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 that was… interesting.  I don’t know.  We started off great, faded in the middle, and came back strong again through OT, and couldn’t get it done in the shootout.  Again.

– The Wings controlled a lot of the play in the start, but towards the middle, got stuck at 8 SOG and their momentum just continued to fade and Chicago took advantage to score 2.

+ Hopefully Lidstrom’s warming up offensively?  He scored his third of the season from the side of the net in a very un-Nick-like area.

+ Pavel looked like he was awake and up for the game from the puck drop.  Same with Zetterberg, who had a return to form today.  The Eurotwins looked like the all-world players they are, and should look like every night.  The whole first line with Bertuzzi played great, combining with Rafalski and Lidstrom for the first two goals.  Zetterberg’s goal was just a classic–stretch pass from Raffi to Pavel, who split between Hossa and Duncan Keith to pass to Zetterberg, who shoveled it in.

+ While we’re talking about Datsyuk, his shootout goal was a filthy dirty changeup that floated over Niemi’s pads and in.

+ And for once!  Bertuzzi’s spin-o-rama found success in the shootout.  On the other hand, the Brian Campbell Spin-O-Rama Count was unofficially tallied at 4.

+ Way to show some truculence, to use our favorite Brian Burke-ism, Patrick Eaves.  He got some solid hits in, after getting blasted under the eye.  I said this last time, he should be re-signed immediately.

– Patrick Sharp was left completely by himself when Duncan Keith passed him the puck, and all he had to do was pop it in.  Utter lack of defensive coverage there, Wings.

– An incredible case of failure by NBC on multiple parts, the most egregious being the missed goal.  They were showing a useless replay and letting the Douche Canoe blather on about something unimportant, and as a result we missed Patrick Eaves’ goal.  And I still cannot understand why Eddy Olczyk is allowed to be the color commentator for nationally broadcast games in which the Blackhawks are playing.  I have the same problem with Joe Beninati calling Capitals games on Versus.  I’m sure they try their best to be unbiased, but unfortunately they do not do a very good job of it.  And how come Ken Daniels never does national broadcasts?  Is it not in his contract for him to be able to do games outside of FSD?  He’s be good at it…

+ Helm is really learning how to slow down a little bit when he’s coming in on net, so that he can create a better scoring opportunity for himself.

– Going back to the Douche Canoe for a moment, he made a ridiculous comment about how when the Blackhawks get Adam Burrish and some other player (I honestly can’t remember who, and it’s likely not someone very important) back into the lineup, they won’t have any holes in their team, except for goaltending.  What about Detroit, Pierre?  What about when we get Mule, Kronwall, Holmstrom, and even Jason Williams back?  We certainly won’t have any holes then, either, including goaltending.  And we’re going to be fucking scary.

– Someone also might want to mail Pierre a new pair of underwear for when he talks about Jonathan Toews (and Rosby).  The best comment?  ”[Toews] speaks perfect English, and great French, too.”  Petrella had the perfect reply to that which was, “He’s from Winnipeg, not Kenya, ya douche.”

+ I like the organ at the JLA.  Big fan of them playing the Super Mario Brothers theme, which totally beat listening to freaking Linkin Park at American Airlines Center yesterday in Dallas.

– I hate the shootout.  If there were ever a case against ending games in a shootout, I think this was a very strong one.  That overtime was so exciting and riveting, and they just cut it off after 5 minutes to head to a one-on-one skills competition.  That the Blackhawks simply have more depth in, with Toews, Kane, Hossa, and Sharp.  I don’t honestly understand why Babcock threw Cleary out there rather than Filppula, who I think has a little better set of hands on him for things like that than Dan(ny) does.

Hey, Chicago?  Congrats on winning against the Grand Rapids Griffins.  This is not being bitter as a Wings fan, it’s a fact that Detroit iced about half of the team they had when they played in October.  So here’s a pat on the back for shutting out a Red Wings team without the majority of their firepower.

That being said, the Wings really shat the bed on this one.  I wouldn’t say that Osgood laid a total egg, because the entire team played like crap.  No jump, no legs, no motivation.

Also: is it just me, or has Ken Daniels taken to just yelling directly at the goalies this season?  Right in the middle of his play by play, when Osgood lost the puck, he just shouted, “sit down, Chris!” when it was under him.  Ken did this earlier this year also, when he told Jimmy to just grab the puck.

