Gorilla Crouch

Following on the heels of this article that suggested contract negotiations aren’t moving very smoothly with Dan Cleary, the forward provided a reminder of his value in last night’s game. He started the night on a line with Valtteri Filppula and Jiri Hudler, but after the team got behind 2-1 and looked lost against a Wild team that peppered Dominik Hasek with shots, Cleary was moved up to play alongside Mikael Samuelsson and Henrik Zetterberg.

Cleary responded by scoring the tying goal with close to 1:30 left in the game. It was a soft goal to be sure, but as Wayne Gretzky once famously said you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Fortunately Cleary didn’t worry about the shot quality and just let ‘er rip. That goal tied the game in what was a playoff-like atmosphere as far as the Wings facing some adversity. Down a defenseman, the Wings looked a step slow against the Wild. The second pairing of Andreas Lilja and Brett Lebda struggled, but Dominik Hasek was Detroit’s best player early on and he kept them in the game. Bruce MacLeod reported that Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire said the first period was the Wild’s best period of hockey this season. If not for some very fine saves by Hasek the Wild could have buried Detroit early. For whatever reason Dom does very well when competing against the Minnesota, much like Chris Osgood always does well against Nashville.

With the Wings still being in contention to break the NHL record for most regular season wins Mike Babcock needs to be given a fair share of the credit. There were plenty of haters who suggested the Wings bought those great teams from the 90s and early ’00s and that the franchise would struggle when their payroll was cut in half. While that’s been true for New Jersey and Colorado, the Red Wings haven’t missed a beat.

Of course the franchise has done so well due to a number of factors, but there wasn’t anyone prior to this season who would have suggested Detroit could seriously challenge to break the record of 62 regular season wins. The team still has a long way to go to prove they are serious contenders - Chris Osgood said the next 15 games will provide a good indicator - but Babcock deserves a lot of credit. He’ll probably never win the Jack Adams award as the top coach, but he should, much like Nicklas Lidstrom will never win the Hart trophy but should.

Some obvious examples from last night include splitting up the ZDH line and the top defensive pairing when the Wings struggled early on. He paired Nick Lidstrom with Andreas Lilja and had Brett Lebda play alongside Brian Rafalski. He put Valtteri Filppula in Henrik Zetterberg’s spot alongside Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom. Sure, the Wild played too conservatively in the third, but splitting up Z and Pavel made it difficult for Lemaire to match up lines.

During the final stanza the Wings finally started to spend some time the offensive zone. Cleary got a cheapie to tie the game and then he made a nice pass to Henrik Zetterberg that led to the game winner. He sacrificed his body and took a hit along the boards to make the pass to Z. Hank cut to the net and found Brett Lebda, who made a nice backdoor cut to the net. Z fed him a perfect pass and just like that the Red Wings mounted an improbable comeback for a 3-2 win.

Minnesota Wild Red Wings

February 6th, 2008
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave

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