Big Red Machine

Well there’s one way to come back after the pathetic outing against Vancouver.  I’m pretty certain this was the first game all season that was labeled as a “must win” and the Wings actually came out and played like they knew it was important.  It was huge to get the 2 points in regulation, to prevent the gap between Detroit and Nashville from growing.  There are 2 massively important games coming up, tomorrow against Chicago, and then Calgary on Tuesday.  I’m hoping that the Wings have finally got their heads screwed on straight and won’t be playing Jekyll and Hyde any more (though that has been a theme this season) and bring it for these extremely important intraconference games.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Pavel Datsyuk (unassisted); Tomas Holmstrom (pp; Lidstrom, Datsyuk); Darren Helm (Eaves); Darren Helm (sh; Kronwall); Henrik Zetterberg (EN; Filppula, Cleary)
Nashville: JP Dumont (Sullivan); Joel Ward (Hamhuis)

+ What a sublime play by Datsyuk.  He didn’t just pick Klein’s pocket, he completely stripped him, deked Ellis and scored.  Pavel’s goal celebration was great–he looked like the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders.  Mick kept going on about how Datsyuk doesn’t show an excessive amount of emotion when he scores. It’s probably been on every blog so far, but in case you haven’t seen it, here it is:

Gorgeous.

= Bert took a stupid penalty just a little over a minute into the game, but thankfully the Wings killed it off, and Todd made a hilarious play by receiving a pass while still standing in the box.

+ Congratulations to The Perfect Human, Nicklas Lidstrom, on his 800th career assist, which came on the Holmstrom power play goal.  Lidas is the 4th Wing in history to have 800 assists, behind Delvecchio, Howe, and Yzerman.

+ I said on Twitter after the first that the Wings needed to keep the skate to the throat of the Predators, and they certainly did a much better job in the second this game than they did in Colorado, where they’d sat back.  The Wings didn’t take it to Nashville as well as they had in the first, but it was still a strong effort.

+ Darren Helm.  I had lamented earlier to myself that he still can’t quite finish, but maybe he heard what Babcock had to say about him not being a goal scorer, because he went out and got two, including a shorty.  He had a phenomenal game.  I also love that the arena plays “Danger Zone” after he scores.

– Murph apparently knows his New Kids on the Block songs.  That’s utterly terrifying.  Ken Daniels said Murph should be ashamed of himself.

Great win by the Wings tonight.  One of the more complete games I’ve seen them play this season.  Which begs the question: why can’t they play at least half as well for the others?  Is it just because they’re the Sharks?  We’ll never know, I suppose…

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Pavel Datsyuk (unassisted); Patrick Eaves (Janik, Helm); Dan(ny) Cleary (Filppula, Miller); Darren Helm (unassisted)
San Jose: Patrick Marleau (Heatley, Boyle)

– Why on Earth would Sharks fans even think of booing Brad Stuart?  He was traded; it’s not like he asked to leave or anything.  Sure he went to Detroit and won, but still.  I don’t even pretend to understand what goes through the minds of the fans out in California.

+ Speaking of Stuart, another amazing desperation save, diving across the crease to keep the puck out.  Keating joked that they were going to nominate him for Vezina at this rate.  Keating may be a terrible interviewer, but he does make a point that Stuart’s had several such plays this season.

– Also, Sharks fans booing when Meech was holding onto the puck behind the Wings net, waiting for the change to complete.  I guess they got impatient and bored?  That’s what Ken Daniels hinted at.  Do they boo their own team when they do the same thing?  Seriously, they need to learn a thing or two about hockey.

– Wings didn’t seem entirely awake until Pavel scored their first goal.  After that they really seemed revitalized and started taking it to the Sharks.  Still would like to see them play an ENTIRE 60 minutes at some point.

+ Pavel’s goal was just a great all around play–picked off the pass from the Sharks in the Wings’ zone and zipped it into the twine at the other end.  Good things happen when you backcheck.

+ HEY we didn’t get shafted on a goal review!  Eaves’ goal was batted in, and immediately Nabokov was whining to Kerry Fraser that it was a high stick.  It went to review and thankfully stood.

