To say that there is heat between the Red Wings and Lightning in their first round Stanley Cup playoffs battle would an understatement.
To say that there is hatred and disrespect would be more accurate.
The Jeff Blashill Red Wings are failing right now at playing the role of villain to Jon Cooper's cowboy in a white hat. Cooper is cleaning Blashill's clock right now in every leadership and tactical department. Blashill talks a great game, chews his gum like a boss and scowls like Jon Gruden, however, his strategy, tactics and lack of control over his players has exposed him as a rookie NHL head coach. Blash may have been a beauty of an NHL bench boss with his stacked teams in Grand Rapids, however, he's in the NHL playoffs right now. He hasn't been able to grab his spoiled brat youngsters by the scruff of their necks and demand that they follow the team structure. Abdelkader, Larkin, Green, Ericsson, and other Red Wings seem to be playing for the name on the back of the sweater and not the Winged Wheel on the front of the sweater.
How disrespectful is that to decorated warriors and future Hall Of Famers in Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Nik Kronwall?
Very. Disrespectful. The kids have to respect the leaders.
The Red Wings find themselves in them sleeved planted in the bottom of a two games to none sink hole having gotten spanked 5-2 in Tampa on Friday night. The series now shifts back to Detroit for Games 3 and 4.
Detroit and Tampa are grinding one another down to the bone marrow with hatred, late hits and pugnacity.
There is zero love lost between Tampa and Detroit in their playoff series. The Bolts won Game 1 in Detroit. I can't keep track of the frequency of the post-whistle face washes, shoves from behind, and sticks to the family jewels.
The gangland tactics carried over to Game 2 in Detroit to the tune of 109 total penalty minutes.
The referees noticeably swallowed their whistles just after the opening faceoff and chaos ensued.
Game 2's intensity exceeded Game 1's tomfoolery and high jinx.
In the emotionally charged second period, Detroit D-man Danny DeKeyser absolutely smoked Tampa’s Ondrej Palat from behind. An ugly, dangerous hit to be certain.
DeKeyser's hit on Palat touched off a chain reaction of incidents including a pair of roughing penalties to Riley Sheahan and Jonathan Drouin. nd There was also an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty handed to Victor Hedman.
Amazingly, DeKeyser was not penalized for his pounding of Palat.
Thanks, NBCSN
The on ice officials opted to swallow their whistles early in Game 2 and the result was an ugly, violent affair.
The nastiness reached a crescendo when future Hall Of Famer Pavel Datsyuk lost teeth in a collision with Bolts D-man Victor Hedman.
The chiclet spitting occurred at the 10:21 mark of the second period, Hedman's stick caught Datsyuk in the moosh.
Was Hedman's high stick accidental?
It doesn't matter because Datsyuk was assessed a penalty that he could not serve himself as he was in the dentist's chair getting his jibs repaired.
Datsyuk would leave the game and not play for the final 9:39 of game action in the second period.
You want the Magic Man to stop terrorizing your goalie? Just knockout his teeth with a high stick.
Seems fair. Right?
Datsyuk was war clubbed in the face, lost teeth and was then sent to the box while Hedman skated away scott free.
Like a great teammate, fellow future Hall Of Famer Henrik Zetterberg returned to the scene of the crime to collect Datsyuk's jibs and deliver them to the trainers.
How does a first ballot Hall Of Famer lose his teeth?
An understandably pissed off Datsyuk screamed at the refs on his way to the locker room for medical attention.
To no avail.
Magic Man's teeth disappeared and he was handed a citation for some unknown offense. Perhaps the refs were getting sick and tired of watching Datsyuk's teammates take runs at their opponents and decided to use the Datsyuk-Hedman incident as a coaching moment.
The on ice officials for Game 2 should be docked their pay checks for allowing that playoff game to burn out of control. Had the zebras sent guys to the boxes early on in Game 2, this game would have been a more entertaining hockey game and less of a demolition derby. Listen, I love hard, heavy, nasty, R-Rated hockey. I love it. That's my brand of choice. However, the second and third periods of Game 2 became a cheap shot gong show for all to see and for that I blame the refs.
In my opinion, the referees lost control of Game 2 long before the fictional penalty call on Datsyuk. I've never seen more post-whistle scrums, face washes and taunting before puck drop in a two game span than I have in the Tampa-Detroit series. It's ridiculous.
