Red Wings Blog

The Florida Panthers were in town tonight to play the Red Wings. Scott Clemmensen was the goalie for the Panthers. For the Red Wings, Chris Osgood was finally back after kicking the flu. Jimmy Howard did a great job in his absence. Maltby was also back for this game after recovering from the flu. Maltby took the place of Brad May.

The first period had a fast pace but no goals. The Red Wings were pretty much on fire offensively. They had a ton of great scoring chances. I think they had at least five good scoring chances before Florida even had a shot on goal. In the entire first period Florida only had two shots on goal compared to eleven for Detroit. Not much work for Chris Osgood! The Red Wings also out-hit the Panthers 20 to 5 in the first period and out-chanced them 8 to 1. It was pretty much all Red Wings. For all the quality chances, however, each time the Red Wings either just missed connecting, or Clemmensen made a big save.

The second period was pretty boring. Gone was the fast pace of the first. There were a lot of whistles because Florida was doing a better job of playing their trap style defense. They clogged up the neutral zone and made it tough for the Wings to get anything going.

Late in the period Detroit was on the power play and Rafalski and Zetterberg worked the puck in the corner and got it to Datsyuk in front of the net. Datsyuk shot it into Clemmensen’s pads but stayed with the rebound. On his second chance he put it around him and into the net. That made it one to nothing Red Wings. The score held until the end of the period.

About halfway through the third period Florida tied it up. Horton had the puck and took it behind the Red Wings net and out front to Osgood’s right. Osgood was all the way over to that side hugging the post and Rafalski was also operating on that side. Horton passed it through the crease to Weiss who had a wide open net in front of him. Osgood started to come across and Weiss swatted at the puck and missed it and then had time to shoot it again before Osgood made it over to his side of the net. That tied the game at one each.

The third period was wasn’t much more exciting than the second. There were no goals so at the end the score was still tied at one. We were to be subjected to more of this boring game.

In the overtime period the Panthers finally started to play some offense. Just 40 seconds into the period Weiss passed it from the point to McCabe who shot it from the top of the circle and it got under Osgood’s arm and into the net for the game winner.

This game was another case of a team getting badly outplayed but somehow hanging around until the end and then coming away with the win. The Panthers were out-shot in this game 20 to 40. They had no business walking away with two points but there you go. The Wings had a ton of chances to make this game a blowout but it just wouldn’t click. That’s the way it goes some nights.

The Wings now head up to Montreal for tomorrow night’s game against the Canadiens who also played tonight. They beat the Capitals on the road in Washington.

This 2-1 overtime loss brings us to:
10-6-4
24 points

After playing Tampa Bay just the previous night, Detroit faced the Florida Panthers to try to sweep the state.  Ty Conklin started the game for the Red Wings and Craig Anderson was the goalie for the Panthers.  In a side note, after the Lightning’s loss to Detroit yesterday, head coach Barry Melrose was fired.  Assistant coach Rick Tocchet took over head coaching duties for the Lightning.  I think Barry wasn’t given enough of a chance.  Considering he had so many new players, new coaches, and a new front office, it seems to me like they should have given him at least until the end of the year.  Even though the Lightning weren’t winning too many games yet, I thought they were improving and I was expecting them to keep getting better and possibly make the playoffs.  But enough about the Lightning.

For most of the first period there was a lot of back and forth action but no scoring.  Then Marian Hossa shot the puck from the corner.  I’m not kidding he was all the way in the corner, well passed the goal line.  He shot the puck towards the net and it went in off of Anderson.  There was a short review and then the goal was officially awarded to put the Red Wings up one to nothing.

Early on in the second period Detroit scored again.  Lidstrom passed to Hossa and he shot the puck.  It looked like it was redirected off of one of the Panthers.  After that goal the Panthers made a goalie change pulling Anderson and putting in Vokun.

Florida got a goal a little while later.  They had three or four shots at it and finally Zednick roofed it.

Then, about halfway through the period, Zednick stole the puck from Rafalski and gave it to Weiss who scored.  There was some traffic in front of the net and Conklin thought he was interfered with, but the referees disagreed.  That made it a tie game.

Florida continued to jump on Detroit through the rest of the second period.  They actually passed the Red Wings in the shots on goal category which tells you that Detroit was breaking down again defensively.  They were lucky to not be trailing after two.  I’m guessing they got another verbal lashing from Babcock.

The Wings looks more focused in the third.  Datsyuk was doing his thing with the puck and drew a penalty.  On the power play Kronwall released a bomb from the blue line and Franzen redirected it right in front of the net.  Vokun never had a chance to see it let alone stop it.  Franzen’s tip was incredible.  It took some slow motion analysis by Mickey Redmond to even see it.  Franzen tipped it down low and it went up into the top of the net.

Through the rest of the game both teams played with a lot of energy.  Florida tried hard for the tying goal and Conklin made some great saves.  Detroit had a lot of chances as well and pretty much dominated the rest of the game.  Florida was finally able to pull the goalie with about 30 seconds left but they didn’t get much of a chance to do anything.  They got it into Detroit’s zone once and the Wings cleared it and kept it out.  So that was the game, the Red Wings won three to two.

It seems like the Red Wings are playing better lately defensively but they still have a few sequences in each game where they kind of lose focus.  Detroit has to be the only team in the league that can slump defensively and still keep winning.  It seems like they’re always blowing leads and letting teams back into games when they should have been out of it.  But somehow they’re still doing well.  They’re lucky that the power play is cranking right now.  If it weren’t for the power play and Hossa’s scoring, I think we’d probably be closer to the bottom.  I think the Red Wings are playing as well as they have to and no more.  There’s nothing really wrong with that as long as they don’t getting into the habit of coasting.  If you’re playing just well enough to get into the playoffs it’s hard to crank it up at that ponit.  You want to hit the playoffs rolling full speed.  But the playoffs are a long ways off.  I’m sure there will be many ups and downs before the end of the regular season.

This 3-2 win brings us to:
11-2-3
25 points