Thoughts on Wings’ 3-Game Winning Streak
Photo: Carlos Osorio
What a difference a defense comprised of legitimate top-4 defensemen makes. The Wings are now averaging 4 goals per game over the winning streak. Here are the stats for the D-men on the top two pairings:
| D-Man | Games | Points | P/M |
|
Nick Lidstrom |
1 | 2 | -1 |
|
Brian Rafalski |
2 | 1 | +2 |
|
Niklas Kronwall |
3 | 4 | +6 |
|
Brad Stuart |
3 | 1 | +4 |
The team had a rock-solid 4-0 lead this afternoon with less than 10 minutes left in the game and surrendered 3 unanswered goals to make things a little too interesting. While no one is going to be impressed with that type of meltdown it will hopefully get the team to put forth a better effort for the entire length of the game.
I also think the fact Nick Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski are coming back from injuries that kept them from skating during their recovery will likely mean it will take a few games for them to get back up to full speed. Lidstrom was excellent as usual on the power play but he stumbled badly when getting on the ice for an Alexander Radulov rush to the front of the net. That never happens. I think we’ll see Norris Nick back on the ice in fairly short order.
For the love of God I sure hope I don’t jinx the guy into a season-ending injury but Niklas Kronwall is finally displaying what the Red Wings organization has been telling us to expect: he’s become an exceptional defenseman. You can understand why Buffalo wanted him in return for a trade to acquire Brian Campbell. Kronner would have been capable of replacing Campbell on the Sabres blueline and he’d be a bargain at $3 million per season for the next four seasons. That’s comparable to the bargain Hank Zetterberg is right now.
Looking at the stats from Behind the Net gives you an idea of just how much of a jump Kronwall has made this season:
| Season | EV TOI/60 mins | GFOI | GAOI | P/M |
|
2007-08 |
14.99 | 3.22 | 1.41 | +23 |
|
2006-07 |
15.02 | 2.35 | 2.17 | +3 |
Red Wings fans like to compare Kronwall to Lidstrom and even call him Nick Jr. It works in name only as they don’t really have similar games. The guy I’d compare Kronwall to? This is lofty praise indeed but his game reminds me a bit of Scotty Niedermayer. But if people want to compare Kronwall to arguably the second greatest defenseman of all time the Niedermayer comparison seems reasonable. Let’s hope Kronner has as much success in Detroit has Niedermayer’s had in the NHL.
Part of the reason why I think it will take a couple games for Lids and Rafi to get up to speed is because Kronwall said that with the shoulder injury he was still able to skate so he didn’t lose much as far as that goes. With groin and knee injuries the top pairing on defense couldn’t really skate while they recovered. So don’t expect Homer to have any extra gears whenever he returns from his groin injury.
Speaking of Homer, has Johan Franzen earned a spot on the top power play unit? Dude has four goals in three games. He was supposed to start the year on Pavel Datsyuk’s line and I thought he’d play alongside Pavs and Valtteri Filppula. Here were the actual lines:
Filppula-Datsyuk-Hudler
Franzen-Zetterberg-Samuelsson
Drake-Draper-Maltby
Hartigan-Kopecky-Downey
Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Stuart
Lilja-Ericsson
The top line was arguably the strongest line on the ice during even-strength play. But that top PP unit was unstoppable. Here were the power play units:
PP1
Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Franzen
Lidstrom-Rafalski
PP2
Filppula-Kopecky-Hudler
Kronwall-Samuelsson
If Homer is out for a couple games Mike Babcock is going to keep Mule on that top PP unit. If he continues to produce does he knock Holmstrom off that top unit?
The Wings now have 45 wins and have 13 games to get 5 more wins. If that happens Mike Babcock will have won 50 games in each of his three seasons as the Red Wings coach. No coach in team history has won 50 or more games three times. Part of that is due to the shootout skills competition that awards a victory where in the past a team would earn a tie. Regardless it is still an impressive feat, considering he doesn’t have many of the advantages the team had prior to the cap being implemented.
The game against Dallas on Thursday is going to be a good indication of where the Red Wings are as they prepare to head into the playoffs. At that point the Wings could be playing in a matchup that features the #1 and #2 teams in the West. Outside of that game the team will only play Central Division foes the rest of the way. The Wings hung tough in recent close losses to San Jose and Anaheim that both had a minor amount of controversy regarding the outcome. If they play well against Dallas the team should feel like they are headed in the right direction as they approach the playoffs.
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