Game 2 Live Blog: Wings/Predators
Howdy everyone! I’m Joe Hass, and I’ll be live blogging game 2 today.
I have to confess that my favorite article after game 1 was Mitch Albom (you remember him: book writer who is allegedly also a sports columnist) basically being grateful Dan Ellis wasn’t standing on his head. You gotta love low expectations!
The word on injuries: Brad Stuart and Mikael Samuelsson are both good to go today.
Because the game’s on NBC today, we get Mike Emrick, who is a well-respected announcer that I’ve never been able to stand. We’re also taking wagers on whether the game goes to Versus if it goes to overtime: they’ve gotta get that one-hour special on the Ironman Triathlon in.
The officials are “coif boy” Kerry Fraser and Dan Marouelli.
Let’s blog after the jump.
Postgame: Datsyuk is the first star, Radulov is the second, and Holmstrom is the third star. No offense, but what game was Bob Duff of the Windsor Star watching?
Understanding that the price you pay with Hasek is that he wanders and gives fans heart attacks, he was great today. The fact he wasn’t given a star is a shame. The defense shut down the Preds after the first period: they had 15 shots in the first period, and only 12 in the remaining two periods. And from that he gives it to Pavel, who gets one assist on the capper?
The attendance was 20,066. Time of the game was 2:35.
If you’re a Predators fan, you’ve gotta be worried about how badly they slumped in the third period. There was almost no drive out there, especially after the Holmstrom goal. I don’t know what Trotz is going to do to get his team ready for a Game 3 in Nashville, but it looks like he’s gotta figure out what to do with his team taking really stupid penalties. Both games the Preds took an unnecessary penalty while they were on the power play, and that kills them.
Meanwhile, the Wings played a smart game. I gave Hasek grief in the live blog on that goal, but when they showed it again, I think the puck hoodwinked him. They’re in great shape going down there.
Looking at the final time on ice, again Lindstrom with 29:22. Lilja played regularly in the third period, so whatever that was wasn’t (if you get my drift). Datsyuk with a strong 22:24.
All in all, a great game, and the Wings have to be feeling well.
Thanks again for joining me. Thanks to Christy for the blog space. Game 3 is Monday night at 7:30 ET on FSN Detroit and Versus in the U.S., TSN on the other side of the river. Good afternoon!
:00 - End of Period 3: The Preds get one or two shots, but that’s the horn, and that’s the game!
:38 - Zidlicky with a shot deflected by Franzen into the stands. This is a bad time for an ugly power play for the Preds.
1:15 - Lots of passing, but no good shots for the Preds.
1:50 - Penalty Detroit: 23 Stewart Interference. He hip-checks Radulov into the boards, and Nashville will get a man advantage plus an empty net as Ellis goes to the bench. Six-on-four.
2:28 - As the penalty expires Samuelsson gets a shot off on Ellis, and Zidlicky responds by busting his stick on Samuelsson’s leg. No call.
3:50 - Ellis falls down over an invisible gopher, and none of the Wings can get a shot off.
4:27 - Penalty Nashville: 19 Arnott Interference. No doubt about it: he hip checks a Wings player, and he immediately goes to the box. The Wings go back on the power play.
4:55 - Penalty ends, and we go back to 5-on-5. No really great chances for the Wings, but when you’re up two goals, why press?
6:25 - NBC decides to show the power play from the high up camera behind Ellis. It’s not a good idea.
6:55 - Penalty Nashville: 20 Suter Slashing. It wasn’t much, but he gets Holmstrom with the swing of the stick plus an extra shot to the head, and that puts the arm up. The Wings had a good 20 seconds of six-on-five before the penalty was called.
7:30 - Zetterberg has a chance, but his stick is jammed.
7:57 - Draper gets a high stick up on Tootoo, makes the international sports symbol for “I did it, but I didn’t do it” (hands up in the air, palms away from the body), and play continues.
9:05 - For a team that’s now down two, Nashville is playing tentatively, and the Wings are pressing hard. They want to put Nashville out of business.
9:57 - GOAL DETROIT: 96 Holmstrom (1) from Datsyuk and Rafalski. Datsyuk shoots from the right side. Ellis swats it away, but right to Holmstrom, who has a wide-open net and doesn’t miss. 4-2, and the Preds really look defeated on the bench.
10:30 - Martin Erat is looking really sluggish, as do a couple other Preds on the ice.
10:50 - Kronwall fires from the blue line, Ellis pad saves, but it goes right to Franzen to his left who posts it!
11:50 - Pierre McGuire just said that the Preds are frustrated on the bench.
