The Wings lost to the Oilers 4-3 in a shoot out last night in one of the least exciting games of the season.
Neither team played well, but Detroit looked particularly flat and were lucky to get a point. Edmonton played a physical, high-energy game and the Wings were unable to do much of anything on their own terms.
They did outshoot the Oilers 42-25, which I suppose is something.
Dominik Hasek made 22 saves, but it wasn't his best game. On Edmonton's first goal, he was too far out of the net and gave up just enough of a rebound off the Sheldon Souray lob that Ales Hemsky had an easy time of it putting the puck in.
He had no chance on the Joni Pitkanen goal, which was just a nice play and an unstoppable shot.
On the third goal, however, he was not holding the post when Sam Gagner made a nice pass to Fernando Pisani out front. Despite the fact that Brett Lebda was draped all over him, Pisani had a relatively easy time of it putting the puck over Dom's right shoulder.
In the shootout, Dom made a solid save on a tricky Gagner, but was beaten blocker-side by a straight-up shot by Hemsky. Although he's not totally responsible for the loss, it looks like he's still got a kink or two to work out.
There was a bad moment in the third period when Shawn Horcoff drove to the net, lost his footing, and slid skate-first into Hasek's chest. It was immediately evident that Dom was hurt on the play and when FSN zoomed in on his face, he looked to be in some serious pain. Chris Osgood immediately got ready to go in and was about to step on the ice when Hasek got up, seemingly none the worse for wear.
Even with Chris Osgood playing as well as he has, an injury to Hasek is one of the last things the Wings need. They dodged a bullet there.
Mark Hartigan scored his first goal as a Red Wing in just his second game. It came as a bit of a surprise, as the play looked harmless enough, but Roloson dropped his shoulder and gave the AHL call-up just enough space to squeeze the puck through. It was more poor goaltending than anything else.
I'm glad he scored, but I'm going to go on record as saying I don't like Mark Hartigan. My fiancé and her best friend are experts on the Griffins and they have nothing good to say about the guy. Because I've learned to trust their judgment on all things Griffins, I'm not signing up for the Mart Hartigan Fan Club.
Henrik Zetterberg scored two goals and tied the game up both times, but it was not his best game. He made too many poor decisions with the puck, not the least of which was his decision to rip a slap shot in the shootout. However, he was more noticeable than Pavel Datsyuk, who was mostly neutralized by the Oilers, though he did at least come close to beating Roloson in the shootout.
1 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
David McDermott about 1 year ago
Good summary! Biggest win of the year for the Oilers. Too bad it was another shootout though. I shudder to think what their record would be if 1. They weren't good at shootouts and 2. If shootouts didn't exist and all these games ended in ties like before the lockout!
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