(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Yes, the Red Wings were able to beat the Avalanche once again and on home ice no less. It was only the 4th home loss of the season for the Avalanche and it certainly wasn't due to a terrible performance. The team played well in general and, although looking a bit disoriented at times, put in a solid effort.
Detroit opened the scoring midway through the first as Valteri Filppula put a rebound home. It looked like Budaj misplayed that puck as he essentially blockered it right into the middle of the crease.
Then late in the first they went up 2-0 on another rebound goal from Filppula. This one snuck past Budaj's arm and nobody had picked up the streaking Filppula. At this point, every Avalanche fan was thinking "Oh no, not this sh*t again." Or maybe it was just me.
But hopes were restored by an unlikely source. Cody Mcleod picked off a Brian Rafalski pass, streaked in and wired a shot under a surprised Hasek's armpit for the first goal of his NHL career. He even made it look easy.
After Svatos tied the game with another Svatos style goal, things were looking up. The Avalanche were hanging in just fine with the Wings and were actually outchancing them at that point.
However Jiri Hudler broke the tie at the 11 minute mark and the Wings then proceeded to slowly start shutting the Avalanche down.
A late penalty and then a pulled Budaj were not enough to get one more past Hasek and Samuelsson - who appeared to have a stick up his ass all game - potted one in the empty net.
No, there were no points out of this game but they hung in with a superb Detroit team and that's got to count for something. Or so I tell myself.
Detroit was without some big names but I don't agree on that being a deciding factor on the outcome of a game so why should it be a deciding factor on how well the opposing team played against them?
I hope and cross my fingers that Q doesn't go back to Theodore on Saturday against the Kings. If it happens, I won't lose any sleep over it because it could be rationalized by saying "Well, it's just the Kings so why not." But still, Budaj has taken the reigns and there is no need to sit him at this point even though it wasn't his best performance tonight.
I've got company over so I won't be diving into the stats tonight. I'm sure you're all disappointed. I know Brett Clark is with his -3. Ok, that's as far as I go.
Notes
- Jeff Finger was wired for the game and had some super exciting quotes (actually half the sound bites they aired didn't even have him saying anything)
- Budaj's pads look so small on him at times (are they regulation size or what?)
- Svatos has to quite dangling and be an opportunistic goal scorer, as evidenced by the nature of his goal tonight and his failure to break across the blue line...ever...while carrying the puck
- Liles rocked Dan Cleary at one point as Liles broke into the zone at full tilt
- Clark was delivering some solid hits tonight
- Hannan showed some good speed getting back quickly to break up odd man rushes after pinching
- the PP sucked horribly tonight
Related Links
NHL.com Event Summary
TSN Recap
In the Cheap Seats Game Notes
On the Wings Blog Gameday
Abel to Yzerman Live Blog (relax on the Stastny comment guys)
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3 Comments:
- Svatos has to quite dangling and be an opportunistic goal scorer, as evidenced by the nature of his goal tonight and his failure to break across the blue line...ever...while carrying the puck
Good to see other people notice the same thing. He's one of the strangest hockey players ever. He's exceptionally weak on the puck in all areas, except when he's taking the offensive zone on the rush and that's only if he gets past the blue line. He has great hand eye coordination as we see every time he snaps the puck in to the net from a rebound. He's got some really unorthodox moves with his heal skate/inside-outside move(tm). However, when you think about Svatos on the puck he never really stick handles it like a Hejduk, Sakic, Burnette etc.. He does this tap technique where the puck is always off his stick blade. I think he's got a few things going on. He's a short guy but he uses a really short stick. Arnason may have pushed the length limit on his stick last year but Svatos is using a stick that's more like a pitching wedge. Any time he has to reach for a puck (all the time?) his blade angles off the ice so he's constantly losing control of the puck. I understand how big of an asset the short stick is around the net but it limits and hurts the rest of his game IMO. I also suspect he has a pretty wicked curve on his blade.
Never ever post a link to the A2Y crap again. Damn that pissed me off....
Good call on the stick length and curve Dario. He's almost like a hummingbird with the puck where every move is super quick but not terribly smooth.
Mike, sorry about posting the link but I found the bitterness so amusing. No cheers for the good moves, just anger at Stastny and Mcnabb for silly things.
I'm not sure why they're still so damn bitter but Jibble had a good post on Wings fans today at his site:
Beige Wings Shrink Needed
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