Bert's Heroic Effort and A Little Bit of Reminiscing

By Adam W Parks

Saturday, November 28, 2009 Red Wings 4 @ Blues 3 SO



Oh how Saturday's contest against the Blues had the feeling of a playoff game. Sure, the stakes were not nearly as high as, say, a double-overtime game seven in the second round of the playoffs, but it did have that must-win feel for the Wings. It was a battle for pride, for last place in the Central Division. The Blues had won four of their last five games coming in. Detroit was on a three-game winless streak and had been shutout twice in a row for the first time since 2001. They looked like a blind firing squad shooting in every direction, hitting only one target in 111 shots in those three contests. That is a shooting percentage of 0.009%. When things could not get much worse for the Wings, they came out and played possibly their worst period of hockey of the season and headed to the locker rooms distraught, disheveled, and down 2-0 to St. Louis.

A First Period From H-E-Double Hockey Sticks

As unappealing as the title to this segment is, it is nothing compared to how the Wings played in the first period against the Blues. Detroit looked like a drunken hiker tromping and stomping around aimlessly in the woods, while St. Louis lay coiled and ready to spring an attack at any misstep from the Wings. Despite allowing two goals in the opening session, Jimmy Howard played outstanding and stopped numerous quality scoring opportunities from the Blues, particularly on an Andy McDonald breakaway attempt. Brad Stuart had stepped up into the play and Nicklas Lidstrom, not quite a super-hero, could be everywhere at once. But Howard made a fantastic save to keep the score somewhat respectable. St. Louis's defense did an excellent job of keeping the Wings forecheckers against the boards and kept the puck away from the ice in front of Chris Mason. Detroit was able to muster 12 shots on net but Mason was scarcely challenged as he only faced two true scoring opportunities. St. Louis had 13 shots and six high-quality scoring chances, though it seemed like they had twice that amount. The score could have easily been 5, 6, or even 7-0 after the first 20 minutes, but Howie was huge.

The Two-Goal Lead Theme

If you recall, both of the games that these two teams played in Sweden to kick off the season resulted in victories for the Blues after the Wings had led at one point in each game by two goals. It was hard to imagine that Detroit would be able to recover after such an awful first period and reverse that theme. Mike Babcock's comments to his players during the first intermission were surely laced with profanity and disparaging remarks about the team's performance...well, at least that was my reaction. In fact, this is word-for-word, albeit edited, what I wrote in my notes during the first break in play:

They better @#$%ing wake up quick and start hitting people and playing with some @#$%ing emotion. Complacency and @#$%ty play, hunkering down and doing the same god-damn thing isn't working. Try something else. It's one thing to out-play the opposition and not be able to score, but to get out-@#$%ing-played and look like complete horse @#$% means something is definitely wrong. They say the Wings had two scoring chances, but I didn't @#$%ing see one of them.

Whether or not he screamed and cried like me, Babcock's message sunk in as the Wings went from complacency to assertiveness and finally found the back of the net, ending a 175:57 goal-less drought. And it was a beauty! 2:35 into the second period during the Wings' first power play opportunity of the game, Pavel Datsyuk fed a rink-wide pass deep within the Blues' zone to Henrik Zetterberg who quickly faked a shot and sent the puck in front of the net towards Tomas Holmstrom. Holmer easily tipped in the pass for his tenth goal of the season and his first in eight games.

The play was amazing, a typical power play goal for the Wings in the style that had been extremely scarce as of late. Ken Daniels was even hesitant to make the call, as even he seemed to have been lulled into a state of scoreless stupor. The goal woke everyone up on the Wings' bench and the ice began to tilt in Detroit's favor. Kris Draper tied the score at 2-2 early in the third, and Zetterber got a late miracle goal to force overtime after Brad Boyes had given the Blues the lead again midway through the period. Finally! A bad bounce that was good for Detroit! From behind the net, Hank backhanded the puck towards a pile of players in front of Mason and got an assist from Blues' defenseman Barret Jackman's arm. It was Zetterberg's tenth of the season, tying him with Holmstrom for tops on the team, but the hero of the game had yet to reveal himself.

Bert Score Goal. Bert Win Game. Bert Good. Unga Bunga.

Remember that old Scooby Doo spinoff cartoon character Captain Caveman? He kind of reminds me of one of the Wings...Anyway, Todd Bertuzzi finally got a puck past a goaltender that did not hit a post. A year ago, Bert would have been a winger on the Wings' third line at best. This season he has been given plenty of opportunities to perform and regain a shred of his elite scoring abilities from when he was skating around with Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison in Vancouver. From the 1999-00 season through 2005-06, Bertuzzi averaged better than 69 points per season, and twice he averaged more than a point per game. His most prolific period came in 2002-03 when he racked up 46 goals and 97 points in a full 82-game season. With his combined size and skill, he was once one of the most formidable players on the ice, but injuries have taken a toll in recent years. Now healthy, the Wings had high hopes that he would be able to show a version of his former self this season.

It would have been unreasonable to assume that Bert could post numbers similar to those during his haydays as a Canuck, and nobody had honest anticipations of that. However point totals similar to his last two seasons was not out of the question of expectation. In 2007-08 with the Anaheim Ducks, Bert potted 14 goals and 40 points in 68 games. The following season, now with the Flames in Calgary, he bettered those numbers in two less games (15 goals and 44 points). He also took 23 less penalty minutes wearing a Flames jersey than he did with an Anaheim sweater. No doubt Ken Holland and Mike Babcock looked at this slight, yet certain, increase in numbers and felt that Bertuzzi could come back to Detroit and bolster a depleted roster that lacked tough guys and goal-scoreres.

