New York Rangers (at) Detroit Red Wings: The Live-Blog

Pre-Game Skate:  (We stole the italicized portions from ESPN.com just so you don't think I've been working hard up here or anything...)


Detroit hopes to avoid being shut out in three straight games for the first time in its storied history Monday night when it hosts New York, which has lost four in a row.


In their last game, a 2-0 loss at Montreal, the Rangers went 0 for 4 on the power play and are just 1 for 35 with the man advantage in their last 11 road games.


Meanwhile, Detroit went 0 for 4 on the power play against the Predators and is now 2 for 28 with the man advantage over the last nine games. 


Detroit lost 3-0 at Nashville Saturday after losing by the same score in in Detroit Friday.  The back-to-back shutouts came after the Wings tied their season high for goals in a game with a 7-5 win at Ottawa Wednesday.  


PAVEL DATSYUK is back tonight!  He missed 19 games with a broken hand.  Detroit was 10-7-2 (.579) without him.  As he is their best player and all, this is HUGE for the Red Wings.


8:00pm:  We are just about exactly halfway through the first period (9:53 left) and Detroit's been outshot by NY 12-3. This is unusual.  Detroit typically pours it on at the outset and makes the visitors weather the storm.  Not tonight, however.  


The Rangers are sporting a old-school look tonight for this Original Six game, wearing dark navy jerseys with laces at the collar.  I'm pretty sure they replicate the sweaters (that's what they used to call hockey jerseys, sweaters) the Rangers wore in the 1940's and '50's.  All in all, it's pretty good stuff.  


8:12pm:  Speaking of pretty good stuff, that was an entertaining Super Bowl yesterday, didn't you think?  I had it all wrong.  Pittsburgh was my pick.  I did say so on the air, but not in this space because I've got friends who are Packers fans and I didn't want to upset them (although, truth be told when it comes to the Super Bowl I am almost always wrong).  I didn't think Green Bay would be able to run the ball on Pittsburgh so I thought the Steelers would win.  I was right about the can't run on the Steelers thing.  Did you notice how many yards the Packers ran for yesterday?  50. Five-zero.  Usually the team that wins the rushing battle wins the game.  Of course, at the same time, the team that wins the turnover battle usually wins, too and in this case it was all Green Bay.  Three takeaways and a touchdown for the Packers off each one.  And that's why the Packers are World Champs once again tonight.  That and the fact that their quarterback Aaron Rodgers outplayed the other teams QB, Ben Roethlisberger.  When your QB is better than the other guys QB, you almost always win.  Football--it's not that complicated.


Meanwhile, the period here has come to an end.  Detroit rallied during the second half of the first and outshot the Rangers 6-1 since we pointed out NY's big early edge in shots on goal, but for their 7th period in a row, the Wings have zip, nada, nothing to show for it.  NY will be on the power play for the first 1:16 of the second.  Detroit had 1 power play in the first and I noticed--because I was counting them out loud--that in one stretch Detroit completed 10 passes in a row in the offensive zone before even attempting a shot.  That coach played by Gene Hackman in Hoosiers, Norman Dale?  He would have been so proud.  "Four passes before you shoot!"  Remember?  It was amazing puck control by Detroit.  The got no goal to show for it, but I have to tell you, it was quite a show nonetheless.  (The Wings, I mean.  Not Hoosiers.  But, now that we think of it, who don't like Hoosiers?  I, myself, was especially taken with Miss Fleener.)  AFTER ONE PERIOD:  DETROIT 0, RANGERS 0.


8:38pm:  We can report to you that we have a goal and a 1-0 Detroit lead.  Datsyuk--who last season led the NHL in Steals (they are called "Takeaways", officially)--stole the puck clean away (he stole it I tell you; he did not merely take it away) from a Ranger defenseman in the corner to the right of NY goalie Martin Biron and worked a give -and-go pass which saw Datsyuk head for the front of the net and take a pass a get off a shot which Biron stopped.  But Martin, he didn't get to Datsyuk's second shot as Pavel buried his own rebound to inaugurate the night's scoring here.  It's his 13th goal of the year, and his first since December 19th.  Two assists were awarded on the play but there should have only been one since only one Detroit player touched the puck after Datsyuk stole it from that NY player in the corner, at least as I saw it.  Juri Hudler and Dan Cleary got those assists on the goal at 2:52.  SECOND PERIOD: DETROIT 1, RANGERS 0.


