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Another good loss- but still a loss


yave1964

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4-2 loss last night in Los Angeles, much closer than it looked a few thoughts/highlights/lowlights

 

  The Kings are considered a bit of a longshot for a playoff spot in the rugged West but they played like a SCF contender last night, hard hitting, rough and tumble. Wow is the West deep.

 Bertuzzi and Phaneuf went at it almost from the opening faceoff and neither gave an inch through the game to the other, both not only finished their checks but they seemed to seek each other out to hit each other. fun to see,

  Little Bert took a double minor for  a high stick early in the first and the Wings led by Daley killed it. Then shortly after Daley fired a puck, caught his skate in a seam and went down early in the first and never returned leaving the already undermanned defense even more so. It left Dekeyser, three kids and the inept Jensen back there.  Jensen actually looked decent, had a good fight even.

  Hronek made a rookie mistake,in the third Phaneuf drew a penalty for a cheap shot on Bert and Hronek jumped in getting a 10 minute penalty leaving the Wings down to 4 defenseman for a critical ten minute stretch. I love his physicality and his crisp first pass, I love that he is fearless and is trying to develop a rep but he took the wrong penalty at the wrong time leaving us two defenseman short.

  Speaking of defense, Cholowski is for real. He assisted on both power play goals and was all over the ice. Incredible talent. 

  Larkin and Mantha both scored power play goals and were on the ice for almost every offensive zone faceoff. Both were a minus 3 but played very good games.

  Athanasiou hasn't had the start to the year that was expected after he was miles away the best Wing in the preseason. It will come.

 Bernier gave up two goals that he would have loved to have back but overall wanst too bad. Now the nerves of playing with a new team should be fine.

 Blashill called out the boys after game 1 for not getting the puck on net enough, they responded with 38 shots last night and really were pretty good. Good to see the boys fire from everywhere.

  With 2 minutes to go the Wings called timeout and Blash tapped Bylsma on the shoulder and had Bylsma set up the play with the five guys on the ice. It looked unusual is all for the assistant who is clearly looking over Blashills shoulder to run the huddle during the timeout.

 

 Kovie still has it. The Kings first goal, he made a sick play, dangling the puck across the ice with a Datsukian deke and drew two defenseman his way and fired the perfect pass to Kopitar who bested Bernier. Absolute great pickup by the Kings.

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@yave1964 

 

My $.02:

 

Bernier has got to be better. Those two goals—and especially the sharp-angle gimme through the pads and in—well, you give up two goals like that, you aren’t going to win too many games. Giving up untimely gimme goals, especially after Howard’s performance the other night, is gonna make the choice for #1 goalie really easy. If he wants to play, he had better compete better than that.

 

Nyke had several good chances last night also. ButMantha and Larkin were our best two players.

 

Funny that neither you nor I like Jensen much, but I agree that this game was better than his usual. Said so during the game, and then you echoed it, so it wasn’t just me.

 

Cholo is gonna be bigger than I had hoped. Dude was all over doing good. It is clear why he made the team. He will be, without a doubt the biggest change on the blue line from last year.

 

The difference in this game was execution. Kopitar knows how to make the lost of opportunities, as does Kovalchuk.

 

I was impressed with Campbell’s game. He was busy, but did his job better than I thought he would. I was hoping we could take advantage of not having Quick in the net. And darn it, we tried. We pegged him with numerous shots. He was up to the challenge.

 

I also think the Athabaskan miss, had he made that goal, would have changed the game. Unfortunately, unlike Kopitar, AA isn’t as seasoned at finishing those. He will get them, but that was kinda the game right there—our not able to capitalize on those sudden chances, whereas the Kong’s did.

 

Still, not a bad game. We just need a W here. 

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@SpikeDDS

 

But the SO loss at Anaheim should sting more. Jimmy Howard played his guts out making good saves throughout the game, while guys like Mantha are making costly mistakes like the ol’ “poke and hope.” Apparently, he is a player that needs loud statements to help him learn. That mistake cost us the game. Not a good game for him. 

 

I thought Silvferberg was the best player on the ice. Howard stopped several of his shots before finally giving up a follow-up rebound goal after saving the puck twice for the tying goal. He can’t do everything!

 

Now also without Daley, Hicketts was back in. I thought he played well in the first game. The kids are making mistakes. Sulak made a few, as well as some good plays. Again, Howard prevented them from paying a price for those mistakes. But this young D core has to learn, and there will be a lot of learning this season.

