In a word: unacceptable.  I have nothing good to say about this game.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Niklas Kronwall (Bertuzzi, Hudler)
Dallas: Brad Richards (pp; Niskanen, Ribeiro); Loui Eriksson (Richards, Neal); Brenden Morrow (Ribeiro); James Neal (Richards, Daley)

– The forecheck showed up occasionally, but it wasn’t steady, and I’ve still yet to see strong puck possession from this team, outside of the season opener against a weak Ducks team.  It simply didn’t look like anyone was hungry for the puck.

– The turnovers!  Detroit had 9 giveaways and Dallas took the puck back 12 times.  Even The Perfect Human had a turnover.

– Going into this game we all talked about Osgood’s ridiculously good record against Dallas.  Unfortunately, your career record won’t win the game for you.  Sadly, it felt like that’s how the team treated this game.  You can’t pin the entire game on Osgood.  Yeah, 4 goals in 15 shots.  I see that.  But the skaters up front weren’t doing much to help.  This was a team effort in failure.

= So Dallas only got 15 shots on goal, but it makes me wonder if that’s more due to the Stars’ offense more than Detroit’s defense.

– Mule has a concussion after being hit by Mark Fistric.  I don’t know if it was an elbow to the head or what–to be honest, it looked more like a shoulder that jammed upwards from the Dallas feed.  Regardless, this is not good news.

– The power play is just… sterile.

+ I lied, I do have something good to say: Kindl looked good.  He wasn’t too noticeable, but for a rookie that’s always a good thing.  He played quite a bit more than I thought: 19:14, with 4:13 on the power play.  He had 2 shots on net, and finished the game even.  His TOI says a lot about Babcock trusting him with the minutes.  He had a good 3 more minutes than Salei.

= Speaking of TOI, Babcock really rode the workhorses.  Datsyuk played 21:52, Zetterberg 21:35, and Lidstrom played a whole 27:01.  With Franzen out in the first period it makes sense that Pav and Z’s minutes were up, but Nick’s are pretty astounding.  Too bad they ended up -3, -2, and -2, respectively.

– As much as the boys didn’t put in the effort to win for Modano, he wasn’t too fabulous himself, with 0 shots on net.  He did manage to escape with an even +/- in 15:14 TOI, and went 55% in the face-off circle.  I had wondered in the game preview if he was going to look more like a deer in the headlights or a man on the mission.  More the former over the latter, to me.  One thing that stood out to me was twice in one power play he was on the point with Lidstrom and the puck just went sailing between them and out of the zone, forcing everyone to exit and regroup.  A similar thing happened again in a later power play, when one of the other players had to come down and try to corral the puck, but it slide out of reach, past Modano who was hanging out at the boards, and into the neutral zone.  Were some of them errant passes?  Yes, but playing point is more than just cranking bombs from the blueline.

= I also agree with Ted Kulfan that Dallas really could have, and should have done more for their former franchise player.  20 years and all he gets is a minute or so of applause with a little “thank you” on the Jumbotron?  Serven put it best: “I hear no booing. Classy by the Stars fans. VERY classy by the Stars fans. BUT, you get no points for doing the right thing #RedWings”  I know he’s in another uniform now, but that doesn’t and shouldn’t immediately and automatically discount what he’s done for your franchise.

I know it’s only 4 games into the season, which ultimately means nothing, but losing back to back games is not a habit to get into.  The 4-0 season opener win means nothing.  The gutsy 3-2 win against Chicago at their banner raising means nothing.  Two inexcusably awful losses in a row?  That means something.

p.s. as a note on this Saturday’s game, I won’t be around, so no posts from me.  I’ll be in Denver that night to run the Denver half marathon on Sunday.

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Oh hai.  Coincidentally the minute the hockey season started work picked up and I’ve been absolutely slammed during the day, leaving little to no time for previews and recaps.  Thus, I’m getting this out rather earlier than I’d want.

Lineups:
Nothing official out yet, but I can only assume that they’ll run with the same lines that were iced against Colorado.  Ericsson and Abdelkader are still out, Draper has experienced a set back, and Rafalski’s out 3-4 weeks.  Osgood, with his 28-11-4 career record against Dallas, will be in net.  According to Babcock the plan all along was to alternate Oz and Jimmy for the first few weeks due to the schedule, so this is a good chance for Osgood to prove that he’s  ready and able to shoulder  a moderate load this season.  And step closer to career win 400.

What I’m looking forward to:
The headline-maker for Thursday is Mike Modano’s return to Dallas.  This is, coincidentally, the home opener for the Stars.  Modano scored a goal in his first game in a Wings uniform, but hasn’t recorded a point in either of the following 2 games.  It will be an emotional game for him to return to the franchise for which he played 20 seasons and won the Cup in 1999.  I’m sure he’ll be feeling pressure, and the question will be if he comes up big, or wilts a little under it.