8:55pm: I'm frustrated because I can't find last season's NHL Takeaway statistics anywhere.  I remember looking at that particular stat late last season and Datsyuk2010-11 Detroit Red Wings Media Guide--is that Datsyuk had 132 takeaways last year: tops in the National League.  I cannot tell you by how many takeaways he led the league, what his final margin of victory was in other words, because the 2009-10 Final Regular Season Takeaway tally is not be found on the NHL Media website (you need a password just to access that site so it really doesn't get any more official than that, for crying out loud) and it is not in the current edition, the 2010-11 edition, of The NHL Guide and Record Book and if its not in either of those places I have no idea where to find it.  A little under 4:00 to go here in the period as I fume. 


9:05pm:  The 2nd period ends.  We had 22 shots on goal in the first period (NYR 13, Det 9) and 37 shots on goal in the second (Det 21, NYR 16) but only that one goal by Datsyuk. AFTER 2 PERIODS: DETROIT 1, RANGERS 0.


9:23pm:  The 3rd period begins.  For those of you scoring at home, the goal by Datsyuk in the second ended a Detroit team scoreless streak of 143:26, and means, of course, the Wings will not be shut out in a 3rd consecutive game tonight--something which, as noted in the "Pre-Game Skate" section earlier, heretofore has never occurred in franchise history.  We now have 61 shots on goal tonight (NYR 31-30) and still only 1 goal to show for all that offense.


9:30pm:  Tied.  I think it was Jimmy Howard's fault.  The Detroit tender had the chance to freeze the puck against the post to his right but elected to dump it into the corner instead.  The Wings never got it out.  Darren Helm was checked at the half-wall across the way, the Rangers got the puck because of it and Derek Stepan was there to fire a short shot past Howard at 3:09.  THIRD PERIOD: DETROIT 1, RANGERS 1.


9:34pm:  Untied.  On a nice 3-way passing play, Datsyuk dropped it back to Jonathan Ericsson who sent it cross-ice to Juri Hudler who one timed it high from the low rim of the circle to the left of Rangers goal to defeat Biron's two-pad stack and find the back of the net.  Datsyuk gets his second point of the night and Hudler gets his 5th goal of the season, his first goal in 8 games and only his second in his last 15.  The go-ahead goal comes at 5:04, only 1:55 after New York had tied it up.  THIRD PERIOD: DETROIT 2, RANGERS 1.


9:45pm:  The Wings and Rangers--who back in the day when it really was the Original Six used to play each other 14 times a year, 7 here and 7 there--now only meet once a season.  It's sad.  It means the Blueshirts only come to town every other year.  Still, it feels strange to look it up and learn that that Rangers have not won a game in Detroit in 12 years and a week, dating to a 3-2 NY win here on January 30, 1999.


9:50pm:  3-1 and it looks like it's going to be a couple more years, at least, before the Rangers win again in Detroit.  Drew Miller went to the net as Justin Abdelkader stole the puck and held it in just inside the line and because he did, he was there to bang Abdelkader's rebound into the net at 14:37.  It's his 4th goal of the year.  THIRD PERIOD: DETROIT 3, RANGERS 1.


9:55pm:  Did we speak too soon?  The Rangers just scored and they are back to within 1 and, to make matters more dramatic, are going on the power play with 3:40 to go in the game.  NY is 0/2 tonight and 1/37 (2.7%) in their last 11 road games when a man to the good.  The goal that got NY back to within a goal came at 15:55, only 1:18 after Miller had made it 3-1, Detroit.  Brandon Dubinsky scored it.  And now, with 0:44 left in the first Detroit penalty, the Wings are whistled again:  Abdelkader got his stick up and gets a double-minor for it.  With 2:24 to go, Detroit will finish this one shorthanded.  THIRD PERIOD: DETROIT 3, RANGERS 2.


10:02pm:  The Wings win.  They killed off that 44-second two-man disadvantage by clearing the puck the length a couple of time and then Miller, with under half a minute on the clock, did a great job while sliding along the ice to sweep the puck over the Wings blue line to the neutral zone and that pretty much did it.  The Wings losing streak (not to mention their goal-less streak) is over. It was an entertaining evening here.  We had 82 shots on goal!  NY had 47 of them, but Howard had 45 saves.  You might think that 47 were the most shots allowed by Detroit this year (I did) but its not.  Colorado had 49 on December 27.  It is only the third time this year (in 53 games) the Wings have allowed 40+ shots.  They are 3-0-0 in those games.  I got to pick the 3 Stars tonight on behalf of the Michigan Talk Network and I went with: #3 Howard (I should have made him #2), #2 Hudler and #1 Datsyuk.  There won't be any arguing over the #1 star, at least.  And the crowd, naturally, loved it.  Pavel got the biggest roar of the three when he skated out.  Which he should have.  He was the difference-maker in this one and it was great to see him out there again.  Like any great player, he is fun to watch.  Nashville will be here on Wednesday night, and so will we.  Good night from Detroit!  FINAL SCORE: DETROIT 3, RANGERS 2.