Loss to the Maple Heaves

A Good Flying Bird*
12-06-2003, 05:46 PM
Well, that was a pretty good game for 50 or so minutes and the Wings started gambling to tie the game.

• Every year, Shanny complains about the lack of games vs. Toronto and other O-Six teams. Looks like he means it. He played very good tonight. Very, very good. Actually, he's been good a lot for the last week or so.

• Jiri Fischer had a terrible, terrible night. Terrible. He's not that fast in his own end, so when he's indecisive, it costs the team dearly.

• Teams that dump the puck in and punish our defense behind our net tend to be successful. It's been true since the LA series a few years ago. We tend to do well against puck possession teams.

• Remember all those "who needs fedorov when we've got pavel datsyuk" posts?
Well, Datsyuk went up against a truly elite center tonight. Coach Quinn put out Sundin against Datsyuk, and Sundin won out. Easily.
Still, I give Datsyuk credit. He kept working right to the end.
I'm just not sure we can count on Pavel to go head to head against guys like Forsberg and Modano.

• Before that Sundin goal where Lidstrom got caught pinching, I found myself thinking that Lidstrom really isn't playing very well. He's not skating very well. He's not getting many quality shots. I don't blame him for the Sundin goal. He was pinching for Datsyuk's pass, which was way too soft. He went in for a split second and by the time he realized that Pavel flubbed the pass, he was toast.

• When Yzerman went down, we suddenly didn't look very good, did we? And I'm not trying to butter up Yzerman. I'm just saying that we were suddenly a one-line team.

• Darryl Bootland looks less and less effective each time he plays.

• Mark Mowers continues to impress me with hard work and good overall play.

• Williams and Robinson had some very good shifts in the first, but didn't get many shifts once Yzerman went down and the Wings fell behind.

• I am amazed at Gary Roberts game after all the huge injuries he's faced. When healthy, he's an absolute force, offensively and physically.

• Manny Legace didn't look very good tonight. But the defense was atrocious on a few of those goals. Fischer couldn't find a way to stop Marchment. Somebody stood next to Domi but decided they didn't need to tie up his stick. Stajan was all alone out front.

• Yikes. Anyone know the faceoff stats tonight? I didn't see the stats. But it seemed like we lost just about every key draw.

• Did the Wings even take a penalty tonight? Wow. And the leafs only took two.

• Anyone else think that Boyd Devereaux might be slightly retarded?

guinness
12-06-2003, 06:00 PM
It was a close game until the end when the D got burned pinching. I thought Manny did ok considering, the Roberts goal was a rocket, but Shanny rifled one past Belfour. What's up with Hasek taking of his shoulder pads on the bench though? If Manny got hurt, Hasek would've gotten a delay of game just because of how long it would take him to put his pads back on, Lewis is letting him do whatever he wants I guess. I liked Grapes spiel about Cujo during Coach's Corner, this team is still only as good as long as the Wings stick to their gameplan, while at the same time not giving up so many defensive breaks for the other team.

leafaholix*
12-06-2003, 10:18 PM
Classy move by Lewis to play Bootland and Robinson.

:handclap:

p.l.f.
12-07-2003, 06:19 AM
I thought the game really turned around in the 2nd period when the Leafs decided to crash the Pink Wings net.

Boomhower
12-07-2003, 08:30 AM
• Remember all those "who needs fedorov when we've got pavel datsyuk" posts?
Well, Datsyuk went up against a truly elite center tonight. Coach Quinn put out Sundin against Datsyuk, and Sundin won out. Easily.
Still, I give Datsyuk credit. He kept working right to the end.
I'm just not sure we can count on Pavel to go head to head against guys like Forsberg and Modano.

• When Yzerman went down, we suddenly didn't look very good, did we? And I'm not trying to butter up Yzerman. I'm just saying that we were suddenly a one-line team.

• Darryl Bootland looks less and less effective each time he plays.

• Williams and Robinson had some very good shifts in the first, but didn't get many shifts once Yzerman went down and the Wings fell behind.

• Anyone else think that Boyd Devereaux might be slightly retarded?

-The fact remains the Wings don't need Federov, they need Yzerman.....whoever thought Datsyuk would replace Fedorov, was ignoring the fact Fedorov has two dimensions and Datsyuk only has one. Datsyuk can't be a defensive force and win draws like Fedorov(everyone knew this), but he might put up the 80 points that left town with Fedorov.

-It could have been avoided, Lewis should have put Williams between Shanny and Devereaux, because Williams has been playing well...... plus when Lewis moved Draper up, that left our third line in bad shape. It seemed losing Yzerman weakened two lines(1st and 3rd), when it should have only weakened one.(Ignoring the 4th line, cuz they basically weren't playing anyways)

-Less effective? that would insinuate Bootland was effective at some point.

-I agree Williams has been better lately. Robinson can definitely skate, but the jury is still out......hasn't really been able to get into the flow of a game yet, because of his ice time.

-No, Boyd's positioning has been very good and he hasn't been making mental mistakes,(i.e missing assignments, horrible giveaways or bad line changes) Boyd just has brick hands around the net and horrble shooting accuracy.