Good Morning Hockeytown! Top Headlines: *Jim Howard Steals a point for the Red Wings *Not Looking Good for Alfredssons Return *Nationally Broadcast Games Today *The Red Wings are back in action tomorrow with their first away game of the season when they pay a visit to the Maple Leafs, game time is at 7:30pm et and can be seen on FSD. This is the first of a back to back/ home at home series this weekend as the Wings and Leafs meet again on Saturday at the Joe, game time is at 7pm et and will be broadcast on FSD, HNIC and NHL Network in the rest of the US. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Jim Howard Comes Like a Theif in the Night and Steals a Point With a flat performance from the offence the Wings were lucky to get a point from last evenings 2-3 shoot out loss to the Bruins. Going into the season the Wings knew they were going to need Howard to be in top form and to be able to steal a game or two for them. Howard did his best and treid hard to do just that but unfortunately the offence wasnt able to help get both points. A couple other bright spots from the game last evening was Gustav Nyquist who continued his scoring ways and tallied his third goal in three games. The penalty kill continued to be perfect in the season and successfully killed all three of the Bruins man advantages. The offencive woes continued on the Wings power play and Nyquists goal was the only one they could muster out of five chances with a man advantage. The Bruins out shot the Wings 39-20 in the game, 35-18 in regulation time alone. The offences troubles were also evident in the face off circle and in the first the Bruins had an 11-2 advantage in that category, though the Wings did get better as the game went on. The Bruins were a desperate team last evening and showed it, after winning their home and season opener they had lost the next three games in a row before last evening. They came to play and looking for some payback for their loss to the Wings last Thursday, they out shot the Wings 14-4 in the first. It was the Bruins who opened the scoring in the first just over five minutes into the game. However, despite being out shot the Wings were able to go into the intermission with the game even thanks to Tomas Tatars first goal of the season. Second period was a little more even with shots 10-8 in the Bruins favor but it was Brendan Smiths brother Riley who gave his team the edge with the only goal of the period. Gus Nyquist evened the game early in the third on the power play and Jim Howard had to put on a performance to keep the game even and give the Wings a chance. Bruins controlled the shots 11-6 in the third. It was shut out hockey at both ends after Nyquists goal early in the third and through OT. The Bruins doubled the shots in the Wings in the extra frame at 4-2. The game would require a shootout to determine the winner and despite his strong performance in the game Jim Howard had it rough in the skills show. Andrej Nestrasil went first for the Wings and Gus Nyquist was second and both went for naught. Unfortunately for the Wings both Bruins shooters, Krejci and Riley Smith were able to find the back of the net to secure the win. Here is how Coach Babcock analyzed the game via freep and redwings.nhl: Howie was good... We felt we got ripped off the other night. But Howie stole one back for us. We didnt win any battles. All in all, we werent as good as wed like to be. “We had a tough time. They got into our D and we couldn’t move it. Howie stole us a point. “I looked up and there was four minutes left in the first period and they had won 11 faceoffs and we had one two. That’s the easiest one-on-one battle in the game. We didn’t have the puck and we were chasing it. That’s a lot of work and then they end up on top of you. Last game we played them we looked way quicker, they were way quicker than us (tonight) because they won every battle.” Red Wings Captain Henrik Zetterberg praised his netminder via redwings.nhl: “He saved us big time. Without him we wouldn’t have that point. PK was good, Howie played good, that was about it.” Nik Kronwall offered his thoughts to redwing.nhl: “Howie won us a point tonight. A performance like that you feel bad for not getting two points. Howie came up huge and kept us in the game after two periods, gave us a chance. And again in the third he saved us a couple of times, if not more, so we owe this point to Howie.” Tomas Tatar, who tallied his first goal of the season had this to say to redwings.nhl: We were chasing the puck most of the night. They just hold on it stronger in our zone. They most of the time in our zone. It wasnt one of our best games. Gus Nyquist had this to say about the game to freep and redwings.nhl: They won most of the one-on-one battles. I dont think we won enough pucks in their zone to keep possession, and thats why they broke out quickly and spent more time in our zone and got more shots on net. “He (Howard) was phenomenal. He was the one that kept us in the game and saved a point for us there. All the way throughout the game he was our best player.” *Red Wings Goals: ~08:40 1st period Tomas Tatar (1) ASST: Tomas Jurco (1), Riley Sheahan (1) ~02:56 3d period PPG - Gustav Nyquist (3) ASST: Niklas Kronwall (2), Darren Helm (2) *My Picks for Three Stars: 1) Jim Howard, 37 saves on 39 shots faced, .949 save % 2) Gustav Nyquist, 1 goal on 4 shots, 2 takeaways, 15:37 TOI 3) Tomas Tatar, 1 goal on 1 shot, 1 takeaway, 17:06 TOI *Game Stats: Category Bruins-Wings Shots 39-20 Power Plays 0/3-1/5 Hits 27-19 Faceoff Wins 32-29 Giveaways 6-6 Takeaways 4-6 Blocked Shots 12-17 Penalty Minutes 10-6 stats via redwings.nhl ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Daniel Alfredssons Return in Doubt Things are not looking good for Daniel Alfredssons return to the Red Wings and though there has been no official comment from him on the matter some indications are pointing to his retirement from hockey being likely. Alfredsson had said since last season ended that he wanted to return to the Wings but only if his health held up. Just before camp began his back again began to trouble him and he was not able to participate. He had been skating on his own in hopes of being able to return but has stopped and has informed Ken Holland that he is not likely to resume. All indication were that Alfredsson had every intent to return to the Wings for this season. He and his family all returned to Hockeytown, he has school age children, for the season. Despite the troubled back Alfredsson was one of the Wings top producers last season, he provided some veteran leadership in light of all the injuries the Wings suffered to their top players. He teid with Nik Kronwall in team scoring last season with 49 points total, out of that he tallied 18 goals. Trouble with his back and groin limited him to 68 games last season and just three in the playoffs. The Wings have been saying that they are willing to give Alfredsson all the time he needs to be able to return to the lineup. Alfredsson for his part had said he wants to return for another season and would only play for the Wings but his health had to good for him to do so. There has been no word fro either Alfredsson or his agent on his status or plans going forward but Ken Holland spoke to freep about the subject: He was feeling pretty good, but was getting frustrated because he wasnt getting over the hump. He would feel good, push it, and have a setback. He was frustrated because he was not able to get to the point where he wants to be at to tell me he wants to practice with us. I told him to take a period of time, let his body tell him whether he can play or not. I know he doesnt come to the rink. I talked to him a week ago, he wanted to know if we needed him to make a decision, I told him I can wait a little longer. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Todays Nationally Broadcast Games: ~Bruins @ Canadiens, 7:30pm et on NHL Network in the US and SportsNet360 in Canada ~Avalanche @ Senators, 7:30pm et on TSN5 in Canada ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Information from freep and redwings.nhl was used in compiling this post. BELEIVE! ~~Red
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 11:01:58 +0000
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