Gosh DARNIT!
Written by Kyle Kujawa   
Tuesday, 29 December 2009 02:20

I'm sorry, I really lost my cool there... uncalled for.

For starters, Jimmy Howard was really flipping good tonight. The rebound on the goal.. meh. Brett Lebda totally eased up on Fredrik Modin, like he does most of the time that he's one-on-one with somebody. Howard didn't even need Darren Helm to save him tonight, he seemed determined to outshine Steve Mason. I support the guy, but I think I speak for everyone when I say at times he really makes you clench up inside. That feeling is really starting to go away, and I don't recall too many instances where I had "the fear." This was his best game of the season, it's a shame that such a potent offense couldn't manage ONE goal in SIXTY minutes to get him the W he deserved.

Bottom line: the offense has to get going. I understand that the team doesn't have the firepower that it should. This team is still lighting up goalies with shots more often than not. 34 on Mason, a goalie that they put eight up on earlier in the season. And those eight weren't all from injured players. I think it comes down to guys not paying the price. Not staking out the front of the net for rebounds, not making smart shot/pass decisions. All those little things -- the things that have made the team so good over the past few years. For a team full of so many grinders, there isn't a whole lot of mayhem in front of the net.

On the subject of paying the price, Ville Leino was benched because Babcock thinks that's exactly what he hasn't been doing. Mattias Ritola was up again, and honestly, I think he just won himself a short-term spot in the lineup. He looked really good. Ritola's always been so hit and miss with me. I see his talent, and his value as a prospect. On a personal level I've just never felt that he was going to be a consistent NHL player, when he was one of the most inconsistent to me in the AHL. In the pre-season, I thought he looked like a Wing. He just plays that style. His talent isn't quite to the level where he'll be a huge scorer, and his two-way game isn't really anything more special than the other young grinders we have. I just wasn't sure where he'd fit in. I thought he looked great tonight, on kind of a 2nd/4th line role with some powerplay time. Created some chances, wasn't afraid to pay the price, drew a penalty, and actually looked composed on the powerplay. Way better than Leino. Until Dan Cleary and whoever come back in the next two weeks, give me Ritola.

I'm sorry, but I didn't realize until I read the boxscore that Pavel Datsyuk got a penalty for cross-checking during that run-in with Jared Boll. I probably use this phrase a lot, but when you think about what Datsyuk actually did, and what cross-checking actually is, not to mention, what types of things that could be considered cross-checking that don't get called... that might be the worst call of all time.

When's the last time Detroit had two fights in the same game? Prize to anyone who can tell me. Not talking about last year when Aaron Downey fought somebody (Cam Janssen maybe?) and the linesmen broke it up, then they fought again later, but actually two fights involving four players. Brad May actually fought for a reason -- standing up for Datsyuk getting shoved around and then another hit in the corner. No smiling, no laughing, just punching. Actually landed a few good ones, good on him. Doug Janik too, who rarely gets mentioned here despite the fact that he plays for the Red Wings. Sort of -- only eight minutes tonight. Those are the fights I like -- when someone's mad they just got laid out and they want to say something about it. Totally fine with both fights tonight.

Lastly, a dilemma. After unabashed support for the first part of the season, I'm sick of Todd Bertuzzi. What? Read on. I'm sick of him getting the most scoring chances every night. I'm sick of him looking the most dangerous in the offensive zone. I'll say it: I'm sick of him being our best player. Right now. Sure, if you gave me a choice of Datsyuk or Bertuzzi it's obvious. A lot of guys are playing well. A lot of guys are making fewer mistakes than Bertuzzi. But Versus actually had a decent stat tonight, one I wouldn't have thought to look up. Brace yourself, because it's going to be written in big letters for impact:

Over the past eight games, TODD BERTUZZI has scored half of Detroit's goals.

Boom. There it is. Is the font big enough for that to register? I'm a bit of a lush, I went for 18 point font over 14. That's the biggest font ever used on this blog. Trivia. Anyway, that is awful. Where is Pavel Datsyuk? He's very easy to see in the defensive zone, and it's true he is setting up most of Bertuzzi's goals. He's easy to see in 120 feet of the ice. But he's not the team's highest paid forward because he's going to win another Selke. Like I said in the podcast, he was nominated for the Hart Trophy.

Maybe I'm being unfair on the guy, but to me that raises the bar for what acceptable play is. Where's the silly undressing of three hapless defenders and then a goalie? Where's the curl into the slot and pick the far side corner on the powerplay? Where are any shots on the powerplay? He just doesn't look like he wants to shoot right now. That needs to change. With due respect to Bert, I want Datsyuk to look for Bert less and to be selfish more. Even if that means Bert's production goes down and the bashing resumes -- fine. We need Pavel right now.

