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Abel to Yzerman

GDT - Game #56: Red Wings at Sharks (10:30)

by Jeff OKWingnut on 02/02/10 at 12:01 PM ET
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I’m Back in the Saddle Again, after a ridiculous ice storm left me Whiskey Dicked (sans power = powerless, get it?) for over 100 hours.  It appears Homer will be back in the saddle tonight too. Wait, it gets better, Mule sightings on the horizon for February 9th - - and the Pylon (now assigned to the Griff’s for a conditioning stint tomorrow) maybe (hopefully) next week - - Holy rose-colored glasses Batman.

Alas, a replenished roster does not a winning team make.  DET are 3-3-4 in their last 10 games, 3 wins with a roster that is steadily returning from LTIR.  It is only CGY’s continuing ineptitude (1-7-2) that gives DET a sniff of a playoff spot.  Of the teams in the WC top 10, only CGY has a worse record in the last 10 games - - i.e.  DET are losing ground to everyone else.  9 points now separates DET from the 4 spot.  With only 26 games left, DET making claim to that 4 spot appears out of the question.  STL sit in 13th, but only 5 points back.  ANA and DAL are only 3 points back, and CGY are tied with DET in points.

It certainly appears that it will be a fight to the finish for DET just to make their 19th consecutive playoff appearance. So the Captain Obvious question that the “19” will be assessing is this:  Are DET strong enough to answer the bell?  It is a very tall task starting tonight against Todd McClellan’s obscene hockey machine.

Standings:

DET:  55 GP,  26-19-10, 62 pts (8 in Conf, 3 in Central), 142 GF, 147 GA, Last 10 3-3-4, Streak Lost 1

SJS:  55 GP, 36-10-9, 81 pts (1 Overall), 187 GF, 134 GA, Last 10 8-0-2 Streak Won 1

DET on road:  11-11-6
SJS at home:  19-4-7

Stats (rank):

DET:  .564 point% (13), 2.51 g/g (26), 2.56 ga/g (10),  0.93 5-5 f/a (23), 17.6 pp (19), 81.2 pk (17), 32.5 s/g (5), 30.2 sa/g (18), 51.7 fo% (5).

SJS:  .736 point% (1), 3.31 g/g (2), 2.33 ga/g (3), 1.36 5-5 f/a (3), 22.9 pp (4), 87.3 pk (1), 32.0 s/g (6), 31.1 sa/g (21), 55.7 fo% (1).

Goal Differential/Game:
DET = -0.05
SJS = +0.98  It is no wonder the Shark have the best record in the league.  Friggin goal/game - - that is sick.

Player Stats:
DET Skaters:
POS Player GP G A PTS +/-  ATOI
C Pavel Datsyuk 53 14 29 43 13 20:22
L Henrik Zetterberg 47 13 29 42 7 19:53
D Nicklas Lidstrom 55 6 26 32 20 25:29
R Todd Bertuzzi 55 15 15 30 -5 17:10
R Dan Cleary 43 11 14 25 -2 17:50
D Brian Rafalski 51 4 19 23 14 24:14
L Tomas Holmstrom 42 15 6 21 4 16:02
C Valtteri Filppula 29 4 14 18 -4 17:42
C Kris Draper 54 6 10 16 -1 12:39
C Darren Helm 48 8 8 16 -1 15:04
R Patrick Eaves 44 8 7 15 -2 14:21
L Drew Miller 53 7 7 14 5 12:53
D Niklas Kronwall 25 5 8 13 0 21:31
D Brad Stuart 55 2 9 11 -9 23:43
D Jonathan Ericsson 41 3 7 10 -12 17:46
C Jason Williams 17 3 5 8 -6 15:05
L Ville Leino 42 4 3 7 -10 13:12
D Brett Lebda 51 1 5 6 -7 15:11
L Justin Abdelkader 50 3 3 6 -11 10:35
L Kirk Maltby 47 3 2 5 0 10:05
D Derek Meech 36 1 3 4 -9 13:34
D Doug Janik 13 0 2 2 -3 13:28
C Johan Franzen 3 1 1 2 0 18:41
L Brad May 38 0 1 1 -5 7:10
C Kris Newbury 4 1 0 1 1 8:41
C Mattias Ritola 5 0 0 0 0 11:41
D Jakub Kindl 3 0 0 0 -2 10:49