+ Dan(ny) Cleary had an eventful evening: a goal and a quasi sort of fight with Devin Setoguchi, of all players.  He also had a wide open breakaway in which he didn’t get a great shot, and was stopped by Nabokov.  I was briefly worried that he might do something to his shoulder, but he was tussling with Setoguchi, who isn’t exactly a pugilist.  2 goals in as many games for Cleary, since his return.  Let’s hope he can keep it up.

+ Oh Helm.  He’s just completely made of awesome.  Made a move to clear the zone, without a stick, and then managed to score.  He’s really rounding into form, gaining a scoring touch and looking more and more like the guy we’ve watched in the playoffs the past two seasons.  He’s finally learning how to finish around the net when he’s flying in at a zillion mph.

+ Jimmy had a perfectly solid game.  He wasn’t called on to make a ludicrous amount of saves, or stand on his head, but he was simply confident.

Here are my picks for Red Wings’ stars of the week for 12/28 to 1/3. Three games this past week, and really great play in all of them, even with the one loss in Columbus.

#3: Pavel Datsyuk
It seems like he’s warming up, and hopefully getting on to the beginning of a goal scoring streak. The goal in Colorado was a beautiful snipe, and in Phoenix he got the first power play goal for the Wings in what felt like an eon.

#2: Jimmy Howard
Howard had one of the best games maybe of his career against Columbus. He played lights out in that game, and had Mason not also stood on his head, he would have gotten the win. He’s also had very strong games against Colorado and Phoenix, and ran together a string of 4 straight starts.

#1: Darren Helm
The sheer fact that he scored 3 goals in 2 consecutive games (empty netters aside), and 2 of them shorthanded, gives him the first star raking from me. He’s also been zipping around the ice, creating energy, and opportunities. His line with Draper and Eaves has been one of the best. If he can keep producing when some of the top line guys of Zetterberg and Cleary come back, the Wings will be in good shape with scoring all up and down the roster.

That was the best game the Wings have played this calendar year.  And now that I’ve stated the obvious, I was thrilled to see that they followed up a good game on NYE versus Colorado with another strong outing.  Maybe the ship’s turning in the new year.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Tomas Holmstrom (Lidstrom, Rafalski); Tomas Holmstrom (Lidstrom, Datsyuk); Pavel Datsyuk (pp; Bertuzzi, Rafalski); Darren Helm (EN; Stuart)
Phoenix: Matthew Lombardi (Lang, Yandle)

Pluses:
+ The Draper-Helm-Eaves line was the best out there, along with the top line.
+ Textbook tip-ins by Holmstrom on his two.  They’re always talking about other players being great at net-front presence, but Homer is still the ultimate player for that position.
+ I am hoping, hoping, hoping that the fact that Pavel has scored 2 goals in the last 2 games means he’s starting a streak.
+ Even Helm couldn’t miss this time on the breakaway, with an empty net.

Even:
= There was really nothing to be done on the Phoenix 5 on 3 goal.  It was, admittedly, a beautiful play.

Minuses:
- Terrifying moment almost halfway through the first period, when Howard had abandoned the net for the extra man on a delayed call, and the Wings missed on a pass an almost scored in their own empty net.
– Stop stealing Nick’s goals, Tomas.  He needs them.

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.

By now I’m certain everyone’s heard the news that Zetterberg will be out a minimum of two weeks with a “slight shoulder separation” after getting decked by Mattias Ohlund Thursday.  I personally can’t imagine how any shoulder separation is slight, but at least he’s not out for extremely long term.

In good news though, looks like Darren Helm will be back in the lineup tomorrow in Dallas.  There had been comments made last night that Filppula was the closest to return, which caused brief panic that Helm was more injured than thought, having gone from basically DTD to possibly after Christmas.  But he says he’s “good enough to go.”

