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Game 2, Winning a game we had no business winning


yave1964

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Game two: Wings 4 Hurricanes 3

Last night in the second of back to backs the Wings went to Carolina and absolutely laid an egg. Just a horrible game, the first period the Wings lived in the penalty box, including killing a 5-3 and were outshout by an absurd 18-2. That is not counting blocked shots, Mrazek was brilliant keeping it 0-0.

It continued into the second with the Canes up in shots by 30-5 halfway through the game when Zetterberg finally broke the ice when the Cane defense allowed him to get behind them and Larkin found him, the captain did the rest and buried it behind Ward.

Carolina solved Mrazek for two straight shortly after including the annoying Nathan Gerbe (Detroit Boy) who seems to score against us every time we play him.

In the Third Blash who likes to keep lines the same made a change, he put Pulkinnen and Larkin together along with Tatar and they were magic, finally pushing the Canes, Ron Hainsey, feeling pressure from Larkin behind his own net threw it out front to Pulkinnen in what was a horrible pass, Pulkinnen fired a quasi-slapper from point blank and tied it up. Good thing for Ward he didn't block the puck, it might have went right through him.

A minute later Tatar flipped it towards net, Pulkinnen, a little guy playing big in front of the net tipped it and BAM! 3-2. Abdelkader added the dagger with 3 minutes to go making it 4-2 and then Faulk scored for Carolina on a power play with 1 second to go making the final look closer than it was.

Ugly game won by the kids. Pulkinnen with 2 after Larkin had a big night the game before. A few thoughts.

Carolina dominated the first 40 minutes. Blashill has stated that the best way to build a team is to let them gel on a line. But 40 minutes was not working, so he juggled the top 3 lines. The line of Larkin, Pulkinnen and Tatar was magic. Putting Abby and Z back with Nyquist was wonderful as well, they were the teams top line all of last year. I would not be broken hearted to see them stick with that for the foreseeable future. Zetterberg held the puck behind the Cane net for 10 seconds avoiding the defender until Abby snuck in and tee'd off. Lights out.

VERY impressed with Noah Hanifan of Carolina, a teen who made the team out of camp looked intelligent, a plus 2 and several very hard hits. The pairing of Faulk and Hainsey which is the Canes best was in fact their worst all night, both wearing goat horns with a minus 3. Hainsey in particular looked old.

Larkin for the second straight game was our leading shooter, and went plus 3. He only took one faceoff but won it easily. The kid is just insanely skilled. How did 14 people go before him in the draft two years ago?

Franzen looks old and slow. I know he is shaking off rust but he seems to have little left in the tank. He played only 12 minutes.

Mrazek was simply outstanding most of the game, but on top of facing 47 shots the Wings blocked 15 as well. TOO MANY shots, too much time in our own zone.

Overall, an okay game, one we are lucky to have won but at the end of the year those stolen points add up. Glad to have went onto Raleigh and come out with one that we might not have deserved.

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@yave1964

 

Two words: Petr Mrazek. That was the only reason we even had a chance to win. Marvelous performance by him! The D better be buying him dinner today! His decision making was excellent, and there were few if any lapses of judgment regarding playing too aggressively. The team played MUCH better in front of Howard. They left Mrazek to his own devices, and he came through, boy! Even though he gave up three, I thought his performance was better than Howard's in his SO. It was a veritable target practice for Eric Staal.

 

I love the initial performances by both of our goaltenders in games 1 & 2. If they can continue to spur one another on and play like this, there isn't a game that we won't have the opportunity to win.

 

My biggest concern, and the biggest difference between games 1 & 2 other than the skating deficiency was our complete inability to get the puck out of our own zone. I can't even credit Carolina THAT much. We had numerous golden opportunities to get pucks out, and we managed to find Hurricanes to send it to. You can try to blame fatigue, and that may be part of it, but it was more than fatigue. That needs to be fixed, and as strong as we were with that in game 1, it is obvious that it CAN be fixed. Suddenly one of our greatest strengths became one of our biggest deficiencies.

 

The Kid Line was brilliant in the 3rd. Babcock would have switched lines FAR before Blashill did, but it was certainly the right move. I have a feeling that Blashill may break up lines a little faster after this one. And he may tinker with them now. I know he likes to keep lines together, but more than that he likes to win. Blashill's a good coach, but I think to some degree this will be a little lesson that he will take with him to mix things up if the boys aren't playing well more than he has in the past.

