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Summary - Blashill’s decision making has gone from stupid to careless and stupid. The goalie pull against Calgary was dumb. The pull tonight was completely ridiculous. The team had no momentum, was 4 goals down. The team looks lost out there without a system. And now, Blashill takes away the goalie.
I was critical of Detroit’s start and said that both Calgary and Montreal could turn their fortunes around. The only game Detroit earned their points in was against CBJ. Vancouver outplayed the team badly. Tampa Bay didn’t even have to try. There is no system. All the personnel changes on the ice are worthless without some sort of structure.
For those continuing to insist that Smith needs to be on the ice, I just don’t see it right now. No lines are performing that well, but he’s just doing a trip to the box every game and making life worse for the team. The lack of leadership behind the bench is making a bad team worse at this point. Passes are terrible, decision making is all over the map. These players are out there trying to make it up as they go. There was no time during camp that any system seemed obvious, I assumed that was because they were trying so many people out. Blashill’s approach to this season seems like a crap shoot. Get someone in here that can steady the ship and at least form some structure.
I don’t know what it’s going to take, but the team needs leadership behind the bench. This is awful to watch.
First period:
Wings to the Powerplay with 14:41 left in the period. Larkin rips a wrist shot that “pings” the left post. I’d like to see the mph on that. He really got all of it and what a chime.
Larkin’s pp goal:
Wings follow up with good pressure on the next shift.
Shots only 3 apiece with 11:12 left. Neither team lighting it up.
Zadina and Erne had a nice rush, Erne rang the top pipe. Lindstrom off for tripping. Montreal will be looking to grab some momentum on this man advantage.
Wings lose opening draw, Gagner able to corral puck and backhand it out. Habs back in, Rasmussen walks it down ice. Montreal back in, Stephens clears. 40 seconds left to kill. Not a ton of pressure for MTL, but it feels like they’re a good bounce away. Anderson saves puck at the line with 12 seconds left. Gagner with a diving block to stop Caufield on a grade a chance. One thing I love about SG, he still gives it all he has.
6:31 left, only 4 shots apiece. Wings lose faceoff but get puck out. Montreal keeps coming back and Chiarot scores off of a nice feed by Drouin. Wings turned puck over, sloppy play. Really nice finish by BC.
5:30 left, Montreal looks like a new team. Confidence goes a long way.
Another Montreal PP with 4:22 left. Dekeyser to the box, not good.
Just 36 seconds in Montreal strikes. Hoffman picked a corner, beautiful shot by a power play specialist. Detroit has given Montreal everything they need to run them over at this point.
Within a minute or so, Zadina to the box for high sticking. Sportsmanship, he apologized (stick lift gone wrong). Not good at all.
Detroit is making poor decisions. Attempted SH rush leads to Montreal 3 on 0. Simplify. Get the puck out. Stop trying to force momentum when the simple play would give you some time.
Wings kill it, but are still hemmed in. 45 seconds left and Detroit skates it down to the O zone. Very fortunate only to be down by 1. Shots 9-4 Montreal.
2nd Period:
Less than a minute in Montreal gets a 3 on 1 and Greiss had to come up big with a deceptive shot from Hoffman.
Another opportunity from a failure to get the puck out of the zone. Petry skated right in, Seider able to break up the play. Savard skating nicely as well. Detroit looks lost right now.
Chance after chance in the first 3 minutes, Detroit is playing with fire and not responding at all. Montreal with a 4 on 2 scores as they head back ice. Horrible line change by the Red Wings, the team has looked worse almost every shift since the start of the Calgary game.
Montreal fans enjoying this one. Pretty much unfolding as I’d feared. All momentum, all confidence. And Detroit with no ability to claw their way back into it. The passes have more lost connections than Delta Airlines at this point.
Detroit gets a Powerplay shot at 4:47. This is an important opportunity.
Good movement to open the man advantage. Good lucks, but no luck. Detroit turns the puck over on a terrible entry with 15 seconds left. Wings unable to convert. Another bad pass kicks Detroit out of the zone as they were still applying pressure. A lot of cringeworthy passes in the past couple games.
Perreault scores with 12:15 left, pretty much out of nowhere after Dekeyser makes another gaffe on passing. That is the death blow. Nice shot by the former Jet. If I’m Nedeljkovic I don’t want any part of coming in right now. Greiss does the skate of shame back to the crease.
Blashill decides to try to coach, what a farce. The time is swiftly approaching where that position needs to be altered. Yzerman has brought in players for every part of the roster but if there’s a system, I’m not sure anyone (including the players) have any idea what it is.
Preseason spent so much time trying players out that the lines weren’t established until the beginning of the season. This team needs a Gallant or a Trotz. Someone to clamp down and create a system that everyone can understand. Simplify. Passing is awful right now. Speed up decision making. Get some common sense on the ice. This is a disaster to watch.
Montreal comes right back and scores again. 5-1 with exactly half the game to go. If I wasn’t blogging I’d have turned this off and started to watch the boomerang app. Garfield’s holiday specials are fantastic (but only available with purchase on ITunes unfortunately).
3rd period:
Jeff Blashill handed Perrault a hat trick by pulling the goalie, down 4 goals, with no momentum. His goalie pull against Calgary was stupid, this was careless and stupid. There is no reason to keep him behind the bench. What is wrong with this coach? There was no reason to believe Detroit would take advantage of that situation.
Read my previous posts:
Wings vs Canadiens pregame
Soderblom leads Frolunda in goals
Wings shutout by Flames
Wings vs Flames pregame 
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