Lastly, Howard’s getting the start in Dallas and Osgood will be up in Chicago.  I said the other day that I didn’t have the faintest idea of how Babcock went about choosing his starters, but this announcement makes it a little clearer.  Unlike some others, I don’t believe that Jimmy’s taking over the number one spot, and the starter choices make that clear.  Osgood’s playing against Chicago, our biggest challenge and rival in the division, maybe the conference.  He’s still the go-to guy, the number one in Detroit.  It’s not uncommon for Red Wing netminders to split the load more evenly than say, in Calgary where Miikka Kiprusoff plays like 72 games a year.  In the past two years Osgood shared time with Hasek and Conklin, starting 40 and 44 games, respectively.  I recall Holland saying during the summer that they expected Howard (17 starts, 19 GP so far) to play about 30-35 games.  So it doesn’t surprise me anymore that Howard’s getting the bulk of the starts right now–if you want to call him the starter now, fine, but I wouldn’t label him as #1.  The kid’s never played a full NHL season before, and no one really knows how he’ll be doing further along in the year.  Osgood (17 starts, 17 GP) will get more calls towards the second half of the season to get himself on track for the playoffs.  And if we’re in, he’s the guy.  Unless Osgood positively implodes this season (and to do so more than last season would really be a feat) and Young James plays absolutely lights out, I cannot fathom any way possible in which Osgood is not the starter for the post-season.  And that’s how you define the number one goaltender.

I lied–that wasn’t the last thing.  This is a very cool 360 degree photo of Nick Lidstrom’s living room, all decorated for the holidays.  Of course the Perfect Human has a gorgeous house that looks like it should be in a interior design magazine.  Make sure to zoom out to see the whole thing.

Elliott Friedman and Cassie Campbell interviewed Darren Helm today on Hockey Night in Canada Radio on Sirius.  You can listen to it here.  They talk about coming back from injury, playing with Draper and Eaves, the PK, and Pavel’s level of fitness.

He’s the complete opposite end of the spectrum from a guy like Brad May, who’s clearly comfortable with the media and doing interviews.

There will be no game recap from me for the Atlanta game, as I’ll be wheels up on my way to my parents’ for Thanksgiving.  Which reminds me to mention that if you ever can’t catch a Red Wings game, make sure to check out Matt’s in-game Twitter feed, OtW_InGame for play by play.

My picks for Detroit’s stars for the week of 11/16-11/22.

#3: Darren Helm
I’m torn between Helm and Stuart here.  But Helm gets the nod because though he hasn’t been racking up a ton of points, he and the rest of his line with Draper and Eaves has looked great.  They’ve been buzzing around the ice, and Helm played a helluva game against Florida, showing that he’s growing nicely into a PK specialist.  If Clemmenson hadn’t been standing on his head, he would have popped in one of those two SH chances.

#2: Jimmy Howard
He played 2 out of 3 games this week, against Dallas and Montreal.  Babcock granted him the Montreal start as a sort of reward for having played so well while Osgood was out with the flu, or whatever it was he had.  He also got the win in the shootout against the Habs (thanks to Z, Pav), and that alone gives him the #2 spot because by the time we made it to the shootout, I’d resigned myself to a loss.

#1: Pavel Datsyuk
He looked like the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders when he scored on the power play in the second period against Florida.  And he seems to be on the start of a possible scoring streak as he tallied another PP goal against Montreal, and also scored a glorious one in the shootout.  He also dominated the faceoff circle vs the Habs.

I’m still wrestling with how I feel about this.  Oh, irritated that we lost, for sure, but am I less annoyed because we came back from a 0-4 hole to tie?  Or am I just as pissed as I would be usually, given the train wreck that was the first and second periods?  And maybe I’m let down that we couldn’t get it done in the post-game skills competition.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Darren Helm (Filppula, Stuart); Henrik Zetterberg (Kronwall, Datsyuk); Jonathan Ericsson (Draper, Eaves); Todd Bertuzzi (Datsyuk); Patrick Eaves (Helm, Ericsson)
Edmonton: Jean-Francois Jacques (Brule, O’Sullivan); Dustin Penner (Horcoff, Hemsky); Hemsky (pp; Penner, Horcoff); Hemsky (Penner); Horcoff (pp; Grebeshkov, Penner)
Shootout: EDM: Patrick O’Sullivan

