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It’s Only Monday?
by IwoCPO on 04/09/07 at 10:10 PM ET
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Long, long, long frigging week. In case you’d forgotten, here are a few items to worry about: Zetterberg’s health, Bertuzzi’s health, Mike Babcock’s ability to adapt and the true terror of another early loss. A few items for you to consider as Stress-Ex 2007 grows nearer.
First: the deep diggers are busy, but not exactly unified. Everyone was at the media avail today, but they all seem to come away with different interpretations
Mike Babcock said Henrik Zetterberg will play in Game 1 against Calgary Thursday. Zetterberg, who’s been skating for more than two weeks, also believes he’s ready to go, though he didn’t seem as confident as Babcock. “If I can’t play Thursday, then we’ll shoot for Sunday (Game 2),’’ Zetterberg said.
Babcock said he believes Bertuzzi will play in the opener.
The Red Wings will likely have Henrik Zetterberg in the lineup for Thursday’s playoff opener against the Calgary Flames. Todd Bertuzzi, out with a concussion, did not practice today and may not play in Game 1.
“I don’t have any idea,” said Wings coach Mike Babcock when questioned about Bertuzzi’s condition. “I could pretend that I could explain it to you. He’s not ready. They’ll tell me when he is. I don’t know.”
Although he didn’t practice Monday, Todd Bertuzzi (concussion) will play in Game 1 of the opening round against Calgary, Thursday, according to Detroit coach Mike Babcock.
To recap: “Believes”, “May not”, and “will”.
I’m sorry, did Babcock hold different pressers for each Digger? How can such disparate opinions come from the same discussion?
Moving on. I’ve added The Real Deal to the Calgary section on the port side. They’re the first Flame blog I’ve seen with a series analysis.
Detroit has argued their problems over their last few playoff runs have been primarily due to goaltending, but I’m not buying it. The team has had deeper issues (Chelios, Datsyuk, anyone?) and goaltending has been secondary. Sure, their goalies haven’t stolen any wins, but the team as a whole hasn’t been good enough. Now that Detroit has Hasek, they’re out of excuses - unless of course Hasek gets hurt. In other words, they’ve got an excuse lined up already.
Close. In my opinion, if Detroit loses a healthy Hasek could very well be to blame. I seem to be in the minority who believe Hasek could actually turn out to be a weakness in the first round.
Speaking of Hasek, Mike Chen’s blog over at Fox lists him as the player who has the most to prove, and the most pressure.
1: Dominik Hasek, Detroit Red Wings. As the Dominator goes, so do the Red Wings. Hasek’s groin stood the test of the regular season, but it is still an unknown factor that could snap — literally — at any time. If Hasek stays healthy, the Red Wings can go deep. If his groin bothers him, it’s a crapshoot.
The Globe and Mail’s Erik Duhatschek says the Flames have a simple game plan to neutralize Pavel Datsyuk.
“A team like Detroit, they’re such a puck-possession and transition team that the most effective way to beat them is to play a hard-nosed game and be very physical against them,” Regehr said.
Regehr’s primary assignment, according to Duhatschek, will be to shadow Datsyuk. Really? We can live with that, I think.
Finally, I think it was Aaron in a post earlier today who pointed out that Bruce MacLeod is so far above the other DD’s that lumping him in with them would be an insult. I think he’s right. By Thursday he could very well have earned the glossary entry as the “Anti-Digger.” We’ll see.
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Comments
Looks like we agree on something else, Bill, though I only brought the topic up in a comment:
“The defense should be able to handle the Flames pretty easily, but I think the series largely rests in Dom’s hands. ... This is where we find out whether or not it was a good idea to bring Dom back.”
I don’t think Hasek’s health is as much a concern now as his mental game. Any of that wandering/diving/soft goal crap and the Flames get the boost they need to win. Or at least, the Wings will lose their own mental edge.
Posted by Matt Saler from Grand Rapids, MI on 04/10/07 at 04:23 AM ET
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Regehr’s injured, there was talk about it during the past 2 Flame games and that comes from the CBC guys themselves. Not sure if he’s out or not for Game 1 though, maybe someone can clear that up. Only way Calgary wins this series is IF Kipper steals it.
Posted by Yzerman19 from Nashville on 04/09/07 at 09:57 PM ET