Big Red Machine

As I’m sure most of you were also doing last night, I watched the NHL Network air the ABC/ESPN broadcast of the 2002 Stanley Cup Game 5 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.  Gary Thorne and Bill Clement kept reiterating the star power, and the to-be Hall of Fame players.  That was a stacked team.

But it got me thinking: with the signing of Mike Modano, the Wings have really added some serious depth to the forward lineup through three lines, and the fourth is chock full of potential.  We’ve been reading and speculating about what they’ll do to solve the glut of players in the system who could all feasibly play next season.  Again, that’s an astonishing amount of depth when you can reunite the Eurotwins and then slate Mike Modano on the third line and call it a day.  This immediately reminded me of having Igor Larionov and Luc Robitaille on the third line in 2002–Future Hall of Famers at the time who, while considered to be in the twilight of their careers, still contributed immensely regardless of being lower down the chart.

Similarly, Modano was clearly thought to be done by the Stars, who chose not to bring him back.  Robitaille had 30 goals and 50 points in the 2002 season with the Wings, playing on the third line and the second unit power play, much like what Modano’s role sounds like it will be.  Granted, Modano is a center, not a winger, and I have a feeling he’ll be dishing to Hudler and Cleary a decent amount.  Still, if he can pop in 20 goals, I’ll be thrilled.

Sports Illustrated had an interesting preview for the 2002 playoffs, which is still online.  Darren Eliot took a look at all four lines, plus first unit power play, and top three defensive pairings, and offered his analysis.  As I was going through this, I kept thinking of how these line’s qualities and characteristics were visible in the current Red Wings’ lineup.  And so I present my comparison of the 2002 team versus the potential lineup of the 2010-2011 Detroit Red Wings.

Today is only the forward lines.  Tomorrow I’ll take a look at defensive pairings and the power play unit.  And while Eliot didn’t offer any thoughts on the goalies, I’ll try to draw some comparisons Monday.

Edited to add: which do you think is the “better” team, looking at the depth and potential?

This was reminiscent of Game 7–in an elimination game, the Wings really have brought it.  The question is now, can they keep it up for 3 more?  Each game from here on out is a Game 7.

The Wings proved that they’re not done yet, but realistically, it’s one game.  And a blowout, no less.  It’s not abnormal to get that in an elimination situation.  It’s keeping it up and not losing in San Jose for Game 5.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Todd Bertuzzi (pp; Franzen, Zetterberg); Johan Franzen (Zetterberg, Lidstrom); Johan Franzen (Bertuzzi, Lidstrom); Johan Franzen (unassisted); Valtteri Filppula (Holmstrom, Datsyuk); Brian Rafalski (pp; Bertuzzi, Franzen); Johan Franzen (Bertuzzi, Lidstrom)
San Jose: Dany Heatley (pp; Thornton, Marleau)

+ Holy. Johan. Franzen.  He was saying he hasn’t felt 100% yet.  We’ve all been saying “where’s the post-season Mule?”  Mule got hit with a too many men on the ice penalty a minute into the game, and Babcock was clearly unhappy with him, since it took about 4 minutes after that gaffe for him to see ice.  But boy oh boy did he make an effort to get out of the doghouse, with a hat trick.  Franzen recorded the 2nd fastest hat trick in playoff history in 3:26, only 2 seconds off the current record by Tim Kerr from 1985 (source: ESPN).

Welcome back, playoff Mule.  It reminded me of the 2008 Colorado series.  TSN showed a shot of Mule on the bench and he just looked so focused, and in the zone, it was incredible.  Utter domination.

+ Clearly, making the line changes up top helped.  Bertuzzi, Zetterberg and Franzen all combined for 13 points.  All three of them had a fantastic game.

+ 5 goals in the first period.  That’s what I’m talking about.  Hilariously, SJS actually outshot Detroit in the first, where all the scoring happened, 11-9.  For his services, Nabokov sits on the bench with a .444 SV% after 20 minutes.

+ Also, aLOL (™ Tyler) at Dan Boyle.  He tried to pass to Douglas Murray, who was camped out right in front of Nabokov, and the puck bounced off Murray’s skate, and slid past Nabokov, who wasn’t very aware.  That’s pretty much the second time this post-seaon that Boyle has, for all points and purposes, scored in his own net.

– I hate how GameCenter Live never shows the full feed from TSN–they cut to reruns of commercials and filler from NHLN during TV time outs and intermissions, and then I miss information.  Like Brad Stuart getting hit hard in the 1st and not coming back.  Good news is, he’ll likely be back for Game 5.

