Game 4 Pregame: Ducks @ Red Wings

Posted: 05/06/2013 by bc in Uncategorized
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The Red Wings have their backs to the wall in this must win game. Our Ducks have outscored them 8-1 since the mid-point of Game 2. Clearly the momentum is all Ducks.

While our Ducks have completely outplayed the Wings, we don’t quite have the results to show for it. Bad officiating can impact the outcome of games and series.

If ever there is a moment for a team to stick to its own game, for our Ducks that time is now. There’s no really reason why they can’t. Justin “Cheap & Chippy” Abdelkader is gone for what could be the series. Abdelkader is the guy who baited Souray into retaliating which led to Wings PP and their winning OT goal in Game 2. Souray’s cross checking penalty in the last minute of the second period was also against Abdelkader. Having this Cheap & Chippy nemesis suspended will help our Ducks stay focused on the  job at hand.

Souray wasn’t the only guy getting payback on Abdelkader. Sheldon just got caught.

Wings are also thin on the blue line after Danny DeKeyser busted his thumb  in a scrum with Ducks Kyle Palmieri, IIRC. Babcock has gone with Brian Lashoff but also has Carlo Colcaiacovo and Ian White available.

czhokej posted that Babcock’s comments on Abdelkader’s hit, “wasn’t a smart thing to say.” Detroit GM Ken Holland also defended the hit. These guys have it backwards. You defend your player, not what he did.

Like many, I’ve long admired the Red Wings and held them out as model franchise. What Holland and Babcock have shown this week is that’s easy to have some class when you’re winning. It’s when you’re challenged that your true character comes out. Holland and Babcock flunk the test. The Wings are no longer an org that I would point out as model worth following.

If our Ducks are feeling anything like I and suspect most who’ve played hockey feel today, they really want this game. It’s not just about winning for a downed teammate, though Toni Lydman is nothing if not respected in our Ducks room. It’s about putting on a clinic built on discipline and character.

The Red Wings fans have shown the world that they’re fair weather band wagon followers at best.

Our Ducks play a physical brand of hockey. Gone are the excesses of the Pronger days. Coach Bruce Boudreau has changed this group from a collection of stars and bus riders into a genuine team. This is why this game is so important to our Ducks. They have the proven ability to win it. They deserve to win it.

Most of all, our Ducks, arguably the NHL’s most complete hockey team, can show the world that physical hockey played within the written and unwritten rules is a beautiful thing.

There are many times during the course of a hockey season and playoff that no words are necessary. All that is needed is eye contact with your teammate for confirmation that tonight we get ‘er done. And on Wednesday we put ‘em away.

And really there’s one reason to do it. These Detroit Red Wings and their fans don’t deserve to be here.

Special teams play dictating series outcome

Posted: 05/05/2013 by bc in Uncategorized
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Special teams continue to be the story as our Ducks scored one shorthanded and two power play goals while dismantling the Red Wings during a 4-0 road win Saturday night.

The Wings went 0 for 7 on the PP including a 5 on 3 for fifty seconds.

Even the beneficiary of the officials largess was unappreciative. Following the game Coach Babcock talked about how the calls disrupt the game. He mentioned that his top players had all played over eight minutes in the first period.

If ever there is a signal to the NHL that the quality of the officiating must improve it is when the team apparently benefiting is the one complaining.

Our Ducks have earned a decided lead in special teams play. In their two losses the Wings are 1 for 11 with the man advantage. Our Ducks PP efficiency is 33.3%.

At the outset of the playoffs the Red Wings were said to be better in net and were the hot team going in. Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard is 1-2 with a SP of just .885 and a GAA of 3.33. Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller has a GAA of 1.99, SP of .922 and a shutout.

Of concern to Coach Babcock is that our Ducks have scored 4 times even strength. Four of the Wings six goals in this have come with the man advantage. Ducks are beating the Wings in all phases of the game.

Down 2 games to 1 in a 7 game series, Detroit find themselves in a must win situation. Their only win coming as a result of one-sided officiating.

Babcock said the game (and perhaps this series) turned on Ryan Getzlaf‘s shorthanded goal. Wings fans began to abandoned their team midway through the third when Emerson Etem put our Ducks by 3. The Joe virtually emptied out five minutes later when Matt Beleskey put us up 4-zip.

Abandoned by their fans. Unable to benefit from one-sided officiating. Our Ducks are clearly inside the mind of their goalie. These Wings are clearly on the ropes. They now represent a challenge our ducks have risen to infrequently through this season.

Do they have the killer instinct? Finding it now will elevate our Ducks to another level.

Lifeless Ducks make historic comeback to only be robbed 5-4 in OT!

Posted: 05/03/2013 by yougetoutwhatyouputin in Uncategorized
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Regardless which team you root for, penalizing a team within the final minute of a playoff game is a disservice to the paying customer. Refs of yesteryear would have never called such a penalty with less than 40 seconds remaining in regulation in a tied game, period. This is a playoff hockey treat it as such! Not to mention the countless penalties on both sides not called. The inconsistency is pathetic! The slash on Beauchemin in the second period comes to mind. His stick was slashed right out of his hands while on the power play…pretty clear.

