Heroes of Hockeytown

We ought to write off their defensive struggles too if the season is so meaningless. Hossa probably caught he by surprise, not anticipating the shot. He's scored three goals like that now just throwing the puck at the net from bad angles and fooling goalies. I wasn't defending the Wings defensive play either, everyone has a lot of room to improve. But this is about Ozzie, so I'll say this about Ozzie: He needs to play better. He's capable of making great saves, he made several nice stops against the BJs, but you undermine all that if you turn around and give up a bad goal.

I think it's obvious what the big deal is. That is not a remotely acceptable shot to surrender. In the "grand scheme of things" the Wings scored 3 more goals against the BJs than they did the Habs... Games are won and lost based on the individual performance of players, and last night Ozzie was hit or miss. He has to play better.

The rumors of Ozzie's demise are greatly exaggerated. We've seen this schtick before. Given that he's still winning, I don't see any reason not to give him ample time to find that championship form again and hit his stride. There's a lot more ground to cover yet, and once we do, if things haven't changed, then we'll have some reason panic.

The offense was great tonight, but aside from that I was decidedly unimpressed. The defense gave up about a half dozen odd man rushes over the course of the night, and Ozzie managed to offset some great bailouts in the first two periods with by far the worst goal of the year in the third. I'm happy they won, but I'm still looking for them to put forth a solid defensive effort consistently. Getting turned inside out by a forward's deke or being caught flat footed to give up a 2-on-1 isn't gonna cut it.

This loss (and the two game losing "streak" that is accompanying it) is not the calamity many make it out to be... The Wings had a letdown after a road stretch, that's unfortunate but foreseeable. They've played some mediocre hockey of late, admittedly, but there are some things they can do to get back on the right track and return to form. I'll have to go ahead and agree that I've got no clue what Kopecky is doing on the first line. I've seen enough of him bungling great passes from Datsyuk and Hossa. He obviously doesn't have that great of hands, and it's utter nonsense that Hudler, who's been racking up the points with 12 mins a night, isn't getting a shot on the top line.

You sound like a guy who flings vague ad-hominems around and ignores my point. Right on, old-timer.

I suppose we ought to get someone to come along and beat up every defenseman on the other team? And then Holmstrom can just stand in front of the net and not be cross-checked, and no one will try to clear him out of the crease? Is that what would happen?

I tried to look up saying "Let's kick their asses!" in French but I wasn't too confident in the weird looking phrases the Internet kept giving me. So... [French]Let's kick their asses![/French]

The guy claims because he was facing pressure he was trying to send it back to Price, and he simply wasn't aware that the net had been vacated for the delayed call. Seriously? Pass it to the goalie? I don't think that's part of the playbook. Goalie is not gonna anticipate taking a SOG from his own man, might have gone in anyways. An NHL defenseman, and the only thing he can think of when he's under pressure is to... ring it around the boards? No. Eat it and wait for help? Nuh-uh. Throw the puck at your own net. Bingo!

So you admit that the he didn't have a chance on the goals, but then in the next breath say he should have stopped them? Which is it? "The goalie should saddle the blame for poor team play." Really? Ever, you say? You can't think of any time in the two Stanley Cup runs when he made clutch saves and bailed the team out? I realize that Oz has had a bit of hard luck this year and that he hasn't been a show-stopper of late, but these kind of generalizations are over-the-top; what's more any blame associated with this particular loss is misplaced.

It's silly, but I guess natural, for people to try and affix blame where there isn't much to be had. When the tying goal came in, just like everyone else, I was sorely disappointed and wanted to hurl my anger and ridicule at someone or something. But to see it again, it just happened. That happens. It's hockey. People don't like that, they don't want to shake their fist at the heavens and curse fate, they want something tangible to point the finger at. Unfortunately for goalies, they're always standing right there as the puck goes by and are, of course, the easiest thing to put the bullseye on. I give credit to most of everyone for understanding this (obvious) situation, but there always has to be some goofball that rolls in to start crap. Yes, it is frustrating the rather rotten luck Oz has had this season (despite the fact that he is still racking up the W's), but no, just because he didn't get a puck that was unsavable doesn't mean he can't make that ambiguous "big save" or whatever. That stop off the backboards rebound was proof and a half of that.

Okay, I've had a few minutes to absorb the games and return to rationality, and I can say that the defensive shakiness is still a big concern for Detroit. Oz had a handful of monster saves to keep them in it, and it still took a couple of posts to keep the game in control. With that said, the tying marker, despite being a huge disappointment due to the time after Pavel's goal and with the gameclock dwindling, was just a stupid little shot through traffic. That's hockey and that happens, so I can live with it. Franzen's penalty in OT was sufficiently boneheaded though. This was a pretty average turnout by the Wings; their offense and defense weren't as bad as I think everyone is remembering it to be right now, but they can and have done much better.

Terrible way to lose. I am mucho disappointed with this one. Euuuughhhhhh.

The f*** was that Franz? Looked like he straight up tackled a guy.

He got beat by an awful turnover by Hudler and some stupid deflection through traffic. Anyone with simian level intelligence can see, especially with that save off the backboards, that Oz has had a strong game.

Hockey is lame.

Paaaaaveeeeeeel

That was actually less egregious than the non-call hook, but whatever. Let's bury them.

Blatant hook preventing a scoring chance from the slot? Naaaaah.

I wish they would a replay of these calls so I could have some basis to complain about how s***ty they are.

He's been up there in the past couple of games since Homer's been out. I can't say he was any more effective than Kopecky up there.

Andreas would be their best slugger if he wasn't so busy demolishing the opposition on the ice. His one-handed swing strikes fear into the hearts of pitchers far and wide.

This is makin' me apprehensive... Get a goal plz

And here we go...

Siiiiigh