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Up-to-the minute updates and insights from the Red Wings locker room at home and on the road. By Chuck Pleiness of The Macomb Daily.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Thoughts on Game 57 (3-2 overtime loss in Toronto)

-- The Red Wings are not playing well by their standards. The good news is that they have 20 games to get back to form.
-- Dominik Hasek looked bad on all three goals. Darcy Tucker's first-period goal did deflect off Nicklas Lidstrom, but the deflection happened very very far out. Hasek had more than enough time to react. In addition, he was caught leaving the near post early, cheating.
On the second goal, Mats Sundin was just trying to center a pass, but Hasek stuck his leg out to redirect the puck into his own net.
On the overtime winner, Hasek overplayed a non-shot, winding up on his back for seconds. When he got up, he didn't have his stick and was scored on shortly thereafter.
-- Jiri Hudler was a healthy scratch. He didn't sit out because of any injury. Coach Mike Babcock was sending a message that one point in 10 games isn't acceptable.
-- The Wings' top line of Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom didn't have a strong outing.
-- Aaron Downey looked very good in his limited time (6:47), frequently going out of his way to jostle Tucker.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

There was something else that bothered me about the Sundin goal, Bruce, and I'm wondering whether or not I'm off-base in this regard. As with Calder's goal in the game against Los Angeles this past Thursday, the shooter was bracketed by two Red Wings, neither of whom seemed to be remotely interested in checking him. It looked to me as though Sundin simply swept into the zone and did precisely as he pleased, completely unmolested by the two Wings in the immediate vicinity. It was almost as though the defenders were taking care not to invade the attacker's personal space, even with their sticks. I'm all for sportsmanlike play, but it seems to me that this "hands off" approach to defense has been costing the team lately.

February 10, 2008 at 2:37 AM 

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