On the subject of selfishness, I think I know what's wrong with Nick Lidstrom, and Brian Rafalski by this same token. Be more selfish. I think both of them are relying too much on that patented intentionally wide shot. Playing it safe is great -- and Nick's pretty much made his career on it. But sometimes you just have to wire the puck at the net even if there are defenders in the lane. Nothing like a quadruple deflection goal, right? I'm noticing that Lidstrom has recently started to again go deep with the puck in the offensive zone, but he just appears so out of his element. He used to just throw the puck at the net and get all kinds of crazy bounces. Now when he's doing it he takes it all the way around the net... and then nothing happens.

I blame that stupid floating orb for taking the Wings out of their game in overtime. How lame was that?

That's it. One more game for 2009 and it can't come soon enough.

 



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Comments (6)add comment

Rob R said:

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Stuart looked pretty bad on the play leading up to the overtime goal. He got beat easily in the neutral zone, allowing Brett Lebda to be Brett Lebda on the goal.

And why did Steve Mason choose last night's game to finally decide to play like Steve Mason, 2008 version?
 
December 29, 2009 | url
Votes: +0

Joe L said:

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At least Nestrasil had a good game today.
 
December 29, 2009
Votes: +0

Keith B said:

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Howard needs to be named the #1 goalie. What else does this kid need to do to prove he's better than Ozzie? Can we keep risking playing Osgood when we aren't in the playoff picture? When Osgood starts we have a 50% chance of winning and he'll let in 2 soft goals. When we aren't scoring we can't afford 2 soft goals. If we make the playoffs can we afford to hope for Osgood to find his old form? Howard gives us the best chance to win. We need to start him now.

Regarding the lack of scoring, how can we expect to score more then 2-3 goals a night when 50% of our forwards are not anything more than 4th liners? Abdelkader, Draper, Eaves, Helm, Maltby, May, and Miller are only 4th line players at this point. Of course Abdelkader, Eaves, and Helm will hopefully develop into scorers and earn their spot on the 3rd line (and maybe even the 2nd line) but expecting them to score at this point in their careers is insane. I hope Detroit cuts Leino (he hasn't done anything yet and can we afford to keep waiting on him?) and sits Maltby and May. We need to call up more prospects that are projected to be 1st/2nd line guys, like Ritola. Call up Tatar, call up anyone who will put SHOTS ON THE NET! Scoring zero goals in 3 out of 4 games wouldn't be acceptable for an AHL team in the NHL.

We can't wait for our team to get healthy and then hope for them to catch fire once they're back. We're in 10th and only 1 point ahead of Minnesota who's 11th. We need to make a trade now. Why don't we go to Washington and offer to pay 1/2 of Nylander's remaining contract? Nylander knows our system from his play in GR, we can get him for nothing (they're paying him 5.5 million to sit in another team's AHL system and hoping he gets bought out by a KHL team), his cap number is really low (1.8 million for 2 years), and he has played 900 professional games with 679 points. Oh yeah he averages about 20 goals and 40-50 assists per year.

Besides Nylander I think we need a big move. DUSTIN PENNER! Edmonton is in last place (15th) in the Western Conference. They are 13 points behind 8th and clearly not going to make it to the playoffs. Edmonton has a total of 19 UFA and RFa after this season. They have 13 players signed to 44 million (Visnovsky has a 5.6 million dollar cap hit, Horcoff a 5.5 cap hit, Souray at 5.4 Penner at 4.25, Hemsky at 4.1, and Gilbert at 4). They cannot keep all their big players and re-sign all their young players. And with how far they are out of the playoff race the should be looking to sell a player for picks and prospects. Penner who has 19 goals, 19 assists, and a +11 in 39 games is an ideal player to sell. Sell high, buy low. Penner is already just 10 goals from his career high, his 19 assists is just 5 away from his career high and he's an ideal PF who is just 27.
Detroit can afford both his salary cost (4.250 million for 2 1/2 years) and his trade cost. To trade for Penner Detroit would most likely need to deal either an elite prospect (Brendan Smith or McCollum) or 2 prospects ranked between 5 and 15. Along with the prospects Detroit would need to deal a #1 pick and a couple of middle round picks.

So would you trade either Smith or Ferraro and Mursak along with a plethora of picks for a 27 year old 6'5 245 pound LW who is on fire (19 G and 19 A in 39 G) who would more or less guarantee us a playoff spot this year? To me it's a no brainier. Especially since next year our cap crunch disappears and Penner is signed through the 11/12 season.

Holland, please make a move now and don't wait until the trade deadline. We need help now when everyone is hurt and we need to give the player time to gel with his new teammates. Oh, and make other teams so scared of a Red Wings team plus Penner that they way over pay for a semi-skilled player just so they can say they countered the Penner to Detroit deal.

