Wings go winless in Sweden

by KyleKujawa on Oct 3, 2009 5:39 PM CDT Comment 6 comments

Despite playing in front of hundreds of family members and close friends, the Detroit Red Wings dropped their second straight game in Sweden to the St. Louis Blues by a score of 5-3.

Much like yesterday, the Red Wings got off to a very fast start in the first period. Tomas Holmstrom saw a puck graze in off his pants to make it 1-0 just 31 seconds in. A minute and a half later, Dan Cleary beat former Red Wing Ty Conklin to make it 2-0, jamming a puck in off a Henrik Zetterberg pass from the corner. Cleary nearly made it 3-0 minutes later, deflecting a puck past Conklin that was waived off because Cleary's stick was above the crossbar.

The Red Wings were unable to put the Blues away in the first period, despite a 14-1 shot advantage at one point, mostly the result of four straight Blues penalties. With Kirk Maltby off for elbowing, St. Louis cut Detroit's lead in half as Keith Tkachuk found a way to slide a puck through a sprawled Jimmy Howard.

St. Louis started the second period as strong as they finished the first, evening the shots out to 18-15 their advantage despite the margin they were down in the first period. Andy Mcdonald evened the score when he put home a rebound that Howard had deflected out front. Niklas Kronwall helped Detroit regain the lead on the powerplay minutes later, but from there it was all St. Louis.

Brad Boyes slid a shot through Howard's pads that just trickled over the line, and 12 seconds later Patrik Berglund found himself on a partial breakaway as he wired a slapshot through the pads of Howard, giving St. Louis the lead for the first time in the contest. Keith Tkachuk added his second goal in the contest late in the third, tipping a puck over Howard, to give St. Louis the 5-3 victory.

Jonathan Ericsson returned to the lineup today for Detroit after leaving yesterday, but Brett Lebda left the game in the second period after taking a hard hit into the end boards.

Detroit has four days off before they take on the Chicago Blackhawks at home to open up their North American schedule.

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Defense / Goaltending?

We still have not shown to be tough in front of the net nor have we show to be strong in goal. Our powerplay and penalty kill has also been weak. Until we can correct those things life will be tough for us.

by maksohockey on Oct 3, 2009 5:47 PM CDT reply actions

yep. They don’t show enough grit in the corners either. The Wings were ineffective because every time they had the puck, a Blues player would be there and launch themselves at the Wings. The Wings don’t play aggressive enough on defense either.

by dewman8810 on Oct 3, 2009 8:15 PM CDT up reply actions

Good Team Effort

maksohockey makes good points. The Wings better address their goaltending right quickly or they will be scrambling to get into the playoffs. Their division is one of the toughest and the kind of goaltending displayed will not do in the NHL. First of all Osgood is paid very poorly, I’m sure he hoped the Wings would reopern his contract after the 2008 Stanley Cup, he moped all season last year about it and only started playing close to the playoffs and in the playoffs, he was the big reason they did not repeat. It will be the same this year except Ty Conklin is not there to bale him out and the team. His career is over. Howard just doesn’t have it, his record in the American league was dismal and it will be worse in the big league, he is not a Conklin and will not last. Holland better be prepared to bring in the whole farm team and give anyone knocking a chance cause the Team cannot sustain that kind of goaltending. Both games were played well enough to win with NHL goaltending, its very deflateting to work your butt off and to see soft goals go in.
Right on about toughness, the knock on Ralfaksi and Lidstrom pair is NBC and other teams know it, great skill will only take you so far.
The Wings are not going to get gift games this year, the league is closer to parity with the exception of 2 or 3, so get use to it, but get a goalie!

by Jim P on Oct 3, 2009 8:29 PM CDT reply actions

Yep. I think the Wings should really split up Raffy and Lidstrom. Pair a physical defenseman with a puck mover. Stuart, Kronwall and Ericsson are your physical guys. Lidstrom, Rafalski, and Lebda or Meech the speed/finesse guys.

by dewman8810 on Oct 3, 2009 9:41 PM CDT up reply actions

Goaltending and other musings

I think it is too early to sound the alarm. That said, I do hope to see a lot of Mccollum and Larsson with the big team. One of them will be the future of the Wings net and the more experience the better. I also hope they use Howard as part of a package deal to get a proven, scoring winger, I am just not sold on Big Bert or bringing back Williams.

by rc2id on Oct 4, 2009 9:54 AM CDT reply actions

yeah, but howard played pretty good in preseason. I think he will shake that off later in the season. I think the Wings will play much better vs the Hawks.

Im like Steve Yzerman! No, not the leadership, goals, two way play or sportmanship..... Just the knee pain!

by Wings40 on Oct 4, 2009 2:18 PM CDT reply actions