Wings lose in shootout

Last night the Wings played the Nashville Predators for the sixth of eight meetings this season. Due to a meeting, I was unable to watch the entire game and just got the beginning and the end. Since that is the case, I will recommend that you check out the always interesting game recaps from IwoCPO at Abel to Yzerman. Here is one example of his always entertaining game thoughts.

When I see Chelios going after Kariya, my first instinct is to put some John Denver on, call the kids into the living room, drink some warm cocoa and revel in the family moment. You just can’t beat that kind of fun.

Anyways, the game ended in exciting fashion with a shootout. Now the shootout, for me at least, is always exciting to watch because you get to see the likes of Pavel Datsyuk and even my favorite The Captain deke out the opposition. However, I just hate that it decides the game (and I've been saying that the entire year, not just because we lost last night). Sure it's better than having ties, but I guess I'm just an OT girl. I can't wait for the playoffs and those good ole nights staying up real late because the game goes into double or triple OT.And why did Babcock choose Holmstrom in the shootout BEFORE the likes of Yzerman, Shanny, and the other sharp shooters we have on the team. Don't get me wrong, Homer is a great guy. But for the shootout? Bad idea. But then Yzerman went up to center ice to get his shot at Vokoun. My heart was pounding like crazy. My mouth went dry. I started going crazy in my single dorm room. I mean I was clapping and chanting "Yzie, Yzie, Yzie" (what my family and I call him). The Captain just had to make the shot. Missing wasn't even an option. I mean this is the Steve Yzerman. He's been captain of this team longer than I've been alive. From the looks of it, everyone at the Joe was standing and acting crazy. And then Yzerman, like the pro he is, smoothly deked Vokoun and tied the shootout up. IwoCPO had similar thoughts:

Steve Yzerman skated to center and winning meant nothing. An extra point wasn’t even a consideration.The only thing going through the mind of every Wing fan anywhere was this, “I do NOT want to see Steve Yzerman fail.”

Deals with the devil were made on the spot, “just let Yzerman score…if we lose, I can handle it. K? I’ll take the loss, but not this way. Deal? Great, thanks.”

He did. The Captain scored low on Vokoun’s right side…and the deal was done. The devil was due.

But the Preds scored on their next opportunity and Shanny failed to get the puck in the net so the Wings lost in a closely contested game and shootout.Unfortunately, I don't have time for anymore thoughts since I must go to my English class. As I mentioned in the last post, I had a 17 page paper due Tuesday and 3 exams and another paper due next week so I'm going to be pretty busy. I'll post when I can. Behind the Blog won't return until I have time to send out a batch of questions. If you're interested in participating, send me an email or leave a comment. I already have one person waiting (Mike Chen) but I need a few more.

The Captain scores twice in Wings win

The Detroit Red Wings defeated fellow Central Division and Original 6 team, the Chicago Blackhawks, last night at the Joe, 6-4. The following Wings scored (in order of goals): Pavel Datsyuk, Steve Yzerman, Mark Mowers, Henrik Zetterberg, Kris Draper, and Yzerman. Want to know more about what happened in the game? Read On the Wings' and Abel to Yzerman's game recaps.Aside from a Wings win, Chelios had another reason to celebrate yesterday. His son, Dean, had two assists in the Division 3 state championsip game, which his team won 4-0. Dean is a junior at my high school's rival school, Cranbrook. My high school's men's basketball team won it's district final game, 103-57, and will play next on March 15. It's so weird being an alum and not at these games. Anyways, go Yellowjackets!

Okay, back to hockey. After coming close to scoring a hat trick last night, plenty of people have something to say about my favorite hockey player, The Captain. Here's a collection of what they all had to say…

The Detroit News:

Steve Yzerman scored two goals (one a power play) for the Wings to lead the way. It was Yzerman's first two-goal game of the season."I just hope he can continue to get better," said coach Mike Babcock of Yzerman, who raised his season total to nine goals. "He's going to help us obviously. Guys want him to do well."

