Uh Oh Averted Against Anaheim

By Adam W Parks

Friday, December 11, 2009 Ducks 2 @ Red Wings 3 OT

The Wings took what could have been a devastating story line and turned it into a cause for celebration. After being shutout 1-0 by Ty Conklin and the St. Louis Blues in the previous game, the Wings stared at an 0-2 deficit heading into the locker room after two periods of play against the Anaheim Ducks. Tomas Holmstrom's power play goal in the first few minutes of the third ended 142:18 of goal-less time for Detroit at Joe Louis Arena, and a pair of Todd Bertuzzi goals later on brought the red and white faithful out of their seats.

In their previous seven home games the Wings had gone 1-5-1; they were shutout three times and only scored seven goals during that stretch. It appeared as if this worrisome trend would continue on Friday as Detroit fans saw a familiar, yet uncomfortable sight during the first 40 minutes of play: Detroit skaters unable to find a way to put pucks past Jean-Sebastien Giguere. A bitter rivalry was born between the Ducks and Wings during the 2003 playoffs, and it has only strengthened from recent playoff series. That intensity continues to bleed onto the ice in regular season games, even when both teams are uncharacteristically out of the current playoff picture. Each of the matchups season have been exciting contests that have had the emotion and feeling of playoff games. Fortunately for Wings fans, both have tilted in their favor.

The game against the Ducks was the first since Detroit lost Dan Cleary for a month with a separated shoulder. Like the waiting room at the DMV, all the Wings seem to have taken a ticket and are just waiting for their number to be called. This injury bug thing has been stretched as thin as the Wings' roster, though Detroit has been able to hold things together thus far. But one must wonder how many more hits they can take before the proverbial snap? The overtime victory on Friday was a sigh of relief and a moment of reprieve to fans and players. Even coach Mike Babcock slipped in at least one steely-faced joke with his desert-like wit after the game.



Bertuzzi to the Rescue!

“The way guys have been dropping around here, it’s a lot of pressure and a lot of weight to put on Z (Henrik Zetterberg) and Pav (Datsyuk) every night. There’s enough guys in here that have the capability of contributing a little bit more frequently.’’ ~ Todd Bertuzzi

Besides Z and Pav, the two Detroit forwards with the highest expectations and pressures to produce offensively have been Dan Cleary and Todd Bertuzzi. Well, now it's just Bertuzzi, and he responded against Anaheim in a big way. With his team down 1-2 about halfway through the third, Bert banked in a would-be pass off of Giguere's skate from behind the net.

“I was trying to go to (Zetterberg), and the way things were going, that’s one of the ways we knew a goal could happen,’’ Bertuzzi said. “It’s obviously a lucky bounce, but right now we don’t care how lucky it is.’’

The bad angle/lucky bounce goal was his fifth of the season. Bert has been (dare I say?) disappointing with his scoring this season. Suffering from several close calls and goal-less streaks, he has been near a bust-out game such as this. After eight-straight games without a goal, he scored a game-winning shootout goal in St. Louis and netted one in regulation in the following game against Dallas. He then went four games without a goal and three without a point before that game-tying goal versus the Ducks...but he was not done there.

Just over a minute into the overtime session, Bertuzzi lifted another bad angle shot over the left shoulder of Giguere that went under the cross bar and into the back of the net. It was the first shot by either team in overtime, and it was Bert's second shot on goal of the game. Two for two! Bertuzzi played 68 games and scored 40 goals with the Ducks during the 2007-08 season and learned a few tendencies of his former butterfly-style teammate. It is has been so easy to hate Todd Bertuzzi over the years, I have done it for several seasons, but the guy has completely won me over (missing teeth and all) with his game-in and game-out efforts, his recent timely goal-scoring, and his surprisingly eloquent interviews.



J.S. Gi-figured Out?

As I alluded to above, the rivalry between Anaheim and Detroit all-but began during the 2003 Stanley Cup playoffs when the seventh-seeded Ducks upset and swept the defending Stanley Cup Champion Wings. The relatively unknown Giguere was the story of the series and of the entire playoffs. In game one against the Wings, Giguere stopped 64 shots in a 2-1, triple overtime victory. Each game of the series was won by one goal, and game four was also decided in overtime.

