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Abel to Yzerman

GDT - W.C. Finals, Game 3: Red Wings (2-0) at Blackhawks (0-2) (8:00)

by Jeff OKWingnut on 05/22/09 at 10:45 AM ET
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The “young” ‘Hawks are going to be Under Pressure tonight at the United Center.  They have performed well at home in the playoffs, sporting a 5-1 record at the U.C.  But the ‘Hawks are still on the playoff learning curve. 

The Red Wings claim they are a confident and patient bunch.  And at least so far in these playoffs, the numbers support their claim:  Ten times, DET have had the lead or been tied after 40 minutes, and on each occasion, DET has won. In 4 of those 10 games, DET, the oldest team in the playoffs, average age of just more than 30 years, scored the winning goal with five or fewer minutes to play.  The reigning Stanley Cup Champions have shown incredible will to fight till the end.

The ‘Hawks played well in game 2, Ozzie was better.  Babcock claimed the Wings had no legs, and they needed the extra day off in the worst way.  We will see tonight if DET can skate with CHI.  We will see how tight CHI is gripping their sticks, and if they can limit their lethal turnovers.  Not a must win game for CHI, but pretty damn close, you can almost hear the fat lady warming up. 

POST Season Team Stats (rank):

DET:  10-3 (w-l), .769 point% (1), 3.69 g/g (1), 2.15 ga/g (2), 1.93 5-5 f/a (1), 25.0 pp (3), 71.7 pk (14), 40.2 s/g (1), 28.8 sa/g (4), 53.8 fo% (2).

CHI:  8-6 (w-l), .571 point% (5), 3.43 g/g (3), 3.07 ga/g (13), 0.96 5-5 f/a (7), 29.8 pp (1), 80.4 pk (8), 30.1 s/g (8), 28.6 sa/g (3), 48.8 fo% (10).

PLAYOFF Player Stats:
DET Skaters:
POS Player GP G A PTS +/-  ATOI
C Johan Franzen 13 9 9 18 11 19:39
L Henrik Zetterberg 13 7 9 16 12 22:07
R Daniel Cleary 13 6 6 12 14 17:09
D Nicklas Lidstrom 13 3 9 12 9 25:51
C Valtteri Filppula 13 0 9 9 7 16:49
C Jiri Hudler 13 4 5 9 3 13:43
R Mikael Samuelsson 13 5 3 8 5 15:50
C Pavel Datsyuk 13 1 6 7 4 20:22
R Marian Hossa 13 4 3 7 2 18:54
D Brad Stuart 13 1 5 6 5 1 24:23
D Niklas Kronwall 13 1 4 5 3 25:08
D Brian Rafalski 8 2 2 4 8 2 21:45
L Tomas Holmstrom 13 2 2 4 -1 14:28
D Jonathan Ericsson 13 1 2 3 7 19:26
D Brett Lebda 13 0 3 3 5 13:30
C Darren Helm 13 2 0 2 -1 10:23
L Justin Abdelkader 5 0 1 1 0 6:36
R Tomas Kopecky 8 0 1 1 0 9:31
L Kirk Maltby 10 0 1 1 -2 9:01
D Chris Chelios 4 0 0 0 -1 7:16
C Kris Draper 3 0 0 0 0 9:49
D Derek Meech 1 0 0 0 0 3:19

Minus players for DET:
Homer
Helm
Maltby
Cheli

DET Goalies:
Player GPI W L GAA PCT
Chris Osgood 13 10 3 2.04 .925

CHI Skaters:
POS Player GP G A PTS +/- 
R Martin Havlat 14 5 9 14 0 16:53
R Kris Versteeg 14 4 8 12 -3 16:30
C Jonathan Toews 14 6 6 12 0 15:47
R Patrick Kane 13 8 4 12 -8 16:01
D Brent Seabrook 14 1 9 10 0 26:03
D Brian Campbell 14 2 8 10 3 20:06
R Patrick Sharp 14 5 4 9 0 16:13
C Dave Bolland 14 4 5 9 0 18:48
R Dustin Byfuglien 14 3 5 8 -1 17:04
D Cameron Barker 14 3 5 8 -1 16:51
D Duncan Keith 14 0 5 5 1 24:37
R Adam Burish 14 3 2 5 4 10:56
C Samuel Pahlsson 14 1 2 3 -4 16:20
L Andrew Ladd 14 2 1 3 4 12:47
R Troy Brouwer 14 0 2 2 -1 11:22
D Matt Walker 14 0 2 2 -4 15:14
L Ben Eager 14 1 1 2 -1 9:03
D Niklas Hjalmarsson 14 0 1 1 -1 16:17
C Colin Fraser 1 0 0 0 0 7:53

Minus players for CHI:
Versteeg
Kane
Byfuglien
Barker
Pahlsson
Brouwer
Wlaker
Eager
Hjalmarsson

Havlat, Toews, and Seabrook are even.

