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.

Sometimes I don’t get this team.  Sloppy game all around and yet we still walk away with the win.  Whatever, I’ll take it.

- For a textbook example of lackadaisical defense, see the first period.  Horrible.   The D got walked around a good 3, 4 times.  They had 18 giveaways, and most of them were egregious.  Absolutely giftwrapped.  The Wings should be thanking the Hockey Gods that the Preds had hands of cement.

+ Jimmy stopped 48 shots, and as many have already said, it was shades of the Kings game in which he faced 51 shots.  He was helped out by a lot posts and again, the Preds’ being unable to take advantage of the several defensive breakdowns that the Wings had.  But he still came up big when called upon, and looked a bit less tired than he had been.

+ Nice goal by J-Wills in his first game back, with his stick down on the ice to pick up the Miller tip right in front.  Sadly, I couldn’t remember what number Jason Williams wears. It took me a good 30 seconds to realize who #29 was.

+ Stuart with ANOTHER save right at the goal line.  That’s at least the 4th time he’s done that this season.

+ Nick is seriously cranking up the offense.  And Pavel is still on a hot streak.  If they can keep it up, watch out.

+ Power play success!  Williams and Lidstrom scored on the PP, and Miller was just mere seconds after the penalty expired.  The Predators took 4 penalties in a row and I had been hoping that the Wings would take advantage of them.

- Of course, then the Wings took 4 penalties in a row, and I swear when Rafalski took that late penalty I wanted to throw myself out the window.  The first thing I thought was GEE, THIS SURE IS FAMILIAR.

- The dreaded 2 goal lead, and when they blew it at about the 6 minute mark in the 3rd, I about died.  Mick had made jokes about 2 goal leads earlier, and I wanted to strangle him.

- I hate that Nashville has a guy on their team with the name Franson.  It confuses me, and then I’m immediately sad.

- Drives me crazy the way the Nashville players came charging over after Kronwall hit Smithson. Kronner knew it was a bad hit, and he stood back, but his teammates come sailing in with no regard to Smithson on the ice.  Similar to when Kronner destroyed Havlat.  Dude, have some respect for your teammate; you have no idea how injured he is.  A guy could be concussed, or worse, and jostling him around on the ice isn’t going to help any.

+ Filppula got stung with Shea Weber’s rocket of a shot and limped off to the bench. Thank God he was back the next shift.  I don’t think I could have dealt with another injury.

Tomorrow (12:30, ugh) the Wings take on the Penguins.  I hate the Penguins and I want to destroy them.  And we still need points, so let’s go, boys.

After the game was over, my Twitter feed exploded in statements of disbelief.  I think we are all convinced we must be living in some sort of alternate universe where Bertuzzi scores 2 beautiful goals, and the Red Wings don’t blow it on a Saturday night.

Detroit: Todd Bertuzzi (Miller, Osgood); Drew Miller (Datsyuk); Todd  Bertuzzi (Datsyuk)
Nashville: Ryan Jones (pp; Sullivan, Franson); David Legwand (Dumont, Jones)

Pluses
+ This might be horrible, but I was actually glad that Tootoo left the game, solely because it meant not having to listen to those horrid train whistles.  They are on my Top 5 list of Things I Severely Dislike.
+ Was very much surprised (which is sad), and pleased that the Wings started on time tonight.  Great first period, even though they were getting jobbed with lame penalties, they held the Preds to zero shots on the first two kills.
+ We had the PK streak broken on the Preds’ first goal, but I’m still really impressed that they went 27 straight kills through 8 games successfully.  The PK really has been lights out recently.  Babcock talked to the DetNews about it earlier today, and how he took a lot of ideas from Devils’ coach Jacques Lemaire.
+ Bertuzzi.  Wow.  I was so convinced he was going to flub the puck on his spin-around backhand shot, and I just gaped at the TV for a few moments afterwards when I realized he’d scored.  4 goals in 2 games, and he looks confident.
+ Drew Miller had yet another strong game, finishing with 2 points.  Great hand-eye coordination batting in the shot by Datsyuk.
+ I can’t really express how much I wanted Osgood to win tonight.  And I don’t really have a good reason for it, other than I’m tired of people saying he sucks.

Minuses
- Wings shot less and less through each period–14, then 8, and finally 6.  They had 1 shot in OT, but I don’t care because they scored on it.
– Nashville’s 3rd jerseys are really kind of ugly.  All that white at the bottom has the unfortunate diaper effect.
– There’s a guy who plays for the Predators whose name is Franson.  I had to listen to the Nashville feed, and every time they said his name I thought of Franzen.  Which just served to make me horribly sad.
– Dear Henrik Zetterberg, please stop going to your backhand every single time you have a chance to shoot the puck.  Thanks, Big Red Machine.
– Our power play sucks.