Who I’m looking at to have a good game:
Try as he might, Doug Janik didn’t exactly endear himself to Wings fans on Tuesday.  With Rafalski out for a couple of weeks and not much of a timetable on Ericsson, this is a great opportunity for call ups to make a statement about being able to play with the big boys.  The defense has not been very solid so far, so I’d like to see guys like Janik and Kindl step it up.

Also, going back to the Modano point, I’d love to see him channel the emotion of coming into Dallas wearing a different uniform into a productive night.  His line with Hudler and Cleary was -3 after the Colorado game.

Improvements to be had upon last game:
Defense, defense, defense.  Detroit was tagged with 15 giveaways on Tuesday, plus Colorado’s 6 takeaways.  Against Chicago, they totalled 18 turnovers.  Versus Anaheim, 20.  Matt touched on this in his Avs game recap, but they really need to shore up and get back to displaying complete, team defense.  And as a self-proclaimed puck possession team, they should probably hold onto the puck when they have it.

LGRW.

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Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Tomas Holmstrom (Bertuzzi, Datsyuk); Pavel Datsyuk (Bertuzzi, Lidstrom); Todd Bertuzzi (Datsyuk, Miller)
Dallas: Karlis Skrastins (Ribeiro, Benn); James Neal (Richards, Eriksson); James Neal (Skrastins, Eriksson); Karlis Skrastins (Richards, Neal)

Pluses
+ During the first period Ken and Mick commented that last season when Zetterberg was out with his wonky back, Pavel was the guy who picked up the team and carried it during that time.  And given his performance this afternoon, he looks primed to do it again.  He was determined, and looking more like his usual self, stripping the puck and dangling all over the ice.  And I’m convinced that he always has a great game if he’s hitting.  1-2-3, +3, 7 hits (!), 3 takeaways, and a ridiculous 71% in the faceoff circle (15-6).  Datsyuk usually scores in streaks, so let’s hope this is the start of one.
+ Actually, that whole line looked great.  It’s like something with Bertuzzi and Datsyuk has suddenly clicked.  That, or Bertuzzi is personally out to spite Petrella.
+ Miller seemed like he was everywhere, the entire game.  I really hope he still gets time when the injured guys start coming back.
+ Entertaining fight between MayDay and Krys Barch.  Mick was positively gleeful sounding, giggling away to himself afterwards.  The best part was absolutely the gigantic grin on May’s face afterwards.  It was the 6th fight between Barch and May.
+ Everyone finished the game healthy.  That’s pretty sad when it’s a plus.

Minuses
- Jimmy didn’t have his best game.  He was strong in the first period, but that first goal for the Stars was pretty much a wide open net for Skrastins to shove it in.  Howard’s game sort of went downhill from there.  This season he’d been much better about not letting a bad goal affect the rest of his game, but he seemed to revert to that again today.
– Helm should ask for a new pair of hands for Christmas (like Edward Scissorhands).  He gets so many breakaways and just can’t seem to get them to go in.
– We haven’t scored a power play goal since back when the dinosaurs used to roam the earth.
– The refs really pocketed their whistles towards the end of the game.  Ridiculous some of the blatant penalties they let go in the 3rd.
– The Wings outshot the Stars in every period, who were exhibiting some pretty poor defense.  Looking at the box score, we really should have won that game, but some less than stellar goaltending and defensive miscues handed us the loss.  The Wings weren’t exactly bearing down in the 3rd period.

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The Wings did a great job rallying on Thursday when Zetterberg went down, so let’s hope they can continue to channel that determination.  Helm is back in the lineup.

Marty Turco’s in net for the Stars
Career stats vs Detroit
Played: 23
Won: 5
Lost: 12
Tied: 5
GAA: 2.95

And Howard has the nod for Detroit
Career stats vs Dallas
Played: 3
Won: 1
Lost: 2
GAA: 1.69

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Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Drew Miller (Lebda, Draper); Darren Helm (Draper, Bertuzzi); Dan Cleary (Zetterberg, Holmstrom); Todd Bertuzzi (Datsyuk)
Dallas: Brenden Morrow (Robidas, Daley)

