12/10 GDT: Red Wings 4, Flames 3 (OT)

[Hockeytown Red Wings 245]

The goaltending was fine. It was the shoddy, lazy Defense which was the problem....

I thought Conklin was very solid tonight. I assume that people who are blaming the goalie in this one came in late.

[CrossoverThrash 0]

One of coklins goals was very bad i htink it was the last one when he taped it in his own net, the wings goalies still have to eilimante the own goals.

[Outsider 42]

I thought Conklin was very solid tonight. I assume that people who are blaming the goalie in this one came in late.

People who are blaming the goalie are, as usual, looking solely at the number of goals against, rather than the Defensive play leading up to the goals against.

[adtthosa 5]

I had to work so I didn't see this game. Glad we won.

Pierre Maguire usually goes on and on about how talented and deep the Red Wings are...sorry guys, I like him. I enjoy his commentary.

[digitaljohn88 4]

I thought Conklin was very solid tonight. I assume that people who are blaming the goalie in this one came in late.

Goaltending was solid. I think we're all just waiting for that 'great' performance from one of our goalies to steal the game. Hasn't happened in a while.

[Doggy 130]

Huh?

Have you ever seen EITHER of those players play hockey?

The sentence 'Same type of player.' can only accurately be applied to those two is that they finished their NHL careers playing primarily as a winger for the team they started their career as a center for, but they played all three forward positions in their career and did it over a career which spanned both conferences.

The differences? Drake was always primarily a defensively elite player who laid bone-crushing hits and was capable of scoring in his best years, and was very good on faceoffs. He played all three positions at various times on Winnipeg's first line during the 1995-96 season. But he was always a supporting player offensively, whose primary role was to open space or to serve as the defensive safety valve, a role he filled quite well.

Forsberg, on the other hand, was one of the more physically aggressive playmakers the league has seen in recent years, but he was never in Drake's class physically or defensively. The closest comparison to a prime Forsberg in today's NHL is Joe Thornton, a physically imposing center who is defensively aware but not elite, someone who is an elite playmaker and a decent goal-scorer. The primary differences between Thornton and Forsberg are Thornton is more durable and more physically capable, while Forsberg had a slightly higher level of peak talent, especially when it came to clutch performance.

Drake was a completely different type of player.

Woosh!

[GoWings1905 2,694]

I thought Conklin was very solid tonight. I assume that people who are blaming the goalie in this one came in late.

I generally agree that Conklin was solid tonight and he did make some timely saves. However, he had horrible rebound control tonight. The first goal was a direct result of a big rebound and Phaneuf had a great scoring chance off a rebound that would have made it 4-3 with about a minute left. The Moss goal was pretty weak too.

Again, I am not trying to start a goalie war, nor am I saying Conklin was bad tonight. Overall, Conklin was pretty good. The defensive coverage was awful, especially in the first period. There were far too many quality scoring chances for Calgary because the Red Wings were out of position on defense. Babcock really needs to keep using the defense pairings he went to at the start of the second period.

The Red Wings could be so damn good if they focused all of the time, instead of turning on the switch when they get behind. It's a bad trap to keep falling into - luckily the Red Wings have enough skill to bail themselves out on most nights. I keep waiting for the defense to come around and yet ... still waiting.

[Heroes of Hockeytown 694]

That was a fun game to watch. I don't have anything to say about the way it went down that I haven't already said, and that others haven't already said, so I'll let it be.

[Doggy 130]

Good thing Bertuzzi has hands of stone or we might have lost this one.

[GoWings1905 2,694]

Woosh!

[CanadaBoy 151]

Another one goal win/game

Is anyone counting how many games were decided by one goal?

[Casey 145]

Tell me that you have at least a 6 pack of beer in the house and plan on eating dinner with no plate on the good furniture.

Dinner with no plate, check. Beer? I'm a mixed drink kind of guy. That isn't meant to imply that there isn't a bottle of schnapps in the fridge...

[GoWings1905 2,694]

Another one goal win/game

Is anyone counting how many games were decided by one goal?

18 of 27 according to Ken Daniels.

