Red Wings Downed by the Wild, 4 – 2

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Red Wings get knocked down 4 – 2 by the Wild after a promising Canadian road trip.

Unfortunately, as has been the story for most of the season, the Red Wings continue to struggle through the first period. The Wild opened the scoring at 2:04, with a goal from Devin Setoguchi. The only noteworthy play, though not a good one, was a goal that was waved off for Jordin Tootoo. The official thought that Drew Miller had played the puck from a high stick and called it immediately. The puck actually deflected off of Dany Heatley’s glove and down through Niklas Backstrom’s 5-hole, which was then hammered over the line by Tootoo. Because it was played after the high stick call, the goal was not reviewable.

The Wild scored again shortly into the second period, on a double-minor penalty to Niklas Kronwall for a hit to the head and a high stick call. Kyle Brodziak put the puck in past Jimmy Howard at 3:51 to make it 2 – 0 Wild. The Wings finally got on the scoreboard, by a beautiful, Helm-like speedy breakaway by Gustav Nyquist, dekeing and putting the puck through Backstrom’s 5-hole for his 1st of the season at 9:09. The goal would be short-lived, as the Wild answered at 10:49 with a goal from Mikko Koivu. They would also score again at 17:15, another power play goal, as Devin Setoguchi put the puck past Howard who was too far out of the net. They’d end the period down 4 – 1.

Third period was largely unremarkable. Red Wings were only able to convert on one power play chance, a goal at 19:46 from Drew Miller, which was too little too late. Unsurprisingly, they couldn’t take advantage of almost any even-strength chances either. The no-goal seemed to take a lot of wind out of them early into the game. Towards the end it looked very much like they were just going through the motions to get the game over with. This very much is NOT the attitude of a Cup-contending team.

The Good: Apart from Zetterberg’s beard, there really wasn’t a whole lot in this game. Nyquist has proven he still has the ability to score at the NHL level, so hopefully he improves on that.

The Bad: Power play, positioning, defensive play, leaving Howard out to dry multiple times; throw a dart and you’ll probably pick something wrong they did in this game. It seems like when the Wings lose, it’s almost never a hard-fought loss. There’s never a few things they did wrong in an overall good game. It’s either they win, or they just get blown out and don’t produce whatsoever. This isn’t promising.

The Ugly: Ian White’s mustache. Seriously. Did you see it? I thought I was looking straight into the 70’s.

The Red Wings get a night off before heading on a road trip to California to take on Anaheim on Friday night. They need to bring their A-game from here on out if they wish to extend that playoff streak.

Posted by Nathan Webb on 9:20 pm. Filed under Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Sports, Game Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.