Two other small plus about trading for Penner... One, all Anaheim fans hate him for leaving Anaheim and accepting a deal that as a RFA that would have put Anaheim .01 above the cap and two, he would finally make CBC commentators have to quit talking about the Wings being too small and he plays the "Western Canada" style of hockey that they love.
 
December 29, 2009
Votes: +0

KyleKujawa said:

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Naming Howard the #1 is pointless -- it's obvious he's going to get a bulk of the starts until Detroit's in a more comfortable place. But is there any doubt Osgood should be the guy in the playoffs? He pulled this same thing last year -- bad in the regular season until the last two months, then in perfect form for the playoffs. Not to reward him for playing poorly, but what's changed that makes you think he won't do that again?

I disagree that this team can only score 2-3. When healthy, Detroit doesn't score all that many pretty goals. Most of the offense comes from driving the puck at the net and trying to get a tip or a rebound. They're still putting up nearly as many shots as they would healthy. They won't score as many as a healthy lineup, but there's no reason they should be getting blanked three of four nights. Especially with a Hart Trophy candidate on your top line -- he's who I'm looking at to start scoring.

Not to just shoot down everything your saying (because I love discussing it), but I think making a move now is ill-advised. "We can't afford to wait for our guys to get healthy?" We have been waiting. We're getting Cleary, Zetterberg, Williams, and probably Kronwall back in the next two weeks. Maybe two and a half for Zetterberg. That might have been a better idea about a month ago when the first three went down and Bert wasn't on fire. But now... it seems pointless. We're two points out with more than half the season to go. If the hockey gods really hate us and we haven't seen the last of the injuries, we can make a move closer to the deadline and be in good shape to still snag a playoff spot.

The bright side of all this injuries is the team is playing it's best defensive hockey in three seasons. Besides May and Leino, no forward is really playing terribly. It's going to make for really competitive bottom two lines as guys try to stay in the lineup. Our scoring lines were potent when everyone was healthy. Hopefully, as guys come back the consistency on defense and the PK will continue as the PP comes alive and we finally get some elite scorers.

Nylander would be a bad idea. First, we can't just have Washington agree to eat half of his cap hit. They would need to put him on re-entry waivers. Secondly, I'm not sure where you're seeing his cap hit is 1.8 -- you might be looking at his salary on CapGeek (what he earned for being on the roster). His CAP HIT is 4.8, so even on re-entry it's 2.4. Detroit has some cap space for next season, but I think it would be a huge mistake to tie up 2.4 in Nylander before Lidstrom, Helm, and Abdelkader are taken care of. Lidstrom will take a paycut, but you just can't assume what it's going to be until he takes it.

I'm not a huge fan of Penner. He can look absolutely lost and lazy out there, like he has for the past few seasons. I don't trust his quick start this season enough to guarantee him more money than Franzen -- especially at the cost of bluechip prospects. Oiler fans wanted him gone for most of last season, and he was nearly traded to Ottawa in the offseason. During the Heatley drama, TSN ran a headline that he was traded to EDM for Penner, Smid, and Cogliano. They retracted it, but it was confirmed that that was the trade in place before Heatley exercised his NTC.

I'm just not convinced it's not a fluke. Maybe he just wanted to be on Team Canada. I would not want to take a chance on that -- and more importantly it's not the kind of move Holland would make when he's looking at a rash of talented players about to come back into the lineup within the next two weeks.

So far, Holland has been very conservative in the cap world. There's a long-term plan in place, and I don't think Holland is going to throw a wrench in that just because there's a couple injuries. Injuries are unpredictable -- but being barely out of a playoff spot at this point of the season is not the end of the world. Not bad enough to justify some of the gambles you're suggesting.

But I do think there will be a trade this season. Detroit has an overload of assets in Grand Rapids and they might need a scorer (or two of Williams/Leino/Cleary could start scoring, that'd be nice) and/or a #6 defenseman at the deadline. Because of the injuries, they'll have room. And they'll have room to add players that won't cost us any of the young players we want to keep in the team's core as we sort of re-assemble and transition for a post-Lidstrom era.
 
December 30, 2009
Votes: -1

Horton said:

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Regarding Bertuzzi carrying the team, I have played for some teams where one player scores most of the goals. If the team wins, this is not an issue. Datsuyuk & company might choose not to score, preferring to let Bert get the spotlight. This is a very unselfish Wings team.
 
December 30, 2009
Votes: +0

junkyarddog said:

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It looks like some blogers are having a Panic Attack. Look we have Injuries. Things will get better. Howard is doing more then can be expected from a newcomer. Bertuzzi can only get better as the players return.
 
December 30, 2009
Votes: +2

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