Now that’s what you call starting with a bang.  A big bang, punctuated loudly with 4 goals, a shutout, and a Gordie Howe hat trick.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Johan Franzen (Filppula, Bertuzzi), Mike Modano (Cleary, Stuart), Pavel Datsyuk (Zetterberg, Rafalski), Dan(ny) Cleary (Datsyuk)
Anaheim: none

Jonathan Ericsson Watch: 1 Game.

+ Wings looked good to start.  Good jump to the game, clean, crisp passing, and they put pressure on the Ducks’ weak defense.  The Ducks looked rather lost and discombobulated in the first, and the Wings definitely took advantage, to the tune of 12 shots on goal to 6.

+ Get on the Mule Train.  Franzen has developed a serious scoring touch, as shown by his ability to bring it at the end of the post-season and then pick right up where he left off to begin the 2010-2011 campaign.

+ First shot on net in a new uniform, in a new barn and it’s a goal for Mike Modano.  Ken Kal totally called it from the Red Wings TV preview.  But it’s got to be a relief for Mikey Mo, who doesn’t have to worry about his first goal looming over his head now.

= I sort of stopped paying attention to the game midway and towards the end of the first period, as that’s when the news came that goalie Ondrej Pavelec had collapsed in the middle of the Atlanta/Washington game.  He just lost consciousness out of nowhere, with the puck at the opposite end of the ice.  The news from Atlanta was really scary, and reminiscent of the Jiri Fischer situation.  That’s something you never want to hear about, regardless of the player or the team.  Thankfully it sounds like Pavelec is alright, and play resumed after he was taken to the hospital.

- The Ducks looked much more composed in the second, and by comparison the Wings looked messier.  Lots more play in their own zone in front of Howard and some less than ideal turnovers.  The Wings let the Ducks regain a bit more momentum, and fingers crossed that this lackadaisical, sleepy middle period isn’t a trend that we see again this season.  The Wings only got off 7 shots in the second, and Howard faced 9.

+ But the sophomore looked good.  The defense was strong for the most part in front of him, but he made some big saves when called upon.  He looked calm and confident, which bodes well for the season.

- At some point during the second Ericsson left the bench with back spasms.  He didn’t return to the game, and it looks like Kindl will get his chance sooner rather than later.  And no, leaving or not playing due to injury doesn’t count in the Jonathan Ericsson Watch pool.  It’s games played–updates are on the right sidebar.

+ The Eurotwins looked good.  Really good.  I’m so excited.

= I aLOLed (™ Tyler) at that goal review ruling.  Seriously, I really didn’t think it would be allowed, and that’s not based on my membership in the tin foil hat society.  But, apparently the “War Room” in Toronto didn’t think the goal was completely off its moorings when the puck crossed the line.  The annoying thing is that the Wings didn’t technically need the goal at that point, or ultimately at all.  And because I do believe in hockey karma, I’m waiting for when a goal gets called off against when they do really need it.

+ It wasn’t a donnybrook by any stretch of the imagination, but the fight between Corey Perry and Pavel Datsyuk was incredible.  And as awesome as it was, how many of you were alternately freaking out that Pav was going to end up concussed or with a broken hand?  Because I certainly was.  Thankfully Pav took down Perry at the end.  Datsyuk was really riled up, having gotten in the middle of two scrums earlier in the game.  I love it when he’s feisty because that’s usually when he plays his best hockey, when he’s hitting everything in sight and energized.  Proof of that was his goal and assist to complete the Gordie Howe Hat trick.

+ The Ducks make me laugh.  They self-destructed due to frustration towards the end of the game, with another fight between Brookbank and Stuart, and 2 more penalties for too many men and hooking with under 4 minutes left in the game.

- Detroit had 6 power play opportunities and managed to convert none of them.  Gotta work on that.

+ This is how you start a season.  This is how you redeem yourself from a disappointing 2nd round playoff exit last season and channel it into productive energy.  This is how you prove to the MSM and the rest of the hockey world that you’re not too old, and that you’re still a contender in the division and in the conference.  This is how you show everyone that you’re serious.  This is the kind of truculence that wins games (maybe the Leafs should take note…).

