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Wings vs Jackets post game
Summary - Detroit had an “Opposite Day” of effort in Dallas compared to Columbus. The Wings had 4 shots in the first, 11 in the second and 15 in the third. The problem, is that Dallas had 3 goals before Detroit broke through and started to match the effort of the Stars. The Stars had 12 shots in the first, 12 in the second, and 6 in the third.
If you’ve ever worked in an office with middle aged, overweight sports fans (usually a sales job), someone in there gets into juicing. A friend will walk in with a mason jar full of green slime from his spouse (and divorce papers 6 months later). Inevitably, you’ll find out why he spent more than 1000 dollars on a juicer. “It gets 60% more than a regular juicer” (still not sure you’re winning with that equation).
Detroit is getting more juice this season. They’re scoring more goals. The problem is, they need more oranges, er, players and somehow need to compete for 60 minutes.
It’s fair to wonder if the drop off from first line to third/fourth is part of why the effort just isn’t there. There’s not enough NHL caliber talent to play 60 minutes against many of the teams in the league. That’s an argument I’ve heard and I won’t debate it.
Most of your goals are coming from the top line and Namestnikov. Beyond just scoring, teams are able to hem Detroit in. Now, the good news is that it’s not an entire game’s worth. Players step up and try to reverse the flow. That’s a welcome change of pace. The team rebuild isn’t complete.
So, from a “we still want a fairly high draft pick at the end of the year” point of view, this is pretty much what your want to see. The team fights back, they just fall short. From a development standpoint, I put it on the coaches to have the players and lines ready to go. Tonight, the team wasn’t ready.
I enjoyed Zadina’s goal and Larkin’s rip (good to see the power play cash in). I enjoy watching the effort grow, but waiting until you’re three in the hole is not a good formula for success. I do believe that, in some ways, the coaching staff may be maxed out here. At some point, the next change has to be one of philosophy. We need more in too many areas though to just throw it on the coaches.
Again, it’s good to see guys want to change the flow. They’re tired of losing. They are better equipped, but not fully equipped, to really make a go of an 82 game season. The signs of growth are there, but the needs are still present.
First Period:
No Detroit goals
Suter scores for Dallas and the stars outshoot Detroit badly. 1-0 after one.
2nd Period:
After Dallas scores twice more (3-0) Filip Zadina scores his 3rd of the season off of a feed from Sam Gagner. The two got a breakaway and a back hand pass from a right shot in Gagner turns into a backhand shot from Zadina. If you ever want to see what an “angry goal” looks like, this is it. Zadina works his tail off. This is the Zakk Wylde guitar solo of angry goals. Lots of grunting.
Zadina’s goal:
Just 5 minutes and 3 seconds later “The Untouchables” combined for a power play goal (Larkin with assists from Raymond and Seider). Larkin will occasionally score a ripper, bar down. When he’s dialed in that shot just looks so fast. I swear it feels like no one is quite sure what happened for a split second.
If you don’t get the “untouchables” line, after the last trade deadline one of the GMs who talked to Yzerman said that only three players were listed as “untouchable”. It was Larkin, Seider and Raymond. At the time a couple readers thought I was crazy because we hadn’t seen Raymond. Yzerman knew he had something special in those three.
Larkin’s power play goal:
Back to a 1 shot game at the end of 2 with Dallas outshooting Detroit 24-15.
Third Period:
No Detroit goals
Some of my previous posts:
Wings vs Jackets post game
Wings vs Blue Jackets pregame - the rebuild vs the resistance
Nedeljkovic and Larkin star in OT win
Hard Hab-it to break - pregame
Power Play awful, PK very good in loss 
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