Unholster That Weapon, Cowboy: Wings Lose

by J.J. from Kansas on Oct 13, 2010 12:24 AM CDT in Game Recaps

Detroit took on Colorado tonight and lost 4-5 in a shootout in which nobody managed to solve the riddle that is Avalanche backup goaltender Peter Budaj. The Wings came into Tuesday Night's tilt rested after Saturday's 3-2 defeat of the Chicago Blackhawks and took on a Colorado squad that had lost the previous night to Philadelphia after ruining a banner-raising ceremony of their own.

Johan Franzen scored two while Todd Bertuzzi added two helpers, but that wasn't enough to keep the Red Wings from losing the lead three times on the night. Ah well, that 82-0 was just a pipe dream anyway. Colorado had a lot of jump and played aggressively but in control. They outshot Detroit 38-28 on the night and really took advantage of a Detroit club that was missing Brian Rafalski's outlet pass.

Hit the jump for the bulleted thoughts:

Modano and Hudler are back to being way out of sync instead of slightly out of sync. They each had a blue line turnover that led to a Colorado goal. They'd be best served to sort that shit out. Modano faces Dallas on Thursday with (surprise!) the rest of the Red Wings; expect him to be better in front of that crowd.
The 2nd line of Franzen-FIlppula-Bertuzzi continues to produce while the Circus line continues to impress. I don't really care if line 1b outscores line 1a this season (considering the Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom line consistently sees top defensive matchups). However, I will say that I don't expect it to happen.
Speaking of pleasant surprises (were we?) - it's nice to see Datsyuk with 2 goals in the Wings' first three games. The guy has historically been a slow starter and I'm hoping that his fast start will keep up all season long.
Speaking of speaking of which (huh?) Todd Bertuzzi leads the Red Wings in points with five. Considering his entire job is to backcheck like last season and skate in straight lines, I'm so happy with him right now that I'd let him wax my eyebrows with duct tape if he wanted.
Brad Stuart, who we all worried about switching sides on the ice and having trouble adjusting has quietly put up a +5 rating and has once again been the best purely defensive defenseman we have. Kronwall had good jump early, but faded late and had what I would consider a bad game. Aside from that, Janik had a really stupid, pointless fight, Kindl doesn't look comfortable and it shows, and Lidstrom is off to a good start, despite not really looking like it.
Jimmy Howard didn't play badly tonight, but he didn't play well enough to win it for Detroit. He could have shut down the Winnik and Jones goals late and he didn't. The loss isn't on him, but it's hard to win when you give up four goals. I'm interested to see how his bounce-back start will look.
Helm and Eaves were dangerous on the PK, converting one shorthanded chance and creating several more. I like watching them kill penalties (at least as much as I can actually "enjoy" watching my team play shorthanded.)
Detroit lost the shootout in the most boring way possible, but they deserved to. You send that much talent out there and get no goals, you get what's coming to you when Brandon Yip buries one. My grandmother used to say those exact same words.
Get ready to hear all about how the Avalanche are awesome regular season-rivalry paper champs.

Red Wings face the Stars on Thursday. Hopefully Mike Ribeiro's wife is in attendance to start trouble. I hear she's a real firecracker.

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I kow its the beginning of the year but no reason to change golies coming off a win. Let one guy get hot if your ganna make a change do it on a loss.

wings getting outshot thats a rarity

by dia mette on Oct 13, 2010 2:12 AM CDT reply actions

outshot two games in a row now

Winging It In Motown

by Casey Richey on Oct 13, 2010 11:44 AM CDT up reply actions

X thoughts on last night

I – The Wings looked inspired….as long as it was tied. Their play while leading looked lost, and it showed by the pressure Colorado was able to put in our zone.

II – Howard looked a bit surprised by that game tying goal.

III – The game is a forfeit by Colorado for using an invalid roster. Brandon Yip is not allowed on any roster but Phoenix.

IV – Why in the world does Datsyuk not do something Datsyukian in the shootout?

V – Jimmy looked a lot more composed in the shootout. Better than I’ve ever seen him look, and he definitely gave them a chance to win it (even if it was his fault we were there in the first place).

VI – A tip for Janik – Keep swinging, maybe you can give him a cold.

VII – Modano did make a great backcheck after coughing up the puck, but after making the backcheck, the forwards have to get organized quicker. It looked like he got back, and then none of them had a clue what to do in our zone.

VIII – Apparently, now you can’t even hit a guy when he plays the puck. Thank you Cleary for discovering this new change to the rules.

IX – TOCHO. Did anyone actually watch this garbage after all the vomit inducing commercials?

X – Thank you for everything Malts.

by Robocop on Oct 13, 2010 6:31 AM CDT reply actions

Nicely written

Datsyuk was 85% Datsyukian on his shootout move on Budaj. It’s the exact same move he tried during this shootout, but the whiskey dick got the better of him and he couldn’t get it up.

by J.J. from Kansas on Oct 13, 2010 7:18 AM CDT up reply actions

hahahaha

well put…. he had so much room up top too…. thats what sucks, if you watch in slow motion it seems like pav could have raised the puck.

by bond021 on Oct 13, 2010 8:24 AM CDT up reply actions

“…nobody managed to solve the riddle that is Avalanche backup goaltender Peter Budaj.”

Here’s a start — put the f*cking puck on the net. The Wing’s defensemen had the best chances in the game, and came nowhere near the net.

by alexcutter on Oct 13, 2010 6:56 AM CDT reply actions

Another complaint

Is about Salei. Everytime the Avs dumped the puck around to his side, he would slowly glide behind it and never catch up. He was trying to follow a puck that’s moving twice as fast instead of cutting it off further up the boards. It never ended in a goal against, but at least 3 times it ended up in being hemmed into the Wings’ zone for a good while.

by Brion on Oct 13, 2010 7:55 AM CDT reply actions

Observations

I’ve seen enough of Doug Janik, thanks. Until we can get our defense back together (Mainly, Rafalaski) the forwards are going to have to help out in the defensive end.

The #1 line needs to be better. Z and Pavs look dangerous, but frankly, they aren’t getting enough chances, or finishing on the ones they have.

Howard did let in what I would describe as two “soft” goals last night. There’s no need to panic, as every goalie has a bad game from time to time.

The bottom line, however, is exactly what Babcock said. The team got outworked last night, pure and simple. They were chasing the puck too much, and weren’t strong on the puck when they had it. Because of the talent on this team, there will always be a temptation to rely on the talent, rather than putting in the effort necessary to outwork the other team. Hopefully this game will serve as a reminder that the Wings MUST outwork the opposition to have any hope of raising Lord Stanley’s Cup again this year.

by Big Z in Orlando on Oct 13, 2010 1:13 PM CDT reply actions