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Game Recap: Detroit Red Wings 5 – Dallas Stars 2

The Wings welcomed the Dallas Stars into the Joe for a Thursday night tilt coming off an embarrassing loss to Florida two days prior.

Box Score Here

I’m going to go a bit stream-of-consciousness here because I also have to write the AAR, but here we go.

First Period

Ken Daniels mentions Dallas’ defense is 30th in the league just before Brendan Smith turns a puck over in his own zone. Neat. (Don’t stay mad at Bren-dog though, he had a really good steal for a scoring chance later in the period)

Darren Helm starts off the scoring with a sharp-angle shot that sneaks through Rynnas. It’s a perfectly lucky goal going to a perfectly deserving guy.

We didn’t even get a chance to enjoy the Helm tally before the Stars blow the doors off our defense and score an easy tip-in goal on a guy charging the net-front. This is an embarrassing goal to give up as a team.

The lead comes back to them later in the period as Jurco takes a turnover, hits Sheahan coming to the net-front, and Sheahan threads a beauty pass to Weiss with all day to snap it into the empty net behind Juicy Rhino.

Ericsson took the game’s first penalty on his desire to be close to people (and also hooking Vern Fiddler). D’awwwwwww.

Jimmy Howard’s head is a magnet for sticks still, as Garbutt acts like a fish’s ass in slashing the goalie in his dome.

Pavel Datsyuk scores on a power play and again makes me want to be his best friend forever. End of the first and it’s 3-1 Detroit

Second Period

Darren Helm got high sticked after walking around Jamie Benn early on, but the ref apparently thought he was faking it or something. I don’t know. This was pretty stupid and I was certain it was going to come with a quick make-up call, but that didn’t come. I’m not sure whether to be proud or disappointed.

Trevor Daley thinks he has the second Dallas goal of the night on a puck that squeaks through Howard and he digs out. A lengthy butt-clenching review confirms that Daley punches the puck into the net and that’s not allowed. Surprisingly, the right call wen the Wings’ way.

Hahahahaha of course the first penalty after the missed obvious high stick on Helm is against the Red Wings for a high stick. Even better is that Helm gets a shorthanded breakaway on the PK and is tripped without drawing a call. Maybe it’s just that you’re allowed to do whatever you want to Helm?

Dallas scores on this powerplay because of course. Tyler Seguin is good.

The next penalty is also on Detroit as Weiss steps in front of Fiddler to help out his defense. Fiddler makes sure the ref sees it and Weiss goes to the box. This is a pretty good call. Context just makes me angry. The Wings kill this one off without getting any breakaways.

Just before the 2nd draws to a close, the refs prove that they remember how to call a penalty on Dallas as they bust Cody Eakin for the unforgivable sin of putting the puck over the glass in his own zone. This monster will have to stay in his prison for the entire intermission too and probably was forced to wear a Hannibal Lecter mask for good measure. What a disgusting human being. I’m glad they’re putting their foot down on this shit. 3-2 Detroit at the end of two.

Third Period

The third period starts out kind of boring until the 7:39 mark when the Jurco-Sheahan-Weiss line continues their dominance in this game by entering with speed and then making space to allow the defense to collapse too far down in the zone. This gives the space needed for a pass to Quincey that he blasts into traffic. Rynnas never sees it as it’s tipped over his shoulder in front.

Minutes later, we almost got lightning striking twice as the other notoriously often-blocked defenseman gets a shot through when Jonathan Ericsson sees a wrister tipped off the goalpost by Helm.

Detroit cruises for another few minutes until Nyquist earns another power play by turning the corner really fast on John Klingberg and inspiring him into a manly cuddle. Two minutes for adorable!

Helm suffocates any chance for a Dallas comeback with a post-power play marker as Tatar and Datsyuk show they’re both prime playmakers in combining to get the puck to Helm all alone out front on Rynnas’ left side. Helm gives a little juke and a little deke and juuuuuuust a touch of dangle before sniping it over what must have been a very confused goalie watching Darren Helm showcase hands.

The game ends with Detroit continuing to control the puck. What a game. 5-2 Wings win.

Other Thoughts

  • Detroit’s defense terrifies me, but it’s fun watching a defense on the other end that would be every bit as terrifying if I were a fan of that team. I’m certain Dallas has a system, but I’m not sure what it is other than “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! MY HAIR IS ON FIRE! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!”
  • People are going to keep saying it until everybody is saying it, but Tomas Jurco makes any line he is on better. That’s not really a common trait. The guy is positionally sound, uses his body, has a good shot (most of the time), and amazing vision/hands. This isn’t a case of he’s going to be good; he’s already there. Pretty exciting for a kid his age.
  • I was worried about this game being a wide-open free-for-all, but I think the more the play was like that, the more it benefited the Wings.
  • Reffing complaints!
  • I just realized that when I put a bit of mumbled randomly-typed text as a placeholder, I often spell out “ass fass” and that makes me laugh.
  • This was a great rebound from an ugly game on Tuesday. The Wings thoroughly controlled play and stymied a powerful, creative Dallas Stars offense while keeping pressure on the defense. I think part of it was that Dallas was trying to be better defensively so they played back in the neutral zone a bit too much, which gave the Red Wings’ room, but it’s nice to see them take advantage.

Forward Lines

I thought Jurco-Sheahan-Weiss was the most dangerous forward line for the Wings. They had easier match-ups and none of them played over 12 minutes, but I love the stuff they brought.

The Fourth Line was overmatched at times, but came out pretty well in this game. They managed to get a few good opportunities and two of three of them even had a positive Corsi (Glendening was -1).

The Zetterberg line looked a bit snakebitten in the offensive zone and spent more time than I wanted to see in the defensive zone, but they were also tasked with tough competition.

Datsyuk and Tatar’s chemistry is coming around nicely and if Helm can keep his hands in the condition they were in tonight, that’s essentially another line like the one Abdelkader helps create when he’s in the lineup. I really liked their puck movement.

Defensive Pairs

Ericsson-Kronwall had a much better night than they had been having recently. They really cut down on the turnovers and I thought both were smart in the offensive zone.

Quincey-DeKeyser was the adventure pair in this one. They had more scary moments than other pairs, but Quincey ended up a +4 and really looked solid in front of his own net. DK continues to impress as his outlet pass develops.

Smith-Kindl were as solid as you can ask for from a third pairing. Kindl was careful but unremarkable and Smith showed very well-timed aggression. His good plays to mistakes ratio was definitely on the positive side, despite a big noticeable mistake in the first which led to the Dallas goal in that period.

Next game is Saturday against the Rangers. LGRW!

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