DET Goalies:
Player GPI W L OT GAA PCT
Jimmy Howard 37, 19-11-6, 2.25, 0.928   - - - Jimmy’s 0.928 is tied for 3rd in the league(!)  Impressive young Jedi. 
Chris Osgood 21,  7-8-4, 2.94, 0.891

SJS Skaters:
POS Player GP G A PTS +/-  ATOI
C Joe Thornton 55 13 55 68 16 20:07 - - 3rd in points, 1st in assists
C Patrick Marleau 55 37 24 61 23 21:05 - - Tied for #1 in goals
L Dany Heatley 55 30 29 59 15 20:06
D Dan Boyle 51 10 33 43 6 26:11
L Ryane Clowe 55 13 24 37 3 17:15
C Joe Pavelski 40 15 19 34 9 19:10
C Manny Malhotra 49 9 14 23 14 15:39
R Devin Setoguchi 43 13 8 21 1 15:05
D Jason Demers 40 4 14 18 9 15:46
D Rob Blake 44 4 13 17 6 21:32
R Jed Ortmeyer 54 7 8 15 5 12:21
D Kent Huskins 55 2 12 14 10 17:36
D Douglas Murray 53 3 10 13 4 19:58
D Marc-Edouard Vlasic 54 3 10 13 14 22:17
C Scott Nichol 55 2 10 12 1 13:18
L Jamie McGinn 38 7 1 8 -3 10:59
L Frazer McLaren 23 1 5 6 6 6:02
R Brad Staubitz 25 2 3 5 2 6:36
R Ryan Vesce 8 3 2 5 -1 11:20
R Benn Ferriero 24 2 3 5 4 11:08
L Jody Shelley 31 0 3 3 1 6:42
D Derek Joslin 21 0 3 3 3 14:10
C Torrey Mitchell 29 1 1 2 1 9:49
C Logan Couture 12 1 1 2 -2 7:44
D Jay Leach 20 0 1 1 7 0 15:23
D Joe Callahan 1 0 1 1 1 9:34
C Steven Zalewski 3 0 0 0 -2 8:19
L John McCarthy 4 0 0 0 -3 9:07

SJS Goalies:
Player GPI W L OT GAA PCT
Evgeni Nabokov 48, 31-7-9,  2.20 ,  0.928 - - 3 in Save%,  4 in GAA, 2 in wins
Thomas Greiss 10, 5-3-0,  2.58,  0.915

Injury Report:
DET:
Tomas Holmstrom (LW/RW) Broken foot (Early February) - - as noted on TSN
Andreas Lilja (D) Concussion (Sidelined indefinitely)
Johan Franzen (LW/RW) Left knee surgery (Mid-February)

SJS:
Dan Boyle (D) Upper body injury (Day to day)
Marc-Edouard Vlasic (D) Lower body injury (Day to day)

HOT and NOT:
DET: Hot:
Nicklas Lidstrom (D) 6 pts in last 4 GP
Brad Stuart (D) 2 pts in last 2 GP
Pavel Datsyuk (C/LW) 6 pts in last 4 GP
Henrik Zetterberg (C/LW) 3 pts in last 2 GP
Drew Miller (W/C) 2 pts in last 2 GP
Dan Cleary (LW/RW) 3 pts in last 3 GP
Valtteri Filppula (C/LW) 2 pts in last 2 GP
Jimmy Howard (G) 1-0-1, 1.44, .968 in last 2 GPI

DET: Not Hot:
Niklas Kronwall (D) 0 pts in last 4 GP
Todd Bertuzzi (LW/RW) 0 pts in last 3 GP
Chris Osgood (G) 0-2-0, 4.40, .814 in last 3 GPI

