Big Red Machine

COLORADO 2, RED WINGS 3

I made my first ever trip to the Dive last night, to watch the Red Wings play their first game back from the Olympic break against the Avalanche.  It was an interesting experience–there was a good amount of Wings fans in the building, and my section had a fairly healthy “Let’s Go Red Wings” chant going on towards the end of the game.  There were some jackass Avs fans there, which was to be expected.  In particular was the guy behind me who kept yelling, “Detroit Sucks Shit” and then trying to explain that while their team is admittedly good, you can’t argue against the city being crappy.  And there was the ever present “Red Wings Suck” chant.  Stay classy, Denver.

But there are some classy Avs fans.  Specifically, @voteforgrant, and @shellieshel and @sandyhens who joined in on Grant and my friendly wager to donate to Children’s Hospital for each of our rival’s goals scored.  Three goals scored by the Red Wings is $15, and double that for the Detroit win!  Via Grant’s Twitter:

Thanks to the Red Wings win last night, @sandyhens, @shellieshel and I will be donating $30 each to @H2Hockeytown. (Thanks @inhyung!)

Big, big thanks to Grant, Shellie, and Sandy for participating, and being classy Avs fans!  That’s $90 for Herm to Hockeytown and Children’s Hospital of Michigan, and I’ve kept my promise to donate to Denver Children’s Hospital to the tune of $10 for both of Colorado’s goals, which I will do so happily.  It’s awesome to see people willing to help out the children, team loyalties and deep rivalries aside.  So thanks again!  If there are any bloggers or Tweeps from other fan bases who want to play with upcoming games against the Red Wings between now and March 26, shoot me an email and let me know.

Some thoughts from the game (none of them very deep or insightful, as are my recaps when I go to games):

• The Wings looked good–really energetic, motivated in the first period.
• The wheels fell off a little bit in the second period, after the Franzen disallowed goal.  I didn’t really see the replay–the arena screen didn’t show a good angle–but from when the play happened, I certainly didn’t see anything egregious by Homer.  Reputation call by Fraser.
• During a TV timeout they showed each Olympic medal winner playing in the game.  Filppula got a nice cheer, Rafalski and Stastny got huge applause, and Mike Babcock was chorused with a rousing boo.
• Howard should have had that second Avalanche goal, no question.  He looked like he was caught napping a little bit, as Colorado only got 9 shots on goal in the period.
• Pavel was awesome.  He was making those brilliant little plays, and his set up to Lidstrom was a thing of beauty.  He got his bucket knocked off twice and it was kind of fun seeing him buzz around the ice looking old school, with his hair a little long and a little scruffy.
• Bertuzzi was the recipient of very healthy requisite boos every time he touched the puck.
• Lilja looked ok.  He didn’t play very much, 9:28 TOI, 1:18 shorthanded, with 1 blocked shot, 2 hits, and a -1 rating.  But he didn’t have any blatant turnovers or defensive gaffes.
• The Dive was actually very full, probably a mix of it being the first game back from the Olympics, and it being the Wings.

First of all, Happy New Year to everyone who visits my little corner of the interwebz.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Pavel Datsyuk (Bertuzzi, Janik); Darren Helm (sh; Draper, Lidstrom); Ville Leino (Meech, Filppula); Darren Helm (EN; sh; Lidstrom)
Colorado: Brandon Yip (pp; Tucker, Duchene); Brandon Yip (pp; Tucker, Duchene)

