Wings continue to lose games
Last night, the Detroit Red Wings lost to San Jose, 3-2, in their ninth loss in ten games. February was a rough month to say the least for Red Wings fans as the team went 4-8-2.
IwoCPO @ Abel to Yzerman sums up what has happened over the last 29 days:
The MSM didn’t even mention Detroit anymore because it was so clearly the Wings and everyone else. Oh, well, there was the occasional, “they need some adversity.”
I think…no, I’m positive…that we’ve met the adversity quota, thanks. Kronwall started it, because he’s Kronwall. Broken clavicle the night before this throw-up-in-your-mouth of a month began, and then the wackiness just kept on comin’. Buckets took a puck to the puss on 9 February, Rafalski’s groin gave out in Nashville three days later. Lidstrom went down the following week, Chelios four days after that, and Hasek’s hip flares because he’s 74 and that’s what happens.
And next thing you know, conference leads started to dwindle, third-period leads disappeared, secondary scoring became a secondary priority, Osgood gets yanked twice in a row, then benched. And the losses piled up. The bellows began from the restless natives. “The deadline will save us,” they yelled. But the deadline didn’t, nor should it have. Tick Tock got us a top 4 defenseman and nature slowly healed some–not all, but some–wounds.
When we got our first four straight losses since Mike Babcock has been the Wings’ head coach, it was cause for concern but just a bump along the road. Then the injuries and losses continued to pile up and the concern quickly grew.
Eric McErlain has also noted the recent downfall for the Wings last month:
February was a miserable month for the Wings, no doubt about it. As the AP pointed out in its game notes from last night, back on February 5, the Wings were 17 points on top of Dallas in the Western Conference. After last night, that lead is down to just four points, and the Stars are all of a sudden looking more potent offensively after the addition of center Brad Richards.
Meanwhile, the Wings were limited to importing journeyman defenseman Brad Stuart from Los Angeles. They’re going to need him, as three of the team’s top defensemen, Nik Lidstrom, Chris Chelios and Brian Rafalski, are on the shelf, with Chelios proclaiming just the other day that he wasn’t “even close” to coming back.
While the news isn’t all bad for the Wings — both Dom Hasek and Nik Kronwall returned from their own stays on the injured list last night — you can forgive the folks in Detroit for feeling like the sky is falling.
So how in the world did this losing streak happen after playing such a strong first half of the season?
Well, obviously the injury epidemic has played a huge role in this. You can’t expect a team to win every game with injuries to the likes of Dominik Hasek, Nicklas Lidstrom, Niklas Kronwall, Brian Rafalski, Dan Cleary, and Chris Chelios. The Wings roster has consisted of a good chunk of Grand Rapids Griffins players so imagine where the team would be in the standings had only one or two players gotten the injury bug.
I’ve got a spreadsheet in front of me with the ice time of all the Detroit defenders over the past 10 games, and it’s rather unbelievable. Rookie Derek Meech, for instance, played 27:19 last night against Edmonton. Brett Lebda led the group with 27:41.
Another rookie, Jonathan Ericsson, was playing key minutes on the power play and Kyle Quincey the penalty kill, with Garret Stafford picking up just five minutes ice time total.
Other than Lilja and Lebda, the Detroit blueline hadn’t had more than a handful of games of experience in the NHL prior to this season.
The Wings are struggling to score on even strength. According to Bruce MacLeod, the Wings have not scored on even strength in seven of the last eleven games. That’s ridiculous.
Personally, I think the team heavily relies on its defensive core and with key players missing, the team is struggling to get in sync and maybe the current injuries are too great to overcome. Maybe we won’t see any improvement until some more players return. While our lead in the league and conference is quickly shrinking, Detroit still has a 18 point lead in the Central Division. While this could certainly change as 14 of our last 15 games are against the Central and we only have a 7-9-2 record against our division, our strong first half of the season allows the team to get its act together and find some sort of chemistry in the midst of all these injuries before the start of the playoffs.
Guest Post: A look from Sens Army Blog
Peter and Ben, the brains behind Sens Army Blog, agreed to share a little bit about their team, the Ottawa Senators, as a sort of preview for tomorrow’s game between Detroit and Ottawa. I also sent Peter and Ben a guest post about the Wings so be sure to visit Sens Army Blog here to see what I wrote. Here’s what they had to say about their Sens…
It all comes down to this: The matchup hockey pundits have been looking forward to since the first couple of weeks of the season, the Ottawa Senators versus the Detroit Red Wings.
It is unfortunate that these teams only meet once a season—if that—and hopefully one of the wild card games under the new scheduling structure is a meeting of the beasts of the east against the best of the west. Anyway, onto this game’s preview, from the forwards on back:
FORWARD
On forward, the Sens are goliaths. So are the Red Wings. The Sens are goliather, though; with Daniel Alfredsson, Dany Heatley, and Jason Spezza the league’s fifth-, sixth-, and tenth-highest scoring players in the league, the CASH line (as we like to call it; Captain Alfredsson, Spezza, Heatley) is the most powerful in the league.
After those three the stats fall off pretty steeply, but support players like Mike Fisher and Antoine Vermette can still be counted on for some clutch performances. Heavyweight Brian McGrattan probably won’t be dressed since you guys are lame fighter-haters, but he is one of the best in the league and could explode Henrik Zetterberg’s ugly mug with one punch.
DEFENCE
I will concede that Nik Lidstrom is good.
You know who else is good, though? Anton “The A-Train” Volchenkov. Possibly the toughest player in the league, Volchenkov often blocks as many shots as the goaler, and he can throw punishing hits like nobody’s business. When his power is combined with that of stalwart Chris “Big Rig” Phillips, fuggedabout any offence.
Our offence often benefits from the prowess of Joe Corvo, Wade Redden, and Andrej Meszaros on the goal-scoring side of the puck, although they can be a bit of a defensive liability at times. When that happens, Volchie, Phillips, or wily veteran Luke “The One-Punch Machine Gun” Richardson should be back to cover.
GOALIE
Whether you’re facing Martin “Darth” Gerber – Ottawa’s #1 goaltender for the majority of this season - or “Sugar” Ray Emery, the goaltender whose fists do not discriminate between positions or teams, the Red Wings may have a hard time. Sure, each goalie has their weaknesses, but either one has the ability to steal a game when they’re playing well. Who are you facing? It’s one of Head Coach John Paddock’s incredibly genius tactics to tell neither his enemies nor his allies who will be playing.
No matter how you look at it, the Sens will win. If you have any doubt, look at Jason Spezza’s sick two-goal game last time, in which he made Domink Hasek and his ticking-time-bomb of a groin look more like the dominated than the dominator (see it here). Oh yeah, and 1998 called: they want their goaltenders back.
ACL Surgery Video
I have another wonderful ACL surgery video link to pass onto the rest of you. Danny Way is an skateboard star and had to go to Europe for a synthetic ACL surgery, which instead of using your own tissues or someone’s who has passed away, the new ACL is synthetic. You can watch a quick clip of the highlights of his operation here.
Now, I’ve seen over 10 ACL reconstruction operations and none of which were this bloody so if blood bothers you, don’t watch it. But if you like blood / drilling and more, check the clip out.