SJS: Hot:  Maybe the question should be:  Who isn’t.
Jason Demers (D) 3 pts in last 2 GP
Rob Blake (D) 6 pts in last 6 GP
Joe Pavelski (C/W) 12 pts in last 6 GP
Patrick Marleau (C/W) 4 pts in last 2 GP
Dany Heatley (LW/RW) 3 pts in last 2 GP
Manny Malhotra (C/W) 4 pts in last 3 GP
Joe Thornton (C) 10 pts in last 10 GP
Ryane Clowe (RW/LW) 7 pts in last 7 GP
Devin Setoguchi (RW/LW) 6 pts in last 7 GP
Evgeni Nabokov (G) 7-0-2, 1.54, .953 in last 9 GPI

SJS: Not Hot:
No Cold Players

———————————————————————————————————————————
Roster/Cap issues on the horizon, so says Khan(!):

Tomas Holmstrom will return to the lineup Tuesday in San Jose. No problem fitting him in. That is why rookie Justin Abdelkader was assigned to Grand Rapids (AHL) on Friday.

The first difficult decision comes before Johan Franzen’s projected return Feb. 9, when the club must trim one player to meet the 23-man roster limit and shed roughly $700,000 to get under the $56.8 million cap.

One or more cuts will follow if Andreas Lilja is successful in his comeback from a concussion. He will begin a conditioning stint in Grand Rapids (AHL) on Wednesday. If all goes well for him, he could be activated as early as next week.

With Franzen and Lilja on the active roster, if there are no additional long-term injuries, the Red Wings would need to trim two players and about $2 million from their payroll, general manager Ken Holland said. . . .

————————————————————————————————————————————-
Uncle Mike, after practice Monday in San Jose, via Khan(!):

After a short but high-tempo practice Monday at HP Pavilion, Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said of his team, “Emotionally, we got to get refilled and get going.”

The Red Wings play San Jose on Tuesday night.

The Sharks have an NHL-best 81 points, but Detroit is 2-0 against them this season. The Red Wings, however, have not been able to sustain their momentum after a 4-1 win at the HP Pavilion on Jan. 9.

They are 2-3-3 in their past eight games and have been outshot 47-24 and 48-29 in their past two games.

“We’ve not only given up shots, we have no rhythm in our game,” Babcock said. “Because you turn the puck over you never get skating, you look slow.

“Every year you have lulls. No question about it, emotionally you’re not there, but we have to understand we can’t afford a lull because we have six (games) before the (Olympic) break, and they’re huge for us. We need the points.” . . .

—————————————————————————————————————————————
From Dave Pollak’s blog, Working the Corners, San Jose Mercury News:

Dan Boyle practice today, Marc-Edouard Vlasic didn’t, nothing further is being disclosed on either injury and both are listed as questionable for tomorrow night’s game against the Red Wings.

Which leads to the meatier material:  Detroit is getting one more of its injured players into the lineup against San Jose and it happens to be Tomas Holmstrom, Mr.-Park-Myself-In-Front-Of-The-Net himself.

Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov took the news in stride.

“If it’s not Holmstrom, it’s Cleary and if it’s not cleary,  they’re going to find somebody else doing that job,” Nabokov said.

“I don’t know if anybody else can do as good a job as he does, but still, they’re there,” the Sharks goalie added.  “I can’t look at the lineup and say, ‘Holmstrom’s not playing and I’m going to see the puck.’ ”

Detroit isn’t at its customary perch high in the Western Conference. In fact, as I type these words they’re tied for the No. 8 spot with Calgary and have one fewer victory than the Flames.

But nobody on the San Jose side is treating the Red Wings as also-rans or hangers-on.

“I don’t think anybody in this locker room is tricked by where they are in the standings,” Todd McLellan said. “We know what they’ve gone through injury-wise and how hard they’ve worked to stay where they are.”

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