gdt ECQF Game 1 Post-GDT: at Tampa Bay 3, Red Wings 2

[joesuffP 1,746]

Reffing was cabbage particularly to us. Abby's phantom call on Drouin could have been a game breaker, luckily we killed it off. Two dropped sticks lead to penalties, that rule is an embarrassment to the league

[kickazz 5,459]

The Red Wings were the better team most of the game. Not sure why some people are being negative. We should have won it and didn't. Tampa stole the game in the third period.

Richards and Green - man was I loving what I saw. Richards turned up another gear for the playoffs.. Did not expect him to have it. I guess Chicago made the right decision when they signed him last year.

I think this is going to be one hell of a series if we take game 2.

All you saying Z is done. Not that I don't disagree, but I remember a couple months or so ago when I said "Z should retire" and "we have 5 more years of him" I caught holy hell, even got a 7 day suspension arguing about it. I even called him Old Man Logan lots of times. Nice of you all to join me on the wagon!

LOL really? I did not expect that. No wonder you haven't said much about him lately.

Edited April 14, 2016 by kickazz

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

It'd be neat if Smith was in over Ericsson, but considering it's never going to happen I'm going to stop even suggesting it. As far as tonight? Joakim Andersson brought A LOT guys.

[Jacksoni 418]

I thought we played pretty well given the strategy and lineup that the coaches decided on. I'd even say we played at maximum capacity, as in it won't get much better. We could have won this game so whiners - lower your stance a little.

With that said I believe the strategy will fail as many of the key players that are counted on simply cannot perform what is asked of them anymore. They are reduced to power play specialists only I think. Also they are a liability in pressured situations - they don't have time or space to make good decisions resulting in turnovers or penalties. In the past they could create time/space at will. Not anymore.

We also need Mrazek in net as our goal tending simply needs to be shutdown caliber to have a chance. Think last year series. Howard can be good but numbers say he certainly isn't great.

Good game, but unless something changes I predict a clear series loss.

Edited April 14, 2016 by Jacksoni

[Hockeymom1960 5,107]

Was at the game. First off, the ice was pretty crappy. Guys losing their edge all over the place. Second, if stamkos were in there, this would have been bad. The puck handling was really poor and the passes were not crisp exiting the zone (Rafalski anyone?). Third, the first goal was def on howie, second was on helm facing away from the puck handler, third was just all skill, credit where it's due. The non goal was a combo of poor D and poor goaltending. Jimmy can't stop those kind of shots on net. He's just guessing most of the time. Fourth, Z and pavel are just way slow. There's no getting past that. Can't tell you how many times it hurt watching Pav just lose the puck trying to make something happen. I was sitting on the end where the wings played offense twice facing the benches. Fifth, the wings had some really high quality chances, the puck just bounced out of reach or couldn't get a decent second chance on juicy rebounds. Sixth, Kyle Quincey impressed me jumping through the zone with the puck. I think some times the better play is just skate with the puck when the defense is giving you room. Tampa did that plenty at the blue line. The dmen could have just kept carrying it on their stick when they expect you to pass. Kyle caught them by surprise a few times. Seventh, the power play didn't score, but they came really close. Eighth, I swear on everything that's holy giving Ericsson that contract was way worse than keeping franzen over Hossa. That guy is like a non hitting non fighting non puck handling smaller Darren hatcher. He's just a big slow body. I would rather have Oulett or Sproul in there. Ninth, was glad to see the guys stick up for Larkin when Coburn tried to rough him up. I wanted Justin to break his face for that chicken s***. Tenth, if they watch the tape and shake up the lines and figure out how to deal with that s*** ice, there's no reason they can't go back to the Joe tied. So tired of watching them lose in Tampa, 4 straight in the regular season, yet they dominate them in the D. I even changed jerseys tonight. Ugh!!!!!!!

Wasn't Stamkos a no show last year in the playoffs?

[derblaueClaus 1,668]

I'd like to see Jurco in for Andersson in game 2. Not that Andersson was bad, but we could use Jurcos big body to screen Bishop and grab those rebounds. If he uses it that is, but it's worth a try.

[The Datsyukian Deke 127]

A few thoughts..

- I would prefer Mrazek in net, even though Jimmy was solid. But the "Nov/Dec/Jan"-Mrazek saves the first goal and doesnt give up the rebound on the 2nd. With Mrazek I had come to a point where my basic assumption heading into every game was "he'll stop everything". I've never been that positive about Jimmy, in all those years.

