Red Wings Destroy Canucks 2-0 - Post Game Wrap Up

The 1^st meeting this season of the big 2 in the west took place Thursday night. Corey Schneider got the start at the Joe Louis for the Canucks whilst Jimmy Howard returned between the pipes for the Redwings.

After a quiet opening to the game which saw both teams kill 2 minute minors, LaPierre  and Abdelkader decided to try and liven it up on the 7 minute mark as the gloves came off. Abdelkader got the better on this one with LaPierre taking some big whacks as he got caught on his knees.

Burrows had the 1^st great chance of the 2^nd period as he got behind the Detroit defence and went 1 on 1 against Howard. A pretty weak shot straight at the Redwings netminder and he fought the puck off easily.

Detroit took the lead just over 8 minutes into the 2^nd as Justin Abdelkader beat Schneider on the short side after a fantastic cross ice pace from Todd Bertuzzi found him skating in all alone infront of the Canucks goal.

Filuppla made it 2-0 around 2 minutes later as he and Franzen exchanged passes and Filuppla fired a quickly released shot that went in over Schneider’s glove. It was all Detroit in the 2^nd period as they created chance after chance, Schneider remaining strong in the Vancouver net to keep the score down.

The Canucks thought they were back in the game right on the buzzer to the end of the 2^nd period but a long range punt at the net that Howard let squeak through his body didn’t get over the line before the 0’s got on the clock and it was rightly called that time had expired before it crossed the line.

The third period was more even as the Canucks managed to play their way back into the game without being a major threat on the Detroit goal. Both teams had powerplay chances they couldn’t take advantage of, Detroit especially poor with the 1 man advantage as they went 0-15 on the PP so far in the season.

With 6 minutes left in the 3^rd Alexander Burrows had a glorious opportunity to make it a 1 goal game as he had a wide open goal to put the puck into but only managed to find the bar as a sprawling Howard was beaten all ends up.

The Canucks pulled Schneider with well over 2 minutes left on the game but to no avail as the Redwings saw the remainder of the game out and came away with a 2-0 win, their 2^nd shut out in a row.

Jimmy Howard saw off all 25 shots on goal to earn him my star of the game. A solid performance at the start of the game when the game was still 0-0 which enabled the Redwings to build towards a solid shut out win.

The Canucks struggle again and now have a 1-2-1 record to start the season whilst the Redwings start with an impressive 3-0 record, posting back to back shut outs in the process.

By Adam Yates

Redwings V Senators - First Clash of the Year - Hot off the Presses !!!

The Joe Louis was alive as the players took to the ice for the 1^st time this season. After the introduction of the players it was time to reflect on the tragic incident over the summer and the Redwings showed their class with a great tribute to Brad McCrimmon and his family, who received the applause of the crowd and framed tributes to the ex player and coach who sadly was lost in that horrific plane crash.

An early Detroit PP saw Ian White force 2 good saves out of Craig Anderson in the Ottawa goal. After a pretty dire 16 minutes with neither team creating a notable chance it was a pass by Helm from his own blue line that sent Bertuzzi clean in on Anderson and he put it in the roof over the glove side of Ottawa’s netminder.

This seemed to spark the Redwings a bit as Anderson then pulled off a good save from Filppula and a Franzen pass to Zetterberg nearly brought a 2^nd.  It was a 1-0 1^st period where neither team impressed but Detroit seemed in control on home ice.

It wasn’t long into 2^nd when Lidstrom got the 2^nd, a rare goal type for the captain as he went to the net and softly lifted the puck past Anderson. Not the expected blast from the point. One the netminder would want back but a great start to the season for the 7 time Norris Trophy winner.

Smith had Ottawa’s first great chance from infront of the net around 8 mins into the 2^nd and he poked the puck through Howard’s legs only to find Kindl in behind him to deflect the puck wide with his skate.

Emmerton made it 3-0 at the half way point of the 2^nd as Drew Miller chased the puck into the corner and beat the defenseman to the puck as Anderson tried to set it up. He put it out infront and  as Anderson was out of position and the rookie tapped the puck in. Datsyuk then stole the puck in the Ottawa zone and fed Hudler who lifted the puck glove side on Anderson to make it a 4-0 game and bring the time out from Senators coach Paul Mclean.  It only took 3 minutes into the 3^rd for Detroit to make it 5-0 as Ian White sent a knucle puck from the point high over the stick side of Anderson. Anderson had made a brilliant glove stop from Hudler a moment before to try and keep the score down.

Spezza broke the shut out of Howard with a wrister from the point that deflected up and in off Michalek’s foot and over Howard. Michalek then hit his 2^nd of the night as Ottawa took 19 seconds on the powerplay to find the net. Spezza with a nice play for his 2^nd assist of the night. Kuba fired a shot from the point on a late powerplay for Ottawa that was screened infront and it flew in past an unsighted Howard and that made it 5-3 late on.

