Extremely late review, I'm aware. The evils of FSD+ prevented me from seeing this game last night. So I spent all day sucking up the apartment's internet connection to torrent it, because I'm just too impatient to wait 48 or 72 hours for NHL Gamecenter to archive it. I just watched it tonight, and I wanted to put up some thoughts for discussion.

Overall, I was pleased with the effort. Offensively, the team needs to do more, but you've got to consider this was probably one of the weakest offensive lineups the team has ever put forth outside of the pre-season. It was one thing to lose Filppula, but Leino out of the lineup basically left Detroit without what was their second line coming into the season, although Leino has hardly lived up to the billing. Add to that they basically lost last year's second line in the offseason, and you've got one strange looking lineup. I'm sure any non-Wings fan will come in here and give us the ol' "oh, boo-hoo, you've still got Datsyuk and Zetterberg," which is absolutely true. But it's just a strange feeling in Detroit.

What resulted from the lack of offensive depth was a much better defensive effort. Offense was not completely neglected. The team still put up 30 shots, only five of which came from Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Holmstrom, Lidstrom, and Rafalski, which is strange because on any given night you can usually count on two of them hitting at least five. But each line played solid defensive hockey and there were no shifts where I was screaming at the TV because they either tried to finesse it out of the zone or just stood around Osgood as Calgary got to whack away at him. Even the team's defensemen actually looked pretty good, which is good news for Lidstrom/Kronwall/Stuart/Rafalski (who all played 24+ minutes) but bad news for Meech/Lebda (who played just over half of that -- combined).

A couple quick topics tonight -- pretty much everything eventful was covered in other blogs who don't have FSD+ issues.

The cycle -- The patented Detroit cycle seems to have been resurging after it was nonexistent through the team's first few games. Each Detroit line is hemming the opponent in their own zone for solid lengths of time at least a couple times per game. Against Calgary though, it was pretty evident that this is something absolutely crucial to keep up. Detroit's first two powerplays came courtesy of fine puck control along the boards by Dan Cleary (Regehr's hook) and an absolute clinic on cycling and using Flame defenders as human pylons by the Datsyuk line (Conroy's trip). Which brings me to my next point:

The powerplay -- Sucks. One of the worst things nobody's talking about yet, as it basically did nothing on this five-game road trip. Yeah, sure, we lost all those goals and so many more are injured right now, but the first unit has been the same for a few years now and they're not doing much either. What's the deal? I'm not sure. I'd like to suggest better shot selection. The emphasis has always been shots from the point, but Calgary ate that up all game and probably set some kind of blocked shot record. Obviously we have players who can shoot from back there, but there's just no need to wire the puck on net when you've got such capable playmakers like Datsyuk on the high wing. I'd like to see Datsyuk with a puck a little bit more on the first unit, because he's dangerous with the cross-ice stuff as well as curling in towards the net and shooting. Other suggestions?

Two disclaimers: before everyone blames the powerplay's inefficiency on Jason Williams, just do so knowing that only one non-Holmstrom player has more than one powerplay goal, and, youbetcha, it's Slick Willy. That said, before Ericsson becomes the new defensive whipping boy (which will happen whenever Lebda leaves the lineup), I'd like to see him given a chance on the second unit. Rotate him in with both Kronwall and Williams, or move Williams up front since Leino doesn't seem to like playing hockey right now. Ericsson has been a defensive failure so far, but I think he could win you over if he played much less (read: not at all) on the penalty kill and more on the powerplay, because he doesn't seem to have a problem scoring in the NHL.

The Speed of Death -- New name for the Eaves/Helm/Draper unit? Probably not, I don't like it much. But I do want this line to stick together for as long as possible. Draper looks rejuvenated now that he's finally off the 4th line. Helm has really responded well to being a healthy scratch and was definitely the most noticeable Wing all night besides Zetterberg. Both of them do seem to have some chemistry with Eaves, who definitely did have a little more swagger last night after scoring a goal on Thursday. He didn't do much with his powerplay time, but like we've just been over, nobody really is, so why single out Eaves for it? There is just an awful lot of ice covered by that unit, I hope they stay together.

