Blogs > Red Wings Corner

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, November 29, 2008

Thoughts on Game 22 (5-3 win over Columbus)

-- I'm sure other goalies have games like that one, but that just seems to be the definition of Chris Osgood's career ... make several big saves, let a ridiculous one by, in the end you win. Osgood's closest comparable goalie in that respect might be Grant Fuhr.

That said, Osgood isn't playing nearly as well as he did in the playoffs last spring. And big deal right now if he isn't on a team that is something like two wins from clinching a post-season spot. But Ty Conklin is the better goalie at the moment. In 11 of Osgood's 14 starts, he's allowed three or more goals.

"As of right now, I'm just not getting any bounces whatsoever," said Osgood. "The old cliché, you know how much I like those, you'd rather have them now than later. You'd love to get on a huge roll where you get some shutouts and one-goal games. I'm on the cusp of that. I'm just waiting for it to happen. ... It sure isn't pretty. But you're getting wins and that's what matters the most. I know it's going to turn and things are going to catch on fire. It will be awesome in the next week or two."

He's probably right.

-- Henrik Zetterberg was flying tonight. I thought he was the best forward for Detroit. He's had a better season than Pavel Datsyuk thus far. And have you noticed that Zetterberg's all-Swede line with Mikael Samuelsson and Johan Franzen has become the shut-down forward line instead of the Datsyuk line? I think the Datsyuk line was thrown out against the top opponents at the beginning of the season, but that role now belongs to Z's line. When Kristian Huselius and Rick Nash were on the ice, so were Zetterberg, Franzen and Samuelsson.

-- Odd faceoff game. Columbus went 12-4 in the circle in the first period. Detroit went 14-1 in the second period. In the third, Detroit wins the game after Datsyuk wins an offensive-zone faceoff leading directly to Marian Hossa's winning goal. Then Kris Draper wins a defensive-zone short-handed draw, leading to an insurance marker.

-- Good for Andreas Lilja. Jared Boll is supposed to win a fight against Lilja, but didn't. I liked how Lilja got in the first good shot, then after Boll landed a couple Lilja slammed back.

-- Brad Stuart's 600th career NHL game. Datsyuk's 300th career NHL assist.

-- Coach Mike Babcock switched Dan Cleary and Tomas Kopecky midway through the second period and the results were better. Kopecky hasn't looked like he fits in with Datsyuk and Hossa. He performs better with his former GR teammates Jiri Hudler and Valtteri Filppula. Cleary does a better job with the top line of screening the goalie, finishing plays and being in position with speedsters like Hossa.

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