Abel to Yzerman
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Dominant
by IwoCPO on 12/04/07 at 09:54 PM ET
Comments (15)
First of all. What in the name of sweet baby jesus was Mathieu Dandenault thinking? A guy who never showed even the slightest sign of sociopathic behavior in Detroit, and only 14 penalty minutes this season, jumps Mikael Samuelsson from behind? Now, considering what we know about Samuelsson--that he’s got a bit of an agitator’s quality to him--he’d probably earned some special attention. But like that, from Dandenault? Interesting.
As for the rest of the game? Read the title: Dominant, definitely the Wings’ best game of the year, maybe their best regular season effort in the last few years.
Dominance? Yep. The Dominator was. Didn’t it seem like every one of his saves tonite was tough? He was on a mission, absolutely. From the first save forward he was as good as we’ve seen him since he began his third stint in Detroit.
Pavel Datsyuk? I told you guys last week he was heating up. I am, apparently, a genius because he is on frigging fire. His sixth and seventh goals in five games. 10 points in his last six. Prediction: he’ll finish with more goals than Zetterberg. Datsyuk is literally unstoppable right now. Wanna know when it started? Training camp? Nope. October? Nope. Try May. Try Game 6 when he and Zetterberg almost single-handedly brought the Wings back against the poultry. They established themselves as the unquestioned on-ice catalysts for Detroit, if not the outright leaders of this team.
Puck possession? A month or so ago, Bruce MacLeod used a stopwatch to determine Detroit’s time of possession over the course of an entire game. I’d like to see that stat for tonite’s game.
Penalty Kill? Dominant. Against the number one ranked PP, they shut it down. Completely.
Absolutely dominant tonite.
I do hate DC traffic, in case you were wondering. It sucks and it sucks very hard. But I’m learning to appreciate the delays a bit because I’ve got HNIC radio to listen to on Sirius. Tonite on the way home I listed to Jeff Marek interview Andy “the implosion” Strickland. Wanna hear an interesting tidbit young Andy provided? Sure you do. Try this on for size.
Strickland: Yes Paul Kariya is playing tonite. Sometimes he doesn’t attend the morning skate and that’s ok because (ready?), when he signed with the Blues he said, “I need to be able to do whatever it is I want to do.” According to Strickland that includes skipping morning skates and practices. According to me, that makes Kariya the prima donna we all suspected he was.
Back to Hasek. He changed the dynamic of this goalie controversy situation. His play tonite just made Uncle Mike’s life a lot more miserable.
More tomorrow.
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Comments
I knew Babcock’s McGill tie would win it. The tie is now 3-0.
The Wings defense played well tonight. Lebda did a good job on a 3 on 1 situation. Kronwall scored a goal! And Lidstrom controlled Kovalev.
That flying tackle by Dandenault was tremendous. I have never seen anything like it on the ice. The Lions could use him.
Posted by w2j2 on 12/04/07 at 10:32 PM ET
A really classy move was to name former Canadien Chris Chelios as 3rd star. He got a big ovation when he saluted the Montreal fans. This is original 6 hockey!
Posted by w2j2 on 12/04/07 at 10:40 PM ET
I wish I could have watched the game but I just caught the highlights on nhl.com. Lebda’s hit looked awesome, as did Dom’s multiple point blank out-of-nowhere saves. Good stuff.
Honestly, I expected us to dominate the Habs, not quite to this level, but certainly dominate. Why? The West is far better than the East, plain and simple. Any head to head match up against us––Ottawa, Pits, NYR––we will OWN them.
I only heard about the Chelios star, ovation, and moves on center ice. Wonderful. Welcome back to an honorable NHL.
So who goes on Friday? My guess is Dom. Talk about him being #1 is nothing without minutes, and we need to get him rolling. Look for a regular rotation after that.
Posted by srt on 12/04/07 at 11:07 PM ET
Bummer that I couldn’t see the game, I checked the box score before heading over here and it sounded totally dominant.
I was very skeptical when the Wings signed Datsyuk to the long term deal last year and now I believe it was frigging genius on Kenny’s part. Ever since then he has been a different player in terms of confidence. He is a highlight reel all by himself.
