Wings Win Third In A Row, Lose Sixth Skater To Injury

By Adam W Parks

Monday, December 14, 2009 Coyotes 2 @ Red Wings 3

On October 22 the Wings began a grueling road trip out West by first traveling to Phoenix to take on the confident Coyotes who were playing as good as any team in the league. The main reason for the Yotes success? Ilya Bryzgalov. Detroit lost in overtime in the desert and the young goaltender stopped 31 shots.

Since that victory Phoenix has maintained a fairly consistent season by relying on their goalie on a nightly basis. Heading into the game on Monday the Coyotes had earned 13 points in their last seven games (6-0-1) and Bryzgalov had a goals-against average of 1.95 over that stretch. He earned the honors of being named the NHL's third star in the week prior with a shutout and a 2-0-1 record, and his suffocating 0.97 GAA and .968 save percentage.

But on Monday in Joe Louis Arena Bryzzy was not the same Bryzzy from last week, or even October 22. This Bryzzy managed to stop 29 of Detroit's 32 shots on goal, but he coughed up a pair of first period goals and appeared shaky throughout most of the game. Pucks seemed to squirt out of his pads and dance around the goal line as the Wings could have, should have had more than three goals.

Detroit's Biggest Stars Dimmed, Little Ones Get It Done

This game is precisely why I am not worried (at the moment) about these Wings this season. Take a look at the boxscore from Monday, or just continue reading on. Not one of Detroit's big names made it onto the score sheet. Pavel Datsyuk: 0 points, 3 shots, -2 rating. Henrik Zetterberg: 0 points, 1 shot, +1. Nicklas Lidstrom: 0 points, 3 shots, even. Todd Bertuzzi: 0 points, 5 shots, -1. Tomas Holmstrom: 0 points, 3 shots, -2. It was the other ones who killed the Coyotes on Monday.

Is this a problem? Well, yes, you never want to see your best players struggle like that, unless they are being supported by the guys on the lower lines. In a situation like Detroit's, where a large portion of the offensive fire power is on the shelf, a team must get help and rely on unlikely sources to carry them through certain games when the usual suspects are not getting it done.

Check out the goal scorers for the Wings on Monday: Kris Newbury, Derek Meech, and Patrick Eaves. Look at who picked up assists on those goals: Justin Abdelkader, Drew Miller, Brad Stuart, and Kris Draper. For Eaves it was just his third goal and ninth point of the season, and Meech's goal was his first point of the season. Meech has played 17 games this season and is now a regular on the blue line with Niklas Kronwall out for a few more weeks. As Meech brought the puck across the blue line it hopped up on its edge before he ripped a slap shot that fooled and "knuckled" past Bryzgalov.



Ahhhh, one of the greatest moments in cinematic history. Here is Meech talking about his first goal/point of the season:



A Newbury Sandwich

What a debut for Newbury! The 27-year-old got the call up from the Griffins to replace Darren Helm (wrist, day-to-day) in the lineup the morning of the game. “I got the call this morning and got here as fast as I could,” Newbury said. “I didn’t even get a nap. I just laid on the bed in the hotel until I came to the arena tonight.” Despite a lack of notice and sleep, he was able to make his presence known throughout the Joe early and often in his first game with the Wings.

On his first shift Newbury was whistled for goaltender interference when he gracefully smashed into Bryzgalov. The play was inadvertent and probably would have been overlooked for most of the other skaters on the ice, but the new guy got no love from the refs. Newbury leads Grand Rapids with 95 penalty minutes this season, so the bad boy box was fine and familiar for him.

Coming off of three straight nights in a row with the Griffins, Newbury may have had a few nerves but did not show any rust. In the game with Grand Rapids the night before in Toronto he scored a goal and also assisted twice against the Marlies. On his second shift with the Wings he scored the first goal of the game on his first NHL shot of the season. Kris Draper corralled a bouncing puck while skating towards the net and passed the puck across the ice. The puck slid by Drew Miller and landed right on the tape of the crashing Newbury.

"I was just trying to get my feet moving and drive to the middle, and the puck was just laying right there," Newbury said. "It was a little bit of a scary start for me, taking that penalty. But then, obviously, coming right out of the box and scoring was a little bit of a high."