The high-powered Wings were not the only victims of the goalie's unpredictable and unbelievable run, as the Ducks paddled their way through the rest of the Western Conference playoffs. In the Conference Finals, Giguere shutout the Minnesota Wild not once, not twice, but thrice in a row before finally giving up one goal in the fourth game of another sweep. Anaheim would go on to lose to Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils in seven games, but the wake created by the puck-stopping Duck rocked a few boats and turned a bunch of heads.

Despite not getting his smelly goalie hands on the Stanley Cup that year, Giguere did earn some hardware. He became just the fifth player in NHL history to win the Conn Smythe Trophy (Most Valuable Player of the playoffs) as a member of the losing team. In 21 playoff games that season, Giguere went 15-6 with a sick 1.62 goals-against average, a disgusting .945 save percentage, and was 7-0 in overtime. Brodeur out-dueled him in the Finals, but Giguere was supposed to become the next best goalie of the future.

After the emergence of Jonas Hiller last season, Giguere has taken an unexpected back seat in the goalie situation in Anaheim. He has has just four wins in 13 starts, whereas Hiller has gone 8-9-2. Giguere has not been the same, seemingly unstoppable goaltender in the past couple of seasons that Wings fans used to have nightmares about. Over the years, the chinks in his armor have rusted into holes. The Ducks are hard-pressed to score goals this season and are in last place in the Western Conference. Bad teams cannot afford to keep good players (especially goalies) on the bench. Expect to see Giguere, with all of his success and spoils with the Ducks, to be traded away from Anaheim sooner than later.

Griffin Eggs

Scrappy Abby-I like Justin Abdelkader. Not just because he is from the west side of Michigan, or because he won a NCAA National Championship with my beloved Michigan State Spartans, nor is it because I had plenty of opportunities to watch him play here in Grand Rapids a season ago. It's his style of game, his grittiness and propensity to rough it up a little while also providing the occasional output offensively.

I watched him fight with the Griffins a few times; it was a sight that was relatively unexpected, but the kid handled himself just fine. It was only a matter of time that he would scrum it up in a Wings' jersey, and he picked a good opponent on Friday for his first NHL fight of his career. Corey Perry leads all Ducks with 16 goals and 37 points, and if a rookie centerman can get a guy like that off the ice for five minutes: advantage Detroit.



Apologies for using a clip from the Ducks' TV network, but they got the best video of the altercation. The bigger, taller, more experienced Perry got the better of the fight by getting Abdelkader on his back, but you have to love how Abby continued to throw punches upwards into Perry's stupid face. A lesson learned for the fiery rook. He should be ready next time:

“I made a hit on him, I guess he thought it was dirty,” Abdelkader said. “I’m just going to stand up for myself. I didn’t think it was a dirty hit at all. A few guys actually came at me. Guess I just got to be ready for it.

He continued:

“I guess it’s good to get it out of the way. How I play, it might present itself at times. Got to be ready for it. Obviously, you don’t look around trying to fight everyone, but you got to be ready. Stick up for yourself, stick up for your teammates. I know when (Brad) May fights it kind of gets everyone up and going.”

A Glimmer For Ville-With Cleary out, Babcock had no other option but to turn to Ville Leino. The strugglin' Fin had been a healthy scratch in the prior two games due to a lack of hustle and a subsequent lack of scoring. Leino relieved some pressure by setting up Holmer's goal. From the boards behind the net, Leino sent a pass in front that Holmstrom one-timed past Giguere. The assist is his third and just his sixth point of the season. The goal got the Wings on the board and Leino in a box score for the first time in the last ten games. The next step is to score a goal; he has not done that in the past 13.

Howie Rolls-Jimmy Howard looks quite comfy with his increased responsibilities. Friday's game against the Ducks was his third start in a row as Chris Osgood continues to search for his skills. The rookie goalie picked up two wins and only allowed one goal in the loss during those three starts. On Friday he stopped 25 of Anaheim's shots and improved to 9-6-1 on the season. Howard has found success at shooting down the Ducks this season. He is now 2-0 against Anaheim as he was also in net during the 7-4 victory in November.

Peace.