I've been interviewing NHL coaches for 30 years now and I have yet to meet any, not one, who knew anything--anything at all--about goaltending. The closest was Scotty Bowman and that's because he admitted he knew nothing about it. Ask Scotty a question, any question, about netminding and his answer never varied a single syllable: "The goalies," Scotty would say, "Put the numbers on themselves." Scotty looked at the Goals-Against-Average and the Save Percentage and went with the guy with the best numbers. He never considered, never cared about how they came to get those numbers.
Comes now Los Angeles Kings coach Terry Murray. On Saturday, in a 3-2 overtime loss to Minnesota, his goalie, Jonathan Quick twice misplayed the puck with his stick and in each case his miscue led directly to a Wild goal. Murray said this to the LA Times after the game about Quick's twin blunders: "Those are not fluke plays. Those are giveaways. A puck on your stick, that's concentration, that's making the right play, the right decision with the puck."
Here's the thing, Terry. The goal stick is a marvelous instrument when it comes to doing that which it was designed to do, which is to block a hockey puck travelling at a high rate of speed. As an implement for stick handling and for passing a hockey puck, well, not so much. It's a little, um, unwieldy.
But, whatever. Goalie Quick, perhaps out of embarrassment over what happened Saturday, stopped 51 shots--the most saves he's ever had in a game--and turned in one of the greatest shutouts you will ever see on Monday night as the Kings rolled the Wings 5-0 before a sparse Joe Louis Arena audience. We were there, and this is what we wrote as the evening wore on...
Pre-Game Skate: It's probably two miles as the crow flies from my seat here in the Press Box at the Joe Louis Arena to Ford Field where my concern is that full-scale rioting has broken out. It was announced yesterday that the Giants at Vikings game--scheduled to played Sunday in Minneapolis but cancelled when the roof collapsed at Mall of America Field (better known by its old name, The Metrodome)--and would be played here in Detroit, tonight, at Ford Field. The Lions announced that anyone with a ticket to the Lions-Packers game Sunday could use that ticket to see the Vikings-Giants and that free admission tickets would be distributed starting this morning at 9 at the stadium box office. I really think the Lions thought that 20 or 30 thousand fans might show up for the game tonight. Instead, fans waited for as long as 9 hours overnight in single-digit temperatures, replete with wind-chills that made it feel like it was way below zero, for those free tickets. Around 10:30, the Lions sent out a press release best described as "panicked" saying the distribution of the freebies was being immediately terminated, noting that Ford Field seats 64,500 and that tonight's was a "first-come, first-served" event and, further, that just because you had a ticket either from yesterday's game or one of the free admission tickets distributed this morning did not mean you were going to get in to see the game. I have had visions all afternoon of a stampede of fans racing for the best seats and all sorts of mayhem ensuing. I guess I'll find out how things turned out when I get home tonight.
I have to tell you, this is no screwing around weather we are having here in Detroit tonight. Typically I would be reluctant to discuss my underwear choices with you but tonight I will confess that I am wearing my hockey underwear (the longjohns players wear beneath their uniforms) under my dress slacks just to keep me safe and warm for the 5-7 minute walk from my car to the arena door. This place is located right on the Detroit River, and the wind whips through the area as hard as does "The Hawk" in Chicago. It's cold enough that you could die, literally die, walking this evening between the building and the parking lot.
As I mentioned, I don't know how many have turned out at Ford Field, but it looks like they have all gone there instead of here. Tonight's crowd is remarkably small. I'm sure a good part of the reason is, again, the weather. Just about all the schools in the area were closed today and the roads, even tonight, are just awful. It took me almost an hour and a half to get here. Usually I can make it in less than half an hour.
8:00pm: While I was banging on about the weather and the situation at Ford Field and whatnot, they started the hockey game. We are, in fact, better than halfway through the first period and there is no score. The Wings are doing what the Wings do, pouring it on early, looking to take the lead. They have out shot LA 8-3 so far.
8:02pm: The out shooting the Kings thing doesn't, as it turns out, matter at all as LA's Wayne Simmonds gets his 5th goal of the year at 13:27. Jimmy Howard gives up an ugly rebound--the original long-range shot hit him in the midsection and looked like it would be rather easy for him to corral, but instead the puck bounded a dozen or so feet dead out in front of the net, these things happen--and Simmonds was right there to fire it along the ice through Howards's pads. DETROIT 0, LOS ANGELES 1.
8:06pm: The fact that the Kings have scored first might, oddly, auger well for Detroit. In each of their last 3 games against Los Angeles, Detroit has led and Detroit has lost. Still, LA has won only twice in their last 18 games here at the Joe Louis Arena. The Kings started the season looking like they themselves were the Detroit Red Wings, going 12-3-0. Since, they are 4-7-1. They are tied for second in the NHL in Home Wins (11) and 27th--out of 30--in Road Wins (5). And they are having trouble scoring goals. They are last in their division in Goals For and have scored more than two goals in only 2 of their last 8 games. The Kings are starting a 5-game road trip here tonight after going 3-0-1 on their just-completed homestand, which featured a 3-2 overtime win over Detroit.