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This is what we’ve been waiting for all summer.  The drop of the puck in regular season.  Red Wings opening night.

Here are the lines, courtesy of Khan:

Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom
Franzen-Filppula-Bertuzzi
Hudler-Modano-Cleary
Miller-Helm-Eaves

Lidstrom-Ericsson
Stuart-Rafalski
Kronwall-Salei

Howard
Osgood

I can’t find an official lineup for the Ducks anywhere, but looking at their roster the most important thing will be managing their top 6.  A no brainer, really.  The interesting part is their defense.  With Pronger and Niedermayer gone it’s not exactly a strong blueline, so the Wings should be able to take advantage of that fact.  Then they’ll just have to focus on getting pucks past Hiller.

What I’m looking forward to:
Dude.  Red Wings hockey.  That’s enough for me.  But I’m also stupidly excited to see the Circus line back together.  They looked great during the pre-season, and I’m expecting them to make some magic.  I’m also really eager to see Modano’s first real game with the Wings.

Who I’m looking at to have a good game:
Howard and Ericsson.  I think we’re all anxious to see if Howard shows any signs of a sophomore slump, or if he comes out of the gate as strongly as he ended last season.  Ericsson was atrocious in the pre-season, but playing with Lidstrom should help bolster him, and hopefully he can just work on getting back to the basics.

Which reminds me that The Jonathan Ericsson Watch is kicking off tonight at 1 game.  You can, however, still get your over/unders in if you’re so inclined.  Closest guess will win… something.  Something awesome.

LGRW.

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I posted a quick, very informal poll on Twitter yesterday, wondering: how long will it be until Mike Babcock’s patience finally runs out with Big E and nails his ass to the bench for Jakub Kindl?

There are a few factors in play here.  First, the news that Babcock is planning to play Ericsson with Lidstrom for the season opener.  Sara’s reply put it best:

that’s Babs saying, “If this doesn’t work NOTHING will.”

It absolutely screams that this is the desperate, last ditch effort to kickstart Ericsson into playing like the rookie defenseman we saw in the 2009 playoffs rather than the confused, lost kid we watched float around this pre-season so far.  Seriously, if you can’t elevate your game while playing with the best defenseman in the game, well, you might really be a lost cause.  It’s also somewhat of a safeguard, because Nick will be there to at least attempt to cover for the turnovers we can already expect.

Some other Over/Unders on how long Big Rig will last:

@jennyquarx: 2 periods
@onthewings: At this point, it should practically be 2 shifts. Kid needs a sit down talk if he doesn’t turn it back on
@mpetrella: By the second week. Bank on it.
@thetinnishflash: Like, a week. Seriously. Especially if he’s paired with Lidstrom. To me, that’s Babs saying, “If this doesn’t work NOTHING will.”

Personally, I’m giving Big E a month.  I think he’s got until November to turn his game around or else get used to seeing #4 out there.

The second factor is that I do think Babcock is stubborn enough to try and force it to work, and to force Ericsson to show up for be shown the press box, but at the same time it sounds like he won’t have the patience to babysit Jonny for too long, either.

From Khan again:

“It’s at a time in his career he has to be an important player. He has the ability to do that,’’ Babcock said. “Mind drives the body, so he’s got to be mentally strong. The measure of being a good pro is every game, every year.’’

Babcock said he’s not sure how long the arrangement will last.

I feel like that last statement could be taken either of two ways: Babcock puts Ericsson back with Salei, or he just swaps him for Kindl.

Elliott Friedman reiterates the thought that Babcock might not waste time coddling Jonny this season with a quip from the most recent “30 Thoughts“:

Jakub Kindl won’t start the season in Detroit’s top six, but could finish there. Mike Babcock is running out of patience with Jonathan Ericsson. “He’s not a kid anymore,” the coach says. “He can’t make kid’s mistakes.” He’s 26.

