Closing Time: Red Wings 4, Predators 2
January 30th, 2010 | by Chris Hollis |
Postgame Thoughts
Blegh. What a crap game.
If you’re feeling better about the Wings after the win over the Preds last night, good for you. I’m not. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy about the win and happy about a couple of other things, but the negatives are outweighing the positives at this point. Let me call on the assistance of my trusty bullet points…
Things I’m Happy About
- 2 points
- Closing out a two goal lead
- Jimmah
- Nicklas Lidstrom’s point total going up
- Drew Miller
Things I’m Not Happy About
- The blue line. Good lord. No confidence, turnovers everywhere and giving up 48 shots to the Predators.
- Lack of the killer instinct. I mentioned this on twitter during the game, but this team has no sense of finishing off an opponent when they are down. They stop attacking and just sit back and hope to fend off the rush. That’s not Red Wings hockey. I understand that the coaching staff wants the Wings to “play simpler”, but c’mon guys. Forecheck hard. Work down low. Dig hard for the pucks, put a body on guys, and keep the pressure on the goaltender late in the game. The only way you can gain confidence is by fighting as hard as possible late in the close ones or by burying a team behind an insurmountable lead. I haven’t seen it yet and I don’t know if we’ll see it this season.
- The upcoming schedule. That kind of effort isn’t going to get it done as the Wings get ready to go on a very important road trip. If it does, they’ll come home with more losses than wins and out of the playoffs again.
- The goals in the last minute. It happened again last night in the first period. A 1-0 lead coughed up in the last minute of the period. Unacceptable.
- Penalties late in the third. Brian Rafalski’s “interference” call was the latest in what has become a disturbing trend for the Wings late in games. Play hard guys, but lets play smart too. Force turnovers and stay out of the box.
All that said, it’s nice to finally hold a lead and get two points in regulation. A big thanks to the goal posts and crossbar for their exceptional effort against the Preds last night too.
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Production Charts
*The season totals are updated here and here.
Line Production
| Forward Lines | G | A | PTS | Plus/Minus |
| Bertuzzi-Filppula-Miller | 1 | 1 | 2 | (+1) |
| Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Cleary | 1 | 1 | 2 | E |
| Draper-Helm-Eaves | 0 | 0 | 0 | E |
| Maltby-Miller-May | 0 | 0 | 0 | E |
| Williams-Filppula-Bertuzzi | 0 | 0 | 0 | (-1) |
| Defensive Pairings | G | A | PTS | Plus/Minus |
| Kronwall-Stuart | 0 | 1 | 1 | (-1) |
| Stuart-Ericsson | 0 | 0 | 0 | (+1) |
| Lidstrom-Rafalski | 0 | 0 | 0 | E |
| Ericsson-Lebda | 0 | 0 | 0 | E |
Special Teams Production
| Power Play Scoring | G | A | PTS |
| Miller-Filppula-Bertuzzi-Williams-Kronwall | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Cleary-Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Lidstrom-Rafalski | 1 | 2 | 3 |
Tags: Brian Rafalski, Drew Miller, Nashville Predators, Nicklas Lidstrom, The Jimmah Howard Experiment
By Jamei Favreau on Jan 31, 2010
Thank you for seeing the same game I did. I am glad it wasn’t just me. I made a sarcastic remark on Facebook about the game. I said, “The period isn’t over when Bud Lynch speaks,” meaning they don’t quit in the last 60 seconds of the period. It is so frustrating to watch… I hope this isn’t a trend and a funk they can work out of. But unless they play 60 seconds of each period the other teams are going to eat them alive. They need to decide I want to be in the playoffs and act like it. Injuries are an excuse because at this point they have a finite number of games to play and they need the points. The teams around them are NOT going to back down and they need to realize this is a fight to the finish. If this does not happen the passion of the fans is not enough to make them WANT this. We can only offer so much they have to decide this is what they need and want and find out how to get there.