NHL Blogging: Well, What Do You Know?

The Wings won last night despite being at home. Huh, go figure.

It took overtime, though. That's twice in 5 games, not a good trend.
Also worrying is that through those five games, the Wings have scored only one more goal than they've allowed - ?-?. That one goal differential has been the box score of each one of their games so far. Win or lose, it's been by a single score.

It's not a bad thing, necessarily, that they've been in so many close matches. Teams will bring their best against the Wings, so they're always going to have some tough games. And learning how to win such fights will be good experience for the post season when the games get even tighter. But it's a concern because, last year, the Wings weren't getting a lot of their experience. They were simply rolling teams. Not only allowing among the least goals in the league, they also scored amongst the most. They had, by season's end, a huge goal differential that showed they weren't just outscoring their opponents, they were outworking them as well.

Doesn't look like that's happening this year. And that's a worrying trend.

NHL Blogging: Road Sweet Road

Heading into tonight's game against the underrated Rangers, the Wings have played four times. They've won twice and lost twice.

The statistical difference? 32 turnovers in the losses to only 6 in each win. The bulk of those giveaways come from the opening loss to Toronto but they still had 13 in the loss to Vancouver, only just below the it's-still-early average of 16 per loss.

So what changed between the wins and the losses? Was it the level of competition or the netminder in goal? Did they score a ton of more goals or clamp down on their goals against? Did Bush's anti-Midas touch rub off on them during their trip to the White House? Not really. The answer's quite simple. When they won, the Wings were on the road. And when they lost, they were home at the Joe.

It seems like the Red Wings are a different team when they're playing in front of their fans.

A while ago, during the dreaded era of the trap, this home disadvantage wasn't such an odd occurrence. Teams would have much better records as the visiting team than they did at home. The explanation for this odd quirk that worked best for me was that, at home, teams pressed more. They wanted to put on a good show, wanted to impress their fans, so they took extra risks and went for more spectacular plays. But, on the road, they could just hit the ice and play their game and their system, without worrying about their fans' opinion. That's just how boring and grinding the game was before the rules were relaxed and more speed and excitement crept back into the game.

And it seems like the Wings have managed to return to those old ways. The increase in turnovers, I think, when they get back to Detroit isn't an indicator of sloppy play. But, instead, of overly enthusiastic play. Of players making that extra pass or trying for that one last deke instead of making the smart, safe play. The Wings, their fans, everyone knows the Wings are supposed to do well this year and that pressure is going to be most felt in the air inside of the JLA. The players are responding by choking up on their sticks, ever so slightly, and it's showing up in the stats.

Since the Rangers game is in Detroit tonight, I'm predicting a loss.

But, the season is still early and four games is an awfully small sample size. The Wings could well turn it around and this could be nothing more than an aberration. If it continues, though, it's something more than a worrying trend.

NHL Blogging: The One That Got Away

During the playoffs last year, the buzz was oviously on the ice as Big Red rolled to another championship. But off the ice, it was all about this Swedish kid named Brunstrom. A European prospect in the rare position of being able to choose his own destiny. He'd committed to Vancouver but when they changed management, he decided to shop around a bit and seek another suitor. Eventually, he narrowed his choices down to Detroit and Dallas.

The Wings feted him during the playoffs. Bringing him in to watch some games and doing the whole wining and dining thing. He seemed like a natural fit. The Wings are loaded down with Europeans and they've got enough Swedes to be the junior club for their national team. And you could slot him in for an eventual spot alongside Zetterberg and Franzen if he'd panned out or maybe Datsyuk and Holmstrom. Or maybe with Leino and, well, you get the picture. He'd be yet another piece in the excellent team that Detroit has built, in a good system that knows how to treat its players, and in a locker-room with plenty of his countrymen.

But, alas, it was not to be as he opted for Dallas instead.

Ah well, it would have been hard for him to crack the roster. The Wings aren't just loaded, they're also cap straped. They've already had to make some tough choices about who to keep and who to send down to the minors because their payroll doesn't give them much room to manuever. Brunstrom would have been another good prospect but the Wings are loaded down with good prospects and better players.

