SUNDAY MORNING COMING DOWN

By Adam W Parks

Saturday, October 24 2009, Red Wings 1 @ Avalanche 3

“Well I woke up Sunday morning, with no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt.”

It’s doubtful that Kris Kristofferson had a hockey team on his mind when he wrote his songs, but his lyrics feel uncomfortably appropriate after the Wings lost another game they could have, should have, would have won if it weren’t for...

Missed Opportunities

Colorado took a total of 16 penalty minutes and for the first time this season Detroit failed to score a power play goal in a game. Half of that power play time came in the third period. Four power plays in the final eight minutes and the Wings could not find the back of the net. What makes this more nauseating is that by not converting opportunities, not creating scoring chances, and not holding onto the puck, the Wings handed the momentum over to the Avalanche, despite all the penalties. Watching this had the same feeling of when bile slowly rolls up the back of your throat on a rough Sunday morning. Chris Stewart scored the game-winner on a limp-wrister that gave Colorado a 2-1 lead halfway into the third. All of the third period power play minutes came after that goal. 12:40, Paul Stastny, high-sticking. 14:37 Scott Hannan, holding. 16:57 Paul Stastny, tripping. Hannan was called for cross checking with 19 seconds left, but it was a mere technicality after Stastny stepped out of the penalty box and sealed the game with an empty net goal. But it still counts as one more missed power play opportunity for the Wings.

Craig Anderson = Really Good

This guy was so good he made the Wings look bad. 48 saves never looked so easy. 20 saves on the penalty kill never appeared so effortless. The Wings wore down the Avalanche defense throughout the game. Detroit’s shots on goal increased in each period: 12 in the first, 16 in the second, and 21 in the third. Somebody in the Pepsi Center forgot to tell Kris Draper that Anderson was supposed to get a shutout. The Park Ridge, Illinois native has eight wins in nine starts, a goals-against average of 2.14, and a save percentage of .936. He deserved that win last night, and deserves beers from his teammates, but Avalanche fans do not deserve to call this a return of "The Rivalry". Anderson is not the next Patrick Roy, and Stastny is not the next Joe Sakic, and nobody on that Avalanche roster resembles Peter Forsberg. Adam Foote is the only relic left in Denver from those days, and he is not the same Adam Foote from the mid to late 1990s. Did you see Nicklas Lidstrom smash his stupid face up with another slap shot last night? Hahahahaha. Sorry Colorado. Not yet. Nowhere near.

And I Say Row, Jimmy Row. Gonna Get That Win? I Don’t Know.

Nobody wanted a win for the Wings last night more than Jimmy Howard because this season is basically it for him. Make or break. Last chance to dance (perhaps) in Detroit. Howard’s potential to be a good NHL goalie has rarely been questioned nor realized. After his fourth season with the Grand Rapids Griffins everyone around Van Andel Arena was wondering, “When is this guy gonna get good?” Not to say that Howard was bad with the Griffins, but he was definitely on the disappointing end of the impressive scale. His best season was his rookie campaign in 2005-06. He went 27-6-2 and led the Griffins into the conference finals. By the way, that was a really good Griffins team: Jiri Hudler, Tomas Kopecky, Valtteri Filppula, Derek Meech, Brett Lebda, Kyle Quincey, Darryl Bootland. Anyway, things looked great for Howard early on in his career and everyone around Van Andel Arena was saying, “He’s the future! Send him to Detroit now! He’s ready!” In 2006-07 Howard had as many wins as losses, and the Griffins were knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. In 2007-08 he had a losing record (21-28-2), but bounced back slightly last season 21-18-4). Howard is now in Detroit because...well...he’s almost out of time to prove himself, and Ken Holland did not have enough cap space to bring in another Ty Conklin-like backup. Howard may have wanted that win more than anybody else, but he didn’t get it. He nearly played good enough to get it with 20 great saves, but that Stewart goal was awful, bench-able under different circumstances. He has just one win in a Red Wings jersey, and that came back in that stellar rookie year. He was lit up for five goals against the Blues in Sweden in his first start this season. Last night could have been his break-out performance, a much-needed win in Colorado for him and for Detroit to stop the bleeding and get the Winged Wheels back on track. Another opportunity missed.

Seems a common way to go, so get out and row, row, row.

Griffin Eggs

Jonathan Ericsson picked up an assist on the Draper goal giving him five points on the season and moving him into a third place tie on the Wings’ roster with Dan Cleary, Brian Rafalski, and Jason Williams.

Despite skating on what has been the best line for the Wings, Ville Leino has been very unproductive. He has just three points on the season and his two goals were scored in Stockholm. That equals one point in America for Leino. Last night was once again quiet for him, registering just one shot on goal while the other winger on that line, Jason Williams, had six. Leino surprised everyone when he was called up to Detroit last season by scoring five goals in nine games, but he’s not surprising his opponents this season.

Darren Helm stood up and flattened former Griffins teammate Kyle Quincey in the first period. It was a clean, open-ice hit that Quincey saw coming but could not get out of the way of. Helm skated on a line with Kirk Maltby and Patrick Eaves. Eaves was in the lineup over the scratched Justin Abdelkader.

Notes and Nugs

Coming Around-Todd Bertuzzi was flying around the ice last night, pressuring the Colorado defense and creating scoring chances for his line mates. He had three shots on goal, Cleary had four and an assist, and Draper had three with the goal. When the Wings get their act together, they should not have trouble scoring a few more goals with their top three lines.

Missing Marian?-Does anybody else miss Marian Hossa a little bit? His 40 goals? Sure he may have punked in the playoffs, but the guy was hurt and played through the pain. He still hasn’t played a game this season. The bottom line is he's an elite scorer. The truth is Detroit is still trying to figure out how to score goals without him. And Jiri Hudler. And Mikael Samuelsson. And Tomas Kopecky. And Johan Franzen.

Trending-Think you might be seeing some disturbing trends too? Here are some disturbing stats to support them. The Wings are 0-2 this season when leading after the first period. They have two overtime losses when leading after the second period. So they are having trouble holding a lead. They are also unable to rally a come back: 0-3 after trailing through two periods.

“And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad, so I had one more for dessert.”

Peace