Pavel Dastyuk who has been having a fabulous season to date, Had arguably his most impressive penalty shot goal this game, completely confusing the Wilds young goaltender Josh Harding by going backhand then forehand and then doing a backhanded toe drag finally pulling it to the right and roofing the puck over the goalies leg.
This was quite a momentous game for Goaltender Chris Osgood, Who hadn’t started in eight games, and according to him it was the first time this season that he was feeling perfectly healthy, and it showed. in the first 2 periods he managed to turn away 24 shots, thought Due to a dubious whistle and penalty he took one and then another quickly after that, but still managing to block the rest of the shots letting the Wings win 3-2. Henrik Zetterberg carried on his great playing from the Winter Classic which Bruce MacLeod wrote an interesting article.
The Red Wings beat the St Louis Blues on Tuesday 4-1, not due to lack of shots by the blues. Conklin the goalie did a great job again and out of the 34 shots the Blues Made - He stopped 33, making it his eleventh victory of the season. In the first period, even with Leada and Filppula in the box, he played so well that the five on three advantage the Blues had over the wings counted for nothing, and the Wings had a 2-0 lead by the end of the first period.
Datsyuk was probably the best offensive player on the Ice Teusday, with 2 goals and an assist. Next up is tomorrow, against the Predators and on the 27th the Wings will play the long standing rivals, the Avalanche, who did win their own game on Teusday but in the process lost Paul Stastny with a broken arm.
This of course could impact their game on the 27th against the Wings.
The worst kind of loss is one that comes though playing well, if you know what I mean ,and that is exactly what happened to the Wings in their game against the The Avs. in the first two minutes of the third period, just as the Wings were getting it together to get back into the game, Brett Lebada was just doing his job tying to help goal keeper Chris Osgood keep a puck out of the goal by swatting it just before it crossed the goal line. unfortunately, the puck changed directions and headed back to the goal. Lebada did his thing again and dove into the net keeping the puck from entering Detroit’s goal with his hand, but he was penalised for supposedly closing his hand on the puck which resulted in an automatic penalty shot for the Avalanche - closing the game to their advantage. Bummer. on another note though, I have to say that Hossa is proving himself to be a great acquisition for the wings, not a game yet without some serious contribution from him.
The Wings Coyotes game was to close for comfort, but then again, aren’t the best games like that? What fun is it watching a game that road victory is a slow walk in a sunny park. With 21 seconds left in regulation time Johan Franzen, with the help of Zetterberg, who initiated the play and then Marian Hossa, Scored his second goal of the game and sent the game into overtime for a tie breaker, where the wings top the game5-4. A very exciting game indeed. Other than the obvious joy over the sweet victory this was also Chris Chelios’s first game of the season with the wings after suffering a fractured tibia in the preseason. He has been working hard getting back into playing shape, spending some time with the Grand Rapids to help this process. Hopefully we will see a lot of him on the ice from now on. I find it quite commendable that this is his 25th season, in the NHL. No small feat. On a different note - End of the Bench, one of my favorite hockey blogs is leaving the blogshpere for the comfort of the couch. Since he has been one of my regular reads I must say that it, and its author, Drew, will be sorely missed.
It looks as If Hollands move of swapping Helm and McCarty on the return of the game trip, in order to bring new energy into the team didn’t pan out as well as expected, since the Wings lost yesterdays game to the Canadiens. Athough Helm gave it his best, and will probably be heading back to the Grand Rapids as soon as Cleary is ready to hit the ice again. Helm seems to be ok with the fact that he is going back to the Grand Rapids, because he will get a lot more time on the ice there than he would with the wings, due to the depth of the wings roster. Helm got 13:01 skating time in the home game against the Canadiens. He was centering the third line with Valtteri Filppula and Jiri Hudler, during which he shot twice at their goal, recorded 3 hits. Although this was a home game and the fist home loss for the wings since 31st of December ‘07, its seems that the wings didn’t really have the energy to win it. After 5 days on the road with 3 games packed into that short space of time, along with the jet lag it was a no go situation. Usually, the team has five days to regain there strength after a trip but not this time, and apparently these are the results.