What’s your Over/Under on how long Ericsson lasts until we see Big Rig taking up residence in the former Leino Lounge?  Leave your guess in the comments, and I’ll be keeping a running tally of how many games it takes.

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In the spirit that is the pre-season, this is just going to be a mish-mash of notes and thoughts, rather than a fully fleshed out game recap.

• First up, Mountain Time sucks.  It’s great for the games on the West coast, sure, but for 7pm ET starts?  I live 5 minutes away from work, and I had to book it so I could get home for the puck drop, which is something I really hate to miss.  I’m seriously thinking about coming into work half an hour early on 7pm game days during the regular season.
• Tomas Tatar looks awesome.  I can’t wait until this kid’s gotten some more experience in the AHL and gets the call up.  He’s slick but not enigmatically so.  And from what the Olczyk and Pat Foley from CSN were saying, he didn’t even take warmups prior to the game?
• Jimmy only faced 8 shots, but he looked good.  And before we all start drawing comparisons to Osgood, can I just put out a plea to take the defense into account?  Osgood saw 27 shots in two periods thanks to what sounded like a lot of poor defense.  I’m not saying that Oz couldn’t have played better, or that Jimmy wasn’t the better looking of the two in terms of play, but still.  Some perspective, please.  Let’s see how he plays behind the full roster, please.
• The Mursak goal was a nice instance of being in the right place, in front of the net, and ready to tap in the rebound.
• I love watching Lidstrom bomb pucks from the point and seeing them go in, with Holmstrom’s ass in the goalie’s face.
• Until he shot the waived off goal, I felt like Kronwall had whiffed on about 4 shots from the point in a row.  Here’s to hoping that playing with Nick drags him up to the level we’ve been looking for.
• Ericsson looked a little… confused.  Saw him fumble the puck unnecessarily a few times.
• It’s so great to see the Pav-Z-Homer line out there again.  I see the argument for trying to spread out the scoring if necessary, but they’re just so effective together.
• I think everyone needs a refresher on the “goaltender interference” rule when it comes to being in the crease.  From the way the refs have called it the past few seasons, to even listening to the Chicago pxp guys, you’d honestly think that simply being in the crease was cause to waive off a goal.  I distinctly recall hearing Versus always harping on about Holmstrom’s skates being on the edge of the blue paint as if that were the deciding factor for goalie interference.

For tonight’s game, Khan has the lineup:

Jordan Owens-Valtteri Filppula-Todd Bertuzzi
Drew Miller-Justin Abdelkader-Francis Pare
Jamie Tardif-Cory Emmerton-Jan Mursak
Tomas Tatar-Joakim Andersson-Aaron Downey

Brad Stuart-Jonathan Ericsson
Doug Janik-Brendan Smith
Jakub Kindl-Logan Pyett

Chris Osgood
Thomas McCollum

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The Wings did look tired, especially in the first, though they still managed 47 shots.  Let’s not kid ourselves, they could have won it if Hiller hadn’t been playing lights out.

Quick recap from me today, as it’s a bit busy at work.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Pavel Datsyuk (pp; Rafalski)
Anaheim: Ryan Whitney (Getzlaf, Ryan); Kyle Chipchura (Eminger, Marchant); Bobby Ryan (Getzlaf, Perry)

This whole Fighting After A Clean, Hard Check thing is absurd. Ericsson had a great hipcheck, and Bodie decided he needed to be dealt with? McKenzie had a very good piece on this the other day.  It’s just stupid.  I also had an instant fear that he was going to break his hand or something again.

That Chipchura goal was a load of shit.  He batted the puck in, but it still counts?   Did they change the rule book again when we weren’t looking? The puck can bounce in off a leg or torso (or face, in Draper’s case), but Chipchura waved his hand at it.   You cannot hand pass in the offensive zone, so I fail to see any circumstance in which he took his hand off his stick to reach for the puck as legal.  Especially not when the explanation was that “the batting motion happened after the puck was in the net.”  George has video of the goal.