Pluses:
+ Pavel was certainly up for the game. He was all over the ice, and also had a couple of good shots on net before sinking that gorgeous snipe to open scoring in the 2nd.  And can I say, so much nicer to be at a game at the home barn, where you’re finally not in the minority of fans cheering the visiting team.
+ The Wings managed to pressure in the first period, with the advantage in shots being 13-8. Still too many easy shots from the perimeter and no one around to pick up the rebounds, but they started on time, and played a full 60 minutes.
+ So good to see Helm finally score.  Either he got some new hands for the New Year, or Anderson was just really mistaken on that shot.  In fact when he went in on the breakaway, I just assumed he wasn’t going to score, and so was thrilled when he did.  His second may have been an empty netter, but the fact that he scored 2 shorties is pretty amazing.  And he wasn’t even picked as a star of the game–Ville Leino was picked as first, over Helm or Datsyuk, even.  Leino may have scored the GWG, and his first goal in forever, and had a decent game, but come on.  Fail, Chuck Pleiness of the Macomb Daily, fail.
+ You knew that the concept of “once in a blue moon” was true when Ville Leino  actually had a good shift, and tipped in the puck for a goal.
+ Congrats to Brett Lebda for playing his 300th career game.  I’m 3/4 for milestones this year–Cleary’s 100th goal, Holmstrom’s 200th, Lebda’s 300th game… next up, Osgood’s 400th win???  It would keep with the trend, but it’d have to be either at the Islanders on 1/12, or Philadelphia 4/4.

Minuses:
– I don’t know what Jimmy was thinking on that first Colorado goal by Yip.  And speaking of, I talked about Yip in my game preview, and he freaking goes out and scores 2 power play goals.  Sheesh.
– Way too many penalties taken by the Wings.  Some were cheap calls, like that “tripping” penalty by Filppula in the third, which was a clear dive by the Avs player.  But Holmstrom was also responsible for 6 PIMs all by himself.
– The power play sucks.  Story of the season.
– A disgusting stat: Helm’s goal was the Red Wings’ first not scored by the top line of Datsyuk, Bertuzzi and Tomas Holmstrom in 349:58. Last was Eaves in the third period on Dec. 17.
– Even more depressing?  Pavel’s goal was the first not scored by Bertuzzi in 300:29.

Photos and some video coming later today.

The Avs are in town for the New Year’s Eve game at the Joe.  Colorado is on the second half of a back to back, and it sounds like Craig Anderson will be making his second start in as many nights.  Howard is starting for Detroit.

Last time these two clubs met was a bad 3-1 loss for Detroit, with Howard in net.

Colorado is currently sitting pretty at 3rd in the Western Conference with 52 points.  I, and I’m certain I’m not alone in this belief, don’t think that they’ll stay there for long.  I simply can’t imagine them having the staying power to remain in the top half of the standings after the Olympic break.  They’re going to come crashing down to reality sooner or later.

Some random notes about a couple of Avs–they have a kid named Ryan O’Reilly, and whenever I hear his name called in broadcasts I immediately think of Dean Winters’ character from the great show HBO from the late 90′s to early 2000′s, Oz.  They also called up BU alumnus Brandon Yip from the Lake Erie Monsters part-way through the season.  I’m only mentioning this because he’s Chinese, and as such, one of the rare Asian players in the NHL (Richard Park, Devin Setoguchi, Paul Kariya are the others active off the top of my head).  So, huzzah.  Represent.

Only thing I’m really going to say about this game is, let’s please get some goals by someone other than Bertuzzi.  I’m frustrated seeing how the offense has dried up, and they’ll need to get some quality shots on Anderson to score.

I’m heading to Detroit tomorrow from Ohio for the game.  This season I’ve got a record of 1-2, so I’m hoping to get to .500.

Well that was… unsettling.  Matt over at On The Wings and George at Snapshots pretty much sum up exactly how I feel about last night’s game.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit – Justin Abdelkader (Helm); Todd Bertuzzi (pp; Zetterberg, Cleary); Filppula (Williams, Leino)
Colorado – Cody McLeod (O’Reilly); Matt Duchene (Clark); Cody McLeod (O’Reilly, Galiardi)
Shootout – DET: Justin Williams; COL: Marek Svatos, Milan Hejduk

More can be read on my Twitter.  Due to an oddity in the scheduling this year, the Red Wings won’t be playing again until Thursday, in Phoenix.  Datsyuk will also return to the lineup, and we can hope that these 4 days will be ample time for the team to solidify.