Gameday Updates
It looks like Mike Babcock is going to juggle lines in order to get the offense on track.
John Niyo - Detroit News
Babcock didn’t see enough from Robert Lang — or maybe he saw too much — in Game 1 against the Sharks. At practice Friday, rookie Valtteri Filppula replaced Lang on the Wings’ second line with Todd Bertuzzi and Johan Franzen . Lang skated with Mikael Samuelsson and Jiri Hudler .
Babcock wasn’t about to call it a demotion. Still, the message was clear after Lang’s lackluster performance Thursday — he had no shots, two giveaways and finished 1-for-9 in the faceoff circle, mostly against the Sharks’ checking line.
“What we’ll do is, whoever’s playing the best will play more,” Babcock said of the switch.
As I mentioned in my writeup of Game 1, the Red Wings weren’t willing to relentlessly drive to the front of the net. The top line has generally been good about doing that and Todd Bertuzzi, Johan Franzen and Kyle Calder have been effective going into the hard areas. But that really isn’t Robert Lang’s game so I think putting Filppula out there to center the second line is a good idea.
Bruce MacLeod reports that Tomas Holmstrom and Brett Lebda are out for this afternoon’s game. So it is even more important that Mike Babcock allocate ice time on the basis of whether or not a player is willing to pay the price to generate a quality scoring chance rather than just take a weak shot from the perimeter that is going to get blocked or just throw the puck back to the point.
The Red Wings need to get their transition game going in order to generate good scoring chances. The “half court offense” to use basketball terminology has only resulted in poor shot choices and not much in the way of second and third scoring chances.
Helene St. James - Detroit Free Press
The Wings took many of their 34 shots in Game 1 from the outside, unable to generate enough speed to crash through San Jose’s defense. Time and again, the Wings found the slot area clogged, and when they shot anyway, a Shark slid in front of the puck. There’s not much guesswork involved in avoiding a repeat of that today.
So getting some of the faster skaters - like Filppula - more ice time can only help to get the Red Wings some odd man rushes on the “fast break” to generate some good scoring chances.
Gameday posts
Matt over at On the Wings has his post up. He looks at what both teams need to do to be successful this afternoon.
Christy over at Behind the Jersey has another excellent, must read article on Red Wings ticket prices. I’ll give a couple brief excerpts but it is well worth your time to read the entire article.
The Pistons’ playoff tickets are in such great demand that they held a lottery for 1000 tickets to the first two games of round one. What was the price of those tickets? $12. Yep, the cheapest Pistons’ playoff ticket was $51 cheaper than the Wings’ cheapest tickets. I would be totally happy if the Wings had 1000 seats for $12. You bet I’d get there in line for that lottery. As a college student, I can afford $12. I could even get friends who don’t watch much hockey to go. Unfortunately, it’s hard to convince friends who are also poor college students to splurge $63 for nosebleed seats especially if they aren’t a hardcore fan. I spent $250 to go to two games.
In general I like the line changes. I think Valtteri Filppula will do well on the second line.
NHL Playoffs Red Wings San Jose SharksNo Comments
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