Yzerman's first goal, on a nice pass from Robert Lang, gave the Wings a brief 2-1 lead in the first period, and was one of the nicer goals of the night. "It was a great pass from Robert and I wasn't really expecting it," Yzerman said. "But it was nice for it to go in."

Chicago captain Martin Lapointe, a former Red Wing, admired Yzerman's performance. "He works so hard on every shift," Lapointe said. "He keeps battling, blocking shots, he just plays so hard. I'm sure his body aches every morning he wakes up. But he just leads his team. It's pretty to watch."

Detroit Free Press/AP:

Chicago coach Trent Yawney expects more from Yzerman after that."He's still one of the best leaders in the game," Yawney said. "I wouldn't judge him by what he's done so far this year in terms of statistics, but I would watch in the playoffs what he does for this team."

Abel to Yzerman:

The first note I made after the 1st intermission was that Steve Yzerman looks very good. He’s moving better and he’s driving to the net more. Also, The Captain has turned into a mucker. He’s hanging around the crease, taking cross checks, waiting for dirty rebounds. We still see the patented pull-up along the wing, but more and more it seems he’s created a role for himself closer to the net.

MLive.com:

Yzerman, who appears re-energized of late, continued the onslaught by scoring his second goal of the game with 7.2 seconds to play in the period during a two-man advantage. It was his ninth goal of the season."He can continue to get better," Babcock said. "I don't know if he was necessarily better than he has been, except that he scored a couple of goals. The better he gets, it's going to help us. The guys want him to do well."

"It was nice to see," Mowers said of Yzerman's performance. "We know he can score some goals. I expect it's going to happen more often towards the end of the season."

Chicago Daily Herald:

On Yzerman’s first goal, he tapped in a sweet feed from Robert Lang after rookie defenseman Dustin Byfuglien lost the future Hall of Famer in front.“It was nice to see one go in, but Khabibulin almost made the save,” Yzerman said.

Wings take on Coyotes tonight

Tonight I will be at the Joe watching the Wings take on the Phoenix Coyotes in the lower bowl. Rarely do I get to go to a game in the lower bowl for the ticket price (and not higher prices). My dad's employee's boyfriend has 4 lower bowl tickets (in section 125) and he couldn't make it tonight so I'm going with my two brothers and dad (for around $300). When my dad and I went to the Canucks game on my birthday to sit on the glass, it was $550 for 2 tickets. Craziness.It should be fun. However, the last time the Wings played Phoenix at home, I was there and the Wings played awful and we lost so hopefully that won't happen tonight.

There will be no photos from tonight's game, but feel free to check out photos from the public practice and previous games (and a couple OHL Plymouth Whalers games) here.

For up to the date news, check out Abel to Yzerman, Kukla's Korner and On the Wings.

Update (11pm): Why am I not surprised that the Wings lost this one. They played crappy the first period, pretty good in the second (so many close ones), and an eh third period. And since it happened on the opposite side of the rink, why in the world did Mowers take that penalty shot? I thought that they had the penalty shot opportunity because a Coyote's stick was thrown in front of someone shooting, but I didn't think that it was Mowers shooting (but I could be wrong). So please, someone, clarify this for me.

I enjoyed my time at the Joe, but it seemed that our seats were extremely cramped (even more so than I remember the upper bowl seats being). I'm 5'5" yet my knees were touching the seat in front of me causing a great deal of pain (I'm having an allograft ACL revision in May). I just felt bad for my 6'0" dad and my 6'2" brother, they were even more cramped. Anyways, I'd gladly take those seats again and hopefully I'll get a set for the playoffs before my May surgery when I'm in Cinci for 8 days (they better show the Wings games there assuming they are still in the playoffs or I'm gonna be one unhappy camper). Alright, well I got a long day of classes and studying tomorrow (since I went to tonight's game) so good night everybody!

Wings 2, Mighty Ducks 0

The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Anaheim Mighty Ducks early after scoring both goals in the first period. The Wings have the next two days off before their game Saturday at 9:00pm against the Phoenix Coyotes.

