Banner Night?
Mike Babcock complained about the team’s level of play during the preseason and the team looked pretty bad in their opening-night 3-2 loss to Toronto. Here’s about the only thing worth watching from that game:
You hear the number 19 associated with a game against the Leafs and - since the number’s retired - you think that might be the number of players with at least one point for Detroit, not the number of Red Wings turnovers! Ron Wilson did a good job keeping goals against low for a San Jose team that didn’t have a great defensive corps, so he obviously got the Leafs off to a great start.
Tomas Holmstrom was all business as he punched the clock, went directly to his office and scored two goals. Val Filppula and Dan Cleary both looked good as the third line was the other line that seemed to be consistently dangerous - to both teams it turned out as Cleary’s turnover resulted in the game-winning goal. That’s too bad because Cleary was one of the Red Wings’ better players, but it was the perfect game-winner for Toronto as it came off a turnover.
The second line generated one good scoring chance as Mule clanged a shot off the post; but they weren’t nearly as dangerous as you would expect. Jiri Hudler had a couple nice passes but tic tac toe wasn’t going to work as the Leafs overplayed the passing lanes. In games like those the Wings are going to have to skate and take the puck to the net.
Fortunately Mike Babcock is the type of coach who will be in their ears letting them know all about that. Hopefully the team will look better in their game tonight against Ottawa.
Let’s Go Red Wings
Red WingsNo Comments
No comments yet.
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