For example, after Tyler Johnson scored his second goal of the third period to give the Bolts their 4-2 lead, and Alex Killorn scored the empty netter to make it 5-2, Justin Abdelkader absolutely lost his mind and pounded the snot out of Mike Blunden, who was defenseless on the ice. Abdelkader is a big boy and an honorable hockey player. This crap is stupid and its reflective of how unglued he and his teammates are right now. Abdelkader isn't a rookie. He's a leader on the Red Wings. He learned at the hand of the master veterans Nick Lidstrom, Chris Chelios, Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Danny Cleary, and others. His Detroit role models and his former head coach Mike Babcock showed Abdelkader the proper way to play. The Red Wing way where you play for the name on the crest of the sweater not the names that is stitched between the shoulder blades. Mike Babcock would not have been proud of Abdelkader's act in Game 2 especially since it undermined the opportunity for the Wings to rebound and push back to tie the game.
Tampa won Game 2 by a score of 5-2. The series now shifts north to The Joe in Detroit on Sunday afternoon. If the Red Wings don't stay out of the penalty box, this series will be a four game sweep for the LIghtning.
At this pace, Datsyuk's NHL career will be done by Wednesday.
If he could wave his magic wand, I'm sure he would change his team's miserable, poor discipline against the Blackhawks.
Frankly, I feel sorry for Datsyuk. His team is trailing 0-2 heading home to Detroit for Games 3 and 4. The poor guy got his jibs knocked out and if Abdelkader and the Wings can't grow up, Magic Man's NHL career will end unceremoniously.
Like his teeth, Datsyuk' will be knocked out of his final playoff series of his Hall Of Fame career.
I feel strongly that Datsyuk has earned and deserves a better fate.
The Red Wings lack two things right now: Leadership and discipline. Ironically, these are two of the best qualities that Datsyuk has brought to the rink every day of his stellar career in Detroit.
The changing of the guard and shifting of leadership from elder statesmen Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Kronwall to Abdelkader, DeKeyser, Sheahan, Larkin, Tatar, et al has been clumsy and awkward. The kids are going to need more time to get the hand of this leadership thing. Watching the young Wings lose their cool and resort to stupidity at critical moments in Games 1 and 2 vs. Tampa has shown me that these youngsters are still not ready to be fulltime leaders of their team. They are still learning. In many ways, the Red Wings looked and played like the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins in Games 1 and 2. Sure they were spunky and nasty, however, they were dumb and took far to many costly penalties against a Tampa team that seemingly thrives under pressure. The Bolts are not cow towing to Red Wing invitations to punch each other in the face roll around in the mud on the front lawn like frats boys at a freshmen year kegger. Not the Bolts. They are playing like a mature team that represented the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Finals last season. I see the Bolts beating the Wings in round one, then losing in round two. They have their flaws, too. However, they have more composure, discipline and leadership to let this series slip away now.
***
The Tampa Lightning do not appear to be missing captain Steven Stamkos on the ice in their round one series versus Detroit.
The revamped "triplets" trio of Killorn-Johnson-Kucherov is absolutely killing the Red Wings. This line is toying with the Detroit defense every time it touches the puck.
Bolts GM Steve Yzerman and head coach John Cooper appear to have filled the huge void left by the absence of Stamkos (blood clot) by plugging prodigal son Jonathon Drouin into the top six forward group. Drouin has been playing like the second coming of Darcy Tucker or Brad Marchand in this series versus Detroit. He is finding the score sheet while adding strong shifts skating 16+ minutes TOI per game.
Drouin was recalled to Tampa after Stamkos' injury and surgery were made public. Drouin, known more as a sweetheart than a battler, has been poking, prodding, punching and smashing Red Wings that dare to come within 5 feet of him.
Stamkos will become UFA on July 1.
My take:
Yzerman has resigned himself to the fact that Stamkos is leaving Tampa via free agency. Jon Cooper and Yzerman have wiped the slate clean as it pertains to Drouin's suspension and subsequent banishment to Syracuse after he left the team while seeking a trade that never came. Yzerman and Cooper have hit the "reset" button and have forgiven Drouin out of necessity with Stamkos now injured and leaving the organization as a UFA on July 1.
I see Stamkos landing in Buffalo as an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Perhaps sooner as Sabres GM Tim Murray can trade for Stamkos' UFA rights at or before the NHL Draft, which will be hosted by Murray and the Buffalo Sabres. Steve Yzerman would then be able to save face with his owner and fans by getting valuable compensation for Stamkos, perhaps a second and a third round draft choice in the 2016 NHL Draft, in exchange for Stamkos' UFA rights.
Join the Discussion:
»