Shuffle The Deck: Babcock Might Have Found A Line To Hold Onto

By Adam W Parks

Saturday, October 31, 2009 Red Wings 3 @ Flames 1

After two thrilling, comeback games in Vancouver and Edmonton, Detroit came to Calgary on Halloween night hoping to douse the Flames. Missing two potential scoring threats, Valtteri Filppula (wrist) and Ville Leino (healthy scratch), and their top-scoring defenseman in Jonathan Ericsson (flu), the Wings played their most complete game of the road trip and ended the three-game Canadian tour with two wins and five points. Solid goaltending and a new, speedy third line lifted Detroit safely over the Flames.

A Healthy Divorce

As exciting and fun as it is to watch Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk embarrass defenders while skating on the same line, sometimes it makes more sense to split them up. Call coach Mike Babcock a home-wrecker; he is always looking for an excuse to drive a wedge between the Zetterberg/Datsyuk relationship. Filppula’s wrist injury created that opportunity, albeit under unfortunate circumstances. With Datsyuk centering the first line and Zetterberg in the middle of the second, it provides Babcock with two lines that can generate scoring chances while creating difficult matchups for opposing defenses. Also, it relieves pressure from the third and fourth lines. The absence of Filppula gave Darren Helm the opportunity to step up and lead the third line with Kris Draper and Patrick Eaves on the wings against Calgary. This line led the comeback trail in that third period against Edmonton as both Helm and Eaves got their first goals of the season and each finished with two points. Babcock may have stumbled onto a deadly combination of speed and skill with his Frankensteined third line.

Speed Extinguishes Flames

The Draper/Helm/Eaves line is fast. Really fast. They utilize that speed to help with the forecheck, get behind the defense, and keep the pressure in the offensive zone. The chemistry they created in Edmonton carried over in Calgary, and the Flames could not keep pace with this new, potent third line. In the final seconds of the first period, Eaves led a two-on-one in on Calgary goaltender Mikka Kiprusoff. Eaves sailed a saucer-pass over the skates of a sliding Jay Bouwmeester right onto the tape of Draper’s stick. Kiprusoff slid side-to-side to make an amazing athletic save to keep the game at 0-0. The line’s hard work in the first period was rewarded as Helm was at center ice for the opening faceoff of the second period. He and Draper would each finish with an assist and the line was a combined plus-3 on the night while providing one-third of Detroit’s 30 shots on goal.

Canadian Cowboys Gunned Down With Bang-Bang Second Period Scoring

The Flames were founded in 1972 and play in the Pengrowth Saddledome, an arena designed to look like a giant horse saddle to commemorate how much Canada sucks. During the days of the short-lived World Hockey Association, Calgary was host to another professional hockey team: the Cowboys. A saddle-shaped arena, a hockey team named Cowboys, saloon-style bars all over downtown...apparently Calgary is Canada’s new version of the American Old West. The second period of hockey between the Wings and Flames was like an old-fashioned gun fight at the O Canada Corral. Three goals in a cloud of ice-shavings. When the smoke cleared, the Wings had prevailed and skated off into the sunset of the second intermission. Okay, got a little carried away. Daymond Langkow put the Flames on the board with 5:17 left to go in the period. Just 45 seconds later Brad Stuart accepted a pass from Draper and sent a snap-shot past Kiprusoff to tie it up. Only 59 seconds after that, Datsyuk stole the puck along the boards and fed it to Tomas Holmstrom in the high slot, an unusual spot for him. Nevertheless, Holmer notched his team-leading seventh goal, and second game-winning goal, of the season. Kirk Maltby would later shoot one more insurance puck into the backs of the Flames with an unassisted, empty-net goal.

Is An Average Osgood Good Enough For Now?

Chris Osgood was yanked after allowing two goals in the first seven minutes of play against Vancouver. Needless to say he needed a solid start and the Wings got a stellar one from him against Calgary. Osgood did what Osgood has done well throughout his career with the Wings by coming up huge at times when his team needed him the most, such as the flurry of Flames’ scoring chances in the first minute of play. Each of the past two games Detroit has given up a goal within the first minute of the game, so these early saves against Calgary were massive. He earned his fourth win of the season to improve his record to 4-2-2 on the season; not as terrible as to be expected considering Ozzie’s shaky save percentage (.882) and inflated goals-against average (3.42) coming into Saturday's game. Osgood ‘struggled’ last year with a GAA of 3.09 and a SP of .887, but managed a 26-9-8 record. We should probably expect similar numbers throughout this season. By stopping 18 of 19 shots on goal against the Flames, Ozzie lowered his GAA to 3.10 and his SP to .889. If he can hold steady and show consistency while limiting the bad goals, the Wings will win plenty of games with him between the pipes.

Griffin Eggs

Contaminated: Jonathan Ericsson might have contracted the H1N1 virus from the swine in Edmonton. He missed the Calgary game due to flu-like symptoms, allowing fellow former Griffin Derek Meech to get the nod. Meech picked up two penalty minutes in just 6:32 of ice time and had an even rating.

Upgraded: With Filppula out, and Helm elevated to the third line, Babcock handed the reigns of the fourth line to Justin Abdelkader. The kid from Michigan State University was expected to begin the season in Grand Rapids, but has spent plenty of time in a Wings jersey. Abdelkader registered an even rating with two shots on goal in just over ten minutes of ice time skating with Brad May and Maltby. He has played in ten out of Detroit's twelve games and has two goals and three points on the season.

Scratched: With only two goals (both scored in Sweden) and just three points on the season, Ville Leino was a healthy scratch against the Flames. Leino has all the skills, but Babcock has not liked his effort: “He hasn’t played hard enough, so he’s going to watch the game.” Leino recognizes his own struggles: “I haven’t really been able to play my game.” If Leino cannot figure out his game he will continue to lose time in favor of Helm, Abdelkader, Eaves, Maltby and May. If it were not for the injuries to Filppula and Johan Franzen, Leino may have been sent back to Grand Rapids to locate his game.


Nugs and Notes

Good news from the injury front-Valtteri Filppula will not require surgery on his broken wrist. The break is just a hairline fracture. Six weeks and the talented, young center should be back on the ice. Filp looked poised to have a breakout season; hopefully he will return and pick up where he left off.

A Little Scarier-Brad May can be frightening on the ice, but he did not need a Halloween mask to look scary after the game. He took an accidental stick to the eye from Jason Williams, and went to a Calgary hospital with hyphema, a non-serious, bloody-eye injury. He will be in Detroit on Monday, but might miss the Boston game on Tuesday.

Peace.