in their favor.  I’m pretty certain I thought the Apocalypse, the Rapture, and the End of the World As We Know It was nigh.

– Bertuzzi apparently sustained a charley horse and left the game at some point (I want to say it was towards the end of the second period).  He had maybe one of the worst periods of play I’ve ever seen.  Pierre and Olczyk were just ripping on him.  But Bertuzzi came back with a really strong second, making plays and tallying two assists.  And immediately they start gushing about him like he’s the savior of the game.  Sigh.  Sounds like the injury isn’t very serious, and here’s to hoping he’ll be back in the lineup for Tuesday’s matchup.

– Pierre’s comment that Piet Van Zant was on the bench looking at a hurt Pavel made me almost scream NOOOOOO out loud.  Not even kidding.  Thankfully he was just stung with a blocked shot off the foot and came back after testing it during a TV timeout.

– After that ridiculous offensive output in the second period, the Wings promptly gave up a goal early in the third, and then another about half way through for Ladd to complete his hat trick.  Really, after the five goals in the second, this really never should have come down to a 1-goal game.  Curse of the three- and two-goal lead, I suppose.

+ I can’t remember exactly why, but Marian Hossa was whining to the refs about some call or another that didn’t go his way, and my entire Twitter feed, no joke, went “Shut up Hossa.”

+ Kronwall really had the save of the game.  There was a wide open net for the Blackhawks and he just planted himself in the crease to sweep the puck out, and then blocked the second chance.

+ Another incredibly important win, and 2 points in regulation.  Even better, two fairly strong outings in a row.  Can they keep it up?  Can they make it three in an extremely important game on Tuesday?

The Flames won against the Wild tonight, making them 1 point back of the Red Wings.  Nashville, having lost today, it only 1 point ahead.  It would not be hyperbole to say that Tuesday’s tilt is the most important game of the season so far.  Bring the killer instinct, put the skate down, and don’t let up, boys.

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.

First things first, huge congratulations to Team USA for playing strong, tough, and with heart, and for never giving up. A great performance by the Americans to win the Silver medal. We’re proud of you all.

Secondly, congrats to Team Canada, specifically Steve Yzerman and Mike Babcock. (Can someone clarify for me whether coaches and executives get actual medals? Apparently they do not in the Summer Olympics, because then they’d have to give all coaches, like for figure skating, medals as well). I’m happy for Stevie Y, and it really did make me happy to see his jump up and cheer when Canada scored.

On that note though, did it REALLY have tp be Crosby? Of all the players… It’s probably my fault, too, because milliseconds before, I said to my brother: “If Crosby scores the GWG for Canada I’ll throw myself out the window.” And then he scored. Sigh. He was a virtual non-factor all tournament until now, and the media is all praising him as being a “leader” of Team Canada. What a joke.

Anyway, again, congrats to Finland, USA, and Canada (both mens and womens, which oddly turned out identical in terms of medal results) for their wins. And especially to Rafalski and Filppula, and Yzerman and Babcock.

Red Wings hockey starts again tomorrow, in Colorado. I’ll be at the game! Hopefully Rafalski can bring back his awesome play, and the rest of the team will get their heads into the season and ready to make a push.

Let’s go Red Wings.

Red Wings hockey is almost back.  Russia got ousted today in a lackluster effort against Canada, and Sweden lost a stunner to the Czech Republic.  This means the only Red Wings remaining in the Olympics are Brian Rafalski (USA) and Valtteri Filppula (Finland), who are, interestingly enough, meeting on Friday to play for the medal game.

In 4 more days the Wings will take the ice in Colorado to play the Avalanche (a game that I will hopefully be at!).

And when that happens, we’re likely going to see Andreas Lilja play his first game in the NHL in over a year.  We will also not be seeing Kirk Maltby, who has opted to get shoulder surgery after all.  Via Helene St. James at the Freep:

Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland has told the Free Press he expects defenseman Andreas Lilja to be cleared either today or Thursday and that Kirk Maltby will have surgery.

Lilja said he still has to complete some paperwork before he is formally cleared. The Wings also need to put Maltby on long-term injured reserve, which would free up $700,000 to fit Lilja under the salary cap

Apparently there was some confusion about whether or not Maltby was actually going to get surgery, or if he was going to stubbornly decide to play the rest of the season, but the original article has been taken down (with no mention of the mistake.  Nice).  Regardless, it’s been sorted out now, and even though this clearly wasn’t the scenario Maltby, and I believe many fans, envisioned for him to end things, it’s still the smart move.  Especially now that the estimated recovery time has been shortened to 4-6 weeks, he could easily come back for a playoff run, should one be had.

It also sounds like Eaves and Holmstrom are ready to roll when the season starts up again.  So, barring Olympic injuries (knock on wood), the Red Wings should be able to ice a full lineup for pretty much the first time this season.

Oh, and Rafalski?  You better bring that level of play you’ve been showing with Team USA back to Detroit

Yes, I’m still alive.  I needed a hiatus for a little while to do some serious job hunting, and the Olympic breakwas kind of a perfect excuse to do that.  I didn’t, and still don’t, really have any plans for what to do here for the next week, anyway.

Yesterday was the men’s hockey Olympic Super Sunday, with three great rivalry games: Russia v Czech Republic, USA v Canada, and Sweden v Finland.  And yes, I watched all three of them.

As with all the Olympic hockey games, I keep an eye out in particular for Red Wings players.  Some of them did not disappoint, yesterday.

