2002 Redux?
For some reason the way the hockey season is drawing to a close reminds me a bit of the 2001-02 season. The similarities aren’t so much based upon the roster - there isn’t one 500 goal scorer let alone three - but the way the season played out down the home stretch of the regular season and the way the playoffs started.
That 2001-02 team also faltered a bit down the stretch after running away with the top spot in the league. They only picked up 4 points over their final seven games. This year’s squad is doing better than that but had a similar stretch of bad hockey back in February. With the way the Wings are struggling with injuries it wouldn’t surprise me if they also struggled early on during the first round of the playoffs like the 2001-02 team did in their opening-round matchup against Vancouver.
The Canucks took the first two games at Joe Louis Arena by a combined score of 9-5. The Red Wings finally righted the ship and took the next four games. So my big concern early for the start of the playoffs is that injuries could result in this year’s squad getting off to a slow start against the Preds. Bill over at A2Y gives us the IR report for the Wings.
Maltby, Samuelsson: both out for Game 1. Draper, Homer: both coming back tomorrow against Chicago, but far from fully healthy. Kopecky: done. Stuart: maybe for game 1. Cleary: recovering, but scoreless since his return.
The biggest loss is Draper but he’ll be back shortly. The next biggest loss is Tomas Kopecky. I was a really big fan of how he’d come along this season, leading all forwards in hits, going to the hard areas in front of the net and trading face washes with defenders, and just becoming a well-rounded banger. When I heard he’ll be out for 4-6 months it just made me feel physically sick. I really expected him to breakout during the playoffs for Detroit.
With the injuries and a Nashville team that is going to want to try and rough up the Wings I wouldn’t be suprised to see Aaron Downey and Darren McCarty get some ice time. Jordin Tootoo is the chief antagonizer for Nashville but he’s seemed to be a little more subdued when the propsect of being pummeled by Downey presents itself. So getting Downey and McCarty some ice time might make sense.
This has been a very close series throughout the season with the Wings only outscoring the Preds 19-17 21-19. So Nashville has to feel good about their chances with Dan Ellis in net, as he’s been one of the stars of the game in three matchups against Detroit. Detroit has feasted on the power play, scoring 11 of their 19 goals with the man advantage for a 22% success rate. Nashville has had to rely on even strength scoring as they’ve only scored 4 power play goals against Detroit due to an anemic power play that has only been successful 8.8% of the time against the Wings.
Regarding Kopy’s injury, at least the Red Wings were able to sign Justin Abdelkader who plays a similar game. Red Wings Central has indicated he’d sign following the completion of his college hockey season which happened last weekend when Notre Dame knocked off MSU. The timing couldn’t have been better from a Red Wings perspective.
Abdelkader had a good first game in a Red Wings sweater although he’s going to have to keep his penalty minutes down which was a problem when he played for MSU. But he had one or two very good scoring chances in front of the net in the game against Columbus and he’s obviously comfortable and effective in high stakes situations as he scored the goal that won MSU the national championship last season.
Martin Erat has played well against Detroit as he’s been one of the stars of the game in three matchups against Detroit. Radek Bonk might be the guy who’s struggled the most against Detroit as he seems to take all sorts of penalties against the Wings - at least that’s been the case lately. So hopefully that trend continues. And Alexander Radulov has really started to come on. He hasn’t become an elite scorer just yet but he has all the tools to be a 30-40 goal scorer in the NHL. He will be a handful for the Red Wings defensemen.
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[…] Another similarity to the ones I mentioned earlier. […]
[…] Ellis was clearly Nashville’s best player and he nearly stole Game 5 for the Preds. The Red Wings averaged a shade under three goals a game and that was due entirely to Ellis. The ‘tender clearly had some puck luck as there were a handful of shots that beat him but clanged off the iron, but the Wings scored just enough goals to advance. This playoff series mirrored the regular season results between the two teams in terms of how close the scoring was. […]
[…] At the start of the playoffs I said that I think this team bears some similarities to the 2001-02 team that brought the Stanley Cup back to Detroit most recently. James Mirtle recently posted some stats that show the comparison is a valid one. […]