Big Red Machine

*Phew*

That’s really all I have to say.

Nicole from the Red Wings sent out an email confirming that Nick Lidstrom has signed a contract to return to the Wings for the 2010-2011 season.

detroitredwings.com:

The giant breeze that rolled up the freeway arteries leading out of downtown was the collective exhalation of a Red Wings’ organization relieved to know that one of the best players of this generation will be back.

Nicklas Lidstrom, who is widely considered the world’s best defenseman in hockey, will return for a 19th season, signing a one-year contract, the Red Wings announced Tuesday.

I’m just so relieved.

I wanted to post up my three stars of the series for the Red Wings against the Coyotes, and kind of pick up again on this little weekly feature that I had done earlier in the season…

#3: Jimmy Howard
You gotta hand it to the kid. His first ever playoff series, and it goes to Game 7, and he walks away a winner.  Sure, he let up some softies at some bad times.  Sure, he didn’t stand on his head every single game, or really steal a win at any point.  But he also didn’t completely lose a game, and that’s the most important part.  He got the benefit of the doubt from me this time.  He also bounced back in a huge way after flopping in Game 3 with the shutout in Game 4.

#2: Nicklas Lidstrom
Nick showed us in Game 7 that he’s not done yet, in which he doubled his points for the post-season thus far.  But what the stats don’t show is that he’s still an amazing shutdown defenseman, and still better than a Norris Trophy candidate this year *cough*mikgreen*ahem*.  He got his job done, played big minutes, and took zero penalty minutes.

#1: Henrik Zetterberg
If you ask me, Henrik Zetterberg was just made for the playoffs.  He only scored 23 goals in 74 games for a 31% scoring rate.  This round he had 6 goals in 7 games, with 2 GWGs.  That’s absurd.  Hank lifts his game to a completely different level this time of year, and it shows offensively.  Not to mention, he’s also still a defensive force, the only player other player along with Stuart who is +6.  He’s looked like the Conn Smythe winner of 2008.

Honorable Mentions:
Pavel Datsyuk (5-3-8, +2), Valtteri Filppula (3-4-7, +4), Brad Stuart (2-4-6, +6)

(I’m kind of embarrassed to admit that the first thing that came to mind when I started writing this wrapup was “Phoenix Down.”  Clearly I’ve been playing too much Final Fantasy in my off time.)

Now that’s what I’m talking about.  I had faith in this team that they would bring it.  And boy did they ever, dismantling the Coyotes 6-1.

Pavel had 2 goals, Zata had 3 assists, and Nick had 2 power play goals and an assist.  They were, rightfully, 1-3, the stars of the game.  The big boys stepped it up and brought their A game when the team needed it.  Rafalski and Filppula also had 2 assists apiece.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Pavel Datsyuk (pp; Lidstrom, Rafalski); Pavel Datsyuk (Zetterberg, Rafalski);  Nicklas Lidstrom (pp; Filppula, Zetterberg), Brad Stuart (unassisted); Todd Bertuzzi (Filppula, Zetterberg); Nicklas Lidstrom (Rafalski, Franzen)
Phoenix: Vernon Fiddler (unassisted)

+ Detroit tore out of the gate.  This was an outstanding exhibition of classic Red Wings hockey.  Puck possession, defense jumping up, solid forecheck, and crashing the net.  A perfect penalty kill, including a 3-on-5.  A 3/7 power play conversion rate.  50 shots on goal to 33.  5 takeaways to Phoenix’s 9 giveaways.  Talk about finally putting the skate to the throat.  This was utter domination by the Wings.  This was them saying “if you think we’re done, go fuck yourself.”

+ What a relief to see the special teams all back to normal.  The first power play unit got cranking, and the PK was functioning like it should, rather than that weird anomaly from Games 1 and 6.

– Jimmy really probably should have been more prepared for that faceoff in which Vernon Fiddler just slid the puck between his legs right off the draw.  There’s just really no excuse for that.

+ Happy Birthday to Nick Lidstrom.  2 power play goals and some seriously ridiculous defensive play just reinforced the fact that he’s probably actually part android, because there’s no way he played anything like a 40 year old.  He had 7 SOG (plus 5 missed shots for 12 total), played 23:59, and looked like The Perfect Human he is.