First Period
The Wings scored two goals in the first (and the only two goals of the game). 7:28 into the period, Tomas Holmstrom scored on quick pass from Henrik Zetterberg who got it from Pavel Datsyuk. For once it wasn't the typical Holmstrom deflection, rather a slick backhand shot. The first goal came while on even strength.

Less than a minute later, at 8:14 into the period to be exact, Nicklas Lidstrom took a shot inside the blue line which was stopped by Holmstrom upon which it fell to the ice when Zetterberg put it in the back of the net. The second goal happened while on the power play. Notice a pattern yet? All offensive points belong to the Wings who stayed in Torino until at least the semifinals. Datsyuk may not have earned a medal in Italy, but he's helping the team offensively even with a fractured finger. He also extended his point streak to six games following tonight's win.

Chris Osgood, the Wings goaltender for the evening, made 12 saves in the first period while the Ducks goalie, Jean-Sebastien Giguere, allowed two goals on 15 shots.

Second Period
Not much happened in the second period, but I must say that Osgood looked pretty sharp to me. Within the last two minutes of the period, Osgood made an excellent save even though the whistle was blown to call the play offsides.

With 1:23 left in the second, Mikael Samuelsson got called for roughing and sent to the penalty box. During the penalty kill, both Chris Chelios and Nicklas Lidstrom blocked a couple shots. It sure is nice to see No. 5 back in the lineup; even exhausted and jet-lagged, he's one of the better defenders in the league.

Both teams had six shots apiece during the second, but no goals made it past the goaltenders.

Lidstrom had 20 shifts in the first two periods lasting a total of 18:04 minutes, he's leading the Wings in ice time tonight even though there are certainly more rested Wings than Lidstrom. Zetterberg only played slightly over four minutes in the second period after playing about eight minutes in the first.

Third Period
Once more, nothing much happened. No goals scored. Only 4 penalties in the final period and the Wings were unable to convert on all four instances. Osgood made six saves in the third. With less than five seconds left, Brendan Shanahan rocketed a shot towards the empty net and hit the goalpost.

Osgood stopped 24 shots tonight to earn his second shutout this season and his 43rd of his career. It was his first game in a month so that's a pretty impressive performance to me at least. It was the Wings third shutout in the last six games.

Other Notes…
An NHL.com article by Doug Ward briefly mentioned that both head coach Mike Babcock and GM Ken Holland supported the 5 Swedes to go celebrate in Stockholm and miss Tuesday night's game in San Jose. It also went on to say that the Wings can learn from the losses of Team Cananda and USA in the Olympics.

Not everyone in the Detroit locker room will be walking on air. In contrast to his gold-medalist Detroit teammates, the Wings' Kris Draper came home empty-handed and disappointed after playing for tournament favorite Team Canada. Chris Chelios played for the United States team that won only one game in Italy.Babcock said his Wings could learn a lesson from the disappointment Team Canada and Team USA endured in Torino.

"We can have all the skill," Babcock told the Detroit News, "but if we don't play well as a team, we're not going to win. These teams were good teams (in the Olympics) and showed you can't win individually."

The Wings were the only team, to my knowledge, that played back to back games to return from the Olympic break and the Wings had the most players participating in the gold medal game. "I don't think any team could have had a worse scenario than us, missing five guys and the week road trip on the West Coast," Chelios said. "It's not an advantage, but that's the way it is."Pretty good "excuse" for the San Jose loss (even though that was an awful game to watch as a Wings fan). Speaking of which, a Detroit News poll asked readers "Are you upset the gold medal-winning Swedes missed the game against San Jose and the Red Wings were blown out?"

75.72% said, "No; they deserved to go to Sweden for the celebration."
21.14% said, "Yes; they are paid by the Wings and should have been there."
3.14% said, "It didn't matter as the Wings would have lost anyway."

Datsyuk, like his fellow Olympians, had to adjust after playing in the larger Olympic size ice rinks.

