Red Wings close out West Coast trip tonight in Phoenix
The Red Wings are guaranteed at least a split on their west coast swing, which is an improvement over last year’s disastrous road trip that saw the team go 1-3. The only real concern at this point is the poor performance in Anaheim, but given what a penalty-fest that contest was I think it’s best not to read too much into that game.
Abel to Yzerman is conducting a poll to name the top line. I wrote a short blurb over at Armchair GM to make the case for the ZDH line to be considered the top line in hockey.
Thanks to Hockeytown Todd for pointing out that the Downey-McLaren fight has been posted over at You Tube. Here’s the footage:
Dallas Drake is out of the lineup tonight while he nurses a broken cheekbone. Mikael Samuelsson will return to the lineup and will return to the second line. Hopefully his presence will add some firepower to a line that is a scoring line in name only.
| Player | TOI | GF on ice | GA on ice |
|
Valterri Filppula |
79:49 | 1 | 1 |
|
Jiri Hudler |
86:22 | 3 | 2 |
|
Mikael Samuelsson |
75:11 | 2 | 2 |
|
Tomas Kopecky |
32:11 | 1 | 0 |
Even-strength play
They’ve only outscored the opposition by two goals when these forwards have played primarily on the second line. That’s obviusly not going to be much help if it doesn’t improve. Hudler and Samuelsson were on the ice for two goals against Edmonton so hopefully the return of Samuelsson will have a positive impact.
One guy who hasn’t struggled to score points since being moved back to center is Kris Draper. Larry Wigge has a nice article on Draper over at NHL.com.
The 36-year-old center always has been refreshingly honest and down to earth. He’s one of those roll-with-the-punches, no-frills guys. Hard worker. Great defensively. But once in a while he gets on a roll and scores goals that even he has trouble explaining.
Like during the recent five-game stretch after Detroit coach Mike Babcock reshuffled the lines after Johan Franzen suffered a knee injury in the Wings’ second game of the season. Draper was moved from right wing back to center and scored goals in five consecutive games to tie for the team lead in goals with the big boys, Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom.
With that being the case I don’t want to see Draper get time on the second line. The top line and the third line are excellent right now. Keep Drapes with Dan Cleary and Kirk Maltby, and let Filppula, Hudler, Johan Franzen, Samuelsson and Kopecky compete to earn a spot on the second line.
Red Wings Central does a great job tracking Red Wings prospects. Their most recent article focuses on players who’ve gotten off to a strong start this season. Here are some quick updates I’ve been able to find.
As Matt Wuest points put, Ryan Oulahen, Johan Ryno and Jimmy Howard have all gotten off to great starts in Grand Rapids. Both forwards are averaging a point a game over the first three games of the season, while the Griffins’ top netminder is 2-0, stopping .934 percent of the shots he’s faced while allowing 2 goals per game.
Brendan Smith has four assists in three games for the University of Wisconsin. I’m going to see Michigan play Wisconsin the day after Thanksgiving so I’m looking forward to seeing how Smith does. He’s off to a good start.
Goaltender Daniel Larsson has appeared in 10 games and has a .931 save percentage and 3 shutouts. He’s allowing an airtight 1.88 goals per game. He’s playing for Djurgarden, which is in the Elitserien league. The Elitserien is the top league in Sweden and one of the best leagues in Europe so he’s performing against pretty legit talent.
Forward “Hat Trick” Dick Axelsson is also doing well while playing for Djurgarden, as he’s scoring at nearly a point per game. He’s appeared in 9 games and has 5 goals and 2 assists. He hasn’t taken any penalties. I’d guess both Axelsson and Larsson have a good chance at coming over and playing in North America next season but that’s just a wild guess on my part.
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