Those are my big major points. Going into Tuesday against Boston, I haven't heard any of any lineup changes. Brad May (who looks less and less impressive each time a new player gets hurt, which decreases the chances of him getting taken out) took a Williams' errant stick to the eye. He sounds okay, but I wouldn't bank on him playing. That means Leino will likely come back in. I say for now, just stick him right on the 4th line. He was awesome in the playoffs with Abdelkader, maybe that will give the 4th line some additional spark. He's the first rookie Detroit's had in a while who didn't have to work his way up (not counting the work he did last year) as they basically guaranteed him Hudler's spot on the 2nd line and PP. He looked good in Sweden, but I've barely mentioned him since. For now, he's got to be on the 4th line as Detroit got really good efforts from each yesterday, and throwing a guy who's just been coasting onto one of those lines seems like a bad idea.

Wrapping up, Osgood was very untested but still solid. It's not the big saves I want to see him make, anyway, because I know he can do that -- it's the really weak/bad angle shots that have him making me nervous lately. Zetterberg and Datsyuk really have to step it up without Filppula. Zetterberg did just about all he could do against Calgary. I say nine times out of ten if he plays that way he walks away with two goals -- just wasn't getting the luck. Datsyuk needs to keep bringing it every shift and to be a little more selfish with the puck. Bertuzzi's looked good, but he holds the puck too much for my liking on that line. He's not really hogging it, because he protects it well, but Datsyuk is far more dangerous. Bertuzzi has been looking better and better to me in the offensive zone, but I think he might need to take a page out of Holmstrom's book by getting the puck to Datsyuk, and then getting to a place on the ice where he can wire a shot.

That's all for tonight. Finishing out October 5-4-2 was not what anyone expected, but it could have gone much worse. This team was not ready to start the season, but they were really bailed out some nights where the full 60 minute effort wasn't there. They came pretty close to that against Calgary, at least enough where there wasn't a huge defensive collapse for a change. It was an ugly month, but hopefully this game can be a turn around point of sorts.

Comments (5)

BrianW said:

	... The powerplay has been very stationary lately, everyone is just passing the puck around without changing position. The Wing powerplay works best when it's in constant motion.
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November 02, 2009
Votes: +0

Waltdetroit said:

... I really like your Eriksson ideas on PP/PK. The SOD line was just waiting to happen - Drapes might score 20 this year. On serenity I want to say what a great (time consuming) job you did, I agree with all you said. I have the flu so I looked at the NHL.com game highlights again and had these confirmations/nuances to add on the 1st 3 goals, I hope it helps you. Goal 1–(to reiterate) Why 3-1 where were the forwards? They all skate off to the left side (a line change would be to the right) so someone left their man. That’s who I would blame not Howard. Goal 2 – “Penner outmuscles Rafalski”, yeah, can any finesse d-man stop him? Rafalski was never set between Penner & the net, he was too high. Blame to Rafalski Goal 3 - Is it just me or does it seem when Howard flops it is like the old asteroid games, whenever you moved your shooter it slid all over the place (u may be too young). You must keep your angle better than that. It was a great shot but if Howard was 1 ft different he might not have been able to place it so well. NHL shooters make you pay for any mistake. I say this is on Jimmah.

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November 03, 2009
Votes: +1

Scottwood said:

... The Wings were 3rd in the NHL in shot differential on Nov. 2nd. That is highly correlated to future success and suggests that our forwards and D-men are playing very, very well. If we can get league average goaltending, then the Wings should/will start to rack up some W's. They are still a top 5 team in the NHL. Attached is a link to the article. http://www.puckprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=338 As a reference point, we wiped the floor with everybody in this statistic in 2008. It is a much more predictive stat of future success than looking simply at goals for and goals allowed b/c of natural regression to the mean for goalies.

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November 04, 2009
Votes: +0

nitzua said:

	... Hey, just so you know, whenever a game is on FSD+, I just go to atdhe.net and watch the live stream. They have links to streams of most of the Wings games, and a lot of other sports as well. No need to torrent a huge file like that.
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November 04, 2009
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KyleKujawa said:

... Walt, I'm not too young for Asteroid, I get the reference . I agree with all your thoughts. Hopefully what to take out of that is that while it's easy to blame the goalie, it's not always right. I'd be upset with Howard if he was getting an effort from the team in front of him. Scott, Nice to see you back. I agree -- that is a stat that has a direct correlation to success for the Wings because their team is built to play that way. I wasn't worried about a loss to the A nitzua, Thanks for the link. I do use that site usually. I actually get FSN+, but I wasn't watching the game at my place. Solid site nonetheless -- except for last year when I subscribed to NHL Gamecenter and they just lifted Gamecenter streams for most of the year.

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November 04, 2009 | url
Votes: +0

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