+ Nicole from the Red Wings set up a very cool video chat, drawing on the #redwingscommune get-togethers that have been happening in Detroit.  Lots of fun, and a great way for us out of staters to join in.  With this, however, came the revelation of my secret identity.

See, I’m actually Pavel Datsyuk.  And Nick Lidstrom.  And Brad Stuart.  And… well, maybe not Todd Bertuzzi.  Every single time I got knocked off the #redwingscommune video chat, the Red Wings scored.  Every.  Freaking.  Goal.  All six of them.  Which of course led to jokes that I’m actually running off to score for the Wings.

Yep.  That’d be me.  Goal scorer extraordinair.

+ Speaking of goals, those Pavel Datsyuk goals were just beautiful.  Sublime, as my dad likes to call Pavel.  1:41 apart, and 2 minutes into the period, Datsyuk took control and set the tone early in the second.  That pass from Z to spring him and then the curl-and-drag by Pavel… what a thing of wonder.  I know this is kind of mean, but I can’t deny that I enjoyed seeing Bryzgalov just sitting there and look utterly defeated after Pavel’s second.

- Helloooo penalties!  I don’t understand how Darren Helm gets called for Diving, when right before that Keith Yandle got a nice 8.5 for his dive on the Drew Miller “trip.”  It’s the playoffs.  Referees need to learn to let the two teams play.  Cue the tinfoil hat accusations, which I don’t necessarily agree with, but you have to admit they were a little whistle-happy in the 2nd period, overall.

+ One good thing that came from said penalties?  Brad Stuart zipping out of the box to pick up the loose puck and flip it home.

= Weirdly, Zetterberg didn’t have a great night in the faceoff circle.  He went 7 and 11.  Conversely, Datsyuk went pretty much the opposite, at 12 and 7.  Wings barely held the advantage, 37 to 31.

– Where, oh where have Mule and Cleary gone?  Moving into the second round, the Wings are going to need scoring from everyone.  And against the Sharks, having a physical presence will be important again.  These guys need to step it up.

+ Congrats to the Coyotes though, for having a great season, and (now that it’s over) for putting up a good fight and giving us great hockey.

+ I knew they would do it.  Thanks, boys.

Not exactly the way we wanted to see the Wings kick off the playoffs this year.  To top it off, the power blew in my side of the apartment building shortly after the game was over, and I sort of lost several of my thoughts that I wanted to post about.

+ Firstly, the Wings had a pretty strong 1st period.  20 shots on goal, it was a virtual shooting gallery out there.  The downside is that Bryzgalov was doing his best impression of a brick wall, but I felt like the Wings took the play for most of it.  Yes, it was a bit more scrambly than I would have liked to see, but they seemed alive.

Brian made a valid point that Phoenix was a team that has had a lot of off-ice issues with ownership, who absolutely sucked last year, and who is playing in their first playoff game in how many years?  Of course they were inspired by the home crowd, and translated that into their level of play.  I realize that you really just hope to walk away from the road series with one win out of two, but I would have liked to have seen it in Game 1 rather than Game 2.  I don’t believe that you’re “supposed to lose” Game 1 on the road.  These are professional athletes, and this is their job.  Get it done.  Give me visible, tangible proof that the Wings are hungry and bitter to win in the postseason.

- Special teams are what demolished the Wings last night.  I don’t know what happened to the solid penalty kill, which was one of the few highlights this season for a time, but it certainly wasn’t there during the game.  The Wings allowed all 3 of Phoenix’s goals on the power play.  Conversely, Detroit only scored once on the PP, out of 7 opportunities.  That’s not good.  Detroit might live or die by special teams this post-season, so I hope that gets turned around quick.

- Was Henrik Zetterberg playing with anyone?  Who were his linemates?  For all I know, it was a snail and a sea urchin, because I certainly didn’t see anything out of Bertuzzi, other than when he got shoved over standing in front of Bryzgalov (seriously Bert, you’re gigantic; you shouldn’t be falling over like a leaf in the wind), and I occasionally spied the fabulous flowing locks of Valtteri Filppula.