8:12pm: The period is over and that goal by Simmonds is all we have to show for it. END OF FIRST PERIOD: DETROIT 0, LOS ANGELES 1.
8:30pm: The second period begins...
8:41pm: 12:30 left in the second, still 1-0 Los Angeles and now, for the first time in the game, a power play. Todd Bertuzzi gets tripped so the Wings are a man to the good. As was the case here against Montreal Friday, Detroit is up against a solid penalty killing unit: LA is 5th in the League on the kill. The Wings have, as the PP begins, out shot LA in the game 20-11. Tomas Holmstrom has a golden chance just as the PP begins but Jonathan Quick--who has been terrific tonight, just terrific--makes a snow angel and somehow makes the stop with his paddle extended at full length along the ice. A brilliant save if ever there was one. All in all, the Wings get 7 shots on the power play, an extraordinarily high number, but they fail to score. Then, just 0:11 seconds after the Kings kill it off, Detroit goes right back on the PP. They get a couple more shots this time, but again, no joy.
8:54pm: Detroit has now out shot LA 33-11. Once again, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter a bit. Or, if you prefer, a whit. Oscar Moller, called up from the minors (Manchester, AHL) only Saturday, gets his first of the year, and again it's a rebound that costs Howard. The puck had rolled behind the Wings netminder but it looked like it would come to rest before it reached the goal line when Moller tapped it into the net at 13:39. DETROIT 0, LOS ANGELES 2.
9:09pm: The second period is over and the Wings are still not on the board. Second period Shots on Goal: Detroit 27, Los Angeles 11. For the night, shots are 38-17, Red Wings. For the night, goals are: DETROIT 0, LOS ANGLES 2. For the record and for those of you scoring at home, Detroit is 2-5-1 (.313) when trailing after 2. Los Angeles is 8-0-0 (1.000) when leading after 2.
9:19pm: A correction. Shots on goal in the second period were 26-11, Detroit, not 27-11 as had been announced on the PA here. Sorry, these things happen. You should be able to get over this and move on.
In a note totally unrelated to our game here, I think I'll watch that Vikings-Giants game when I get home. They are showing it at midnight on NFL Network. It always takes me a few hours to fall off after experiencing the excitement of NHL hockey, so what the heck.
9:26pm: We are all of 0:23 into the third and this game just ended. Another rebound: another LA goal. Howard was left hanging out to dry on this one as Anze Kopitar, on an odd-man rush after Howard had made the first save, beat the Detroit defense to a rebound the Detroit defense should have gotten to first and Kopitar buried it high in the net. I'm not saying Detroit can't come back and score three goals in the 19+ minutes remaining, I'm saying they won't. DETROIT 0, LOS ANGELES 3.
9:31: Make it 4-0, and not even three minutes into the 3rd some are leaving. Seconds after the Kings hit the crossbar loudly enough to make our ears ring all the way up here in the pressbox (imagine how it sounded to Hoawrd just a foot or so away!), Drew Doughty redirected a pass behind the helpless Howard at 2:59. DETROIT, 0 LOS ANGELES 4.
9:33pm: At 3:11, a dozen seconds after the 4th LA goal, Justin Abdelkader gets a double minor for high sticking and this third period is, officially, now off to the worst start of any third period, ever.
9:36pm: Uh, it just got even worse. The Kings get a power play goal and have now scored 3 goals on 6 shots so far in the period. Jack Johnson, ex-UM star, is the goal-getter this time and the score looks as bad as this game looks for Detroit. DETROIT 0, LOS ANGELES 5. The Wings have not lost any game this year by more than 3 goals. That stat is, obviously, in jeopardy tonight. It's gotten so bad now that some of the scouts are leaving the pressbox and the building--all the better to beat the traffic, etc.
9:52pm: Is Jimmy Howard slumping? It's a tough charge to make after the way he played here on Friday, when the Wings were outshot 20-4 in the 3rd period against the Canadiens but Howard held 'em off in a 3-2 Wings win, but in his last 11 starts--including tonight's--Howard has allowed 4 or more goals 5 times. If Detroit fails to score in the next 3:19, they will have been shutout for the first time this season (29 games). This especially hard to explain given that Detroit has already established a new season high in shots on goal with 49.
9:58m: The scouts have all left now and so have most of the fans. I don't know why they are bothering to leave early at this point. Traffic is not going to be an issue getting out of here tonight--there can't be more than 3 or 4 thousand left in the building as Budd Lynch announces that we have reached the final minute. Some in the crowd greet the news with a cheer.
10:00pm: A lot of booing as the horn sounds, more than you'd expect given all this team has given these fans over the past couple of decades. The Wings got 51 shots on goal tonight. LA goalie Jonathan Quick had 51 saves. You don't see that--a 50+ save shutout--every night, I can tell you that.
The St. Louis Blues come in Wednesday. We'll be here as long as they let us in, and if they do, we'll talk to you then.
FINAL: DETROIT 0, LOS ANGELES 5.
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