CHI Goalies:
Player GPI W L GAA PCT
Nikolai Khabibulin 14 8 6 2.85 0.899

Injury Report:
DET:
Andreas Lilja (D) Concussion (Sidelined indefinitely)
Tomas Kopecky (W/C) Eye injury (Day to day)

CHI:
Brent Sopel (D) Undisclosed (Sidelined indefinitely)

HOT and NOT:

DET Hot:
Nicklas Lidstrom (D) 12 pts in last 12 GP
Henrik Zetterberg (C) 8 pts in last 5 GP
Johan Franzen (LW/C) 9 pts in last 6 GP
Dan Cleary (LW/RW) 3 pts in last 2 GP
Mikael Samuelsson (RW) 3 pts in last 3 GP
Valtteri Filppula (C/W) 3 pts in last 3 GP
Jiri Hudler (RW/LW) 4 pts in last 5 GP
Chris Osgood (G) 2-0-0, 1.92, .944 in last 2 GPI

DET Not Hot:
Niklas Kronwall (D) 0 pts in last 5 GP
Brad Stuart (D) 1 pts in last 5 GP
Tomas Holmstrom (RW/LW) 0 pts in last 9 GP

CHI Hot:
Brian Campbell (D) 5 pts in last 4 GP
Cam Barker (D) 2 pts in last 3 GP
Jonathan Toews (C) 5 pts in last 3 GP
Martin Havlat (RW) 6 pts in last 5 GP
Kris Versteeg (RW/LW) 12 pts in last 11 GP
Dustin Byfuglien (W/D) 4 pts in last 4 GP

CHI Not hot:
Andrew Ladd (LW) 0 pts in last 4 GP
David Bolland (C) 0 pts in last 3 GP
Nikolai Khabibulin (G) 0-2-0, 3.39, .912 in last 2 GPI

Jeff Sagarin NHL Ratings, from USAToday.com:

To make predictions for upcoming games, simply compare the RATINGS of
the teams in question and allow an ADDITIONAL .25 goals for the home
team.  Thus, for example, a HOME team with a rating of 4.43 would be
favored by .57 goals over a VISITING team having a rating of 4.11.
Or a VISITING team with a rating of 4.56 would be favored by .42 goals
over a HOME team having a rating of 3.89

NOTE: Use whatever home advantage is listed in the output below.
In the example just above, a home edge of .25 was shown for
illustrative purposes. The home edge will vary during the season.

NHL 2008-2009 through 2009   May 21, Thursday - conference finals
HOME ADVANTAGE=  0.36       RATING   W   L SCHEDL(RANK) VS top 10 | VS top 16 |  ELO_CHESS   |  PREDICTOR
1 Detroit Red Wings     =  4.88   61 34   4.01(  18)  20 13 |  30 16 |  4.86   1 |  4.90   1
3 Chicago Blackhawks     =  4.54   54 42   4.08(  4)  15 18 |  27 25 |  4.47   5 |  4.64   3

Pierre LeBrun, ESPN has Babcock’s comments on Datyuk’s injury, and notes that Ericsson suffered the same problem, and toughed it out:

Hart Trophy candidate Pavel Datsyuk is a question mark for Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals Friday.

Detroit Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock said Thursday that the star center was day to day.

“At this time of year there’s lots of players that don’t skate,” Babcock said. “He got hit with a shot last game in the foot. I don’t think we’re hiding anything there. Something [similar] happened to [Jonathan] Ericsson last series and he was able to find a way to play. They had to freeze him up to get him going. So we’ll see what happens here. The good thing about it is that coaches don’t make those decisions, doctors do.”

Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press, had the Wings practice lines yesterday:

The combos at practice were:

Holmstrom-Filppula-Hossa

Franzen-Zetterberg-Cleary

Hudler-Helm-Samuelsson

Leino-Draper-Maltby (Abdelkader subbing in)

Babcock said of his adjusted lines: “I obviously made them that way for a reason.”

