Gorilla Crouch

The Wings were better last night than they were on Friday, but suffered the same result, losing to Colorado 3-1. To add injury to insult, Niklas Kronwall was injured when he put a really big hit on Marek Svatos. Svatos flipped and one of his skate blades caught Krowall across the nose. Kronwall was taken to the hospital immediately.

I had the Colorado/Altitude feed for the game and they showed the replay shortly after the collision and reported it was a skate blade that caught Kronner, either on the cheek or the nose. It was obvious from the replays he was hit with the blade but it wasn’t clear exactly where he was hit.

Bruce MacDonald, who writes for the Macomb Daily also reported on the Red Wings Central message board that the Wings PR department said it was a skate to the nose. Kronner wears a visor, but it doesn’t extend all the way down to cover the nose. Based on this AP photo from David Zalubrowski it looks like he got hit just beneath the visor:

Helene St. James in this Free Press article gives a recap of the fluky injuries Kronwall has suffered throughout his career in Detroit:

Kronwall, 26, has already endured a number of fluky injuries in his young NHL career. Last season – during an exhibition game at Colorado, no less, in pretty much the exact same spot as Saturday – he tore up his left knee during an innocent collision with Dan Hinote. In 2003-2004, Kronwall suffered a broken leg after getting caught in a rut during a pre-game warm-ups at Los Angeles.

The good news is it sounds like both Kronwall and Mathieu Schneider should be back in the lineup after the All Star break. The break probably couldn’t come at a better time for the Wings. They have lost two straight games, and while they played better last night than they did against Columbus, they still looked a little off. It could be due to playing two games in a row and it could be due to the accumulated wear and tear of playing 49 games thus far.

So geting some time off - Nicklas Lidstrom is the only player who will participate in the All Star festivities - could be just what the doctor or team trainer ordered. Then the team can regroup for the final 33 games of the regular season. The team is in the thick of the Western Conference race for the division and conference lead. Here is how things stand at the All Star break:

Central Division

Western Conference

The Central Division, which was rightly criticized for being a weak division last year, is showing some signs of improvement. Detroit and Nashville have two of the top three point totals in the conference, and St. Louis is starting to show some signs of life after hiring Andy Murray as coach. I think Columbus will continue to show improvement during the second half of the season as the team buys into Ken Hitchock’s coaching philosophy. If they had any questions if compliance is optional, Nikolai Zherdev being a healthy scratch the other night against Detroit should answer that question for them.

Nashville has been the hottest team in the league this month. They opened up the new year with a 5-3 loss to Colorado. Since then they have gone 8-1, with their lone loss during that stretch being a 5-3 loss to Detroit. Since the Colorado loss they have beaten the teams they should beat (6-0 against St. Louis, Chicago and Columbus) and have split the games that were against their peers (1-1 against Detroit and Calgary). Sure, the Preds have feasted on bottom-feeders Chicago and Columbus, but St. Louis has been a much improved team since Andy Murray was hired on December 12.

This month St. Louis has won 7 games, lost 2 in regulation and had 1 loss in overtime. One of the losses was a close 3-2 loss on the road to Nashville. They have also beaten New Jersey in the swamps and took three straight on a west coast swing, beating Anaheim (no big feat lately), Los Angeles and San Jose (impressive shut out win there). The Blues have made an impressive turnaround under Murray, and former Red Wing Manny Legace has performed well in net.

Columbus really hasn’t shown any signs just yet that they are ready to move up in the pecking order in the Central Division. But Ken Hitchcock is in a good situation, as the expectations have to be pretty tempered and he has a good nucleus of talent to work with. The team has won only 3 games, lost 5 and lost 1 in overtime this month. They beat Anaheim (again, no big shock right now as the Ducks have struggled lately) but lost three games to Nashville in the span of one week, getting outscored 10-1.

But the Blue Jackets played a solid game on Friday night against a Detroit team that looked like it was ready for the All Star break and they beat Detroit soundly. So Columbus might be able to build off that effort. It won’t be easy though as their first week back from the All Star break includes games against Buffalo (at home), Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary (all on the road).

All Star Game Central Division NHL Nicklas Kronwall Red Wings Western Conference

January 21st, 2007
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave

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