13:45 - It’s our first TV timeout. The shots are 30-22 Wings. Hits are 22-21 Wings, and faceoffs are 35-20 Detroit.
14:39 - For a team that’s only one goal out, the Preds appear to be playing with a level of resignation.
15:09 - Now it’s Datsuyk and Holmstrom who come down on a two-on-one. Datsuyk pulls up, fires the shot, and Ellis makes a great save!
15:59 - These two teams share incredible power play teams: the Wings are fourth, the Preds are third. Both teams are 1/4 on the PP.
16:13 - Samuelson hits the puck in the air, and Ellis bats it back with his waffleboard as if to say “Get that weak stuff out of here.”
16:55 - McCarty gets hit and laid upon by Greg Zanon. He looks towards the ref, sees no call coming, then skates back to have a word with Zanon, which turns into a shove, which draws a crowd, which amuses the woman sitting in the first row with the camera. McCarty is cut over the right eye: he’ll skate off unhappy with no call.
18:00 - Zidlicky had a golden opportunity at the top of the goal crease but couldn’t get it past Hasek.
20:00 - Start of Period 3: We see Gary Bettman is in the house. They always show the tight shot so you can’t figure out where to throw the beer at.
:00 - End of Period 2: As the horn sounds, Fiddler takes a high shot at Hudler, who spins out of the way. a couple players dance. Datsyuk loses his helmet (again). The shots are 25-20 Detroit after two, 14-5 in the second period.
Looking at the TOI reports, Lilja only played for 1:39 in that period, and didn’t take the ice after the 13:33 mark. Rafalski’s up to 16:34 for the game. Lindstrom still leads with 19:31. The faceoffs are 29-18 in favor of Detroit.
:26 - Hasek comes out to almost the top of the circle to play a shot, but it goes right to a Predator, who passes it back to the net, where three Predators swat at it, and it finally clears! Ilitch better be handing out Maalox at the intermission.
:45 - The Wings have a four-on-one, but Draper puts the shot high!
1:23 - Dom nearly gets caught behind the net again. Maybe we need to put a leash on him and chain him to the post. The quickly on the other side, Franzen gets a shot off at Ellis which he quickly covers up.
2:20 - de Vries takes a blue-liner, but Hasek makes a nice save.
2:50 - Penalty Nashville: 3 Zidlicky Roughing. Penalty Detroit: 26 Hudler Roughing. See, it’s like there’s no penalties, because there’s no power play, but there actually are penalties, so…oh, never mind.
2:50 - After a shot on goal, it’s Zidlicky who fires a punch at Hudler, and Hudler goes after a different Predator. No penalties.
3:24 - It’s back to 5-on-5. The Preds only have three shots this period.
3:45 - Zetterberg gets the pass, but can’t get the shot off against an open net (and with Weber tangled up with him).
3:56 - Detroit goes on the power play for 20 seconds.
4:35 - Datsyuk sets up Filppula, but Filppula takes too long and puts it high.
5:22 - Filppula makes a great effort to stop and get a good shot off against Ellis, but Ellis makes the save.
5:27 - Penalty Nashville: 71 Dumont Roughing. Here’s stupidity in action: On the power play, you take a head shot to the best player of the opposing team. Congrats: you negate your power play. I think the steam’s coming out of Barry Trotz’s ears now.
5:35 - I’m calling Bell Canada tomorrow to get a Canadian satellite dish. TSN’s gotta be better than this.
5:56 - Penalty Detroit: 44 Hartigan Tripping. And thanks again, NBC, for going to commercial without a word of note that there was a Detroit penalty. And thanks for doing some worthless Mike Milbury segment. And thanks for not showing the penalty again!
6:22 - The shots are 20-18 Detroit, which is quite the change from the first period.
7:40 - Fiddler was close to Hasek, but it bounces wide. We’re back to end-to-end action.
8:40 - Lidstrom’s shot goes wide, bounces back, but Ellis doesn’t see it and almost knocks it back into his own net.
9:22 - Draper with a fast shot as the penalty expires that Ellis knocks away. We get the TV timeout.
10:27 - The Preds finally get the puck out of the zone.
10:57 - Lidstrom with a drive that Ellis has to make a fast save on, but the rebound goes to Datsyuk who misses the open net. Maybe he needs the helmet!.
11:20 - Datsyuk is sans helmet. Old time hockey player!
11:35 - Penalty Nashville: 2 Hamhuis Tripping. Brings down Pavel as he’s going towards the net, and even the folks with the Leader Dogs next to them know that’s a penalty.
12:16 - Franzen takes a 40-footer that Ellis handles easily. Meanwhile, J.P. Dumont is sitting on the bench but Pierre McGuire says he’s saying to the trainers he can’t go.