– Shane Doan is a douche.  I never minded him before this season, but now every time I hear someone talk about how great it is that he’s made the playoffs, and how no one deserves it more, and how he got snubbed for the Olympic team, the more I want to roll my eyes and point to a highlight reel of his dirty hits.  Color analyst Darryl Reaugh made the interesting comment early in the game of “there’s a lot of hitting to hurt in this game.”  Yeah, and a lot of it was done by Doan.  He brought the physical play, yes, but not in a clean way.  I’ll be looking to see if the refs crack down more on it, or if they let it go.

– To that point, the Wings need to be more physical.  Kronwall needs to step up and Kronwall someone (I nominate Doan).  Stuart dished out a hit here or there, and Helm was bouncing around like a pinball, but I’d really like to see guys like Bertuzzi, Cleary, and Datsyuk get in on the physical play.  When Datsyuk is hitting guys, it usually means he’s riled up, and that he’ll have a ridiculous game.

+ I don’t think Holmstrom’s ever even had possession of the puck that far away from the net before in his life.  What a bomb.

– Were there any snakes thrown at ALL?  Pathetic, Phoenix fans, pathetic.

– I cannot believe that the high stick on Lidstrom didn’t get whistled for a 4 minute double.  I believe that’s what they call in basketball, a “flagrant” foul.  I saw Nick Lidstrom get whacked in the face by a Phoenix player’s errant stick, him bleeding on the bench, but apparently neither referee did, given no penalty call.  That should have been 4 minutes, no question.  Say what you want about conspiracy theories, or tinfoil hats, that’s clearly bullshit.

= Howard didn’t stand on his head, nor did he have a complete meltdown.  The defense didn’t aid him very much, particularly during the kill.  He looked a little shaky at times, like on the Yandle goal.  But it was his first career playoff game, you can’t expect him to play like a veteran, even if he’s seemed like it during the regular season.  We all know the playoffs are a completely different animal.

And I’m already stressing to the high heavens.

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.

Here are my picks for the Red Wings’ stars of the week for 1/25-1/31

#3: Nicklas Lidstrom
Nick shifted to a completely different gear this week, going 3-3-6 and +2.  Two of his goals were on the power play.  And he’s continued his rock-solid play on the blueline, as pretty much the only defenseman right now who’s actually playing his position, and doing it well.  By, you know, defending, and not getting skated around like a pylon.

#2: Pavel Datsyuk
Pavel’s stats mirror Nick’s with 3-3-6, except no power play goals. But he pretty much took it upon himself, with Nick, to produce the Wings’ offense this past week.  No question he’s been the best forward for the Wings, and against the Wild he looked like he wanted to drag them to a win on his own.

#1: Jimmy Howard
With poor defensive outings almost every game this week, Jimmy held them in the game.  He faced 47 shots against the Penguins, and even though he didn’t do very well in the shootout, he still only let in 1 goal in actual play.  The game before in Nashville he saw 48 shots and let in 2.  He hasn’t looked as tired, and really gave the offense the opportunity to win.

McCosky has an article today about the sudden salary cap crunch that the Wings find themselves in, or at least will, shortly.

He makes an interesting statement off the bat regarding The Perfect Human:

Holland could be looking at rebuilding half the team this summer, and all that’s at stake there is whether captain Nicklas Lidstrom comes back for another season. Because understand this, if Holland doesn’t put together a team for next season that Lidstrom feels can compete for the Stanley Cup, he’s packing up the family and moving back to Sweden.

Nobody can rightly expect Lidstrom, at age 40, to stick around for a rebuilding year and Holland understands that. But Lidstrom would likely stay if he thought there was another run at the Cup to be had.

What Nick chooses to do for next year of course has a huge impact on what Kenny does next year.  Nick makes $7.45 million–if he retires, that’s a ton of cap space freed up.  And there’s also the possibility that he could come back for another year or two at a much lower salary, something that wouldn’t surprise me.  Nick’s a millionaire several times over at this point, and I think he’ll take an Yzerman-style pay cut, when The Captain returned for 1.25 million in order to keep the team competitive.

