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WING THINGS: Streak Ends, A Few Firsts, MTS Boo Birds |
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WING THINGS
The Red Wings headed into the MTS Center last night looking for their fourth win of a four game road trip last night but a lackluster effort and far too many turnovers prevented them from getting the “W”.
The Jets bested the Wings in shots, hits, takeaways, faceoffs and ultimately dictated the game play. Without the stellar play of goalie Jimmy Howard (43 saves), the loss could have been much worse.
While it would be easy to blame the poor showing in Winnipeg on the travel schedule and the rigors of a road trip, neither coach Mike Babcock nor the players were not willing to lean on that justification.
Niklas Kronwall was quick to say, “It doesn’t matter [that we’re at the end of a road trip], that’s no excuse. Every team goes on the road and we’re just another team going on the road trying to find a way to get wins.”
The Jets played a strong game and were hungry on the puck and the Wings simply didn’t make it hard enough on the opposition to win.
Costly neutral zone turnovers and an uncharacteristically poor showing in the faceoff circle for Pavel Datsyuk (32%) put the puck in Jet’s control too often for the Wings to gain any momentum in the second half of the game.
A FEW FIRSTS IN THE ‘PEG
In quick-hit fashion, here are some firsts that were accomplished in the Winnipeg game.
* Danny DeKeyser scored his first career goal and he did it with the Wing’s being a man short.
* The DeKeyser goal was also the first short handed tally scored by Detroit this year.
* Stephen Weiss picked up his first assist of the year by winning the draw back to Kronwall who slid the puck right into DeKeyser’s wheelhouse. The snake bit forward has been invisible in most games so far this year, but last night he not only had the helper, but also played a very solid all around game. Weiss dominated defensively playing on the penalty kill and generated some quality scoring chances. Hopefully this is an indication that Weiss is finding his role on the team and is on the up and up.
* Adam Almquist played his first NHL game. The 22-year-old Swede was drafted in the 7th round in 2009, and looks like he could develop into yet another deep draft pick turned star for the Wings. He logged 15:51 of ice time and played much better than his minus -2 rating would indicate. Keep an eye on Almquist, some say he’s cut from the same cloth as Erik Karlsson and that guy isn’t too shabby.
* Monday night marked the first time the Red Wings have played in Winnipeg since the original franchise left for Phoenix in 1996.
BOOBIRDS NEST AT THE MTS
In the interviews prior to Monday’s game, a common question to the Red Wings players was, “Who are they going to boo tonight?” While I’m certainly in favor of making it hard on the opposing team when they come into your town, if you have to ask such a question, I’m not sure boos are warranted.
Personally, I want a little history and hatred mixed with my jeers. A dirty hit, a whine-like-a- baby reputation, a cheap shot, take out one of my team’s star players and sure, I’ll chime in with the boo birds. But what sense does booing Daniel Alfredsson make for a Jets fan? I'm not sure what he ever did against the Jets (or Thrashers) to make him a hated visiting player, apart from being a relatively high-profile star player in the NHL for many years.
If the who-to-boo criteria is so indiscriminate, why not expand it to all opposing players?
I’m not against booing, or heckling, or getting vocal about the game; the Flyers -- the team my dad is most associated with in his NHL career -- are the team closest to my heart and they are notoriously the most hated team and fan base in hockey, but I feel like they certainly do enough to deserve the reputation.
Perhaps if the "pick a random target" booing at the MTS Center is enough to catch this Red Wings writer’s attention it does play a regular and significant part of the atmosphere during game time in that particular building.
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
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