Bleacher Report - Articles by Ryan Chadderton

Detroit's Chris Osgood: The Wizard

Ryan Chadderton — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:44:00 -0400

End of the second.

Hear that? That's right, the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, home of the Colorado Avalanche, is chanting "Ozzie, Ozzie!" because of the outstanding play of Wings goalie, Chris Osgood.

I earlier posted a comment on how I thought the Avalanche fans were classless. My opinion has not changed!

If it had not been for the hundreds of Colorado fans filing out of their seats and heading for the exits early, and the fact that probably 25 percent of the arena were Red Wings fans, I may have changed my mind.

7-1, Detroit after two periods.

Red Wings-Avalanche Game 3 Thoughts

Ryan Chadderton — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:24:00 -0400

2224

Ok, so I've decided to make my first blog a live look at the Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche game 3. Here's my thoughts so far.

-Wings Score! Sammuelsson scored a HORRIBLE goal on Jose Theodore. Jose keeps proving my point that it isn't the injuries to Colorado that is killing them, it's Theodore. Not that I am complaining, but I am sick of people, especially Avs fans, disregarding how good Detroit is!

-What a crappy call! Ok, so Homer gets hit FROM BEHIND in front of Theodore and on his way down he catches his stick in an Avs skates and he gets called for tripping? Dude, ref, seriously?

-Avs score. 1-1. Damn. A PP goal that should have never been. What a horrible call...

Wings-Avalanche: Detroit Puts Colorado on the Brink

Ryan Chadderton — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:32:52 -0400

“I’ll take that. I’ll take that any day,” says Red Wings forward Mikael Samuelsson. He was of course referring to his one missing and one chipped tooth, courtesy of fellow Swede, Peter Forsberg.

Midway through the second period, Forsberg incidentally caught Samuelsson in the face with his stick. Foppa was given a double-minor penalty for high-sticking, which resulted in the game-winning goal by Henrik Zetterberg.

Forsberg said after the game that he didn't think he had hit Samuelsson but couldn't argue the evidence. He also thought that Samuelsson had exaggerated the play a little.

He'll take that.

The Red Wings once again played a full 60 minutes of playoff hockey and have put the Colorado Avalanche on the brink of a sweep.

Game 3's 4-3 victory saw the return of Forsberg and defenseman Scott Hannnon to the injury-depleted Colorado lineup, but also saw their regular season points leader Paul Stastney leave the game with a knee injury along with Ryan Smyth who was out for Game 3 with a foot injury.

Sound familiar? The Red Wings caught the injury bug last season during the playoffs when Niklas Kronwall and Mattieu Schneider went down. Still, teams are not allowed to make excuses come April and the Avalanche seem to be making plenty in this series with Detroit.

Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood once again out-shined Jose Theodore in net. The Wizard stopped 30-of-33 shots in his first game being truly tested. In Games 1 and 2 Osgood saw 21 shots and 20 shots respectively.

Theodore, in his first game back since recovering from the flu, allowed four goals on 35 shots. This makes his GAA for the series 4.00, not a stat that wins games.

Osgood, though, saved the game when he stopped Colorado's David Jones in close with less than four minutes to play. The Avs would not get another shot on net.

Colorado opened the scoring when Cody Mcleod netted his first career playoff goal off of a rebound by Lansing native TJ Hensick. Detroit responded by getting three unanswered goals by forwards Pavel Datsyuk (2) and Johan Franzen. Franzen has six goals in the series.

Zetterberg capped the scoring for Detroit and Andrew Brunette scored two for Colorado.

Red Wings-Avalanche: Detroit Buries Colorado in Game 2

Ryan Chadderton — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 07:50:30 -0400

Detroit Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said his team needed to play a complete game in order to win on Saturday afternoon. He said that only 60 hard minutes would satisfy him.

The Red Wings did not disappoint their coach, beating the Colorado Avalanche 5-1 at Joe Louis Arena.

The Red Wings played their best game of the playoffs so far on Saturday. Detroit forward Johan Franzen had his first career hat trick to lead the scoring.

Chris Osgood was once again the "Wizard" in net, stopping 19 shots. The defense stifled the Colorado forwards by blocking shots and playing aggressively.

Colorado Avalanche goalie Jose Theodore was once again replaced in the second period after goals by Franzen, Valtteri Filppula, and Henrik Zetterberg made the score 4-0.

After the goaltender change, the Joe was rockin' after Darren McCarty and Cody McCormick dropped the gloves and traded punches in the series' first fight.

Franzen, who opened the scoring in the first period, completed his hat trick late in the game when he and Zetterberg paired up for a rebound goal past Peter Budaj. Ian Laperriere scored the lone goal for the Avalanche.

The Colorado Avalanche have not been 100 percent healthy so far in the series, but after Saturday's nightmare, they are surely looking forward to the two days of rest before coming home to Denver.

Theodore was brilliant in the first round against the Minnesota Wild, but he has not looked like himself of late. He couldn't possibly still be sick, could he?

Colorado coach Joel Quenneville says that he will not be making a goaltender change for Game Three. However, after the horrid play of Theodore, I would not be surprised to see Quenneville play Budaj instead.

As for the Avalanche, maybe they had cursed themselves for Game Two when Cody McLeod picked up an octopus in the warm-ups and tauntingly shook it towards the Detroit bench before throwing it towards the Colorado dressing room.

The Hockey Gods may have frowned on the incident and punished the Avalanche, because that display of intimidation was their strongest showing of the night.