After a minor TV emergency Tuesday night, I finally settled in to watch the third game of the Detroit vs. Chicago home and home and home series. This was the first game of this series that I was able to give my undivided attention to. I had seen the game Thursday night, but was working hard on my court cases for government class. As I settled in about three or four minutes into the game, I was greeted by a team playing, “like crap” as one of my classmates, and teammates described it. The team was looking like a team of eighty year olds.
The Red Wings entered the game 11-1 in search of a 9 game win streak (the first since the ’95-’96 season in which they did it twice). Chicago started the game flying. Detroit was struggling to keep up and couldn’t get it going. Around the eleven minute ark, Legace stopped a shot and it trickled under his left leg and crept toward the goal. Legace dove back just in time to put his glove on it and sweep it away, as the Blackhawks were crashing the net to tuck the puck into the net. That was the beginning of the end for the Blackhawks. Seven minutes later Steve Yzerman and Kris Draper set up Kirk Maltby for an even strength tally to get the wings on the board. Thirty-eight seconds later, Fischer and Barnaby got tangled up in front of the net and Barnaby ended up on top of Manny Legace. Legace got knocked back and his leg stuck underneath him. He immediately threw off his glove and blocker and grabbed his knee. His face showed nothing but pain as he rolled around on the ice. Meanwhile, Fischer took on Barnaby in a fist fight. Even though it was a fight it looked more like a wrestling match only a few punches were thrown this went on for awhile and the refs took a long time to get in the middle. This however, was due to Barnaby yelling at the refs to not come near them, but really he was just prolonging the embarrassment. In the end, Fischer “won” the fight and then the attention shifted to Legace who was still on the ice talking to Piet Van Zant and trying to overcome the pain. The fans chanted “Manny Manny” trying to help him out. Chris Osgood was to come in and take over. Legace got off the ice under his own power, and that was the end of the night for Mr. October. The first period ended with the Wings up 1-0, but being out shot 9-8.
The second period began with an Yzerman penalty and four minutes into the period, the wings showed the advantage of getting rid of the two line pass. From between the circles Robert Lang got a pass as he was streaking through center ice. Lang entered the zone being bothered from behind, and was taken off the puck. The ref then called for a penalty shot, the most exciting play in hockey. Robert Lang started at center ice, and just skated in and shot the puck practically right at Nikolai Khabibulin. It seemed as if he didn’t even really try to pick a corner or anything. The Wings struck again with 12:26 left in the period. Lebda scored with the help of Nicklas Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk on the power play. This was Lebda’s second goal in only his fourth game with the team. And eight minutes later Shanahan connected on his eighth goal of the season from Lang and Williams. The Wings were looking to end the period up 3-0, but Aucoin had another plan. With only 1:37 left in the period he took a shot from the blue line and it found the back of the net. So the period ended 3-1.
The third period was pretty uneventful. Jason Williams scored his 4th goal of the season a little more than half way through the third on the power play. Overall, the game was a good one. There were lots of extracurricular activities after the whistles, shoving matches, trash talking, and fights. I think the NHL has succeeded in helping to build a rivalry (or rekindle the flame on an old one). It was a very physical and entertaining game. It reminded me of the old NHL. Osgood played a good game, he proved to Detroit fans that he can be the goalie he was a few years ago.
On the injury front, Mathieu Schneider is out with a slight groin pull, and Jason Wooley is also out with a groin pull. The Wings called up Jamie Rivers and Brent Lebda. Legace is listed as day to day and Jimmy Howard was called up from Grand Rapids to back-up Chris Osgood.
The game Tuesday night was on OLN, the Outdoor Life Network. Basically, OLN is a lower budget ESPN. Personally I cannot stand it. The analysts, even though some of them are ESPNers, do not seem very knowledgeable on the topic. The pre and post game shows, and intermission updates are very low key and the announcers are annoying. The announcers for this game were ok, but the ones for the night before were talking about anything and everything barely relating to hockey. I really couldn’t stand them and so the TV volume went down and Kenny Kal and Paul Woods got turned up. They even have stupid advertising slogans. I really like the “we believe in hockey” advertisements. Because I just think it’s a good angle. They were the only network to believe in it enough to pick up a nationwide deal. But they were running an advertisement, we believe in captains, for the game the next night. Now it would be a great advertisement if only those two teams had captains, but last time I checked all thirty of the teams in the league had captains. And another thing, maybe they should check their stat books better. Because at the beginning of the game they showed that this was Mike Babcock’s third year as a Red Wing head coach. Was I in a coma for the last two years? Did I miss something? It was ridiculous. If they were only off by a year and it was Babcock’s 47th year, then it wouldn’t be so bad, but THIS IS HIS FIRST YEAR!! How can you count that wrong? Overall I really don’t like OLN. It’s not right that hockey is being shown a station that reruns survivor and one night I flipped it on to see if there was a game and it was a special on elephants or something in the Africa. Something there just isn’t connecting.