And that’s what bothers me about McCosky’s second statement that Nick virtually is certain to return to Sweden if the team isn’t competitive next year.  McCosky sounds convinced that Lidstrom wouldn’t tolerate a rebuilding year.  But that’s the beauty of a Ken Holland constructed team–there really never is any rebuilding.  They just quietly infuse and reenforce the lineup with younger players, who are mostly all “overripe” in the first place.  Rebuilding insinuates tearing down the entire structure of the team and stocking it with high draft picks.  The Wings shouldn’t have to do that for a long, long time when you look at the players they still have under contract, along with some of the younger kids who are working their way up.

But what really gets me is… really?  McCosky honestly thinks that Lidstrom would bail on the Wings simply if they don’t have a clear shot at the Cup?  He wouldn’t stick around to mentor young defensemen?  He’d just up and leave because he’s not happy with the roster?  It’s ridiculous.  He’s already made it quite clear that when he retires, it’s going to be because he doesn’t feel he can play up to the high level that he expects from himself.  Nothing about the quality of the team.

Like I said, I think he’ll come back next season, albeit for much less than he’s making now.  He understands the cap crunch.  And in terms of play, well, we’re seeing right now that he can crank up the offense when needed, and we’ve all known he’s still invaluable defensively.

What does everyone think?  Will Nick be back next season or will he hang up the skates?

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.

What a shit show.  They had a 2 goal lead with 1:30 remaining and they blew it.  Tippett pulled Bryzgalov with almost 2 minutes left in the game, and I knew that Phoenix would at least get a 3rd goal.  But Jesus, you know what kind of season it’s been when you expect your team to give up a late goal.

I missed most of the first period while half-paying attention and talking to my mother on the phone. I had intended to go back and re-watch more intently during intermission, but my DVR recording got cancelled. Which was just a sign of things to come, I suppose.

+ I did get to see the Pavel goal, although not the entire play around it.  That was apparently his first goal in 7 games.  He looked dangerous all game long, and was one of the best fowards on the ice.  According to the boxscore he had 1 takeaway, but I saw almost a takeaway per shift in the second half of the second alone.  Babcock said in the post-game scrum that he had the puck on a string quite a bit, and I’d have to agree.  He ended the night with a goal and an assist.

- I don’t know if it was Versus, my cable box, or fuck knows what, but I had zero sound for the 2nd and third periods.  None whatsoever. I would normally rejoice being saved the pain of listening to the horrible announcers on VS, but I can’t deal with dead silence.  I ended up streaming the radio off 97.1, and just suffered through that being about 1:15 behind.

+ Thank God for Patrick Eaves.  He scored 11 seconds after the Coyotes did (yet another goal seen from a mile away).  That’s what it means to have a good shift after a goal against, and the third line of Draper-Helm-Eaves is totally responsible for that happening.  They were great.

+ Wings looked much more awake after Eaves’ goal.  Good sustained pressure by the Wings in the end of the second.

+ Two goals by Nick.  I loved the second one he got, just popped it in a wide open net on the power play from Doan knocking him over during the little scrum that ensued around Howard.  Now that the blue line is getting healthy and stronger, he can focus on offense a little more and not have to cover all the defensive holes.

+ Datsyuk and Zetterberg got a little scrappy, which I loved.  I’m really a fan of the Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Cleary line.  Cleary is more willing to set up in front of the net ala Holmstrom than Bertuzzi is.  He’s also quicker, and is able to keep up with the Eurotwins better.

+ The Wings looked confident; way more than we’d been seeing recently. They looked like they weren’t going to allow the Coyotes push them around.

- And then the wheels fell off.  Complete and utter collapse.  A minute and a half remaining in the game with a 2 goal lead and they blew it.  I don’t even care if it was goaltending, lack of coverage by the D, inability to get the puck out of the zone, whatever.  I’m blaming the whole damn team for not being able to hold on for a minute and a half.  To state the obvious, Nick missing that empty netter was huge.

