Who's Got My Schwarzenegger? I'll Even Take A Carl Weathers Right About Now.

By Adam W Parks

Monday, November 23, 2009 Red Wings 1 @ Predators 3

Monday night was the first of six regular season meetings between Detroit and Nashville and by the looks of things each game will be significant in the standings. Going into the game the Wings held a one point advantage over the Predators, and after the game the roles reversed. After a sluggish start to the season, Nashville has rebounded in a big way with a current six-game winning streak and a seven-game home winning streak, and are now 4-0 over Detroit in the last four games dating back to last season. The Predators have been basically a one line team with Jason Arnott centering with Steve Sullivan and J.P. Dumont, though the main reason for their recent success has been the goaltending.

So Much For The Sophomore Slump

Pekka Rinne won the starting goalie job in Nashville over the incumbant Dan Ellis last season. As a rookie, Rinne went 29-15-4 with seven shutouts, a 2.38 goals-against average, and a .917 save percentage in 52 games played. He was beat out for the Calder Trophy by fellow rookie puck-stopper Steve Mason of the Columbus Blue Jackets, but unlike Mason, Rinne is not suffering from a dreadful sophomore slump. After losing his first three starts, he is now 10-1-0 in his last eleven and has gotten each of his teams wins during the current six-game run. Like Mason and the Blue Jackets last season, if Rinne can keep up his stellar play all season long the Predators will be back in the playoffs despite any inefficiency in scoring.

Missing some of their biggest, baddest guns (most recently Kiklas Kronwall who is lost for 4-8 weeks from a knee-to-knee collision with George Laraque on Saturday), the Wings were unable to hold back the Predator onslaught. Nashville was able to win the little battles, getting to the loose pucks and forechecking with high-effectiveness. Detroit could not find any sort of rhythm until midway through the third period, but by then Rinne had already gotten into his own groove. The Preds outshot the Wings 11-9 in the first period, and 10-6 in the second, and then Rinne turned away all 16 Detroit attempts in the third. Too little too late. There are two trends, themes if you will, to this season that I have seen and have written about before. 1) Many teams in the Western Conference are not only stronger this year compared to last year, but these teams are highly motivated to beat the long-time kings of the West. 2) Obvious as it is, the Wings do not have the depth to overcome injuries on a night-to-night basis as they have had in the past 10-15 seasons. It is very unlikely that either of these themes will change much throughout the season, but as long as Detroit can maintain a level of consistency through the injuries, which I have full confidence that they will with Mike Babcock behind the bench, they will be in much better shape later in the winter and spring time. By late-December/early-January Valtteri Filppula and Jason Williams will be back, Kronwall towards the end of January, and Johan Franzen not too long after that. I am not concerned, it just kinda sucks right now.

Has Anyone Seen My License To Kill? Please Check The Lost And Found.













The penalty-killing units for Detroit have been awful this year. How awful? 74.4% for 28th place out of 30 in the league kind of awful. Wow. I did not think it was that bad until I looked it up, but sure enough only Toronto and Florida are worse with a man in the penalty box than the Wings. If you think that is bad, it gets worse...much worse. Detroit is second in the league with the lowest penalty minutes per game average (9.3) behind Nashville! One of the least penalized teams in the league is also one of the worst penalty-killers, not exactly a recipe for winning close games. Oh, and the Predators had scored at least one goal in nine of their last 13 games and were 10-0-0 when scoring with the man advantage this season. Make that 11-0-0.

Monday night Detroit had 8 PIM and allowed two power play goals, including the first goal of the game by Jason Arnott, pictured above. Count the number of Wings you see in the picture, not counting Chris Osgood, and then subtract the amount of skaters that are supposed to be on the ice during a penalty-kill. That's right, all defenders collapsed in front of Ozzie and Arnott was still able to score...off his own rebound. The Wings are not going to win many games 9-1 or 7-4 this year; they must be prepared for close games every night. That said, the penalty killing must get much better in a hurry, because allowing two power play goals in a game will result in more 3-1 type losses.