 

To our credit, at leas we are keeping things close. The opportunistic goal by. Nielsen-Rasmussen-Bertuzzi to open the scoring was pretty! Even Helm’s goal was good to see. Nice that Howard was credited with an assist. Glendening setting the screen and Helm netting a second chance shot. I thought Glendening had another good showing. He has upped his game so far this season. And, once again, even Jensen played relatively solid, better than I expected him to for a second game in a row. 

 

But this is a familiar pattern. 2 goals or less. Howard plays well to keep us in it. Defensive lapses cost us a crucial goal. Lose by 1 or, if not, by 2 with an EN to seal it for the opposition.

 

Glad we got a point. But if we aren’t going to be making early plans to shop some of our talent by December for the deadline, we are going to have to change the pattern. The message needs to be that we are not talented enough to win on talent alone. That work on the defensive end of the ice is what will set the stage so that when Zadina does join the club, his goals will be go-ahead goals and not tying goals or goals that bring us within one. I know that Blashill has been preaching this. It needs to do so such that ice time is affected—yes, even if it is the ice time of what has been a more mentioned player in the news who some have said could become the “next power forward in this league.” If his defensive lapses remain regular, then many of Mantha’s “power goals” will only be making up for those easy goals his defensive lapses give up.

 

I hate to say it, but this was ALL too familiar. 

 

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Wow guys...
Your Wings with another close but no cigar moment in Anaheim.

Personally, I thought Detroit skated pretty well against the Ducks....even thought they controlled a few aspects of the game.
But in the end, it amounted to just that....another loss.

This might be a microcosm of the Wings' season in just these three games...……… good enough for most of the game, but without much to show for it at the end.
You guys might end up with a large portion of your points coming via OT or SO losses at this rate!

I dunno what's worse...outright SUCKING like Ottawa and Montreal will be doing this year (and they will....don't let THEIR decent starts fool ya), coming oh so close like the Wings are....but losing anyways.

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You are exactly right @TropicalFruitGirl26. It IS better than sucking, but it doesn't always FEEL better than sucking.

 

This ALL depends on how you context looking at this season. If you are looking at this season for wins/making the playoffs--if that is your yardstick on which you measure a successful season--you are going to be a frustrated Wings fan.

 

If on the other hand you look at where we are and you realize that whereas we have SOME middling talent that is ready now on offense, and Jimmy Howard, though he has zero evidence that he can be a goalie that can contend with the best in a playoff situation, has looked like a very good goaltender last year and this year so far, our really promising talent is sill developing in either juniors or GR. And other than these young D-men who now are the majority of our D players while the vets are all injured except DDK and Nick Jensen (if you wanna count him as "veteran" (I certainly don't--he's a body, even though I admit his last two games have not been bad...hope?) bottom line is we are going to make mistakes, and we don't have the offense right now to make up for stupid mistakes on D. Anaheim was a perfect example.

 

My yardstick is this: I want us to be better off at the end of this season than we are now. I need to see fewer mistakes on D, both by the D-men--kids and all--and forwards like Mantha who CANNOT abandon their defensive responsibilities still score while making fewer of those. I do not expect a winning season. I am hoping we stay out of the basement. Bottom 5 would not surprise me. I can excuse the kids' mistakes. Mantha and AA are another matter.

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Here is what I would like to see for this year....

 

Larkin establish himself as a true 1C. I believe this almost certainly will happen.

 

Howard, Nyquist, Abdelkader   and possibly Helm dealt at or near the deadline for futures adding more draft picks and prospects.

 

Cholowski and Hronek establish themselves as top four defenseman for the next decade. I also believe this very well could happen.

 

Sulak and Hicketts establish themselves as a nice rugged bottom pair defensive pairing.

 

Bertuzzi establish himself alongside Athanasiou as nice complimentary third liners.

 

Rasmussen stick past his nine game trial and have 45-50 points establishing himself as a force as a power forward.

 

Mantha find another gear and become a 30 plus goal scorer. Warts and all 30 goals is 30 goals.

 

Zadina catch fire in GR get recalled and establish himself as a top line sniper.

 

  Even if all goes perfect we are flawed and not a playoff team, getting valuable experience for the kids is the best we can hope for.

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