Red Wings at Isles: Game Day Updates, Keys to the Game

Mike Bremer

• 2 min read Front Page

Updates

Red Wings Lineup

Bertuzzi - Larkin - Fabbri
Erne - Filpulla - Zadina
Helm - Nielsen - Glendening
Abdelkader - Ehn - Smith

Nemeth - Green
Hronek - Bowey
Lashoff - Biega

Howard
Pickard

Islanders Lineup

Beauvillier - Barzal - Bailey
Lee - Nelson - Eberle
Dal Colle - Brassard - Kuhnhackl
Johnston - Komarov - Martin

Leddy - Pulock
Toews - Mayfield
Dobson - Boychuck

Varlamov
Greiss

Keys to the Game

  1. Score lots of goals. Let’s turn back the clock 48 hours. The Wings lost because they only scored one goal, and the Sabres scored five. Our mathematicians at WiiM (Peter and Prashanth) tell me that five is four more than one, and that means that as long as the Red Wings only score one goal and the other team scores five, they will continue to lose. Maybe the Wings can rectify this by not holding onto the puck so damn long when there’s a wide open net. The Wings show hesitation when their opponent collapses around the net, and because the opposition does this I understand the desire to create lots of movement, but not everyone can be a passer. The Wings need to shoot like they did in the second period on Sunday to score goals, which is to say they need to shoot often.
  2. Don’t let the other team score lots of goals. Our sharpest minds at the WiiM think tank have also come up with another grand observation: you do not need to score five goals to win a hockey game. Sometimes, you can score three. Other times, four. On rare occasions, two, one, or even zero goals can win you a game. They could even score nine! Wouldn’t that be a sight? The other team just has to score less than the Red Wings, which they can probably do by not allowing another damn short-handed goal, eliminating fast breaks, and forcing the Islanders to the outside where Howard will have the easier angles, because dude doesn’t move laterally like he used to.
  3. Follow the first and second keys. Duh.