NHL Network was airing the 2009 Winter Classic before the game, and holy hell was it depressing to see guys like Mule, Lilja, Filppula, and even Hudler out there.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: none
Chicago:  Duncan Keith (pp; Toews, Versteeg); Brian Campbell (Sharp, Ladd); Dustin Byfuglien (Madden, Keith)

Pluses
+ Umm… Hossa was held to 0 shots on goal.  He was on the ice for Campbell’s goal, and so was +1, and had 1 takeaway.  I had also said in my preview that more than seeing Hossa get demolished, I wanted to see him held off the scoresheet.  Not quite, but close.  And I guess I should have specified that I wanted a win, too.
+ Patrick Eaves took a hard shot off the foot, but he did come back after getting an X-Ray.

Minuses
- It took 13 minutes and change for Detroit to get their first shot on goal, by Datsyuk.  13 minutes.  That’s ridiculous.  The end total was 20 shots.  Nowhere near enough when the Blackhawks are currently the best defensive team in the league.
– The last two goals that Osgood let in were pretty soft, and quite a few people in my Twitter feed were calling for him to be pulled in favor of Howard.  I’m sorry, but no.  I said in my preview that he was the player I was looking at to have a good game.  He didn’t have a great night, but it wasn’t horrendous either, by any stretch.
– Because when you spend as much time in your own zone as the Wings did, you’re bound to get scored on.  Way too many times to count, they were just incapable of clearing their zone, and got hemmed in.  There was so much standing around in their own zone, it was mindblowing.
– Good God did Doug Janik have a brutal game.
– We got absolutely wrecked in the faceoff circle.  16 to 29, ‘Hawks.  If you want to play a puck possession game, you have to possess the puck.  And the easiest way to do that is by winning faceoffs.  Datsyuk went 6:10 and Helm was 3:10.  Draper was perfect at 3/3.
– Along with Helm, Leino needs to ask for some new hands for Christmas.
– I frigging HATE that stupid Fratellis song they play at the UC when they score.  It makes it all the more obnoxious when the ‘Hawks score.  Also, real classy, Chicago, with the constant “Detroit Sucks” chant.

Wings are going to have to pull their heads out of their asses by Wednesday and wake up.  I am extremely curious to know who will be starting in net for Detroit.

The Wings are headed to Chicago to take on the Blackhawks Sunday.  I’ve been saying that Babcock giving Osgood the nod to play this game says something about Osgood’s position as the number one goalie.  But I realized that it’s a slightly hasty statement.  I’m not backtracking, but what I hadn’t taken into consideration was Wednesday’s game, which is back at the Joe.  If Osgood plays well tomorrow and then the start for Wednesday is given to Jimmy?  Well, that would put a hole through my theory.  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves–still have to see how Sunday’s game ends up.

Chicago is on top of the Central and the Western conference with 47 points, and Detroit is 6 points back.  It goes without saying that it would be huge to get 2 points in regulation against Little Brother.  We just have to look back to last year when the Chicago media and Blackhawks PR were crowing about how they were poised to take over as leaders of the Central.  And then Detroit demolished them in a home and home.  Granted, the rosters were a little different back then–the Wings weren’t out 8 regulars.  This will be the first game Detroit plays against Hossa since he and his shadow Thomas Kopecky defected to the ‘Hawks.  I know there are some who are hoping that Hossa gets cranked into the boards by Brad Stuart, and while I can’t deny that it would certainly be enjoyable to see, I’d rather have him held to 0 points, 0 shots on goal.  I’d also love it if Bertuzzi potted a couple, just to really shove home the point that Hossa wasn’t as huge of a loss as everyone seems to think it was.

Who I’m looking at to have a good game: Chris Osgood

Vancouver Province:

Samuelsson’s experience showed Wednesday in the 3-2 win over the Blackhawks. The night may have belonged to Roberto Luongo’s saves and Willie Mitchell’s hit, but it was Samuelsson who won it.

…In the third, Samuelsson deftly picked off a brainless Brian Campbell drop pass which he saw coming from Kalamazoo. He said he’s played Chicago “a million times” and knew the antics Campbell can get up to in his own end. With that takeaway, Samuelsson did what he’s done so well this year — he shot. It was his 41st shot of the season, good at that time for second place in the NHL, trailing only Alex Ovechkin.

I find this amusing firstly due to the slight Brian Campbell jab.  Campbell always goes for the slick move rather than the smart play, which is absolutely stupid to do in your own zone.  And secondly the fact that Samuelsson is second in shots in the league with 41.  The phrase “wildly inaccurate” always come to mind with Samuelsson, and if they haven’t already, Canucks fans better get accustomed to hearing announcers say “and Samuelsson shoots it just wide.”