Still, I wonder whatever happened to him.

Ah.

Dammit.

NHL Blogging: Dissent

Ty Conklin played last night, in the Wings' third game and their second win.

The consensus, or at least the lede, seems to be that he played solidly. But I'm not so sure.

I can't say I gave the game my undivided attention but from the parts of it that I did see, Conklin seemed to flop around a lot. He struggled with his positioning and fought to block a lot of shots that should have been easy grabs. I mean, hey, he got the win and everything so all's good. I'm just saying, there's a reason the guy's been a career back-up.

But, the thing is, he doesn't have to be much better. Not with this Red Wings team in front of him. The Big Red Machine doesn't just roll with incomparable talent, it rolls with stars who are just as willing to work on the back-end as anyone else in the league. In Datsyuk, in Zetterberg, even in newcomers like Hossa, you've got goalscorers who are just as good at defending their own net as they are at burying the puck. And I'm not even sure what more I can say about Lidstrom who's been a rock on the blueline for about a decade now.

That commitment to defense trickles down from the top lines and infuses the third and fourth stringers. It makes the whole team better.

So, just like with Osgood, Conklin doesn't have to be the best goaltender on the ice. The Wings aren't just going to control the puck and limit the shots he sees. They're not just going to pepper his opponent with shots and tally up the scores to give him a cushion to work with. They're going to bail him out, time and time again, with last-minute checks on breaks and the sort of deft stickwork that eliminates the chances we never see.

All Conklin has to do, in so many words, is manage the game. Like a middle-of-the-road NFL quarterback on a team with a hotrod running back and a star receiver or a defense that eats its opposition raw, he just has to hand the ball over, make the occasional pass, and, most importantly, not make any big mistakes that cost his team the game.

I've long thought it would be nice if the Wings could come up with the next Roy or Brodeur or otherwise stumble into having the best goalie around, for a time. But such superlative talent is hard to come by, so the Wings do things a different way. Building a team, a strategy, that masks their relative weakness in goal (Which isn't to say that Osgood and Conklin and other netminders who've graces the pipe during the Red Wings' amazing run are bad. Just that, really, none of them have been superstars. Even Hasek was into his decline by the time he donned the winged wheel.) by playing to their other strengths. The Red Wings' goaltender has to make the occasional big save and maybe shift the momentum once or twice, but they don't have to steal games the way other goalies do. It'll always be a nice bonus if they ever do but the team in front of them is good enough that they don't have to.

So, Conklin played alright. Not good, not great, but well enough to get his job done. He's probably not going to knock Osgood down the depth chart any time soon. But that shouldn't be a problem.

NHL Blogging: What Went Wrong?

I joked the other night about the Wings loss. Expectations seem to be so sky high, it's an easy target. I don't seriously expect the Wings to go undefeated. Nor do I think losing their opener is cause for divers alarums, either. Now, they drop five or ten in a row like the Tigers did, then we'll talk about panic. But the NHL season is a slog that goes on for far too many games, and losing one isn't a big deal.

Doesn't mean last night's drubbing isn't cause for concern, though. It definitely provides some reasons why a repeat is going to be tough.

First, Toronto is, shall we generously say...an wretchedly awful team of players who'd struggle to make it on an AHL roster and run by a bunch of incompetents who couldn't find their own asses with a map and a paid guide (Suck it Leafs fans.).

That the Wings lost to them points out one thing: they're playing with a big target on their backs. The Wings aren't just the reigning champs, they're the class of the league. They've been on top of the league for so long and are so loaded down with talented players and feted with awards that they can't be anything else. Other teams are going to give them their best shot. There aren't going to be any nights off. Not even against the bottom feeders. The Wings are going to have to come ready to play each and every night and that takes its toll over the course of a long season made longer by the shortest layoff in the league – they were still playing into the postseason while everyone else except the Penguins was already resting up for next year.