In Russia’s game, Pavel Datsyuk was one of the best all-around players for the Russian team.  He played directly against Jaromir Jagr for the most part, out with Kovalchuk on even strength, and Malkin and Ovechkin on the power play (what a friggin power play, holy shit.  A Hart Trophy nomination troika).  Datsyuk did an excellent job of shutting down Jagr for much of the game, who ended up with 0 points and 2 SOG, and -2.  Pavel led the Russians in TOI with 20:18 played.  The next player was Malkin at 18:43, whose PP goal he assisted on.  He topped it off with the empty netter.

For the USA, Rafalski has returned to a form that I thought long lost.  He was outstanding, scoring the first 2 goals in the game (and the last 4 for the USA), and almost had a hat trick (for all intent it’s his, because he took the shot and it ricocheted in off Jamie Langenbrunner’s skate, then Brodeur’s stick, and in).  He opened the scoring early, too, only 41 second into the game.  It was also great to see the USA roar back after Eric Staal scored for Canada, to get Rafalski’s second goal of the night about a minute later.  I sent a text to my friend during the game that said “who knew Rafalski could still play like that?” to which was responded “He and Miller won that game,” a statement that I can’t argue against.  Rafalski ended the night 2-1-3, +2, in 21:27 TOI (tied with Ryan Suter).  He had three shots on net, all three of which went in.  He was no slouch defensively, either, though I’ll admit that Canada didn’t have a very good game at all.  A lot of players on that team were just invisible all game long, and the ones who were noticeable were not because of good reasons.  Back to Rafalski, Discher has some more thoughts on his recent play, all of which are far more insightful and articulate than my own.

Sweden and Finland… well, I have to admit I zoned out on this one.  Petrella made the point that nothing could possibly be exciting after watching the end of the USA/Canada game, and to my defense, I’d been up since 7am.  Trying to actually pay attention to a fairly boring hockey game at 1:30am is not easy.

Here are the brackets for the rest of the Olympic tournament.  I really have hopes that Russia will play Sweden.  I think that would be utterly fascinating to watch what basically amounts to half the Red Wings take on Datsyuk and the insane firepower of the Russian team.  And, of course, that would mean that Canada wouldn’t even make it to the gold medal game.  I do fear for Stevie Y if Canada doesn’t make it, however.

Come back later for some H2H updates and information.

I said in my preview they have enough talent to beat this team, no question.   And the Wings showed it.  They put the foot down after a bad start and roared back with 4 unanswered goals.  What a great game.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Dan(ny) Cleary (Filppula, Holmstrom); Henrik Zetterberg (pp; Holmstrom, Datsyuk); Derek Meech (pp; Bertuzzi, Filppula); Patrick Eaves (Rafalski, Draper)
San Jose: Joe Thornton (Heatley); Joe Thornton (Heatley, Demers)

– The first two goals were awful.  Jimmy has got to do something about those rebounds. Both goals were because he didn’t completely corral the puck after making the save. It wasn’t even juicy rebounds; they were fairly close to him.  Yeah, Rafalski could have backchecked a little harder on the first, or whatever, but still, it’s a pretty big weakness in Howard’s game right now.  It was pretty much a wide open net both times for Thornton.

+ That being said, I like that he didn’t have a meltdown after letting in 2 in about three and a half minutes.  He pulled himself up by his big-boy pants and played pretty well for the rest of the game.

= In what was only funny after the fact, Kronner was sliding around the ice during the PK with one knee on the ice.  At first blush I was horrified and thought his knee or leg was completely messed up.  Thankfully it was revealed that the blade on his skate fell out and he literally didn’t have an edge to stand on.  It was initially terrifying watching him wobble and fall back down like a young fawn.

+ It pays off to go to the net.  Cleary was in the perfect position, right in front of Nabovok and tipped in Filppula’s pass.  Similarly, Zetteberg was hanging out at the side and had all the time and space in the world to get the rebound after Nabokov made a pretty great save on Homer.   Eaves also camped out at the side of the net and banged it home as the recipient of a gorgeous long pass by Rafalski.  Being in the right places really helps, eh?

+ Welcome back Homer.  2 assists for Demolition Man, and I wonder if his return didn’t play a little in sparking the team and giving them some jump.

+ The best part about the game was that the Wings didn’t look defeated after the 2 early goals.  They didn’t slow down or get frustrated.  They just charged themselves back up and really took over after Cleary’s goal.  The two penalties by the Sharks also helped, leading to Zetterberg’s power play tally.  They got outshot terribly in the first, 18-11, and then they took it in the second, 13-8.  They still let more shots through than I would like to see with 34, but they also got 37 off, which is big, after two games of barely scrapping over 20.

- About 5 minutes into the 3rd Ken said that Kronwall wasn’t on the bench (that was why Meech was out on the PP).  Turns out Kronwall “tweaked” something, nothing serious, but wasn’t going to return.  And he’s not going to be playing against Anaheim tonight.

+ Meech… scored?  Hey, Meech scored!  I honestly didn’t notice him until he scored, and I didn’t notice Lebda very much either.  In terms of the two of them, and their games, that’s what I like from them.  I don’t want to notice them, because it means they haven’t made an egregious error.

- Anyone else have another moment of fear shoot through them when Eaves missed on the breakaway and slammed ridiculously hard into the boards?

= What a crazy last few minutes. Ken and Murph made a comment that it looked like 3rd down, and with the amount of stoppages and time it took to play the last minute or so, it was apropos.  Joslin had an open chance for the Sharks, slid the puck straight through the crease behind Howard, but a hooking call on Lidstrom and a quick whistle saved us.  I’ll take the penalty in that case.

- I almost had a heart attack when Thornton slid into Howard, who went crashing into the net and laid on the ice like he was dead for a few minutes.  All the while Thornton’s yelling that he was tripped.  I love when the mics pick up sound.

Now we hope that they didn’t burn up all their energy last night and that they have enough for tonight.  I want to see the same amount of effort that they brought in San Jose against the Ducks.

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.