Echolalia

From The Score: "Stat of the Night: The Lightning have been shut out twice in their 85 games this season. Mrazek has both of them."

While I agree with you, if it was Howard in net, LGW would be calling for his head about how he doesn't make the big save when needed or something along those lines. I think the trade Howard, Mrazek is our savior talk is a bit premature. Mrazek is playing excellent, yes, and Howard hasn't been too hot since his injury. But were still talking about trading away Howard for a kid who seemed to get pulled every other game over the past few months, which is a trend that has actually continued into the playoffs. I do think Mrazek is playing better than Howard right now, but I think the way going forward is to keep both of them on the roster next year, have them continue to push each other and duke it out for number 1, and see how the pieces land. Also during the inevitable case of an injury, I'd be much happier having both Howard and Mrazek on the team, instead of Mrazek and some washed up or unproven backup. But in the meantime I'm just going to bask in this victory.

What a difference a couple guys added to the lineup can make. It was like a whole new team was out there playing.

Lazy play by Dats there

good lord 36 hits in the first two periods for the Wings?? Is that right?

All those penalty kills I think put the Wings on their back foot. Tampa really sustained the pressure into 5 on 5 play towards the end there.

Smith is playing amazing out there. Its an unheralded skill, but he does such a great job of absorbing hits and protecting the puck, then finding the open man for the breakout, instead of rushing to get rid of the puck (and turn it over) to focus on the hit.

Abdelkader and Smith are both noticable out there for all the right reasons so far. And Helm is doing his thing like usual.

looking much better

Tommy Wiseau of The Room is picking Detroit to win the Cup. If that isn't good karma I don't know what is. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/the-room-s-tommy-wiseau-picks-the-stanley-cup-playoffs-063118528.html

Kind of how I'm seeing this game too. The Wings have a lot going for them in this game: 1) Playing on home ice 2) Tampa hasn't been very solid on the road this year 3) Abdelkader is back, who is exactly the type of player you want to have in a playoff series 4)The Wings' play has been trending up since game 1 5) Smith may be able to help relieve some pressure in ways that Marchenko was unable to. 6) Mrazek has a history of playing excellent in games after he was pulled. 7) The Wings had two days off to lick their wounds and reevaluate their play. If the Wings outplay Tampa tonight, or at the very least play at the same level, the series has a totally different look to it. But if Tampa dominates us again, even with the above factors going for us, I don't see the Wings winning the series.

Weiss is the most frusterating player for me to watch because he clearly has the skill and the instincts around the crease to be an effective player, but he's just awful at every other aspect of the game. I honestly don't get it. But anyway, I'm with you. Andersson, who does nothing great, but plays responsible hockey is probably a better option than Weiss at this point.

I didn't get to see most of game 2, but in game one Marchenko looked a bit out of place, and Tampa was having their way with our defensman in the corners. Smith can make some bonehead plays sometimes, but he definitely isn't afraid to take a hit to make a play, which was something we could have used in game 1. I hope the addition of Smith and Abdekader give us a little more presence in the greasy areas of the ice.

DTE says power not estimated to come back until around 7. Guess it's back to studying for me :/

Ahhhhhh my neighborhood just lost power!!!!! What's going on???

I think Helm was our strongest player out there, and Glendening not far behind him, so I don't mind their ice time, although some of that elevation is due to all the penalties the Wings had to kill. Tatar and Nyquist aren't on the PK unit so that's what, 10 minutes or so of ice time they are ineligible for?When Abdelkader comes back I think we will see a lot more options become available from a lineup point of view. Babcock will also have the advantage of icing his squad last when the series shifts to Detroit so Tatar and Nyquist can match up against Tampa's third line. But really, I just want to see them (and everyone else) play harder and smarter.

They are fast, but I'm not looking to win a footrace out there. Mostly I want our guys to be aware of where Tampa is operating in our zone, which I didn't see tonight. What I saw was a lot of watching the puck, and forgetting about alot the areas where the puck wasn't. All of a sudden Tampa has an unstoppable cycle and is capable of collecting their rebounds at will, and every now and then, certainly too much for my liking, they were able to slip into the slot for a nice scoring chance. I don't think the lack of defensive pressure from our end comes from us being slower. I think it comes from the Wings reacting to the play instead of actively participating in it. But you're right, the Wings were collapsing into the slot a lot tonight, and how they performed is not a recipe for success down the road.

I almost posted this in my earlier response to this thread but decided not to, but yes I agree 100%. Sheahan was one of the worst skaters out there.

Good to scrape by with the win. Mrazek was a wall out there. I will say the Wings need to do a much better job getting involved in the play and not just watching the puck. I can't believe how many times I saw our guys standing around while Tampa was skating, cycling, attacking, etc. I understand playing positional hockey defensively and trying to protect the slot, but this was atrocious defensive hockey. So many of their scoring chances came because of blown coverage, due to one of our guys not realizing someone was sneaking in behind him. All they have to do is keep their head on a swivel and be aware out there. Do that one thing and I think this game looks much different. Aside from that, I'm sure everyone saw the lack of hustle, desire to engage or win puck battles along the boards, and so on, so I won't beat that one to death. Helm had a solid game. Glendening had a mostly solid game, but lost his man at one point defensively which lead to a glorious scoring opportunity for the Lightning. In fact it may have been their second goal, but I can't remember for sure. Datsyuk had two goals, but I don't think he played well aside from those shifts. All in all it was such an ugly game from almost the entire roster.

To think the Wings had two capable heavy forwards in Abdelkader and Cole to anchor the top six, and here we are starting Game 1 with neither. Oh well. Hopefully Abby isn't out too long.

well youre welcome to join me, and anyone else who's interested

No it looks like nhl may have it goofed up. Either way I think I'm going to track it myself on thursday, provided I can watch the game and see how my numbers compare.

The issue I have with these sites is that the former gets their data directly from nhl.com, so if nhl.com is inaccurate, then by extension we can't trust hockeyanalysis either. The second link you posted doesn't say where their values come from (unless I just can't find it), so I have no idea what their raw data looks like. Anytime a secondary site is providing statistics on official data I get a bit weary because I have no idea how thorough they are in data collection, entry, whether their equations are accurate, etc. Both sites do have a lot to offer, though. On Thursday I may keep track of zone starts myself and see what numbers I come up with. Maybe we can get a group of us to do it to ensure accuracy, then compare these numbers to what is posted for game 1 stats on all these pages.

I'm getting it from NHL.com http://www.nhl.com/stats/advancedstats?season=20142015&gameType=2&team=DET&position=D&country=&status=&viewName=advancedStatsSkaterScoring&sort=zoneStartPctg&ord=desc&gp=1 ZS% is offensive zone start%

As a defensman, he has the least amount of offensive zone starts on our team, so if he's playing in the offensive zone a lot as you suggested, its not because Babcock is starting him there. Its because he's skating there from initial defensive zone coverage. Which makes sense, because his takeaway/giveaway per game ratio is excellent. So in that sense, he's the least sheltered defensman on our team. As for his matchups, I agree he's sheltered; in fact I alluded to as much in my initial post. Corsi is a team measurement in that it assesses how offensive your team performs when you're on the ice, which is what SAT is. So yes, Smith does have the highest corsi on the team out of defenders. Individual corsi, which is not SAT (or Corsi), is essentially just shot attempts, so yeah its an individual stat. Either way, my point still stands. Smiths Corsi is 1st in defensman, and Smith's iCorsi is 3rd of our defensman, behind Quincey and Zidlicky, which doesn't exactly scream "sucks" either.