Second, it's not just that the Wings lost to the Leafs but how they lost. By giving up a ton of turnovers. They gave away a bunch by anyone's standards. By theirs, we just witnessed the Great Train Robbery. The Wings are a puck control team, have been for a while now, and the amazing thing is how seldom they cough up the puck. They just don't make many turnovers hanks to smart passes and better players. Giving up nearly 20 in a game is practically unheard of.

And it bespeaks, well, a certain lack of effort. Which is the other big concern – the Wings growing complacent. Laden with talent, flushed with success, it's going to be tempting for them to get a little soft.

But they can't do that if they want another Cup. They need to be making the right plays and doing all the little things it takes because, as talented as they are, they're not that much better than the rest of the league.

Last night was an embarrassing loss. It happened at home. It happened after they rose last year's banner. It happened in front of all their fans and a pile of the hardware they'd gathered. Hopefully, that's all it'll take to shake off whatever lingering sense of self-satisfaction remained from last year's accomplishments. And the Wings can get back to skating and playing hard enough from here on out.

NHL Blogging: Drop the Puck

It's going to be a bad year for sports.

The Lions are, well, they're bad even for the Lions. And that's saying something. Even the warm knowledge that Millen's finally been held to account for his poor performance doesn't help. The damage's alredy been done, firing him midway into the season is like firing the pilot after the airplane has crashed. It feels good but it's not going to change anything.

The Tigers failed to make the playoffs despite high expectations and an even higher payroll. It's likely they'll be paring back their roster over the winter and also losing aging pieces of that now distant run in 2006, like Rogers and Jones. They look to be settling into a groove of being good but not great for a while. At least, not great enough to challenge for a title any time soon.

The Pistons are on the down side of that slope. Their window with their current core is coming to an end – although the future does look bright with players like Maxiell and Stuckey. And, who knows, Dumars might even work his magic touch again and revive Kwame Brown's career. If not, well, at least it's an inexpensive gambit. The Pistons are competitive and are going to be so for at least a few more years but, at this point, you know what to expect: 50+ wins, a playoff berth, and an exit against a team that's just ever so slightly better and hungrier than they are. In other words, a valiant effort but still a disappointment.

Even my beloved Wolverines are having an off year. Mired in rebuilding for the future with coach Rod. They'll have to struggle to even reach .500 and while that might be enough to earn a bowl bid, it's not enough to satisfy this Michigan man.

The sole saving grace is the Red Wings. They captured the Cup this summer after all, and might just do it again this year. But therein lies the problem – it's really hard to win back to back titles in the NHL. They've done it before and they, at this point, have to be the odds on favorites once again but the road to the Stanley Cup is a long and winding grind. So, it's likely that the Wings won't be able to match last seasons heights and, again, disappoint.

But...it's hard not to feel optimistic.

They added Hossa to a team that didn't really need to get any better. Not only is he a top-tier talent, he's the sort of veteran still searching for a Cup that the team loves to add for the chemistry element.

They can now roll two great lines with Datsyuk and Hossa on one and Zetterberg and Franzen on the other. Add Holmstrom into the mix

Draper's still an excellent fourth line center whose faceoff skills will pay untold dividends.

The blueline continues to look rock solid with the peerless Lidstrom having found a great counterpart in Raffalski. Kronwall really came into his own last season, finally living up to his promise and giving the Wings the physical, nasty edge from the defense corps that they've lacked ever since losing Konstantinov.

They're so deep and so loaded with talent that they're sending down to the minors guy like Helm and Leino who'd be starting on almost every other team in the league.

Their biggest questions, as usual, are in goal. But the picture there is much better than it was at this time last year.

Osgood starts off the season as the number one goaltender. But he's got enough young talent behind him that he can't get complacent. And enough critics still dogging him that he'll still be eager to prove them wrong. Again.

Conklin's a great pick-up as a back-up. Quality journeyman who'll look even better with the Wings in front of him.

And if all else fails, Howard's waiting in the wings.

It looks like it's going to be another 100 point year. But unlike the last few years, it doesn't seem like it's going to be one that's destined to end in a first round exit.

Maybe this year won't be so bad after all.