Wish I could have seen the game. (big huge sigh)
Posted by hockeychic from Denver, CO on 12/05/07 at 12:29 AM ET
Overlooked in all of this is the fact that Lilja once again made himself the royal PITA he can be to the opposition. I have to suspect he’s earned a little more cred in the dressing room lately with all the trouble he’s stirred up. Samuelsson and Lilja made Koivu’s life miserable tonight. And that makes me smile.
Posted by Primis on 12/05/07 at 12:45 AM ET
Back to Hasek.…His play tonite just made Uncle Mike’s life a lot more miserable.
I’m not so sure. I think Babcock’s more likely to be elated than miserable about Hasek’s performance and win. I suspect that juggling goaltender starts is a lot easier than keeping the Hasek time bomb (if it ever existed) from exploding while simultaneously holding the MSM at bay. I’m betting Babcock sleeps like a baby tonight.
Posted by BobTheZee on 12/05/07 at 12:59 AM ET
Dominance? Yep. The Dominator was. Didn’t it seem like every one of his saves tonite was tough? He was on a mission, absolutely. From the first save forward he was as good as we’ve seen him since he began his third stint in Detroit.
He’s got some competition, and competition is good. No way he’s happy with Osgood having better (far better) stats. When he made that first save, I thought “good, get him in the game early.” Looks like it worked.
As for Datsyuk - he is unstoppable. A lot of players have talent when they’re young. What it comes down to is whether they’re able to turn it into consistency, and that was a little suspect for Datsyuk his first few seasons. Not any more. He’s the most talented player on the ice every night, but that’s not enough. Making it happen is. He has been doing that.
I really liked how Babcock got Datsyuk out there with some other players, and it worked. Get him away from the other team’s top D and he’s even better.
Posted by Paul from Miami Beach, FL on 12/05/07 at 01:57 AM ET
hockeychic: I remember that Steve Yzerman was the guy who insisted that Holland get Datsyuk signed to a long-term contract. (just giving credit)
Posted by w2j2 on 12/05/07 at 06:52 AM ET
“According to me, that makes Kariya the prima donna we all suspected he was.”
Give the little man credit. Scott Stevens knocked him into lala land in the ‘03 Cup Finals and he ended up scoring a goal later in the same game. That takes sand.
Besides, since when do you believe anything Strickland says?
Posted by wingsfanindenver from 'lanche land on 12/05/07 at 09:07 AM ET
I give Kariya zero credit for anything. He’s a punk. But...if there was an exception, that would be it.
As for Strickland, I don’t believe much. I’m sure he butchered whatever it was little Paulie actually said. It was a rare win-win for me. I got to rag on Kariya and point out the fact that Strickland’s a tool.
Posted by IwoCPO from Washington, DC on 12/05/07 at 09:29 AM ET
Matty D must’ve see Koivu and Samuelsson about to square off and figured the apocolypse was imminent. It’s every man for himself at that point - might as well jump a dude from behind.
Posted by BDH on 12/05/07 at 09:53 AM ET
w2j2: All credit to Stevie! I much prefer that over giving the credit to Kenny. 
Posted by hockeychic from Denver, CO on 12/05/07 at 01:13 PM ET
You must have missed a few games when Dandenault was here. I saw him lose it and just pound the crap out of a regular fighter behind the opponents net. That is why noe one ever messed with him. That flying tackle last night was just to remind Detroit why they shoul never have let him go.
Posted by HockeyTownTodd on 12/05/07 at 02:26 PM ET
hockeychic:
Ken Holland is a stand-up guy who will always give credit where it is due. I gather he is an honest, hard-working straight-shooter who is smart enough to recognise and act upon good advice when he gets it.
Posted by w2j2 on 12/05/07 at 04:00 PM ET
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What struck me, aside from the Wings’ solid play, was how bad Montreal looked. Defensive coverage was terrible, and their transition game seemed to fall apart consistently about forty feet in front of Hasek. I thought they were better than this…
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