I Think I Smell Erat

Martin Erat could not be stopped on Monday. This cheese-eating vermin had only scored two goals all season long before he put two more past Ozzie. His first was a nasty one-timer he sent just under the cross-bar. Osgood had no chance on the shot while Erat stood all alone at the left circle with a clear lane to the net. It was an amazing shot, but a gimme-goal. He led all Predators and tied Henrik Zetterberg for the most shots on goal in the game with five, and he also had four takeaways against the Wings. Erat could've/should've had a few more goals in the game, or at least set up several others, if it were not for Osgood. Late in the third period Erat made a play along the boards that sprung a 2-on-1 for Nashville. If it were not for Ozzie's stick, it would have been an easy goal (see picture below). However it was all for naught as Erat would score his second of the game just seconds later off the ensuing faceoff with just 2:20 left in the game, all but sealing the win for the Predators.














Miller's High Life

All game long the Wings struggled to create quality scoring chances, whereas the Preds were able to waltz the puck into the blue ice in front of Osgood at will. Nashville did a very good job holding their own blue line and slowing up Detroit's forecheck. When the Wings did get the puck down low, Predator defenders were able to keep the play along the boards by pushing shooters to the outside and keeping the puck away from any open ice in front of Rinne. The lone bright spot for Detroit in this game, besides Ozzie's valiant effort in vain, was the work by Drew Miller. Miller picked up his first goal as a Wing in the second period to close the Nashville lead to 2-1; it was his first of the season and the only Detroit goal of the game. Sometimes, if you cannot create a play, just make a play. Miller took the puck down low along the boards, circled a defender and made a strong move towards Rinne and buried it in the back of the net. It was a great individual effort when all efforts by the team had fallen short. He was rewarded for his hard work in the third period as Babcock bumped him up from the fourth line to skate with Zetterberg and he nearly scored again from a nice feed from Hank. In a game that saw the Wings stars get stifled on every shift, Miller provided a lot of life and gave the Wings an opportunity to win the game. Here is a dorky picture of him and his brother, Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller.


Griffin Eggs

Looking Just Meechy-With Kronwall out for a while, Derek Meech will see some consistent playing time. Meech is a solid player, a very reliable defender in Grand Rapids for the Griffins over the years. He is not a guy who will score a bunch, or make any devastating Kronwall-like open-ice hits, but he is a guy that can offer solid, sound defensive minutes. He played 14:19 on 20 shifts on Monday skating with Brad Stuart, and logged 1:17 in power play time. Meech was quick with the puck and played physical in his own zone. A replacement for Kronner he is not, but a solid fill-in for the time being he is definitely. Watch for him to get more power play opportunities in upcoming games.

Nugs and Notes

The Return of BerTURDzzi-Okay, we are over a quarter of the way through the season now and it is about time to start yanking on Todd Bertuzzi's leash. The controversial forward was brought back to Detroit, much to the chagrin of the fans, to be a physical presence and score goals. My own personal feelings were if he could net 20 pucks and stay out of the penalty box for stupid reasons, I would be alright with the signing. He is not the most penalized Red Wing, but his two last night were definitely dumb, one for interference in the first period (which resulted in Arnott's PPG) and one late in the third that stalled Detroit's momentum. In the NHL if you do not skate and keep your feet moving, you will get called for a lot of penalties when you use your stick and/or hands on an opponent. Through 22 games Bert has just three goals with one on the power play and has a team worst minus-5 rating. Project that scoring production over the season and he will be lucky to notch twelve. He is second on the team with 60 shots behind Zetterberg, and his shooting percentage is an atrocious 5%. It will be so nice to have Filppula and Franzen and Williams back so this guy will not have to play on a top line or on the power play unit anymore.

Darren's Debut-Darren McCarty held his own on the Versus Network's analysis team, though he did seem a little unsettled at times when breaking things down. I was really hoping he would reach over and yank on Brian Engblom's stupid mullet, but that probably would not have been a good career move. I loved the second intermission interview with Kris Draper...you knew Drapes was going to rip his old buddy a little bit: "D-Mac, you're doing a great job bud, but I know that suit's definitely a rental. There's no way you bought something like that." The comment got a good laugh and loosened McCarty up a little. Hopefully we will be seeing more of him in those rental suits this season!

Peace.