• Ken Daniels commented on an interesting tradition that I was unaware of.  If the Red Wings win, their jerseys will be hanging in their lockers with front facing.  If they lose, they’ll be turned around so the names and numbers face out.  It’s part of the “win as a team, lose as an individual” mentality.
• We knew this was going to be a stressful game when Edmonton scored on Jimmy 0:42 seconds into the first period.  Gee, where have we seen this before?
• There were not a ton of penalties in this game.  Detroit only had 3 power plays total, two of them back to back, and utterly failed to convert any of them.  The PP is clicking along at 24%, which is somehow good for 9th in the league right now.  (Oddly, it’s Toronto of all teams who are leading the league in converting, at 30.8%)
• Motown Wings, A2Y, and Bingo Bango all commented before the game that this is the exact type of scenario that would lead to a Red Wings loss.  Edmonton got shutout their previous two games (v. Colorado and Vancouver), are ravaged by the flu (both swine and garden variety), and yet come out with guns blazing to pop 5 goals in 2 periods.  Of course.  Sadly, we all saw this coming a mile away.
• I pretty much stopped watching at the middle of the first, and mostly through the second, and opted to talk to my mother on the phone, instead.
• It was nice to see Darren Helm finally get his first regular season goal, though.  He also posted an assist and ended the game +3 (and the game’s second star).  He sort of pulled a Maltby, in that he came back on fire after being a healthy scratch.  I still question the move because Helm hasn’t gotten lazy like Malts does occasionally, but if this is the result, I’m not going to argue.  Helm was one of the best players on the ice.
• As was Patrick Eaves.  He also potted his first goal as a Red Wing, got an assist, and was also +3.  He and Helm have some serious wheels on them, and make for a very energetic line.
• Jimmy scrambles too much, and needs to stop wandering from the crease.  It reminds me of Hasek, only without the innate, raw, ridiculous ability to make the save no matter what.  I am utterly unsold on him to be a solid backup for Osgood.  I don’t know how long they’ll allow him before giving Larsson a look, but I hope it’s not long.
• One good thing that happened was that as soon as I asked when Bertuzzi was going to get his due and score, he scored.
• Dan Cleary’s been stuck on 99 goals, and am not surprised that he’s a little snakebit in terms of getting his 100th.  I just hope he does it soon, because once he gets over it, he should be producing a bit more.
• I can’t even begin to start counting how many posts we’ve hit this season so far.  It’s absurd.
• I get that Pavel and Z were thinking that Khabibulin was going to read their dekes in the shootout, but I’m not sure if that warrants just shooting it straight at him… sure, goalies know that Pav’s going to deke, but he’s so good at it he can usually manage to fool them anyway.
• Overall, this game was ridiculous.  Yet another early deficit, only to come roaring back in the third.  I will say I prefer the trend of having a dominant third period as opposed to falling asleep, but I dislike getting to that point in the first place.  I’m tired of watching them get blown out early because they’re not awake yet.
• Lastly, when it rains, it friggin’ pours.  Filppula got hit by Gilbert Brule in the second period and wound up with a broken wrist, meaning he’ll be out for 6-8 weeks.  Just what we need, another major injury.

Update before tonight’s game…

Helm’s a healthy scratch.

Per Chris McCosky of the DetNews:

“Anytime you miss training camp, especially when you are a kid, it’s tough,” Babcock said. “Helm, on this team in my opinion, should be pushing for third-line center, not battling to be the fourth-line center.

“So, he’s going to get an opportunity to watch (tonight). I talked to him about it and he’s going to be fired up to come back. Sometimes just a shot over the bow is a good reminder for guys.”

Babcock didn’t want to make it sound like he’s making Helm a scapegoat for the team’s slow start.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “Helmer’s been fine. He’s not at the level I am used to having him, but there’s a lot of guys that could be accused of that.”

With 5 games played, Helm’s 0-1-1 and a -1.  I’m not thrilled at the idea of an energy guy like Helm being scratched.  I don’t think he’s ever going to pot a lot of goals, so it’s hard to judge him by points alone.  Admittedly, he hasn’t been quite as noticeable, crashing and banging around like he usually does, and like Babcock said, maybe he just needs a little extra time to get where he needs to be after missing training camp with an injury.