Recap: Detroit Red Wings 2, St. Louis Blues 3

The Detroit Red Wigs fell 3-2 to the St. Louis Blues last night. A few thoughts on the game...

First of all, Chris Osgood is the only reason the Blues didn't lead by three or four goals in the first period. He was extremely sharp, and kept the Wings in the game long enough for them to get their feet back under them after the first intermission.

The second period was somewhat more tilted in the Wings’ favor, as they came out of the locker room looking like they were ready to play.

While Osgood continued his stellar goaltending, the skaters took to the task of evening the score—something that finally happened at 10:35 of the period when Valtteri Filppula scored his ninth goal of the year.

30 seconds later, Mikael Samuelsson ended a 13-game slump with his fourth, giving the Wings the lead.

Keith Tkachuk tied the game at 4:22 of the third period by tipping in a Paul Kariya shot. Osgood had no chance on that one. The Blues, who had been physical all night, became downright rough after that.

I thought the Wings did a fair job of adapting to the physical game, but the Blues’ size and determination to grind their opponents into a pulp wore down the Detroit forwards.

I fully understand the Blues’ strategy of playing a rough and physical game. What I don’t understand is where the officials were during all of that, as St. Louis was often outside the bounds of legality, at least as I understand the rules.

There are many examples, but the three very obvious cross-checks by a Blues defender on Johan Franzen near the end of the game stand out.

Franzen is the second largest player on the team, and is one of the tougher Red Wings, but he was knocked down at least twice by vicious high cross-checks—while the ref was watching.

Another blown call that hasn’t gotten a lot of press was the kneeing that resulted in Holmstrom’s injury. I don’t recall the name of the Blues involved, but Holmstrom was effectively tag-teamed—one player taking him down from behind while the other, who had been covering Zetterberg, stuck his knee out as he came in.

Although Holmstrom made it off the ice on his own, he could have something of a serious injury.

The worst blown call, however, had little to do with exceptionally rough or nasty play on the part of the Blues. It was a clean-cut case of goaltender interference that somehow went unpenalized on the game-winner.

While Lee Stempianak was busy winding up for his shot, Jeff Backes was backing into Osgood. By the time the shot was on its way, Backes was making contact with Osgood and clearly interfering with his ability to make the save.

Had it been at the other end of the ice, with Tomas Holmstrom doing anything like the same thing, the goal would have been waived off in a second—probably because the whistle would have blown before the shooter had a chance to release the puck.

I can stomach losses. I have to, because the Wings aren’t going to win them all. This one goes down badly, however—particularly because of that game-winner.

There was no way the Wings were going to be able to tie things up after that, with the Blues playing pre-Lockout defense and the officials letting them get away with it.

I hate complaining about officials because it's so often an excuse for poor play. But it’s difficult to ignore a blown call on the game-winning goal.

The officiating for the rest of the game was bad, I thought—but I suppose the Wings could have overcome it. That task would have been made easier if they weren’t in the second game of a back-to-back.

Personally, I thought the team held up fairly well, given that they had played the night before and were facing a rested and highly motivated opponent. Their final push to tie things up was great to see, but in the end, it wasn’t enough.

I suppose the Blues deserve credit for breaking out of their slump with a win over the league leaders, but they aren’t going to get it from me.

Instead, I’ll give credit to Pavel Datsyuk for standing up to the Blues, who singled him out all night and ran him multiple times, with each instance more dangerous as St. Louis grew emboldened by the indifference of the officials.

Rather than becoming gun-shy, Pavel did his best to stick it to the Blues right to the end of the game. It’s quite unfortunate that he wasn’t able to do more than create chances for himself and others.

One last thing: I hate Barret Jackman, and have ever since his first year, when he won the Calder Trophy over Henrik Zetterberg.

The guy has all of the dirtiness of Chris Pronger without any of the offensive upside.

The following has nothing to do with his on-ice play, but it illustrates Jackman's character (or lack thereof):

Late in the game, while the Wings were pressuring in the St. Louis end, the Blues iced the puck. While the puck was heading to the Detroit end, Jackman went to the bench and got off. The ref went over to pull him back onto the ice, as the rule stipulates, but the linesman, for whatever reason, decided that Jackman wasn’t on the ice after all.

Jackman, rather than doing the honest thing by going back out voluntarily, let the officials talk it out, which gave the Blues a rest they never should have gotten.

In the end, Jackman was allowed to stay on the bench. The smirk on his face as he sat down told it all. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Some might call it smart on Jackman's part, but I call it cheap.

In any event, the Wings fortunately get to rest today. Hopefully they’ll be ready to face Minnesota and Marian Gaborik, who was the first player to score five goals in a game since Sergei Fedorov did it in 1996.

 

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