"Just a little bit scared," Datsyuk said before the game against the Sharks. "Every board is too close."Datsyuk was referring to the ice surface at HP Pavilion. The Olympic ice sheets Datsyuk played on for the Russian team in Torino were 15 feet wider than those in NHL rinks.

Lidstrom needs four more assists (after getting an assist in tonight's game) to reach the 600 assist milestone. Captain Steve Yzerman currently has 684 career goals, six goals shy of Mario Lemieux's. He also needs to play in 6 more games to become the 10th player in NHL history to play 1,500 games (should happen on March 15th against Anaheim in Detroit).

Wings 3, Avalanche 0

In a solid defensive effort, the Detroit Red Wings beat the Colorado Avalanche, 3-0. The Wings had seven successful penalty kills in the game and were unable to capitalize on three power play opportunities. Wings goaltender Manny Legace made 28 saves for the win. He looked incredibly strong today. There were certain instances that I couldn't believe the puck didn't go in the net; Legace had some unbelievable saves. I think Babcock has found his No. 1 goaltender.The first goal of the game came 5:40 into the third period. Henrik Zetterberg passed the puck from the corner to the front of the net where Dan Cleary flicked the puck behind Avs' goaltender Abeischer.

Mikael Samuelsson scored his 19th goal of the season on a pass from Tomas Holmstrom 10:01 into the third. The final goal came on a breakaway from Robert Lang with 1:31 left in the game ensuring the Wings' victory in the Pepsi Center.

Since Dallas lost to St. Louis in OT, 4-3, the Wings are now two points ahead of the Stars in the Western Conference standings. The Nashville Predators are currently seven points behind the Wings in the Central Division with 70 points.

Offensive Scoresheet

Well that's all for today, I'm going to the University of Michigan vs. Ohio State hockey game. Go Blue!

Wings 3, Blues 2

The Detroit Red Wings beat the St. Louis blues with 3:55 left in the game on a Henrik Zetterberg rebound off of Andreas Lilja, who had just gotten out of the penalty box. Zetterberg now has 24 goals this season, which is a career high for him.In Niklas Kronwall's first game back since the preseason game when he tore his ACL and MCL, Kronwall notched two assists and made his presence known on the open ice.

The first goal of the night from Detroit occurred 5:05 into the second period with another goal by Mikael Samuelsson. I'm telling you, he's quite the streaky player. After going pointless for five games, Samuelsson has three points in two games. Zetterberg was given the assist on that goal. Brendan Shanahan also got his 24th goal of the season, 8:10 into the third period on a slap shot from inside the blue line to tie the game up.

Wings goaltender Manny Legace made 29 saves for the win. Detroit outshot St. Louis, 38-31.

Recap
Offensive Scoresheet

NHL Face Off Fan Survey
I signed up to fill out any surveys that the NHL sends to this Face Off Fan group. Today's survey was all about the NHL schedule. Examples of questions include (in my own words):

1) Hypothetically if the Wings were to play each team in the league once, would you be willing to lose out on a couple division games? [Answer: Heck yes!]

2) If you were to attend a Wings game, which team would you most like to see them play? List three. [Answer: Ottawa. Toronto. Vancouver (I enjoyed myself so much when the Wings played them on Jan 26, that I couldn't refuse).]

3) If you were to attend a Wings game, which team would you least like to see play? List three. [Answer: Columbus. Minnesota. St. Louis.]

4) Which do you enjoy more? Choose least favorite, – , or most favorite. [Answer: Divisional play (least fav). Interconference play (-). Same conference but outside the division play (most fav).]

I hope that if enough people respond, Bettman will shorten the ridiculous 8 divisional games and allow each team to play every other team in the league. Even if it's just one game (home or away); ideally it'd be two (one home and one away). I enjoy watching the Wings play the Preds, but not the rest of our division so that's why the divisional play was my least favorite…

Wings 5, Wild 4

What a crazy and bizarre game. The Wings were up 4-0 by the end of the first period with goals by Steve Yzerman, Robert Lang, Mikael Samuelsson, and a beauty by Henrik Zetterberg. Yzerman's goal earned him his 200th career power play goal. After going pointless for seven games, hopefully Samuelsson will bounce back offensively after scoring his 17th goal of the season. Wild goaltender Manny Fernandez was taken out after the first period.