Pluses
+ Young Howard looks confident, and he looks like an NHL-level goaltender.  Maybe he’s finally realized that he is capable of playing in this league, or maybe he’s getting Zen tips from Ozzie, who knows.  And I don’t care as long as he keeps playing like this.  He’ll get his third straight start on Thursday against Edmonton, and I’ll assume he’ll get one of the starts this weekend, as it’s a back-to-back versus New Jersey, then New York Rangers.  Like a few others, I’m cautiously optimistic about Howard.  I like that he’s getting chances and getting rewarded for good play, because that can do nothing but boost his confidence even further.
+ Young Miller also has been a pleasant surprise.  I certainly knew nothing about him when we picked him up from the waiver wire, and I’m not convinced that anyone actually thought he would do much other than fill an empty slot in the 4th line.  But his goal was a relief, and the Wings seemed to settle down a little bit after it.  I remember thinking shortly before he scored that it’d be nice to see some sustained pressure on the offensive.  I know it was a questionable icing call, but I’ll take it.  He and Helm had a few strong shifts that were spent crashing and banging around the boards, and it was also nice to see Helm finally get one.
+ Bertuzzi scored, and ended the night with a goal, and assist, and +2.
+ Having Mary Turco in net for Dallas.  Maybe it was coincidence that the Red Wings played a much more Wing-like game.  Maybe they would have scored 4, or at least played that well of a game against a team other than the Stars.  Regardless, I say “Thank you,” Marc Crawford, for playing Marty Turco at the Joe.  Red Wings Nation rejoices.  Also, I wish I had that graphic that FSD showed, with the 6 goalies who all had win % below .400 against the Wings.  They flashed it twice, briefly, and because I was watching online via GameCenter I couldn’t pause.  All I know was that it made me gleeful to see that Nabokov owns a .333 win % against Detroit.

Minuses
– The power play.  Four chances with the man advantage, zero conversions.  During the power play in the 3rd (Ribeiro in the box for slashing Holmstrom), Ken Daniels mused, “nobody’s heading towards the net.”  Yeah, story of the PP, Ken.  Too much perimeter passing and shots from the outside.  The power play is clipping along at 21.3%, good for 13th in the league right now.  Guess who’s first?  Columbus.  Yes, that’s right, the Columbus Blue Jackets, who had the worst PP overall last year, now have the best at 24.8%.  I mean, I realize we lost some power on the point and all that, but come on.

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Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Henrik Zetterberg (Leino, Lebda); Br–(err, wait.  We’ll get to that.)
Dallas: Mike Ribeiro/Jonathan Ericsson (Just kidding.  Not really.  Oh damn, this is getting out of hand. pp; Richards, Robidas); Niskanen (Richards, Neal); Loui Eriksson (pp; Neal, Modano)

Pluses
+ Brad May won a fight.
+ Jimmy Howard was very good.  I saw him start to scramble a bit, which is something I feel like I’d seen less of over the past three games, but overall he was solid in 32 shots on goal.  I have a hard time saying any of the goals were really his fault.
+ Zetterberg was also up for this game, and his goal was a beauty, top shelf.  He extends his point streak to 4 games.

Minuses
- As I made apparent in the goal summary, a lot of ridiculousness happened.  First up is the Jonny Ericsson own-goal on Howard.  I appreciate that he went down to block the shot, but he hit the ice way too early and took himself out of the defensive play sliding past Ribeiro.  He tried to make up for it by swiping at the puck with his stick, and instead managed to shove the puck past Jimmy, who clearly wasn’t expecting that.  Congrats, Jonathan.
– Now the real meat and potatoes.   Weak calls by the refs happen every night, but this was taking it to a whole new level.  Mickey called it a circus at one point in the 3rd (and I don’t think he meant the Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom circus), and the refs did a great job playing clowns.  Here’s the play:

What I simply cannot wrap my head around, is the concept of saying that the play was blown dead when, upon multiple replays, it’s extremely apparent that the whistle blew a good 2 seconds after Brad May shot the puck into the corner of the net, and Alex Auld sort of trapped it there with his toe.  Auld even looked at where it was, like he knew it was in the net.  Replay shows it was.  Ok, so we all know the puck went into the net.  Dennis LaRue and Stephane Auger reviewed it, and then claimed that the play had been blown dead before the puck crossed the line.  For the love of God man, how can you even think that that’s a logical explanation?

What I really can’t understand is, if Toronto called, that means they reviewed it.  So why didn’t they overrule the ref’s original call?  If it’s unquestionably in the opposite direction of the original call, they can override.  So… how come that didn’t happen, if they had replay available to them?  I can’t wait to hear the reasoning on this one.
– To be honest, it never should have mattered in the first place because the Red Wings played a pretty uninspired game through three anyway.
– Bertuzzi needs to stop with the freaking spin-o-rama.  I don’t know if he’s trying to channel his inner Savard (Serge or Denis), or if he heard that Battle of the Blades has been renewed for a second season and wants to be invited to participate, or what.  But I swear, he tried that dumb move every shift tonight.  Scoring chances created from it?  Maybe one.  Maybe.
– Someone give Brendan Morrow an Acadamy Award for his acting that he got high sticked by Kris Draper.  You’d have thought he’d been shot the way his head snapped back.

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