Ducks announcer described Pavel going end to end as “coast to coast like buttered toast.”  Yeah, I know.

Oh Pavel.  His first break away attempt ended with a great save by Hiller.  Tried it again later in the period and pops the water bottle.  Awesome.  He’s now tied at 15 with Homer and Bertuzzi for most goals.  That thought depresses me.  Moving on…

Flip had a great game, even though he couldn’t score.  7 shots on net, he had some of the best chances out of any forward.

Brad May’s going to be gone once everyone gets back.  He has to be.  If Babcock wants to carry toughness for the playoffs should we make it, he need look no further than guys like Eaves, Ericsson, Abdelkader who will be brought up for the postseason, and even Maltby.  They’ve shown more grit and willingness to stand up for themselves than May has all season.

I hate Corey Perry.  Just sayin’.

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And part of the traditions of celebrating Festivus is the “Airing of Grievances”–a declaration of how you’ve been disappointed by those in your life the past year. We may be only 30+ games into the season, but I’ve still got enough grievances to share…

Chris Osgood: You really let me down, Chris. I’ve been in your corner for a long time, defending your ability to actually be a number one goaltender, and then you go out for your first start in like, 40 games, and can’t even save the marshmallow-soft goals from 50 feet out. I know that’s typical for you, but you swore up and down during the summer that this season wouldn’t be like the last one, and that you’d be mentally ready this time around. Well sorry, Chris, but I didn’t see it in Sweden, and I haven’t seen it recently either, when Jimmy has been pushing you to improve your game. I thought after losing last season you would come out on fire, ready to prove your critics wrong once and for all, and it’s sorely disappointing to see otherwise.

Ville Leino: When Kenny went out and picked you up for pretty much nothing, we all crowed about how we got the Finnish Elite League MVP, laughing that we weren’t going to end up like the Dallas Stars, winners of the Fabian Brunnstrom sweepstakes, who has since failed spectacularly to live up to expectations. You were being lauded for your offensive capabilities, and in your first NHL game you scored on that beautiful spin-around backhand. I thought that you were well-suited to pick up some of the slack in terms of scoring. Last year you threatened to return for Finland if you didn’t get a spot with the big club, so when you did, I assumed that meant you were ready to roll. But you’ve clearly proven me wrong with your inability to finish, refusal to skate hard, and utter indifferent attitude.

Brett Lebda: You are not a forward, Brett, you are a defenseman. Please stop moving up with the offense on the rush.

Brad May: At the beginning of the season it was a novelty to have a pugilist back on the team, and you fought like 5 times in your first 5 games.  But now it’s just getting silly, with the most glaring example being that of the “fight” with Kry Barch of the Dallas Stars.  You’re supposed to “keep the flies off,” but I have to say that I haven’t seen much of that recently.

Kirk Maltby: Same goes with you, Malts.  Sometimes you look like a real NHLer again, like at the start of the season when you scored a shorty, had some chances, and got a few points.  Now you’re back to floating around and occasionally blocking lanes and shots.  You’ve given Detroit a lot, and they’ve given back by keeping you on the roster.  But you are slowly being replaced by Justin Abdelkader.  Please don’t overstay your welcome.

Todd Bertuzzi: You know, Todd, I honestly can’t find too much fault with you right now.  You’ve backchecked, and hustled, and now you’re finding chemistry with Pavel to regain that scoring touch.  So I just have one grievance with you, and that’s to please, for the love of all that is holy, stop with the spin-o-rama.  I understand that you scored with it earlier this year, but I know, deep down, you were just as surprised as I was to see that puck actually go in the net and not sailing wide.  But why don’t you just put that move away for a while–you don’t want to become Brian Campbell.

Jonathan Ericsson: It’s not entirely your fault, kid.  Part of it was the inevitable letdown from a strong playoff performance by a rookie defenseman to figuring out the grind of the regular season. But I was disappointed to see very little to none of the confidence and poise you exhibited in the post-season.