13:03 - It’s a hand pass! It’s offsides! It’s both! We get a TV timeout.
14:04 - Zetterberg and de Vries are dancing across the board behind Ellis.
15:00 - GOAL DETROIT: 33 Draper (1) from Samuelsson and Hudler. He tries to shoot the puck cross ice, it goes off the skate of Shea Webber, and right past Ellis who was not expected. It’s 3-2! My keyboard screams enough!
15:14 - Two post shots by Nashville within six seconds. First Fidler from the blue line, then Bonk with a backhand. Anytime the Wings would like to actually decide to play with any sort of awareness would be appreciated.
And now the Red Wings will take a time out. Babcock is trying to get his team to calm down, pushing his hands down as if to relax. No, Mike…they need to wake up!
They then played audio of Greg Zanon taunting Hasek after the second goal. Nice!
15:46 -Devries takes a shot that Drake lays down to blcok. Then Hlavac has a wide open net and gets fancy, only to push it wide. The Predators are all over this. It’s an ugly first four minutes for Detroit.
17:30 - GOAL NASHVILLE: 22 Tootoo (2) from Weber. Another weird bounce: a bad clearing attempt appears to go to Lilja, but it goes over his stick, Tootoo grabs it, puts it between Hasek’s legs, and it rolls into the net. We’re tied at 2.
17:42 - GOAL NASHVILLE: 47 Radulov (1) from Erat and Zidlicky (PP). Dom goes behind the net to shoot it around, but it took a weird bounce, and Radulov had an empty net.
18:26 - PENALTY DETROIT: 39 Hasek Holding the stick. An absolutely weird call. Here’s how weird: The NHL site has this originally as Arnott holding the stick, which is what it looked like. But they get Hasek for holding the stick.
18:47- Suter with a drive that goes wide to the left of Hasek.
19:21 - GOAL DETROIT: 5 Lidstrom (1) from Rafalski and Holmstrom (PP). A blistering blue-liner that goes throught Ellis, who was screened nicely by Holmstrom. 2-0 Wings. Ellis had no chance.
20:00 - Start of Period 2: It will quickly be a Detroit power play.
0:00 - End of Period 1: The shots are 15-11 Nashville, and Dom has done a magnificent job. Ellis is as good as last night, but he gives up McCarty’s goal. The hits are 14-12 Detroit, and it’s more physical than last night.
Lidstrom was on the ice for 9:49 in the first, Rafalski for 7:38.
For the first intermission amusement: a 1980 commercial with Gordie Howe, after an office machines commercial from Exxon (yes, that Exxon).
BTW: with this game, Chelios takes the record for most career postseason games, with 248 (Patrick Roy had 247).
0:45 - Penalty Nashville: Bench Too many men. A lousy line change evens it up to 4-on-4.
1:11 - Here’s a hint to Mike Emrick: there are people who are actually watching the game who would like to know what the penalties are while they’re being discussed.
1:47 - Penalty Detroit: 3 Lilja Roughing, 23 Stewart Roughing. Penalty Nashville: 22 Tootoo Roughing. Out of all that, they give the extra two to the Wings, which brings down the boos from the stripe shirts in the stands.
1:47 - Tootoo shoots after the whistle, Lilja takes excepton, and a full house in the corner. After they break it up, Tootoo pushes Lilja, and they jaw some more. Chelios is back out on the ice.
2:16 - The Wings are setting it up, but they can’t put it in. It’s increasingly physical. Chelios gets a hit from Tootoo, skates right off the ice and down the tunnel to the locker room.
2:56 - Kronwall with an hard open ice hit of Arnott.
3:07 - Flippula has a wide-open net to the right of Ellis, and he can’t put it home! Ouch!
3:37 - Draper gets off a pair of shots, including a backhander on Ellis. Ellis is on again, but he was on last night and it didn’t help him.
4:24 - Did you know Edge is sponsoring the NHL playoff beards?
5:04 - Chelios rides Hordichuck into the boards, and sets him up for Drake to come at him with a head of steam and nail him into the boards.
5:24 - Three shots on Dom, and he stones them all, the last two while he’s flat on his back!
6:03 - McCarty with a hit to the right of Hasek, and the crowd reacts.
6:47 - Ellis holds onto the puck with Filppula on the doorstep. He intercepted the centering pass.
7:25 - Back to five-on-five.
7:50 - The shots are 13-6 Nashville.
8:45 - The “Let’s Go Red Wings” chant comes up. The Preds are doing a good job of keeping it out of the zone.