That’s how it finished, a fightback from the Senators as Detroit took their foot off the pedal a little in the closing stages. Not the greatest of games but Detroit got scoring from different lines which is a pleasing to start whilst Ottawa showed that even though they went down heavily early on they can still come back and fight a bit.

by Adam Yates

CALLING RED WINGS AND CAPITAL FANS !!! YOU ARE BOTH DOWN 1-0 !!! RALLY THE TROOPS

Sunday is going to be an exciting day for hockey fans.  The Red Wings and Capitals are up @ bat and their fans will be watching to see how they deliver.

The Wings are up first against the San Jose Sharks.  The Sharks are young and aggressive and they will be a handful for Detroit.  Hockey Town USA is a tough place to be on the losing end of a series so the 2011 Red Wings are going to have to pick up their game.   San Jose is not Phoenix.  If Detroit goes down 2-0 today, they will have the almost impossible task of battling back.  If Jimmy Howard cracks under pressure, the Sharks will pounce and put this one away.

Washington plays later today against the Bolts.  Tampa smacked the Caps around in their first match up and you can be sure that Bruce Boudreau's men will want some payback.  Ovechkin has to come to the rink today for Washington.   If Washington can get everyone ticking along, they should dispose of Tampa easily.   Without Ovechkin, Washington will fold like a deck of cards and Stamkos and the boys will take them out to the woodshed. It could get ugly.

There is nothing like the "good old hockey game" !!!  Turn this tune up , grab some beers and warm up the couch !!!!

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Led by Franzen, Hudler, and Lidstrom, Wings Get Set for Another Winning Season

"Now to finally play where hockey doesn't take a backseat to football. Thank you, Lions!"

The Detroit Red Wings have the unenviable distinction of having made Pittsburgh Penguin and pop-star-husband Mike Comrie look good, which is a very rare feat indeed considering whose arm he is always on.

Comrie tallied twice in the Penguins’ 5-2 win on Sunday, which closed out both teams’ pre-season schedules.

The Pens did successfully exploit the Wings’ holes on defense several times to the point that Comrie was allowed to do what he does best at this stage of his career: essentially wait on Detroit goalie Chris Osgood’s doorstep and pounce like the toothless undersized tiger that he is. Still, all in all, the pre-season doesn’t mean all that much, emphasized by the fact that Detroit ended up with a record of 3-5.

Considering the last time the Wings suffered through a losing season was in 1990-1991 and that the team made the playoffs even then (the first year of a 19-season streak), it’s a fair assumption to make that a different Wings will team will show up come the team’s first real game on Friday.

By all accounts, Detroit’s 2009-2010 was made up of two seasons: the first three quarters, during which they struggled to keep themselves in line for a playoff spot and the last 22 games, during which they accumulated a monster 17-3-2 record en route to a 44-24-14 finish and a second-round defeat to the San Jose Sharks.

There is no denying that last year’s Red Wings were the weakest of several years, thanks to the noted off-season departures of Jiri Hudler, Mikael Samuelsson, and Marian Hossa as well as the 55-game absence of Johan Franzen. With Franzen presumably healthy and Hudler back following his one-year stint in Russia, apparently realizing too late that he didn’t sign with Moscow, Texas to get away from the cold Detroit winters, the Wings have back the depth that characterized much of their last four championship teams.

It exists!

Mike Modano may not have the wheels he once did as a Dallas Star, but as a secondary contributor alongside the likes of Todd Bertuzzi and Patrick Eaves, two failed former top-six forwards, he stands a chance at real success and another Stanley Cup ring. Valtteri Fillpula seems finally destined for a long-term top-two-line spot, which can only end well taking into account the Wings’ track record of slowly developing talent.

Starting goalie Jimmy Howard is proof of that, and next waiting in the wings is defenseman Jakub Kindl, a blue-chip prospect that many thought would only get the chance to prove his worth by the time he was set to retire. Drafted five years ago, he epitomizes the problem facing the organization, or, more accurately, the lack thereof better exemplified by captain and fellow defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom. Kindl is just a byproduct of Lidstrom and the team’s consistent competitiveness.

While Lidstrom’s $6,200,000 salary-cap hit in what most must assume wll be his final season may not properly reflect his ever-increasingly-visible inefficiencies as a 40-year-old playing a game dominated more and more by teenagers, he is still more effective than a 30-year-old Comrie. Granted, that doesn’t say a whole lot, but that’s the thing about the Red Wings. You seldom need to. The playoffs, at the very least, are in the bag.