To be honest, Bertuzzi has looked like a neanderthal on skates this season. Despite hustling, his style of skating appears pedestrian. Slower than a tricycle with square wheels. He has been winging it with Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg for most of the season and has not been quick enough, hands and feet, to keep up with his centermen. He is a grinder, a wear-you-down type of player who, if given the space, can hurt you. He has not been able to consistently create space for himself this season and is often out of place and/or unprepared for plays and passes from Datsyuk and Zetterberg. The Wings cannot afford to drop him down as they need him on a top-line right now because of injuries, but he would be better suited on a third line with say Darren Helm and Kris Draper. How dangerous would the fourth line be with Justin Abdelkader centering with Bertuzzi and Brad May/Patrick Eaves/Kirk Maltby?

Bert has been trying, hockey gods help him, but pucks have not gone his way so far. His shots on goal total of 72 is second on the team behind Zetterberg (100), and he has hit more posts than a 16-year-old girl behind the wheel of her parents car. His ten points and minus-five rating are disappointing, but his three goals on the season is down-right disturbing when ice-time and linemates are taken into consideration. He has rotated between the first and second lines and has received plenty of time on the power play all season long. In the past seven games he has skated less than 15 minutes just once, and that was Saturday in St. Louis (13:52). Yet he has just one point during that span, an assist that coincidentally came in that same game against the Blues.

But Bert may have exemplified Detroit's grit and determination better than any other Wing against St. Louis. Of all the skaters on the Detroit bench that were gripping their sticks too tightly, Bertuzzi became the hero during the shootout when he froze Blues' goalie Chris Mason with a silky forehand to backhand move and effortlessly roofed the puck for the game-winner. With that deke and that shot he proved that he still has the hands to score upwards of 20 goals in this league...he just needs to start doing it in regulation now. If Bert can get some consistent goals, he may be the catalyst for this Wings team that is in desperate need of some consistent scoring.





Griffin Eggs

Howie Does It Again-Howard is lookin' good. He played a stellar game in St. Louis and was the only bright spot for the Wings in that forgettable first period. He stopped 31 of 34 shots in regulation, turned away the Blues only shot in overtime, and snuffed out Brad Boyes, David Perron, and T.J. Oshie in succession after giving up the first shootout goal to McDonald. Whereas Chris Osgood has struggled of late, Howard has been steady in relief. Here is how the goalies matchup through 25 games played.

Ozzie has a record of 6-5-3 with a goals-against average of 2.75 and a save percentage of .897% in 829 minutes of play. He has one shutout, a 29-save effort that came against the Boston Bruins. Howard is 6-4-1 with a 2.70 GAA and has stopped .902% of shots faced in 690 minutes of time between the pipes. He does not have a shutout, but he does have a point--an assist on a Zetterberg empty net, hat trick goal against Anaheim.

In a November to forget, Osgood has not found much success after returning to the roster due to an illness. He is 2-3-1 this month, but he is 0-3-1 in his last four starts after missing nearly two weeks with the flu. Howard filled in admirably when Ozzie was shut down by winning three starts in a row, and is 5-2 this month. Any doubts about this guy deserving this opportunity with the Wings should be dismissed. He has deserved and earned my respect.

Nugs and Notes

This post is a bit stat-heavy, so I figured I would reminisce about that 1996 game-seven thriller over the Blues a little bit. I was 15 and a freshman in high school. I remember the game was on a school night because I was exhausted the next day in class after staying up all night long watching and freaking out. I found myself gnawing on my fingernails on Saturday in the same manner as I had back on that night in 96, and since the outcome was the same, I figure why not? Let's look back on one of the best Wings game ever played.

That Blues team was great in coach Mike Keenan's first season in St. Louis, though they lacked cohesion. The team traded for Wayne Gretzky in February of that season with hopes that reuniting him with Craig 'Hat-less' MacTavish, Shayne Corson, Glenn Anderson, and goaltender Grant Fuhr would ignite some Edmonton Oiler-like magic in St. Louis. The Blues also sent ripples through the league by trading Brendan Shanahan to the (sigh) Hartford Whalers for Chris 'The D-Bag' Pronger. Forget about the names already mentioned, the roster was still sick and stacked as Gretzky also captained Brett Hull, Al MacInnis, Dale Hawerchuk, Geoff Courtnall, Stephane Matteau, Igor Kravchuk, and Charlie Huddy.

Fuhr was injured during the final game of the regular season and was only able to appear in two playoff games, but Jon Casey stepped in and played out of his freaking mind. The dude looked like Dominik Hasek circa the Buffalo Sabres years. The Blues actually led the favored-Wings in the series 3-2, but Detroit stole game six in St. Louis, and then this happened at the Joe:



It was one of the most thrilling sports experiences of my life. The circumstances around the game, the goal, the Captain (Steve Yzerman was rumored to be traded away before the start of the season), heightened the sensation to a frothing, boiling, frothy-boil, evident by the team's dog-pile on Stevie Y and their delay to shake the losers' hands. The loss crushed Gretzky and set a tone for future Wings V. Blues matchups; Detroit knocked St. Louis out of the playoffs in three-straight seasons, and won the Stanley Cup in the latter two.

Peace.