Red Wings coverage leading up to Game 2
The Freep has been pretty good about providing updates leading up to today’s game. Michael Rosenberg follows up a story where he told us Pavel Datsyuk is a pretty good hockey player (hey, it’s better than this article) by reminding us that the Red Wings have only won one game so far.
When the Wings play well, they have the look of a playoff powerhouse: a team that can win with talent, grit and goaltending. Last year’s Wings, despite their gaudy regular-season record, really had only one of those three traits.
Dominik Hasek can carry the Wings for a game in a way that Manny Legace could not. (The Wings basically admitted they had lost faith in Legace when they decided not to bring him back before they even had a suitable replacement.) And the team in front of Hasek has the talent of a favorite but the chippiness of an underdog.
“I think we have a really determined group,” coach Mike Babcock said.
Moving on, beat reporter Helene St. James writes about how much it will help the Red Wings if the second line can catch fire.
[The second line] stands to thrive given the fact opponents have to use their top defensive pairing against the No. 1 line of Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom.
“We get a little more freedom than Pavel and Hank, so we should do something with that,” Lang said Saturday. “It’s kind of a finicky thing — you don’t want to just go gung-ho and open it up, so you really have to be careful, because every game matters and you just don’t want to focus too much on offense and forget the back door.”
That is a good point and is something you certainly want in the front of Langer’s mind. Solid two-way play is key for the second-line pivot. But that doesn’t really explain why he struggled on draws or wasn’t more of a theat with 3:31 of power play time in game one.
Earlier Mike Babcock mentioned that he wanted to see Lang get the puck to Bertuzzi and Bertuzzi could either drive the net or shoot and Calder could clean up the garbage in front of the net. Samuelsson doesn’t have the size that Bert has but he was effective in Game 1. If the second line can get on the scoreboard today it will certainly be big for the Red Wings. The Mule played on that second line when Calder first came to Detroit and that line was effective, although it was against the Blackhawks.
Franzen would certainly fit the bill as far as what Mike Babcock said he is looking for from that second line:
“We need them to be physical, we need them to be determined, we need them to make good decisions with the puck — no turnovers,” coach Mike Babcock said. “We need them to be relentless on the power play in going to the net; we need them to be dominant in the face-off circle.”
Lang wasn’t dominant in the face-off circle so hopefully that will change today.
The Freep also has an article on former University of Michigan forward David Moss, who grew up in Livonia and now plays for Calgary. It doesn’t sound like he has the best relationship with head coach Red Berenson.
The Detroit News has an article on the role former Red Wings forwards Brendan Shanahan and Sean Avery played in helping the Rangers take the second game against Atlanta yesterday. The Blueshirts are up 2-0 heading back to New York.
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