STOPPING THE ROLLING AVALANCHE

A win is always good but snapping the rival Avalanche’s undefeated streak had to feel especially satisfying for Mike Babcock's team. The Red Wings extended their winning streak to foue games and head into Glendale tomorrow night to try and avenge the 4-2 loss they suffered against Phoenix last week.

After the ugly hit on Niklas Kronwall early in the game (more on that later), the Wings pulled together and played a solid team game, albeit with a little bit of a loose second period, where the Avalanche clawed their way back into the game with two power play goals. It’s going to be tough to see Luke Glendening head back to Grand Rapids. He’s made an impact in every zone in each of the last 4 games he’s played.

Both goals against Gustavsson were soft ones but he made key saves when it counted and turned 38 of 40 shots aside. Halfway through the third, the Monster had back to back stops and robbed Jan Hejda of a sure goal that would’ve tied it up.

Gustavsson’s play over the last three games has been in
spiring. Even with the two weak goals that slipped past him last night, his intensity is always apparent. Regardless of the number of saves made, being able inspire the team in front of you to play with confidence is the difference between a winning goalie and a losing goalie.

Johan Franzen finally found the net, not only once, but twice in his best game of the year so far. You’ve got to love his toughness as well. Every true fan has to appreciate a sliding shot block at the point and then following that up with a big hit to get the puck out of the defensive zone.

Now for the elephant in the room.

When McLeod hit Kronwall, was the head the primary point of contact? Yes.

Did McLeod make an attempt to avoid that contact? Doesn’t look like it.

Is it a dirty hit? I’m not so sure. Before you get your torches out and ready for the lynching, take another look.

McLeod is doing what fourth liners do when they’re chasing star players into the corner. He goes in hard and finishes his check. Kronwall tries to dodge on the inside to slip the check, but McLeod catches him right on the head. I’m not saying that Kronwall deserved it or that McLeod is a saint, neither of those statements is true.

What McLeod needed to do was realize that Kronwall was in a vulnerable position and let up, or change the trajectory of the hit (both of those are easy to comment on when watching a reply, much more difficult to do in the situation itself).

While nobody deserves to be concussed and taken off on a stretcher by any means, players can’t expect a forechecker to let up just because they move in a certain way. If that were the case, shifty d-men like Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson would be left to skate circles around opposing forwards untouched.

Kronwall himself takes part of the blame, he told Swedish press, “it was mostly my own fault.” He acknowledges that he made the mistake of putting himself in that position. Had he opted to take the puck around the other side or not cut back, it would’ve been a routine play and we wouldn’t be talking about this.

I don’t disagree with Coach Babcock when he said in the post-game interview, “These hits are things we need to get out of the game.”

I expect Cody McLeod to get a hefty suspension and he deserves the consequences of his careless play. It’s an ugly-looking hit, it’s an illegal hit, however I don’t think I’d go so far as to call it an outright dirty hit.

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