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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.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Thoughts on Game 4 (4-3 OT loss to Vancouver)

-- Worse than the outcome is what happened to Brad Stuart. The Detroit defenseman was hit in the left knee (where there's little padding) by a Sami Salo shot. We'll find out Friday what Stuart's injury prognosis is, but he left Joe Louis Arena, Thursday night, on crutches. He didn't look like someone who would be playing in Saturday's game.

-- The home-road difference in the Red Wings' play has been notable. Two games at home, 32 giveaways. Two games on the road, six giveaways.

-- Pavel Datsyuk's line was a force against the Henrik Sedin line. Darren Helm's fourth line was pretty good. But Detroit's second and third lines weren't productive. It was Kris Draper's line that was most often matched up against the Ryan Kesler line, a line that scored three goals for the Canucks.

-- The first power-play unit has scored every one of Detroit's power-play goals this season.

-- The Stuart-Niklas Kronwall defense pair hasn't been good thus far. Detroit has allowed nine even-strength goals this season. Either Kronwall or Stuart has been on the ice for seven of those goals. They've both been on the ice for five of the nine goals allowed. From my vantage point, Kronwall is off to a slower start than Stuart.

-- Datsyuk won 16 of 24 faceoffs.

-- I'm sure that when Johan Franzen and Willie Mitchell roughed each other up that Mitchell's late hit on Franzen two seasons ago (that left Franzen sidelined with a knee injury) was brought up.

-- For the second straight game, Jiri Hudler and Mikael Samuelsson were switched on the second and third lines midway through the game.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Holland needed to make a deal with Quincy and Samuelsson for a pick not only to clear cap space but to send a message that floating is not tolerated. Helm and Leino should be given a shot. Maltby should be on notice after Samuelsson was dealt.

October 17, 2008 at 1:02 AM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And Hudler STILL won't shoot!

October 17, 2008 at 9:22 AM 
Blogger Chuck Pleiness said...

Funny stuff.

October 17, 2008 at 12:33 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This team needs to wake up. I don't care if it's only October; a game is a game, and two points is the same regardless of the date. Is there any chance of Babcock reuniting the ZDH line when Zetterberg returns? The lines we're using now just seem to be struggling to find any chemistry, and it's unsettling. This is not what us fans are used to watching from the Red Wings, and as far as I can tell, we are NOT impressed.

October 17, 2008 at 1:11 PM 

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