Pavel Datsyuk: Yeah, Pavel, you.  Until recently you simply haven’t looked like yourself out there.  I didn’t see the usual Pavel Datsyuk that we’ve been privilege to the last several years.  Where were the Datsyukian Dekes and the dangle dangle?  I’ll be honest, I was getting very close to being frustrated with you.  I know, I know, notoriously slow starter, you had some problems finding a good stick, Bertuzzi couldn’t finish on an open net, whatever.  I’m glad you seem to be getting things going now, there was a time when I was Not Very Happy with you.

Well, those are my grievances for the year so far.  Feel free to share yours in the comments.

The Red Wings also share some of their grievances with each other at the Freep, which are honestly pretty hilarious.

What about the “Feats of Strength”?  Well, news has arrived that Rafalski may not play due to the flu, so for the Red Wings, their feat will be trying to beat a largely complete Blackhawks club, with an insanely depleted roster.

As for the rest of us?  Well, our feat of strength will likely have to do with how long you can deal with abdominal pain from the dry heaves as you cling to the toilet bowl all afternoon.

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Pluses
+ Eaves was named first star of the game, and rightly so.  He was everywhere.  Babcock’s talked about his underrated shot recently, and he showed off with it quite a few times.  His shorty was just perfect; a laser coming off the wing.
+ The first and most of the second periods were like old Red Wings hockey that we’re used to.  It’s unfortunate they sort of sat back after they had a 3-1 lead.
+ The Red Wings absolutely dominated Phoenix on draws, 21-12.  I know Phoenix is never very good on faceoffs, but still.  Winning draws means puck possession, which means Red Wings hockey.
+ Datsyuk looked more like himself.  He made a couple nifty dangles and takeaways, and looked all-around more enthusiastic than we’ve seen recently.  I don’t know if maybe he finally found a suitable stick, or whatever, but I hope he keeps it up on Thursday.
+ Beautiful toe-drag by Maltby.  Like Mick said, “there’re the old 50 goal hands.”
+ Overall it was nice to see the kids getting it done.  Again, Eaves was a force out there, and Meech got his first goal of the season, and the game winner on a nice shot.

This is really in the middle for me.  Kris Newbury had a very eventful first period, with 2 penalties sandwiching the first goal of the game.  Out of the box, he redirected a beautiful pass from Draper that missed Miller and connected with Newbury.  But both of his penalties, particularly the second for tripping, were pretty boneheaded.

Minuses
- I was feeling great about the way the first period was going, and then suddenly all of that optimism and excitement were just sucked out of me when Ericsson crumpled to the ice.  Ericsson went off the ice putting zero pressure on his left leg, and the thought of him being out long term just makes me want to throw up.  It’s getting completely insane.  But The Chief put it best:

“Name me one team in the NHL that could withstand that kind of carnage and still be only six points out of the conference lead.  You can’t because there can be only one and it’s the Wings.”

Word is Helm might be back for Thursday’s game.  And Filppula by the end of December.  Then J. Williams.  Slowly, the team will come back.  And the rest of the conference better get ready.
– And then ensuing Phoenix goal.  Which brings to mind an utterly bizarre rule that I both understand, yet don’t get at all.  So because the Coyotes had possession when Ericsson went down, the play doesn’t get blown dead.  I didn’t know this, but Petrella explained it’s to prevent guys from rolling around on the ice if they’re not actually injured.  That much, I understand.  But my opinion is, if a guy clearly doesn’t look like he’s faking it, then maybe the whistle should be blown, no?
– Still don’t really notice Leino.  At least, not unless he’s falling down, which is something he seems to do with alarming frequency.  I’ve seen him take a shot and fall down.  Scratching him didn’t really seem to help a whole lot.
– Tip for Tampa Bay: if you don’t want the Red Wings to score on you, just stay in the box to keep them on the power play.  No frigging joke, we couldn’t buy a power play goal at this point.

Lastly, I just need to rant about how much I dislike NHL GameCenter Live this year.  I understand the want to have HD quality feeds, but with all the video “upgrades” they pretty much bricked my laptop for the purpose of watching games.  There’s a lot more buffering than I remember last year, and they know there are issues with the Neulion plugin on Macs, yet there’s no solution.  It really infuriates me when I can’t watch the end of  a game because GameCenter decided to shit itself.  I’d love the option to play the video at a bitrate that works on my laptop so I can actually watch the game.  Which is, oddly enough, what I thought I was paying for.

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Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Dan(ny) Cleary (Bertuzzi, Lidstrom [with a ridiculous pass])
Edmonton: Lubomir Visnovsky (unassisted); Robert Nilsson (Stone, Stortini); Patrick O’Sullivan (Jacques); Patrick O’Sullivan (Souray)

Pluses
+ Ken Holland with the Quote Of The Year.  Talking in the 2nd intermission about injured players he said, no friggin joke, “You can put your finger in the dyke.”  I know he meant it as a metaphor regarding a construction dyke, or a levee, in terms of picking up another player to temporarily fill a slot, but come on.  I almost fell off my couch laughing.  Yes, I’m capable of thinking like a 13 year old.
+ Another plus, it looks like Jonny Ericsson didn’t get hurt too bad when he fell awkwardly (looked like maybe he caught a rut?) and should play Saturday in New Jersey.
+ Didn’t really notice Kindl much, which I’m taking as a good thing because it means he didn’t make an egregious error along the way.  He played 14:18.

Minuses
- Oh, but where to we begin.  I don’t want to really consider the fact that Howard just might have some sort of Turco-type affliction when it comes to playing against the Oilers.  Two games this season and he’s let in 9 goals.  I’m overreacting,but next time, try Osgood, please?
– Zero puck luck, to channel my inner Babcock.  I didn’t see the first, but I heard it bounced in off Lebda.  And the third that pretty much rolled off Pavel’s blade and through Jimmy’s 5-hole.
– Speaking of Pavel, he had an off game.  But then again, so did everyone.  The general Twitter consensus seems to be that the Red Wings simply suck during the seasonly dads’ trip.

Short re-cap from me, because I’m tired of harping on about all the negatives.  And there weren’t very many pluses at all.

Play better this weekend, boys.  I’ll be at both games.

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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).

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Is anyone concerned that the Red Wings have only won 2 out of 7 pre-season games thus far? And that they’ve dropped the last 5 consecutively?

I’ll be honest: it’s a little disturbing to see the same trend that plagued the Red Wings last year rear its head again. That trend was playing 20 to 40 minutes of a game, usually either starting slow or falling asleep in the middle, and cranking it up in the third.

The goaltending I’ve seen so far also hasn’t done a whole lot to inspire confidence. Howard has been what I expected–inconsistent and not extremely solid. Larsson looked to be fighting pucks a bit the two games I’ve seen him in. McCollum looked nervous in the one I saw. Pearce has yet to play, as far as I’m aware, which is a little odd since he hasn’t been cut, either. Greg Eno wrote a piece on the promise Osgood made to never have as season like 08-09 again, and to be better prepared this year. Oz isn’t looking awesome so far. He’s certainly not playing like he did just a few months ago during the Finals, but does anyone really expect that? He knows this is pre-season, and he’s not going to blow his groin out to make a save now. But I think he’ll be ready when the puck drops for real. I believe in Oz.

What concerns me more is the defense. I watched the game they played against the Leafs on Friday, and while they iced mostly regulars, it was not Red Wings defense that I saw. Kronwall’s played about 4 or 5 games, but he still looks like he’s figuring a few things out. As is Ericsson, but that’s more expected given that he’s had fewer years of experience. Meech and Lebda are absolutely killing me and I fear for the third pairing on the back end.

Babcock knows all this, but still he’s not freaking out–too much:

“You always wonder, ‘Geez, what’s going on?’ But you just watch and see how things go.”

And Kirk Maltby makes a blindingly obviously, yet still astute comment that basically sums up what they need to do:

“…we need to start getting into regular-season mode now and not wait until a month into the season.”

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