– Pot, meet kettle. Joe Thornton was making diving motions with his hands when he got sent to the box for knocking over Holmstrom, and has been quoted as saying “I thought they were diving around there pretty good.”  Just… shut up.  Seriously.  Now, I don’t condone the Wings stooping to their level, but the Sharks do deserve a taste of their own medicine, so to speak.

+ I love seeing Abdelkader being gritty and mixing it up.  He owned Nichols in their “fight,” just dropping him to the ice.  I’ve said it before, but he’s becoming the next Kirk Maltby in terms of agitating, and playing a simple, solid defensive 4th liner role.

What needs to be kept in mind is that this is one game–a game that several are calling an outlier because it was such a blowout.  And many are also quick to point out that the Wings haven’t strung together two strong games back to back in this post-season yet.  But Saturday’s another Game 7.  And from what we’ve seen, the Wings have done pretty well in elimination scenarios.

I hate that stupid Fratellis song, “Chelsea Dagger.”  It makes me want to put a dagger through my eardrums, and I had to hear it 4 times this afternoon.

This game made me feel like an untreated manic depressive, almost entirely within the third period alone.  The first was pretty bland, the second was fantastic, and the third was just a mish mash of wild mood swings.  Matt had a great tweet that sums it up awesomely:

1st: ugh. 2nd: sweet. 3rd: ughwowyikesholycrapnoyesawesome.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Brian Rafalski (pp; Lidstrom, Zetterberg); Nicklas Lidstrom (Filppula, Bertuzzi); Jason Williams (Zetterberg, Rafalski); Valtteri Filppula (Bertuzzi, Miller); Pavel Datsyuk (unassisted)
Chicago: Duncan Keith (Seabrook, Kane); Andrew Ladd (unassisted); Andrew Ladd (Johnsson, Madden); Andrew Ladd (Keith, Madden)

- The Wings allowed Andrew Ladd his first career hat trick.  That says enough.  I mean, really?

- Afternoon games are ridiculous.  This game started at 11:30am local time.  No wonder the Wings looked asleep on their skates for the first period.  Quite frankly, I can’t even remember them getting 9 shots on net in that duration.

- Jimmy.  Please work on your rebounds.  Thanks.

+ Lebda actually does look like he’s been playing better with Lilja, interestingly.  He actually looks like an NHL defenseman.

- Almost immediately after I thought that, he overskated the puck, and forced Filppula to try and get it out, which resulted in a bad turnover and a Chicago goal.  As it turns out, going to Notre Dame doesn’t actually mean anything when it comes to hockey smarts.

+ The Wings really woke up in the second period.  I was half paying attention for a bit, working on some H2H stuff and being exasperated with how the game was going, when I realized that goals were going in at a rather alarming rate (in a good way).  Huet had a meltdown, unsurprisingly, and I’m wondering if the Blackhawks are wishing they’d picked someone up at the trade deadline.

+ Five unanswered goals by the Red Wings in the second period.
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Just pure dominance by the Wings, and Pavel’s goal was an exclamation mark on the period.  The Wings proved to Chicago that they still have a long way to go in order to challenge Detroit’s position as alpha in the Central division.

+ On that note, Rafalski looked more like his Team USA/Olympian self rather than the pinching, turnover prone Rafalski of the majority of the season.  Good.

= Speaking of, whereas Datsyuk’s been pretty jacked since getting back from the Olympics, Zetterberg has seemed a little… off.  He didn’t have a very good Olympics, and that seems to have spilled into the re-start of the season.  I hope he resolves it soon, be it an injury or just being snakebit.

+ The Wings… we… they had a goal called off against them.  That is to say, in their favor.  I’m pretty certain I thought the Apocalypse, the Rapture, and the End of the World As We Know It was nigh.

– Bertuzzi apparently sustained a charley horse and left the game at some point (I want to say it was towards the end of the second period).  He had maybe one of the worst periods of play I’ve ever seen.  Pierre and Olczyk were just ripping on him.  But Bertuzzi came back with a really strong second, making plays and tallying two assists.  And immediately they start gushing about him like he’s the savior of the game.  Sigh.  Sounds like the injury isn’t very serious, and here’s to hoping he’ll be back in the lineup for Tuesday’s matchup.

– Pierre’s comment that Piet Van Zant was on the bench looking at a hurt Pavel made me almost scream NOOOOOO out loud.  Not even kidding.  Thankfully he was just stung with a blocked shot off the foot and came back after testing it during a TV timeout.

– After that ridiculous offensive output in the second period, the Wings promptly gave up a goal early in the third, and then another about half way through for Ladd to complete his hat trick.  Really, after the five goals in the second, this really never should have come down to a 1-goal game.  Curse of the three- and two-goal lead, I suppose.

