Gorilla Crouch

The team has essentially wrapped up its work for the regular season. San Jose could potentially catch them for the #1 seed but the odds on that seem pretty long. Here are the biggest concerns and positive developments as we head towards the playoffs.

Concerns

1. Dominik Hasek - Detroit’s starting netminder has returned from a minor back ailment, which should be great news. Unfortunately he didn’t look good at all in the game against Columbus. Bill over at A2Y wrote about Dom yesterday:

Ever get the feeling our CMOI is always a shade more concerned with how he’s viewed after a game than whether the team wins or loses? You felt good? Four goals on ten shots, and you “felt good”?

That doesn’t make me feel good Dom. It makes me want to puke in a bucket, and leave that same bucket sitting there at my feet, just in case I have to think about a similar playoff performance that makes you “feel good.” Four goals against Calgary? Loss. Four goals against Luongo? Definite loss. Four goals on ten shots against any first round opponent? That’s, you know, pretty much the definition of a loss there Dom. But, hey, as long as only one was “stoppable.”

If you’re not stressing about the goaltending with nine games left in the regular season…well, you’re a strong man, Super Delegate strong.

I do not question the Czech Miracle of Insanity. You want Dom on that wall, you need Dom on that wall. But yeah, I’d be much more comfortable if he started playing the way we all expect. If he looks lost in his next start [against Nashville on Thursday] I’ll worry.

2. Scoring lines - During their recent two-game tailspin, the team has averaged two goals per game. During the last four games of their win streak they averaged 4 goals per game. They have their top 4 defenders on the ice and both Datsyuk and Zetteberg have been anchoring the top two lines. So the lack of scoring is a concern. Hank Zetterberg in particular has been going through a rough stretch, scoring only 3 goals over the past 17 games. Around the halfway mark of the season he was amongst the league leaders in goals scored. Since that time he’s dropped to 8th.

Reuniting him with Pavel Datsyuk would likely get him back on track, but would the Wings have enough secondary scoring if that happens? Another concern is Mikael Samuelsson is having his worst offensive campaign as a Red Wing from a goal-scoring perspective:

The Sidewinder Sleeps

Season	Goals/Game
2007-08	0.16
2006-07	0.26
2005-06	0.32

A debate broke out about Samuelsson’s value over at the HF Boards thread for the game against Columbus. My guess is Sammy is the Red Wing who misses Robert Lang the most. They would usually play together on the second line. Samuelsson also hasn’t had much success as the right point on the second power play unit. So Samuelsson is scoring half as many goals as he did in his first season in Detroit. If you can get him kick-started you can likely squeeze a bunch of goals out of him, but he just isn’t thriving as a goal-scorer on Zetterberg’s wing.

3. The third pairing on defense - I haven’t really dipped my toe into the donnybrook going on other than to point out that the third pairing on defense has concerned me. Matt over at On the Wings has something to say about Helene St. James’ commentary that suggested Chris Chelios isn’t a lock to play. I think the key here is the PK. Lidstrom, Kronwall, Stuart and one other d-man are going to play the bulk of the minutes. Lebda ain’t playing PK minutes during the playoffs and neither is Meech. So either Cheli or Lilja will play. Lilja can be physical but makes boneheaded mistakes from time to time. Cheli is pretty responsible but is a shadow of his former self when it comes to dishing out the punishment. My guess is Babcock is trying to subtly let Cheli know that he’s got to be a little better in front of the net.

Positive Developments

1. Johan F’ING Franzen - The Mule is in the midst of a very impressive goal scoring streak. His development [20 goals so far this year], along with that of Valtteri Filppula [19 goals so far] has allowed Mike Babcock to keep Datsyuk and Zetterberg on separate lines. Franzen plays on Z’s line while Fil plays on Datsyuk’s wing.

I questioned at the beginning of the season whether these players would be able to step into roles on scoring lines and be able to contribute offense. They’ve answered that question quite capably and will almost assuredly stay on scoring lines if they continue to play as they have to date.

2. Niklas Kronwall - There were a lot of Red Wings fans who were critical of the deal to sign Kronwall to a 5 year $15mm contract. Those criticisms would resurface every time Kronner suffered one of his bizarre injuries. I understood the criticism but I also gave the organization the benefit of the doubt because if there’s one thing they do very well it’s scouting and player development.

This year Kronwall has paid some really nice dividends for all the time and money Detroit has invested in what they saw as his potential. He’s become a top-flight defenseman. If he can stay healthy for Detroit’s playoff run they are going to be as deep as anyone on the blueline and will boast three very good offensive-defenseman. If Brad Stuart starts to chip in some offense than that’s great too.

3. The Return of Dan Cleary - There’s no real reason other than a gut impulse, but I think this team becomes much, much more difficult to play against with Cleary in the lineup. The loss of Cleary has allowed teams to feast on Detroit’s overmatched third line right now. That sh*t ends when Cleary returns to the lineup.

Chris Chelios Dan Cleary Dominik Hasek Johan Franzen Mikael Samuelsson Red Wings Valtteri Filppula

March 19th, 2008
Categories: Red Wings . Author: Dave

2 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

Leave a comment

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Anti-spam word: (Required)*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture.