Wings close in on #1 Seed
With last night’s 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues, the team has an 8 point lead over the San Jose Sharks for the best record in the league. That puts Detroit’s magic number at 3 games. Any combination of three wins by Detroit or three losses by San Jose would wrap up the President’s trophy.
The big story of course is that Johan Franzen has become Detroit’s power forward and has seized a spot on a scoring line. The great sign is he’s not just scoring on the power play. He’s also been very dangerous at even-strength. Here are his stats for the month.
| Games | EV Goals | EV Assists | PP Goals | PP Assists | Points |
|
11 |
5 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 15 |
One thing that could be a good sign about Steve Yzerman’s move from player to management is that he seems to be a pretty good judge of talent. He’s the guy after all who gave Franzen his nickname of Mule. I remember reading a quote where Franzen didn’t seem exactly enamored with the nickname but shrugged his shoulders and said what can you do? While it isn’t a flashy name like the Swedish Rocket or the Greatest of All Time, it does fit pretty well as Franzen excels at the dirty work where power forwards really make their names.
Add in the fact he’s a very responsible defensive player and this looks to be his breakout season. He could be matched up against Ryan Getzlaf and Joe Thornton if the Wings face either team in the playoffs. Here is what I think the lines will largely look like when the playoffs start.
Valtteri Filppula - Pavel Datsyuk - Tomas Holmstrom
Dan Cleary - Henrik Zetterberg - Johan Franzen
Tomas Kopecky - Kris Draper - Mikael Samuelsson
Kirk Maltby - Mark Hartigan - Dallas Drake
Nicklas Lidstrom - Brian Rafalski
Niklas Kronwall - Brad Stuart
Chris Chelios - Andreas Lilja
1st Power Play unit
Henrik Zetterberg - Pavel Datsyuk - Johan Franzen
Nicklas Lidstrom - Brian Rafalski
2nd Power Play unit
Dan Cleary - Valtteri Filppula - Tomas Holmstrom
Niklas Kronwall - Mikael Samuelsson
-Those top two lines would be comprised entirely of guys who’ve scored at least 20 goals - Filppula is the only with less than 20 goals but he has 19 right now.
-That second line of Cleary-Z-Mule would provide an excellent combination of defensive play, speed, grit and scoring punch.
-The third line has a good defensive pivot in Draper and two big guys who can play the body in Kopy and Sammy. Samuelsson has seen his offense fall off the face of the earth this season so I am hoping Mike Babcock will put him on a line that matches the player he is now, not the one he was over the past 2-3 seasons. Plus if he gets hot he’d add some much-needed scoring depth.
-While Franzen has made the most of his increased ice time and Tomas Kopecky has likely locked down a spot on the third line, Mark Hartigan has quietly earned a spot in the lineup in my opinion. He’s been good along the boards, has some offensive instincts, has okay size and good wheels. He’d be a good pivot for the fourth line. Dallas Drake can be easily replaced on the fourth line by Darren McCarty or Aaron Downey if necessary.
-Jiri Hudler was kept out of the lineup in most games during last year’s playoff run and I think there’s a chance it could happen again. He hasn’t had the breakout campaign that I thought he’d have and the emergence of Johan Franzen likely means Hudler isn’t really necessary as far as keeping him on a scoring line and hoping that he’ll provide goals. He’s a good set-up man as he trails only Pavel Datsyuk in primary assists per 60 mins of play, so he can make some contributions. But he led the team in goals based on time on ice last season and didn’t play much during the playoffs.
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