Didn’t get to watch this last night, so no full recap from me.  I’m DVRing the NHL Network re-air (Ducks broadcasters, ugh), though.

I get the ESPN score alerts on my phone, and when saw that Bertuzzi scored 2 goals, including the game winner, I wondered if I was more drunk that I originally thought.  My friend Kyle left me a Facebook message that said:

I find it very erie (sic) that you mentioned sacrificing Bert to the hockey gods the other night, and then he comes through with 1 + the GWG tonight

Guess Bert heard wind that several of us were all volunteering him as human sacrifice to appease the hockey gods.

I’ve read a lot today that Datsyuk needs a new stick.  He’s been trying out a bunch recently, from what I heard, so fingers crossed that he finds one he actually likes.  Not exactly a ringing endorsement for Reebok, if one of the best stickhandlers in the league doesn’t like any of your sticks.

The Wings head to Nashville.  I’m assuming Osgood is getting the start on the second game of a back to back.  He should be chomping at the bit to get some games in, so I’m expecting him to play well.

And according to George over at Snapshots, Lidstrom is positive that he’ll snap his drought soon.  Tonight looks good, Nick.

Is it just me, or do the Wings seem to keep coming up against hot goalies recently?  Or at least goalies who really grab the opportunity by the throat.  Recently it’s been Auld, Price, Clemmenson, and now Rinne who have had really good games against the Wings.

Also, news that Georges Laraque got a 5 game suspension for his knee-on-knee hit.  I don’t think that’s really sufficient enough if the league wants to “make an example” of Laraque.  Nor does it even really punish the Habs–in fact, it probably helps them because he’s been dead weight the entire season.  So they get temporary relief while we lose our 3rd best defenseman.  Awesome.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Drew Miller (Cleary, Ericsson)
Nashville: Jason Arnott (pp; Sullivan, Weber); Martin Erat (pp; Ward, Legwand); Martin Erat (Tootoo, Hamhuis)

Pluses
+ Darren McCarty was a guest studio analyst on Versus.  After looking nervous for the first segment, he was smooth and did a great job.  I hope they have him back–he’s certainly more lively than Brian Engblom (who must get dressed in the dark), and Keith Jones.  That suit was a definite minus, though.  Draper joked that he must have rented it.
+ Chris Osgood played extremely well.  It’s unfortunate that the defense didn’t really get up for this game, because he’s the reason the score wasn’t worse than 1-3.
+ Hooray for Drew Miller, who scored his first goal of the season, and his first as a Red Wing.  He’s been playing well, albeit not all too noticeable, but he’s a solid 4th liner, and it’s great to see him contribute.  He was rewarded by being moved up mid-game to play with Zetterberg and Cleary.
+ I love it when Pavel decides he’s going to play physical and dish out a few hits.  He had two nice ones, an open ice shoulder, and another along the boards.
+ This isn’t really plus or minus, but it was entertaining so I’m putting it here.  Pekka Rinne tried to come out of the crease and slide-tackle Darren Helm.  It looked like he was channeling his inner Hasek.  Except he missed.
+ And a plus for Nashville, for pretty much smothering Pavel Datsyuk.  He got one shot on goal and missed on another.  They really made an effort to shut him down.

Minuses
- I haven’t the faintest idea what the PK thought they were doing on that first goal by Erat:

via Fanfeedr

– John Forslund and Darren Eliot were horrendous as the Versus announcers.  Forslund does play by play for Carolina and Eliot is the color guy for Atlanta.  Maybe you need to make obvious, pointless comments for those markets, I don’t know, but this was one of the worst broadcast games I can recall.
– Nashville fans are hilarious.   They do the “Os~good” chant like every opposing arena does, but they also add the collegiate “You suck, it’s all your fault” part.  Someone also threw a hat onto the ice after Erat got the 3rd goal of the game, and his 2nd of the night.  I mean…
– Todd Bertuzzi.  You need to move to a different line.  Unfortunately I don’t know where.  Just take a seat on the bench for a while.  I get the feeling that Babcock was trying in a way to replicate the Franzen-Datsyuk-Holmstrom line from last year, but the major, glaring difference is that Franzen has finish.  Lots of finish.  And of the clutch variety.  Bertuzzi?  Not so much.  Damnit, I miss having the Mule in the lineup.