Wings Miss Golden Opportunity
In the larger scheme of things last night’s 4-3 loss to the Nashville Predators wasn’t all that bad. Detroit gained one point to stay in first place in the division and conference as they have the exact same point total as Nashville. But the Red Wings had a great shot to win this game and get a little separation between themselves and the Preds.
The top line continues to play incredible hockey, as Tomas Holmstrom notched the hat trick last night. Each goal was on the power play. The first one tied the score at 1 (after Johan Franzen’s goal was waived off), the second one put Detroit up 2-1, and the third gave Detroit a 3-2 lead. All of Homer’s goals were net-front, with two of them coming when he banged home a rebound. The third came when he redirected Mathieu Schneider’s slapshot from the point.
I like what I’ve seen from Johan Franzen since he has been moved to the second line. He scored a goal that was disallowed due to a quick whistle to blow play dead and put the Wings on the power play. He also had at least one more high-quality scoring chance on a rebound from a Robert Lang shot. The Mule could become the Tomas Holmstrom of the second line so I look forward to seeing if he can help get that second line on track.
The injury to Dan Cleary resulted in the Red Wings not being able to really roll with four lines. The fourth line included Jiri Hudler, Matt Ellis and Josh Langfeld. The line only garnered about 5 minutes of ice time. Depending on how long Dan Cleary is out and whether or not Detroit is able to make a trade for a top 6 forward will determine whether or not Detroit is able to go with four lines on a regular rotation. Ansar Khan reports that Cleary is going to be out for 3-4 weeks. The injury occured on Friday when Raffi Torres hip checked him late in the game. Cleary is expected back in time for the playoffs.
The first two goals Chris Osgood allowed were probably shots he’d like to have back, but this hockey not golf so there are no mulligans. They were both soft goals. Paul Kariya put a shot from the left wing past Osgood at the 18:06 mark of the first period that just should have been stopped. The goal put Nashville up 1-0.
David Legwand got behind everyone at the 11:04 mark of the second period and went to the net with Robert Lang trailing behind him like he was water skiing as he hooked Legwand. Not a bad penalty to take and you have to appreciate any signs of feistiness you get from Langer. Osgood came out to challenge Legwand but he wasn’t aggressive enough and Legwand scored on a tame wrister that beat the Wings netminder stick-side. That tied the game at 2.
Detroit could have been up 3-0 late in the game but due to the two soft goals the score was 3-2. Nashville responded when they pulled Tomas Vokoun with a little over one minute left to gain an extra attacker. Dan Hamhuis shot the puck towards the net and Paul Kariya redirected it into the goal as he passed in front of the net. Just like that the game was tied with 64 seconds left. There wasn’t much Osgood could have done about that goal.
Karyia sealed the deal for the Preds when circled and deked near the right faceoff circle at the 2:11 mark of overtime before making an excellent pass to Peter Forsberg, who was stationed to Osgood’s right near the goalmouth. He scored to give Nashville the victory.
Peter Forsberg scored his first goal and notched his first assist as a Nashville Predator. He missed a decent amount of the second period as he went to the locker room but came back and played the rest of the way. Danny Markov and Nick Lidstrom both had bad nights as they went -3. Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg went -2. Three of Nashville’s goals were even-strength goals. Detroit went 3-7 with the man advantage.
Paul Kariya Peter Forsberg Red Wings Tomas HolmstromNo Comments
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