I unfortunately wasn’t able to watch the game live and had to DVR it.  Which led to me finding out the score ahead of time.  Oh well, at least I knew we won…

Goals were as follows:
Detroit – Nicklas Lidstrom (pp; Williams, Zetterberg); Draper (Maltby, Ericsson); Franzen (pp; Holmstrom, Datsyuk)
Chicago – Patrick Sharp (Versteeg, Seabrook); Kris Versteeg (pp; Sharp, Barker)

• Which, I have to say, made that 5-3 much less nerve-wracking.  At least a little.  Let’s just say that was a reaffirming moment for special teams.
• Kronwall had a solid game, as did Stuart.  According to the boxscore Kronner had 2 blocked shots, but he was great on that 5-3 PK.
• Ozzie looked pretty good, out on top of the crease and challenging shots.
• I really hope Ericsson isn’t hurt too badly.  Really unfortunate that he got hit in the same foot as in Sweden.
• I know it’s kind of a subjective stat, but Detroit had 18 giveaways?? Chicago had 16.
• Detroit got outshot 34-23.
• Loved seeing Bertuzzi and Williams buying into the Red Wings way and making an effort to backcheck and be defensive.
• That goal by Draper was a helluva shot.  Looked like it went straight through Huet.
• Great to see Lidstrom get point number 998.  Here’s to hoping he hits 1000 soon.
• Unsurprised to see Brad May get into a fight.  What was surprising was how articulate he was in the intermission interview.  He was clear, succinct, and most importantly, doesn’t mumble!  (I’m looking at you, Dan Cleary).

I started typing this on Facebook, before I realized that it was long enough to really write up a complete blog post.

Marian Hossa has signed with the Chicago Blackhawks for 12 years at $62.8 million, for a $5.23 million per year cap hit.

I wonder if there is an equivalent phrase in Slovakian to "burning your bridges"?

Have fun playing Detroit 6 times next year, Hoss. Oh, and don't forget the playoffs. Maybe it'll be 'psychologically difficult' like it was this year for you to play against Pittsburgh.

Also, I'm stunned that Dale Tallon actually gave him a contract of this magnitude.  He's clearly following the Ken Holland school of management by offering a longterm front-loaded contract to circumvent the cap and still let a guy cash in.  What stuns me is that Tallon must realize that Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, and Duncan Keith are all up after the 09-10 season.  NHLnumbers.com is down right now so I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but I know that Toews and Kane are a steal, both being in their rookie contracts right now.  Keith is an upcoming defenseman who will also be due a massive pay raise.

And then there's Brian Campbell.  He signed last year at $7.1 million per year and hasn't exactly been the sparkling defensive player they were hoping for.  He's on the books for 7 more years.

Kevin Allen of USA Today (@kausatoday) twittered: With TSN saying Hossa signed with Chicago for 12 years, I have 'Hawks at $34 mill for eight players in 2010-11 witn no Kane, Toews, Keith

A few hours later, Nikolai Khabibulin left Chicago to sign with Edmonton.  So the Blackhawks have Huet as their starter, who has a $5.625 million cap hit and who was replaced by the Bulin Wall partway through the season.  Huet played two games in the Western Conference Finals, but he was horrid.  Chicago has got to get a very competent backup, and unfortunately there aren't many left.  They tried to trade him but were not successful thus far, and are stuck with him for 3 more years.

Detroit Red Wings coach made a comment during the post season that he couldn't wait for Chicago to get into cap trouble, and it looks like the time has come.  It'll be interesting to see what Dale Tallon will do to keep their key players and ice a deep, competitive team, and do it around the big contracts they've given out.

It’s hard enough playing the Stanley Cup Conference Finals against a quick young team with a lot of skill. It becomes impossible when you include the officials to the people they must play against.

If you are not watching the Blackhawks v. Red Wings game 3 right now, Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall absolutely demolished Chicago’s Martin Havlat. Havlat was clearly knocked unconscious. Dustin Byfuglien of Chicago came over and charged Kronwall into the boards, and a scrum ensued with no regard for Havlat lying on the ice. The resulting penalties from all that?