Dave Waddell, Windsor Star researched some interesting numbers about the Wings, they finish games, with patience.  Waddell also has Babcock’s comments on back-up if Datsyuk cannot go:

While the value of experience is difficult to measure, the Detroit Red Wings know how to close out games.

Ten times, the Wings have had the lead or been tied after 40 minutes.

On each occasion, Detroit has won.

In four of those 10 games, the Wings, the oldest team in the playoffs with an average age of just more than 30 years, scored the winning goal with five or fewer minutes to play.

Tonight, they take a 2-0 series lead into Chicago for Game 3 of the Western Conference final (8 p.m., CBC).

“I think experience is a good thing,” Wings forward Dan Cleary said.

“We don’t like to be tied late, but we’re a pretty calm bunch of guys. Nobody gets upset or frustrated.”

The third period has been the Wings’ best period.

They’ve outscored opponents 15-5 and outshot them 173-103 in 13 playoff games.

“One thing is our depth,” forward Henrik Zetterberg said.

“We can roll on four lines and every line can come in and score a goal. Game 2 it was (Valtteri) Filppula, Sammy (Mikael Samuelsson) and (Jiri) Hudler that scored a huge goal for us.

“Sammy got the go-ahead goal in Game 1 in the third period. We know we’re going to get our chances.”

Detroit’s patient approach in the tension-filled final minutes of the first two games at Joe Louis Arena is why they lead the series 2-0.

In both wins, the Wings waited for the Hawks to make the critical mistake rather than the safe play and then punished them harshly.

“We know they want to make plays,” Zetterberg said of Chicago’s high-risk style.

“They want to have control of the puck. We have to play with discipline and, if you wait for your chances, you’ll get them.”

Perhaps no player sums up the Wings’ patient approach better than defenceman Nick Lidstrom.

He has helped to shut down high-scoring forward Patrick Kane by simply refusing to get caught up in the Hawks’ helter-skelter attacking style.

“Quietly, he’s the best guy out there every night, making the right plays,” said Zetterberg, who along with linemates Johan Franzen and Cleary have also had a large hand in holding Kane to three shots in two games. “He shows a lot of calmness and experience and it shows.”

The Wings will need to draw on all that experience tonight in what will be a very hostile environment at the United Center.

Chicago is 5-1 in the playoffs at home and the Hawks will throw everything they have at the Wings knowing a 3-0 hole is a virtual death sentence for their Stanley Cup hopes.

“We wanted to take one of the first two and we didn’t get it done that way,” Chicago winger Dustin Byfuglien said.

“We’ve got our work cut out for us now.”

Despite being down two games for the first time in the playoffs, Chicago defenceman Duncan Keith said the Hawks aren’t shaken.

“We’re confident in our team, confident that we can be better and win games against these guys,” Keith said.

“It just comes down to one or two plays every game. The team with the most mistakes is the team that ends up losing.

“We eliminated some of their chances. At the same time, you don’t want to give them any chances.”

Datsyuk injured

Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said centre Pavel Datsyuk hurt his foot by blocking a shot in the last game and may not play in Game 3 tonight.

Datsyuk was the only player who didn’t skate at practice Thursday.

Valtteri Filppula replaced Datsyuk on the line with Marian Hossa and Tomas Holmstrom.

“(Datsyuk) got a rocket off the foot the other night,” Babcock said. “We’ll see what happens. He’s day-to-day. It’s simple.”

Babcock said there’s a possibility Finnish forward Ville Leino could make his playoff debut tonight if Datsyuk can’t play.

He said it’ll either be Leino or Justin Abdelkader, because Kirk Maltby is in for sure after sitting out the first two games.

Chris Kuc, Chicago Tribune, has the news (or absence of news) from ‘Hawks practice on Thursday:

The Blackhawks held practice at the United Center on Thursday morning and defenseman Duncan Keith and goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin were among four players who sat out. Coach Joel Quenneville said they were “resting.” Both players along with Sammy Pahlsson and Matt Walker, who also didn’t take the ice, are scheduled to play in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals against the Detroit Red Wings on Friday night.

“It’s a long season,” Quenneville said. “Certain guys haven’t been skating. They’ll be out there [Friday] morning.”

I asked Quenneville specifically about Keith, who didn’t sound well following the loss in Game 2 in Detroit and according to a source has been sick.

“Duncs, I think he plays a lot of minutes,” Quenneville said. “You know, not a big guy. It’s a long season. So we want to make sure to keep his energy as best we can [and] keep his ready.”

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