- so "playoff Richards" can play physical, hit, block, be a pain in the ass of the opposition? Ok...some effort like that in the RS would've been nice..

- the Euro Twin Reunion didn't work at all. Pavel looked better than Hank, but that's not that hard to do these days..

- looks like coach/GM rather get us swept then play Smith over E and/or Kronner (to me, both should sit right now. Call up anyone from GR, it can't get worse...)

[DatsyukianDekes 2,428]

Gotta split up Z and D. That line was way too slow last night. Give Z two fast wingers (Larkin, Abby) and D two fast wingers (Tatar, AA). Will never happen but I would like to see.

Larkin - Z - Abby

Tatar - D - AA

Nyquist - Sheahan - Richards

Helm - Glendening - Jurco

[frankgrimes 1,836]

Haha one bad goal, a couple of great saves and people are already calling for an unproven guy, who basically scrapped the bed since new year. Green was the best player on the ice would be nice, if he could show up like that more often.

As much as I hate to say it, Z as a top 6 center is done. Blashill needs to shelter his minutes the guy is running on fumes right now. The PP is still crap, well that has to be expected but it would be nice if someone would just take the risk and unleash a onetimer like Kucherov did that was one heck of a lasercanon.

Z and Pasha isn't going to work against Tampa, that line is to slow for their speedy offense. I would shelter Z's minutes or play him as a third line center. Can't believe his contract has still 4 years left scary to think about it.

Edited April 14, 2016 by frankgrimes

[xtrememachine1 795]

Just as an FYI to everyone that's down on the Wings after this loss. We beat TB 3-2 in Game 1 last year and went on to lose the series. As poorly as the Wings have played for the last two months, I still believe this series is very winnable. I can't imagine Datsyuk's career ending to a team that we nearly beat last year and is now missing a couple key players. Howard should remain the goaltender for now. Confidence has been his problem these past couple years and yanking him after Game 1 won't do him any favors. The Boston game aside, he's been pretty good for us the past 2-3 weeks.

[wings_fanatic 677]

Howard wasn't horrible but he didn't make big saves to help us win either. I'd much prefer petr playing to help our transiton game.

Blashill has got to split up that freakin 3rd line... Nyquist and tatar do nothing together!

AA-datsyuk-tatar

Larkin-Z-abby

Helm-richards-Nyquist

4th line

I think AA and tatar would do a lot more with pav and their speed would also help pav.

Green needs to get more minutes. He was our best dman last night. No one else can pass the puck up like him and get shots through.

[Nyquistfan14 489]

Howard wasn't horrible but he didn't make big saves to help us win either. I'd much prefer petr playing to help our transiton game.

Blashill has got to split up that freakin 3rd line... Nyquist and tatar do nothing together!

AA-datsyuk-tatar

Larkin-Z-abby

Helm-richards-Nyquist

4th line

I think AA and tatar would do a lot more with pav and their speed would also help pav.

Green needs to get more minutes. He was our best dman last night. No one else can pass the puck up like him and get shots through.

I wouldn't hate those lines one bit especially if mantha was inserted for helm and helm was moved to the 4th to play with Riley and glenny. This way glenny can match up against TJ line like last year, if that line does minimal damage we win everywhere else in the matchup in my opinion.

[VM1138 1,921]

Haha one bad goal, a couple of great saves and people are already calling for an unproven guy, who basically scrapped the bed since new year. Green was the best player on the ice would be nice, if he could show up like that more often.

Mrazek isn't exactly unproven. He dominated Tampa in the playoffs last year, then dominated most of the season this year. Since his rough patch (which was really only a handful of games according to a poster here who broke down that stretch) he hasn't had a chance to regain his footing. Blashill pulled him multiple times after letting in like two goals early. For a young kid you need to let him work out the kinks during those types of games. I mean, Howard also gave up chunks of bad goals during the end of the season and rarely (if ever?) got pulled.

I wouldn't say Mrazek is unproven at all, just that his track record isn't as long as Howard's. The problem is, Howard's track record is not a winning one in the playoffs. Now we all know Howard will start Game 2 and it's not necessarily a bad thing, but I hope Blashill has him on as short a leash as he had Mrazek, because we won't win for long with Howard.

Not to mention that simply style of play Mrazek would help us win more than Howard. His ability to move the puck is like having a third defenseman back there and could really help our speed game. Not to mention, as others have mentioned, his ability to track the puck and move laterally is far superior to Howard.