9:25 - Penalty Nashville: 71 Dumont Interference. Thanks, NBC, for not showing the penalty.
9:45 - The Wings with two good chances from Zetterberg and Holmstrom, but Ellis stops them both.
10:30 - Wings have a four-on-two, but the Preds do a great job of breaking it up.
10:56 - Fiddler pushes McCarty into the net, which comes off the mooring and stops play.
11:30 - Nashville returns to full strength.
11:58 - Franzen had a sweet short-handed chance, but put it wide.
13:06 - Hasek with a stone cold save on Marek Zidlicky! He was a foot in front of Hasek and couldn’t put it in. The fans erupt.
13:17 - Up to 5-on-4.
13:45 - Penalty Detroit: 40 Zetterberg Tripping. Against the near board, Hank trips up Dan Hamhuis. We go 4-on-3.
13:54 - Bonk gets off a backhander that Hasek saves easily. Back and forth on the 4-on-4.
14:54 - The shots are 7-3 Nashville, but you wouldn’t be able to guess it from the way the Wings are going at the net.
15:17 - Penalty Detroit: 28 Rafalski Roughing; Penalty Nashville: 10 Erat Roughing. And we’ll go to four-on-four.
15:17 - Hasek covers up after three or four quick shots by the Preds, but there’s some dancing after the whistle.
15:57 - Datsyuk had another point-blank shot. It’s all Wings.
16:17 - Zetterberg takes a shot, which drops in front of Ellis, and Holmstrom is tied up by deVries, and can’t get a shot off. It’s ignored by the NBC crew, but you can bet Mickey would’ve said something.
17:11 - Mike Emrick now tells the entire McCarty story, and the place stands when Budd Lynch announces the goal scorer.
17:34 - GOAL DETROIT: 25 McCarty (1) from Drake and Hartigan. Drake take a shot, which bounces off Ellis and goes in front, where McCarty scores. Big hugs on the ice, huge roar from the stands, and it’s 1-0!
18:14 - Bonk has two shots at Hasek. The first bounces of his chest, the second goes into the net, but the net is dislodged at almost the same time. I just rewatched it, and I really thought it was a goal, but the video replay folks with TVs that I assume are better than a 13-inch KLM say no.
18:23 - I’m so glad they have the big “Stanley Cup Playoffs” graphic on the middle of the ice.
19:02 - Holmstrom with two hits in the corner in the first minute to the left of Ellis.
19:37 - Nashville’s starting their physical line, just like they did in Game 1.
20:00 - Start of Period 1: Let’s play hockey!
Pregame: I was looking up the time on ice from Thursday night, and I was surprised to see that Chelios only played 14:00. It really seemed like he was out there more often.
Obviously Henrik Zetterberg with two goals last time out will be worth watching. One of the topics from game one was whether the “old folks” on the Wings (10 years older, on average, than the Predators) would hold out fine, and indeed they did. And, of course, the very odd 2:00 PM start could come into play.
A totally-unrelated-to-the-game-itself-but-still-interesting stat: NBC showed fans climbing the steps at the Gordie Howe entrance before the game. There were five fans wearing Wings jerseys. Only one was wearing an active player: Zetterberg. There were 2 Yzermans, a Konstantiov, and a Shanahan.
The print-space-filler between the two games was on Darren McCarty. The National Post, Detroit Free Press, and Macomb Daily all had McCarty comeback articles (and all those links will open in new windows).
Pierre McGuire is interviewing Kris Draper, and it’s exactly as vapid as you’d expect an interview on the ice minutes before a game to be. McGuire asked Draper if he’d want to end the series early because they’re an older team. Draper said, “No: a seven-game series, with at least three games going to overtime will keep us on edge.” No, I’m kidding: of course he said it’d be good to end a series early.
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6 Responses to “Game 2 Live Blog: Wings/Predators”
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April 12th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
[…] (1:09 PM): Joe Hass will be liveblogging the game at Behind the Jersey. - […]
April 12th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
The Wings have this series! I’d love to have your opinions on http://www.myhockeyforum.com I’d love for you to be a member!
thanks!
April 13th, 2008 at 10:48 am
[…] to Yzerman On the Wings Behind the Jersey liveblog Nashville Predators NHL Playoffs Red […]
April 13th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
[…] Joe Hass already did a great live blog of the game for BTJ here, I’m not going to delve into game specifics. However, I do want to comment on a few things […]
April 13th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
[…] BjJ liveblog […]
April 16th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
[…] Predators. I can’t promise that my live blog will be as specific as Joe Hass did in the first three games of this series, but I’ll do what I can. The most recent updates can be found at the end […]