+ I can’t remember exactly why, but Marian Hossa was whining to the refs about some call or another that didn’t go his way, and my entire Twitter feed, no joke, went “Shut up Hossa.”

+ Kronwall really had the save of the game.  There was a wide open net for the Blackhawks and he just planted himself in the crease to sweep the puck out, and then blocked the second chance.

+ Another incredibly important win, and 2 points in regulation.  Even better, two fairly strong outings in a row.  Can they keep it up?  Can they make it three in an extremely important game on Tuesday?

The Flames won against the Wild tonight, making them 1 point back of the Red Wings.  Nashville, having lost today, it only 1 point ahead.  It would not be hyperbole to say that Tuesday’s tilt is the most important game of the season so far.  Bring the killer instinct, put the skate down, and don’t let up, boys.

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.

My picks for the stars of the week 12/21-12/27

#3: Valtteri Filppula
He didn’t put any points up in his return against Columbus, but Flip was clearly a steadying force out on the ice. As I mentioned in my game recap, it was so relieving to have one of the top players back, and not have to worry about horrible blue-line turnovers

#2: Brad Stuart
The guy hasn’t really gotten any press for it, but he’s been a stalwart on the blueline this season.  He’s not putting up points, but he’s done a helluva job just being steady on defense.  He’s on the power play, penalty kill, and even strength, and is really just doing it all, quietly.

#1: Todd Bertuzzi
I can’t not go with Bert for first star, as he netted both goals against Columbus to win the game.  And I’m still amazed with his backchecking and defensive work ethic.

Very glad that I was wrong when I said this was exactly the type of game the Wings like to lose.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Todd Bertuzzi (pp; Datsyuk, Lidstrom); Todd Bertuzzi (Rafalski, Lidstrom)
Columbus: Antoine Vermette (Voracek)

Pluses
+ I know that Bertuzzi knew Petrella was in the building when he scored that beautiful power play goal, and also jammed in the easy ricochet for the 2nd.  No curly fries, but still, a great effort.
+ My God was it great to see Valtteri Filppula back on the ice.  And not just because I’ve missed admiring his hair.  You could tell he doesn’t quite have his hands back on a couple shots that he took, but he backchecked and worked hard.  He also went 5 and 3 (63%) in the faceoff circle.  Babcock wasn’t hesitant to use him–he had 17:42 TOI (4:07 PP), with 3 shots on net.  It’s just nice to see one of the top forwards back and in action, and not have to worry about bad turnovers or defensive liabilities.
+ Hello Darren Helm!  Save of the night, this kid, batting the puck out of the net with his stick, then again with his hand to keep it tied at 1.  He also had a good game all-around, 4 SOG, 64% draws won,  2 hits, and just running around and creating energy in 16:23 TOI.
+ Good to see the Wings turn it around in the 2nd after a crappy first period.

Minuses
- What an awful first period.  I watched the Columbus post-game show, and they interviewed Nick, who was pretty blunt in saying they got off to a terrible start.  I don’t know why they can’t seem to wake up on time.
– Holy Crap, Derek Meech.  An absolutely horrendous turnover led to the Jackets’ first (and only) goal of the game.
– I don’t think Nicklas Lidstrom is going to score a goal ever again.

It’s Columbus redux on Monday, which I won’t be able to watch live.

It’s Festivus!

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.

My picks for Detroit’s stars of the week for 11/30-12/13:

#3: The Penalty Kill
I don’t know if it’s lame to choose the entire penalty kill, but it has just been so good of late as a whole.  Babcock praised Helm and Eaves in particular, for getting into the lanes and blocking shots.  And Stuart has continued to be just a solid, sturdy defender.  This week the Wings killed 11 penalties, and allowed 1 power play goal.

#2: Jimmy Howard
Jimmy started two out of three games this week, with one win and one loss. The loss against the Blues, however, would have been a win on any other night, had the offense showed up. He played a great game against the Blues. I haven’t watched the Anaheim game from Friday, but he was named first star, made 25 saves with a .926 SV%.

#1: Todd Bertuzzi
Maybe Bert heard that Red Wings Nation collectively decided to burn an effigy of him as sacrifice to the Hockey Gods. Whatever the reason, Bertuzzi has looked like a man possessed the past two games, with 4 goals. And two of those being OT GWGs. He’s been responsible defensively all season, but hasn’t been able to make anything of his chances.  The past games he not only has scored a pair in each, but they were, for the most part, gorgeous goals. He’s confident, like someone wound the clock backwards a little bit.  So cheers, Todd.

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.

It was nice to close out the month of November with a tidy win by the Wings.

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.