TL;DR, Howard isn't terrible, but we won't win much with him, and Mrazek has a proven track record of excellence but hasn't been given much of a chance to rebound from a small sample of games where he struggled. Mrazek's style of play will help us more than Howard's, too. Take the chance on the kids, the vets aren't working.

Wasn't Stamkos a no show last year in the playoffs?

I don't know about the playoffs as a whole but he was definitely a no-show against the Wings.

It'd be neat if Smith was in over Ericsson, but considering it's never going to happen I'm going to stop even suggesting it. As far as tonight? Joakim Andersson brought A LOT guys.

Where did this Smith love come from? Do we really need Smith taking four unnecessary minors during the game? Or smoothly handling the puck....straight to a Tampa stick?

[joesuffP 1,746]

Tampa's second goal was a back breaker when the wings were dominating off of a nothing play. Goaltending has a lot of room for improvement and could have won us this game

[toby91_ca 620]

To change the discussion a bit, I thought Drouin was pretty decent...total surprise based on how the year has gone..surprise he's even with the team.

[Echolalia 2,961]

It's easy to point to goaltending as the reason we lost because hey this is LGW but frankly Bishop and Howard played about evenly. They both made some terrific saves and they both let in goals they want back. I don't think you can look at either one and say he was the reason Tampa won or Detroit lost. If we're going to point at anything as the reason we lost I think the first place we have to look is at all the scoring chances the Wings couldn't capitalize on. For long stretches of that game the Wings were carrying the play. Tampa struggled to keep the puck out of their half of the rink for the first half of the game. We had a 2-1 shot margin on them at one point. Multiple glorious opportunities from the slot that never even made it to the net. And the only two goals that the Wings scored were two otherwise innocuous shots from the point. Even with the average defense and average goaltending and average players and everything not elite about this team, if the Wings were able to capitalize on just one of those several scoring chances they worked so hard to generate the game is a totally different beast.

[WingedWheel91 271]

Sadly, we dominated most of this game and I don't know how many times we are going to do that throughout this series. It's unfortunate to come out with a loss in a game we could have easily won... If that Brad Richards shot went it to make it 3-1 in the 2nd, totally different outcome.

Most disappointed in Jimmy Howard - that was not playoff goal-tending. Despite the actual score, this is what I counted:

4 Goals on 35 shots.

2 good saves.

2 cross-bars.

The 1st and 2nd goals were questionable to say the least. Not 100% his fault on the 3rd, but I don't get the guy sometimes... 99% of the time he's ultra aggressive (which lead to the 1st goal and the cross bar by Coburn), but then decides to sit on the goal line for a (waste high) cross crease pass on Killorn's goal.

I have no idea if Mrazek can regain his form - though I feel a lot of his struggles came from fatigue, as he has never seen a workload like what he had earlier this year - but at the very least he can be better than Howard, who is what he is at this point. Incredibly frustrating to watch.

[Jasper84 333]

I'm confident still that this team can pull an upset in round 1. Last night wasn't a bad game. I think there was some opportunities to score some goals that didn't turn out. But if Richards' shot goes in, or if Sheahan's shot is just an inch more to the left, it's a completely different game.

We got this.

[HadThomasVokounOnFortSt 878]

As long as we go back to Detroit with series 1-1, we are fine.

[Jacksoni 418]

By the way. How do we get Hedman and make him play for us for 10 years? Kidnapping won't work I suppose.

Extortion? Bribes? Crime setup with incriminating photos? Ransoming his family?

[Richdg 267]

Seven pages of fans trying to talk themselves into thinking we have a chance. We don't. TB was faster and more physical then we were, they are missing their 2 best players, and they still won.

[Richdg 267]

I am confused by something. Do we not make changes or do we change to much? In some threads people complain about the lines, in other threads its the lines changing to much, etc... This has been going on for many years and with 2 different coaches. Is this on the coaches or is it being dictated from the GM?

[Nyquistfan14 489]

I am confused by something. Do we not make changes or do we change to much? In some threads people complain about the lines, in other threads its the lines changing to much, etc... This has been going on for many years and with 2 different coaches. Is this on the coaches or is it being dictated from the GM?

It's that the changes are never the best ones. That's the problem

[amato 3,210]

Seven pages of fans trying to talk themselves into thinking we have a chance. We don't. TB was faster and more physical then we were, they are missing their 2 best players, and they still won.

Stralman is one of their 2 best players?

[matt198913 932]

Is definitely split up Z and D. Z wasn't good Pav made plays most of the night