 

Z continues his resurrection from the average. He continues to be involved in almost all of our offensive chances. If these games are any indication, he has entered this season with a renewed sense of purpose and vigor. It certainly suggests that his lackluster performance last season may have been residual recovery after his back surgery the previous season. He seems to be MORE than himself again. That puck possession behind the net was Thornton-like. Fantastic pass to Abby for the game-winner! Kudos to Abby for being ready for it and precise on the shot.

 

Larkin, as you noted, is the real deal. I agree with you: it is INSANE that he was available as the 15th pick of that draft. If it wasn't for McJesus and Eichel, he'd be getting a lot more press than he is getting. Boy, can he play. And a LOT of his play is sheer will! He WANTS that puck, and it WILL be his. I must say that this kind of renewed drive has been missing from our team for a while. And it seems contagious. Z's caught the bug. So has Abby. Blash was right to split the lines and let Larkin infect Tats and Pulks too. Intensity is infectious! Those two are hungry for that stuff! Just gotta feed 'em.

 

Kindl was not nearly as effective in game 2 as in game 1.

 

I actually thought Ferraro had pretty good minutes. Contributed to his line's play and was all over the place at times. Needs to work on getting his pucks out of the zone better than this game. (He's not alone on that, obviously.)

 

I didn't have as much of a problem with Franzen as you did. He seemed to wake up in the 3rd just like everyone else did. I would certainly agree that Pulks did arise much more with Larkin, but think that's got more to do with Larkin that does with Franzen. That said, Franzen was better in game 1 than in game 2.
 

You called this game an "OK" game. The only reasons it was "OK" were Petr Mrazek, and a very good 3rd. But I'd rather have a poorly played win than a well-played loss...most of the time, anyway. I really didn't like this game other than those two aspects, and it was good enough for a win. We cannot afford to play one period out of three like this game. I'm a bit concerned because we have several successive weekends coming up of back-to-backers, and we'd better learn to play in such a way as to save some for that second game. In one or two of them, it will be the 3rd game in 4 nights. Gotta manage that and get conditioned for it. Welcome back to the NHL schedule, boys! And for Larkin, welcome to it for the first time.

 

Make some adjustments. Learn from the mistakes. Get back to playing how we did in game 1.

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I was at this game. Several takeaways!

Mrazek is for real

The team looked like they were skating in mud for two periods

Nyquist and Tatar aren't finding any open ice

Richards looked slow and old

Franzen is at the end of the line

The defense is very good

Carolina is a very good young team

$10.00/beer makes it a 3-4 beer limit night

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I was at this game. Several takeaways!

Mrazek is for real

The team looked like they were skating in mud for two periods

Nyquist and Tatar aren't finding any open ice

Richards looked slow and old

Franzen is at the end of the line

The defense is very good

Carolina is a very good young team

$10.00/beer makes it a 3-4 beer limit night

Hey at least you got to see the boys win won, I hope you were wearing the colors proudly!

Mrazek and Howard should push each other all year as @SpikeDDS mentioned.

I really hope that going forward Nyquist gets bumped to the line with Z and Abby and Pulkinnen and Larkin are paired with Tatar, those two lines were fantastic.

The third line of Franzen and Richards and Sheahan is admittedly not a big plus right now but still can score as well or better than most third lines, I will take it. At least until decision time comes when Helm and Pavel come back. Then? Whew, just glad that someone else has to make the decision of who plays and who does not.

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@yave1964

 

Missed the game entirely, with the exception of the last 30 seconds of the third period.  Carolina scored, Wings still won.  I have no other thoughts than that.  I expect I'll have more when I watch Tuesday's game against the Bolts! :-)

 

I have to admit though, only two games into the season, it's fun seeing all those Red Wings on the leaderboards in the NHL stats categories.   :)

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Hey at least you got to see the boys win won, I hope you were wearing the colors proudly!

Mrazek and Howard should push each other all year as @SpikeDDS mentioned.

I really hope that going forward Nyquist gets bumped to the line with Z and Abby and Pulkinnen and Larkin are paired with Tatar, those two lines were fantastic.

The third line of Franzen and Richards and Sheahan is admittedly not a big plus right now but still can score as well or better than most third lines, I will take it. At least until decision time comes when Helm and Pavel come back. Then? Whew, just glad that someone else has to make the decision of who plays and who does not.

I was wearing the color proudly.  Problem is Carolina is red and white as well.

 

Franzen and Richards were the lowest on the ice by far.  But this is typical Franzen.  Be invisible for long periods of time and then score a bunch of goals.  I'm just not sure if he has that in him any longer.

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