[ComradeWasabi 109]

Bad one to sleep through it sounds like.

[dallas27 7]

Is it bad that I was happy they were down 2-0 after the first so they could go to the new defensive pairings? Hossa and Hank looked good but the timing was waaaayyyy off on that line but that is sorta expected. It'll be interesting to see what Babs does with the lines next game. I hope he at least sticks with the new defensive pairings, much, much better.

[Rivalred 630]

18 of 27 according to Ken Daniels.

That is not considering the games where the Wings scored an empty net goal where the total was inflated.

[VM1138 1,921]

Missed the game. Can someone summarize and also tell me what the defensive pairings were?

[Elshupacabra 0]

Missed the game. Can someone summarize and also tell me what the defensive pairings were?

They started:

Lidstrom - Rafalski

Kronwall - Stuart

Lebda - Lilja

and at the start of the second period, got changed to:

Lidstrom - Stuart

Kronwall - Rafalski

Lebda - Lilja

Scoring went like this:

C.CONROY (M.CAMMALLERI, D.PHANEUF)

D.LANGKOW (T.BERTUZZI, D.MOSS)

V.FILPPULA (K.DRAPER, D.CLEARY)

D.MOSS (D.PHANEUF, A.AUCOIN)

H.ZETTERBERG (D.CLEARY, B.RAFALSKI)

B.RAFALSKI (T.HOLMSTROM, J.FRANZEN)

N.LIDSTROM (J.FRANZEN, P.DATSYUK)

Edited December 11, 2008 by Elshupacabra

[Guest Crymson]

we're living in cap era.

Hossa wants it badly but the the rest are obviously relaxing. Even Hossa caliber player can't create something in lockeroom so...conclusion is obvious.

And they do not have a slot in team for new forward anyway.

But I'm fully aware that reasonable posts won't keep away usual trade deadline hysteria.

I think it may be the lines we're rolling.

[VM1138 1,921]

Wow, Franzen and Cleary had a good night.

[seeinred 1,488]

Good thing Bertuzzi has hands of stone or we might have lost this one.

If you're talking about the one towards the end of the game, that wasn't hands of stone, that was a ******* PHENOMENAL play by Nick (or lucky depending on your POV).

[Doggy 130]

He had a clear shot and put it over the net.

[Drake_Marcus 890]

He had a clear shot and put it over the net.

Actually- it deflected over the net off of Nik. TSN showed the replay from behind the net and you see Lidstrom is in front of the puck and deflects it a bit upward.

[j.hoop 64]

a review of OT by a flames fan off their boards.

OT

Good flow, but it was all Detroit, with a couple Flames chances. Tobasco was again the story as he simply stood on his head for the greater pert of the extra frame. And that shot by Lidstrom was a howitzer and no Fault of McE’s that it went it.

howitzer? i love it!!

we did dominate OT, and their goalie was the only reason it was prolonged. another close game by the wings, but they sure showed alot of gusto coming back. ive accepted that almost every game is gonna be a battle, so this win to me was great. is that a bad thing?

[Guest Shoreline]

we're living in cap era.

Hossa wants it badly but the the rest are obviously relaxing. Even Hossa caliber player can't create something in lockeroom so...conclusion is obvious.

And they do not have a slot in team for new forward anyway.

But I'm fully aware that reasonable posts won't keep away usual trade deadline hysteria.

It's hard to fathom how awful of a response this was. Hysteria? Are you seeing the same team I am out there getting beaten up on the ice? Hello?! They don't have the attitude. They don't have anyone consistent enough to respond to teams physically throwing their weight around on the team, and it was evident by every single snow shower Conklin received during the game, every after-the-whistle series of crosschecks against teammates that went without a response to make the team focus on playing the skill game. Hope you were watching. Teams knowing they could beat up on the Wings has knocked them out of the playoffs several times recently, against Anaheim, against Edmonton, against Calgary.

And if it weren't obvious enough, picking up a physical forward who can raise some hell means getting rid of at least one person. You know, because there's no "open" slot for a forward, like we're playing with one open slot for the hell of it.