- Brad Stuart with a -3 tonight.  No one else was worse than -1, and Rafalski was actually +3.  I am really hoping that once Kronwall settles back in, that Stuart can start playing a little more physical.  He had to put that aspect of his game on the backburner with Kronwall out, but now he can start being grittier in front of the net.

– SOG were almost dead even each period with 8 in the 1st, 12 in the 2nd, and 14 and 15 for Phoenix and Detroit, respectively.  OT was telling though, as Phoenix got 3 shots and Detroit just 1.  And Phoenix scored and Detroit didn’t.

= Kronwall had 0 points, went -1, 1 blocked shot, a hit, and giveaway, and took 30 shifts for 21:57.  It was such a relief to see him out there, and not have to worry about a boneheaded play from the likes of Lebda or Meech.  He’ll get his sea legs, so to speak, back quickly I think.

- I was not impressed with Howard.  Not saying that every single goal was his fault, but he looked tired.  According to Left Wing Lock, Osgood is your starter for tonight anyway.

So, the player I’m looking at to have a good game is Osgood.  I said on TOV this week that he needs to STFU.  I just want to see him play, to the best of his ability and not whine about the situation he’s put into, or the end result.  He’s not sitting on the bench for a month straight between starts, so no blaming “rust” this time.

I would also like to not see the Wings blow a 2 goal lead.  Or any lead, for that matter.  Minnesota is creeping up the standing, and the Wings can ill afford to have them making a run.

It’s (yet again) another must-win.

A major improvement over the pasting received by the Islanders.  They were able to play much more of a game typical of the Red Wings.

And wait, do I see what I think I see?  Do mine eyes deceive me?

Ladies and Gentlemen, let it be known that Nicklas Lidstrom, The Perfect Human, has scored a goal.  On the Power Play.

The the goals were as follows:
Detroit:  Nicklas Lidstrom (pp; Filppula, Miller); Drew Miller (pp; Filppula, Cleary); Henrik Zetterberg (Bertuzzi)
Carolina: Tom Koustopoulos (Sutter, Tlusty)

+ Nick’s first goal in 42 games was exactly the type that we needed–it kicked off the goal scoring, after being shutout last game, and it was a classic bomb from the blueline on the PP.  Vintage Lidstrom.

+ Two power play goals!  We’re going to get spoiled at this rate.  Miller was awesome on the PP, assisting then perfect in screening Ward on Nick’s goal, and scoring the second himself.  Miller hadn’t played on the PP until this point, so maybe he’s the spark it needed.

+ Staying on the special teams theme, what a kill by Eaves.  He’s a beast.  He got hit up high with a puck and just popped right back up to block another shot and later clear the zone.  I want this kid resigned as soon as possible.

+ Defense was much improved.  Drastic difference in the speed, the willingness to go after pucks.

- With that said, they still let up 38 SOG.  Wings need to cut down on the amount of shots allowed–it’s been extremely high as of late, and they can’t keep relying solely on Howard to save all of them.  The weird part is that I honestly don’t even remember that many shots by the Hurricanes.

- Oh, Jimmy.  That goal was not a good one.  The minute I saw him fumble the puck I knew it was going in.  He still needs to work on not coughing up big rebounds like that.

+ Datsyuk didn’t hit the score sheet, and ended the night with 0 shots, but he made several great passes and moves, along with his usual backchecking and defensive awesomeness.  Which brings me to my next point…

- Ken Daniels commented that Bertuzzi’s become more of a pass-first guy these days, looking to defer the shot to Datsyuk or Zetterberg.  Well, that’s problematic because we all know that Datsyuk loves to pass, and looks to do that before shooting.  And while Z should be the sniper on that line, he’s not doing it.  He hasn’t really looked like himself yet, after returning from that shoulder injury, so it’s possible he’s still being plagued by it.  So with the three of them just passing until the chance is gone, they’re turning into a glorified checking line–great defensive play (yes, even by Bertuzzi), but no finish and not enough points for a top line.

Lastly, it appears that Howard will be starting on Saturday against Dallas.  Does this mean he’ll be playing back to back in Dallas and then against Chicago?  It’s an interesting can of worms.