Enough of my rant on the refs…would the Ducks team that played Game 1 and the 3rd period of Game 2 please stay with us for the entire playoffs? This is not going to be easy so we need that intensity for the entire series.

Good things to take away from Game 2: 1) we came back, and as a group responded well and did not give up. That is all I can ask from our group 2) Bobby finally scored, finally 3) Getz has become a great captain, great leadership when we needed it most and 4) Hiller made some fantastic saves, nice work!

Team thoughts of the game:

BB: “When you do come back to tie it, and (then) lose it, is a little more disappointing, I was hoping it would get done before overtime, because I knew they would gain their composure again, because the last 10 minutes (of regulation), they lost it. They were fortunate starting (overtime) on the power play, and that was it.”

Ryan: “I think we finally settled into a pretty good rhythm there, we didn’t do enough, though. … We gave them second and third chances to come up with the puck, and they’re a team that capitalizes”.

Sourary on the Penalty call: “I didn’t really see anything, it was a tough call. Tough way to end it. We battled back hard. We didn’t start the game and periods as hard as they did, and they capitalized on that.”

Game three in Saturday at 4:30 on KDOC…

Analyzing all 5 Wings goals

Posted: 05/03/2013 by bc in Uncategorized
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Followers of this blog know what happened last night. We told you. Wings shifted to a short gap, short passing game or what Gabby calls shares, Howard was spectacular when needed and they got some very fortuitous calls by the officials.

What I didn’t think would happen is that we didn’t have an answer. Our guys nearly came back but in a nutshell, we were unable to overcome bad and biased officiating and shut down the Detroit power play.

We’ll look at all five goals with video links.

Ducks opened strong. Our guys got the puck in deep. As the play moved back into the neutral zone Ducks went for a line change. Getz, Ryan and Fowler got off leaving Beauchemin and Perry out there. Perry picked up the puck along the boards and sensing backside pressure, he flipped the biscuit back up ice into the pressure. In this situation Pears needed to eat the puck rather than try a no look back hand chip during a line change. In Perry’s defense he did chip the puck into a safe area,. The mistake was doing it during a line change. You have to know when to eat the puck.
Pavel Datsyuk jumped on the loose puck. Pushed it to Abdelkader flying through the neutral zone. The Wing forward used Beauchemin for a screen and from about 30 feet out, ripped a seeing eye shot high blocker side past Hiller.

Hiller could have played it differently but I don’t fault him on the play. The turnover is on Perry. Hiller had backed off from the top of the crease when Abdelkader shifted to his left. I don’t think Hillsy saw the release point of the shot though. While Hiller does have line of sight the puck on the last nan0-second prior to the release; Hillsy had moved with the shooter, Abdelkader fired against the flow of the goalie’s movement.

The mistake on the play was made by Perry. Nobody else was at fault. You don’t blame goalies for “seeing-eye” shots.

About 3 minutes later, Detroit capitalized on another Ducks turnover, this time by Teemu Selanne. Flash picked up the loose biscuit and attempted a share with Fowler who was moving up with speed. Just at the moment of the truth, it looked like Quincy pressured from the point, got his stick into the passing seam and tipped the puck over to Brunner. Brunner untouched in the primary shooting area beat Hiller top shelf, glove side.

I won’t get back to this post until tonight. Ducks turnovers and short Detroit passes led to the first two goals. Exactly what we talked about in the pre-game.

 

Pregame 2: Detroit Red Wings @ Anaheim Ducks

Posted: 05/02/2013 by bc in Uncategorized
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Note: The term wheel and wheeling as used in this post means to put all skaters in motion while moving the puck among them. I looked wheeling up and found it doesn’t have the meaning I’m giving it. I first became familiar with wheeling in the 70′s in Southern Ontario. Teams I played on practiced it and it was used to describe the ‘High Flying Habs” of the time and the Russian 5-man unit system.

In game 1, Ducks were able to shut down the Wings attack in all three zones. Detroit was limited to just 11 shots on goal in the first two periods. Critical to how our Ducks defended is that Detroit 13 giveaways during the game. Ducks broke up numerous stretch passes.

Coach Babcock commented that Wings D failed to move the puck and that they were too spread out. Look for the Wings to play a short or tight gap between their D and forwards tonight. This will also dictate that they make shorter passes in a give and go style.

Except this give and go will be different. Look for the Wings to wheel it out. This is when all five players are in constant motion. D and forwards become interchangeable. The passing and player movement is crisp and quick respectively. Wheeling involves as much drop passing to a player advancing with speed as it does head manning and lateral passing.

What Detroit is looking to do is raise the tempo of the game such that our Ducks begin running around and chasing the puck. They’ll also be attempting to draw those “late on the play” tripping, hooking and interference penalties. This tactical change is partly why Babcock took them to a soccer field yesterday instead of practicing on ice. You want to practice constant foot movement. That and soccer is built on wheeling with give and go passing.