On his third shift Newbury was called for another penalty, a tripping call, and took his seat back in the penalty box. In the first ten minutes of the game the newest Wing managed to take two penalties and score a goal and finished with two shots, one takeaway, no giveaways, and a blocked shot. He also won two of his three faceoffs in less than eight minutes of ice time in the entire game. Damn, that is a lot of production in such limited minutes. It doesn't get much better than that for a guy who never expected to be called up this season.

Coach Mike Babcock was pleased with Newbury's performance: "I really liked the addition of Newbury. I thought he had grit and good determination."

“It was a roller coaster first period for me taking those two penalties,” Newbury said. “It was just good to get that goal.” Yeah, for you and the team. Who knows where the game might have gone if the least likely of Detroit's goal-scorers had not broken through Bryzgalov in the first six minutes of the game?

Ericsson Down and Out

Talk about salting the snail. With about five minutes left in the first period, the Wings gave up a goal and lost another key component. Jonathan Ericsson was pestered deep in the Detroit zone by Phoenix winger Taylor Pyatt and, without getting his head up, was unprepared for Shane Doan's check coming from the other direction. Ericsson crumpled immediately to the ice clutching his knee. Unable to rise and rejoin the play, the big defender lay motionless as the Coyotes maintained possession of the puck and eventually got a goal from Pyatt.

It was a scary scene. Ericsson has had his struggles of late in his first full season in the NHL, but he has been one of most relied upon defensemen for Detroit. Watching the replay of the hit, it did not look malicious or dirty. Doan put a good check on Ericsson and the knees collided inadvertantly. It was an entirely different situation as the Niklas Kronwall injury, where George Laraque left his stupid fat leg out on purpose. Doan expressed concern about the injury, and Ericsson admitted the play was clean, just another one of those unfortunate collisions to sideline another important member of the Wings' roster.

As Ericsson was helped off the ice, unable to put any weight on the injured knee, it could only be expected that he would be out for an extended period of time. Worst case scenario would have been a Johan Franzen-type injury to one of the major ligaments in the knee. Best case, a bruise of sorts with no structural damage. Fortunately for him and the Wings, it was the latter: a deep bone bruise and a calf sprain, all ligaments intact. Detroit general manager was relieved under the circumstances that Ericsson will not miss a major portion of the season.

"We'll have a better feel in a week of how he's healing up,'' Holland said. "We're fortunate it's only two weeks or more. It looked like it could have been significantly worse.''

Two weeks? Please! That's nothing compared to everything else this team has had to deal with. Doug Janik will get the call up from Grand Rapids to replace the spot on defense.

Nugs and Notes

Yotes Stayin' Put-The Phoenix Coyotes declared bankruptcy earlier this year and the franchise off the ice has been in a state of flux and frustration for too long. NHL commissioner and resident moron likes having hockey teams in warm weather cities, and on November 3 the sale of the franchise to the league became final. For a cool $140 million, the NHL now currently owns the team with the hopes of selling it off to any potential buyer that will be committed to keeping the Coyotes in Glendale, Arizona...essentially force-feeding a cold weather sport into a warm weather market.

Recently, a conglomerate of individuals in the Phoenix area have created a company called Ice Edge Holdings, LLC, for the sole purpose of buying the team without any intentions to relocate. Bill Daly, NHL Deputy Commissioner, posted the following statement about a week ago in regards to the possible sale:

"The NHL and Ice Edge Holdings announced today that they have entered into a Letter of Intent to proceed in attempting to document and close a proposed transaction pursuant to which Ice Edge would purchase the Phoenix Coyotes' franchise. While much remains to be done, the NHL looks forward to working closely with Ice Edge to bring the sale to conclusion as expeditiously as possible. Ice Edge has committed to keep the Coyotes in Glendale, Arizona."

My question is why? Why is there such a strong urge to keep professional hockey in that part of the country? Is it because Bettman does not want to admit failure? If you remember, the Coyotes used to be the Jets from Winnipeg, Manitoba, where kids grow up wearing skates and hockey is the number one past time. There are plenty of other markets in North America that would fully embrace and support an NHL team. The Coyotes have already failed once as a franchise in Phoenix. Even Wayne Gretzky couldn't save them.

Mickeyism

Normally Mickey Redmond knows full well when he is saying something crazy and funny, but Monday he was victim to those with low-brow senses of humor such as myself when he said this: "Maltby's mad at himself for not getting it up." That's what she said Mick, that's what she said.

Peace.