I watched the first part of the second period, upon which the Wild scored to make it 4-1. I then had to watch 24 with my college friends so I missed the rest of the second and most of the third period. I came back with five minutes left in the game to see the score at 5-4 and my heart dropped. I'm always skeptical when the Wings are up by so much because especially with the new rules, it's pretty easy to even that all up. Fortunately, Andreas Lilja scored his first goal as a Wing to win the game for Detroit. At some point, Manny Legace replaced Chris Osgood in goal where he made some impressive saves to keep the Wings in the game.

Detroit outshot the Wild, 27-16.

Boxscore
Play by Play
Offensive Scoresheet
On the Wings' recap
Abel to Yzerman's game recap

Update: BtJ reader, Jon, filled me in on what I missed when I went off to watch 24 (I mean, I have to see how Jack Bauer saves the world).

Legace came in the game for the third period.IMO the Wings got the attiude "we are up 4 goals we can hang on." Well the Wild never gave up.

Osgood gave up 3 goals on 4 shots (I think that was the number) in the second.

Lilja made it 5 – 3 in the third. The Wild go a goal which was deflected off a Wing player..

Wings v. Canucks Game Notes

A few notes about Thursday's Wings v. Canucks' game…

My Dad sent me 14 photos from the game that he took and they look great. When he has more time, there will be more up on Webshots. But for now, these photos will have to do. These are just two of the 14 photos I posted today.

In addition to that, Alanah and Jeff (of Vancouver Canucks Op Ed) were kind enough to email me an 18 second clip of right after Nicklas Lidstrom scored where you can briefly see me on the Vancouver broadcast, which you can view here. I'm the girl who looks like this:

Wings 2, Canucks 1

Tonight was honestly the best night of my young 19 year old life. I attended the Wings vs. Canucks game at the Joe where I sat in the first row *right* next to where the zambonis come out (but on the opposite side of the goal judge). People literally came up to us to tell us that we had the best seats in the house. They were amazing. To see my "idols" within 2 inches of me was unbelievable. I don't remember the period, but Steve Yzerman was nailed literally right in front of me- just crazy. My Dad and I took hundreds of pictures (seriously, like over 500) so we'll be going through them tomorrow and I'll post them whenever we transfer them from his camera to my laptop. It was soo worth the nearly $500 it cost my dad and I to get the best seats at the Joe. My dad's birthday is at the end of March so we're going to try to get those same seats again…it was so surreal.

The Wings won in an excellent hockey game. And while there wasn't a full blown hockey fight, there certainly were numerous scrums where the entire crowd at the Joe jumped up to their feet. The Joe was pretty loud tonight and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. There were two little kids behind me and Al Sobotka, the infamous zamboni driver, sat right next to them and gave them some pucks in the third period.

Brendan Shanahan scored the game winning goal, his 100th in his career, while on the power play with seven minutes left in the game. The goal was a beauty right in front of my face (Yzerman did a nice job screening Auld). Carter scored the only goal for the Canucks with 7:50 left in the first period. Nicklas Lidstrom scored the Wings first goal of the game during a 5-on-3 power play, Robert Lang and Mathieu Schneider with the assist (lengthening his point streak to 5 games).

The Wings outshot the Canucks 35-15 in a strong defensive effort. "We're playing real strong in our own end," Lidstrom said. "We're not giving up a lot of shots and Manny only has to make one save and we're clearing the rebound."

For those of you who watched the game on TV, you should've seen me on the Vancouver broadcast right after the Wings scored their first goal. I was banging on the glass like crazy. And then the Detroit broadcast, I believe I was shown when our section held up "Hi Jiri" signs, but since I was in the front I'm not sure if that scanned down that far. And my dad was prominently seen during the Karen Newman performance, which we were less than 10 feet from in his bright red sweatshirt.