The Wings will also be looking to get the puck to the net the nano-second they cross the center red line. They’ll shoot from everywhere tonight.

Finally, Babcock will, either start the game or during the game separate the Eurotwins. When Babcock splits the Eurotwins he most often goes with Z alongside Brunner and Fanzen or Datsyuk/Abdelkader with Franzen. Filppula then drops to the 3rd line.

He was also non-committal about inserting vets Todd Bertuzzin and Mikale Samuelsson into the lineup for tonight’s game. He said he’ll sleep on it.

Update: Per Curtis Zupke tweet, Babcock says Bertuzzi will play while Jordan Tootoo is a healthy scratch.

Wings best hope is for Jimmy Howard to steal one.

Who and how Detroit brings it tonight should make things a bit easier for our Ducks. Anaheim is arguably the best balanced team in the NHL. We have two lines that bash and crash. Two lines that can dash and flash.

By shortening the gap between the D and forwards each Wing should be easier to pressure and hit. However, you can’t hit what you can’t catch.

Look forward to a Ducks win unless Howard steals the game. This won’t put us in control of the series though. Everything could change back in Detroit.

Let the chess game begin

Posted: 05/01/2013 by bc in Uncategorized
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Ducks checking line is as improbable as the players who comprise u it. Two small skill guys and a journeyman grinder. When the line is most effective, Andrew Cogliano uses warp speed to provide the pressure up ice. Saku Koivu patrols the center lane from slot to slot. Journeyman Daniel Winnick is a travelin’ man delivering punishing checks and challenging physical battles around the wall.

Drawing the daunting assignment of dogging Detroit’s two best players this unlikely trio not only kept Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterburg off the score sheet but reduced Datsyuk to just one and Zetterburg to only three shots on Jonas Hiller.

On many shifts the Ducks checking line hemmed the Wings best deep in their own zone. How they do their work is a bit comical actually. Off the puck, Koivu and Cogliano are the pressure forwards who force the opposition to Winnick’s wall. When they have the puck, breaking up the Saku and Cogs cycle is like catching butterflys without a net or fishing with just your hands.

So thoroughly did the unsung trio shadow Detroit’s stars they reduced Coach Mike Babcock to complaining about the inability of his D to move the puck. This poses quite a challenge to the former Ducks coach. Does he breakup his Eurotwins or adjust the system?

Actually Babcock directed a lot of Plan B, whip it around the net break outs to no avail, to chips along the wall. He went to the so-called stretch pass, sending the mail from deep in the Wings zone high into the neutral zone. Time after time Ducks players, most notably Saku, Cogs or Winnie saw that one coming with anticipation and reads reminiscent of Wayne Gretzky.

So thorough was the Ducks defensive scheme that the Wings committed 13 giveaways compared to averaging just 4.7 giveaways per game during the season.

Datsyuk and Zetterburg got healthy and hot down the stretch. Along with goaltender Jimmy Howard they powered the Wings into the playoffs.

So what is the Detroit coach to do next? Look for him to breakup the Eurotwins in game two. He has to get one of them, most likely Zetterburg, away from the Koivu line.

If it doesn’t work, Babs will surely find his Wings down 2-0. At that point the Wings tactician will reunite them and use the home team’s last change to get his offensive stars away from Anaheim’s most unlikely checking line.

Our Ducks did more than win a game last night. They sent the Wings back to the quiet study of the video room.

 

Ducks pay the price in 3-1 victory in Game 1!

Posted: 05/01/2013 by yougetoutwhatyouputin in Uncategorized
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We did what we needed to do to win. We physically abused the Wings and made sure we finished all our checks. By the 3rd period, it was evident that the Wings were tired. We blocked countless shots…we paid the physical price…this is my type of hockey…I love it!

Bonino scored a power-play goal in the first period, Flash (ageless wonder) scored the tiebreaking power-play goal in the third period and Beauchemin added an empty-netter. Hiller was solid with 21 saves.

Koivu, Cogs and Winnik were very effective…Koivu you were a pest…good work!

Team thoughts of the game:

Flash, “That’s what we were expecting, we know how good they are, and we needed a good, solid effort. We know it’s not going to be easy.”

Hiller, “We wanted to start strong at home, and it’s important to get that first one and have some confidence, we played very solid in our end, and that makes it easier for a goalie. Even the goal they scored was a lucky bounce for them.”

Wings thoughts of the game:

Babcock (nothing but respect for Babcock), “I didn’t think we were great, I didn’t think we moved the puck very good. Give them credit. They’re part of that equation. … I thought their team was better than our team today. I thought they controlled the game and had more cycles.”

Kronwall , “There was not enough thrown at Hiller, for sure, there were a lot of times that we turned the puck over in the wrong area. They’re a really good team over there, so we have to do a good job of protecting the puck in our own zone.”

Game 2 is Thursday at Honda Center…Look for the Wings to step up the physical pressure.

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