13:08		Johan Franzen: 2 Minutes for Roughing Duncan Keith
13:08		Dustin Byfuglien: 2 Minutes for Roughing Johan Franzen
13:08		Niklas Kronwall: 5 Minutes for interference Martin Havlat (Served by Jiri Hudler)
13:08		Niklas Kronwall: 10-Minute Game Misconduct Martin Havlat

Paul’s got the CBC video, and you can hear how stunned the announcers are that Kronwall got tossed. It was a violent hit, but Havlat had the puck in his skates and didn’t have his head up. Kronwall was on the train tracks and just smeared him. Byfuglien came charging across the ice to board Kronwall, and gets no penalty. Kronwall? He gets a 5 minutes and a game misconduct. Ken Holland looks furious with the call, as does Steve Yzerman.

The officiating has been disgusting this game. Eddie Olczyk, Brian Engblom and Keith Jones all agreed that the hit was extremely hard yet clean and did not warrant a penalty of that magnitude. According to Paul over at Kukla’s Korner in a comment on the A2Y live blog:

Milbury on the hit via CBC, Get the refs on a bus tomorrow and ship them out of the playoffs.
Kelly Hrudey says he cannot understand what the NHL is trying to do.

Basically every talking head on TV tonight agrees that the hit was perfectly fine, and should not have been called for either 5 minutes or a game misconduct.

Dan O’Halloran and Dave Jackson are the refs. They have on more than one occasion made questionable calls. The most vivid was calling goaltender interference on Tomas Holmstrom last year in the WCF when the Dallas Stars played Detroit. It waived off a Nick Lidstrom goal, and prompted Detroit coach Mike Babcock to speculate to the media if the rules had been changed without anyone telling him.

The interesting point that the CBC announcers keep making is that when the hit happened, no arms were in the air. Neither O’Halloran nor Jackson made an initial call. It was a linesman, who are allowed to call major penalties.

It’s unfortunate that Havlat got knocked out. He’s a great player, albeit a fragile one, and you never want to see any player lying unconscious on the ice like that. Especially with his teammates scrumming around him, which I found to be appalling. But it was an emotional call, and one that was made based on the result. It may have also been a reputation call, as TSN recently accused Kronwall of leaving his feet–”launching” as ex-Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette calls it (on an unrelated note, if that’s launching or charging, then what the hell do you call the hits Ovechkin makes?).

But the point is, the officiating has been a joke, and I’m not saying that because I’m an unapologetic Red Wings fan. Referees need to be smarter than that, and not get sucked into the emotion of the home crowd. Blatant home team bias by the refs should be left to the NBA and not happen in the Conference Finals.

I can’t believe people actually picked the Blackhawks to win this series.

Lidstrom and the rest of the Detroit defense corps held Patrick Kane to 0 points, 0 shots on goal, 1 hit, and -3 in 15:10 TOI. Toews have 3 shots on goal, and was -3.

The Red Wings came out sluggish, as I think we all expected. Babcock had a very interesting comment on that (via Kukla):

Q. How much at the start of the game do you think you guys still had Anaheim on the head or whatever? How long did it take you to get you out of it?

MIKE BABCOCK: Well, took us till Cleary scored for sure. That’s a good question. It’s a fact, as a coach, I knew that was going to happen. As much as you talk about it, as much as you try to prepare in the short-term, I knew that was going to be the case. I could just feel the electricity of the last series to the start of this one. This one’s going to get going, don’t get me wrong. But, you know, for us, I don’t think initially, at least in the first 10 minutes, we were ready to engage at that level.

Detroit knows they could have played better. Osgood and Cleary both mentioned in post-game interviews on NBC that they have got to cut down on the number of turnovers committed. And they also need to start on time, in Game 2.

Chicago has been brash and cocky leading up to the start of this series, referencing the last two games of the season that they won. What they fail to either realize or mention, is that Detroit was clearly not taking the last games of the season seriously. They won those games because the Red Wings pretty much didn’t show up. And that’s not a strong indicator of how Detroit plays in the post-season.

Zetterberg and Datsyuk were incredible, even while Pavel is still pointless. Helm was great, with two great scoring chances. Cleary was incredible, and Mule was his usual clutch self. The Filppula, Samuelsson, Hudler has been awesome all playoffs long. Drapes looked good, and really contributed in the face-off circle. Lidstrom basically shut down Kane and Toews by himself. Ericsson made a few poor choices throughout the game, but I wonder if the grind is just getting to him. I’m sure he’ll bounce back in Game 2. Kronwall and Stuart were a force. Except for that first goal which was a little weird, Osgood has been his usual solid self in net.

The Blackhawks should be scared, knowing that Detroit did not play a compete game, nor did they play their best, and yet still took the game 5-2. They’re just not ready to play with the big boys yet.