Interesting Notes: Every single time Todd Bertuzzi touched the puck, the Joe was filled with boos. In between the 1st and 2nd period, they brought out a Toyota truck and the entire time it was on the ice, the crowd booed their heads off. But when a Jeep was brought out in the next intermission, no problems at all. Quite entertaining.

Well, I'm exhausted after a long but exciting birthday and I'm still experiencing sensory overload from today's game. But I will try to post those pictures ASAP. Good night everybody!

Wings 4, Rangers 3

Yesterday afternoon, the Detroit Red Wings defeated the New York Rangers in Detroit during NBC's premiere NHL broadcast. I wasn't able to watch the entire game as a result of feeling crappy from my oral surgery on Friday evening. I missed the intermissions so I didn't catch some of the special features that NBC introduced. I don't know if it was my TV, but I thought the NBC broadcast seemed a lot sharper/crisp. I definitely enjoyed the viewing experienced much more than I do the FSN broadcasts. I've yet to catch an OLN game.

Since I was under the influence of Percocet, my opinion on the game probably won't stack up to some others' game summaries and comments. So I've collected various thoughts on the game from both Rangers' and Wings' fans!

On the Wings' Matt Saler has a lengthy and informative game summary including some thoughts on the NBC broadcast.

I enjoyed the NBC broadcast much more than the OLN versions, though I still prefer FSN. Bill Clement and Ray Ferraro were the studio crew, with Mark Messier joining them in the intermissions. Mike Emrick and John Davidson were in the booth but Pierre McGuire was between the benches and provided insights throughout the game. NBC kept track of the ice time of Brendan Shanahan and Jaromir Jagr, keeping a special clock under the scoreboard whenever either of the two were on the ice. I can't say I paid much attention to it, though.

Iwocpo at Abel to Yzerman has a very thorough game summary including numerous thoughts on the NHL broadcast.

NBC’s first weekend of hockey was so much better than OLN you can’t even compare the two networks. Graphically, talent wise, creativity…everything about NBC looked polished today.The Inside the Glass feature is outstanding and will only get better as the reporters–Pierre McGuire in our game–and players get used to it.

I like the shift cam. It appears NBC will select an impact player from each team and track how long each of their shifts last. Cool idea.

The studio deal was cheesy as most are, and predictable with “hockey’s greatest captain” on the set. But Clement seemed much more at ease than he is on OLN. Ferraro’s not bad.

Paul at Kukla's Korner has some thoughts on the NBC broadcast during the Wings vs. Rangers' game (rather than the actual team performances). I've linked to the comments page because the second comment was pretty interesting as well.

HockeyRodent covers the game with five photos and descriptions along with additional comments.

My guess is that the Rangers are the NHL's elite in throwing together a great mix of dedicated, hustling and talented players who don't play formation hockey. But the Senators and Red Wings are that much better because they do.

At HockeyBird, some comments on the game are given as well as links to other Rangers' commentary on yesterday's game.

The Detroit News' Bob Wojnowski was impressed by both Chris Chelios and Brendan Shanahan's performances in Saturday's afternoon game.

Rangers' fans, Shari Frost and David Goldburd, of Blueshirts on Broadway have reactions from the game.

Blueshirt Bulletin has found some silver lining in the Rangers' loss to the Wings in Detroit.

Here's the good news. You know the bad news already, that the Rangers did not play anywhere near close to their best in dropping a 4-3 contest to the Red Wings yesterday, but that's as much as we're going to delve into that here. The good news is, even on an off day against the team with the most points in the NHL, the Rangers came within one goal and a handful of untimely mistakes of pulling out at least a point, maybe two. Just a few weeks ago, they were happy to measure up to the better teams in the league by hanging in there with them and giving themselves a chance to win, even on good nights like those against Vancouver and Colorado. Now, that's no longer good enough, they want to win.

Don't forget to read postgame thoughts at Ranger Pundit.

Detroit became the first team to reach the 30 game victory mark this season, which Dallas quickly tied after beating Boston yesterday.