Give the Buffalo Sabres a lot of credit. Injuries and a flu bug caused Ted Nolan to dress five Rochester Americans against the Red Wings on Tuesday night. Surprisingly, the Sabres led 3-1 after two periods despite the fact that they were being heavily out shot by the Wings slickly skilled Red Wings.
Nolan dressed five AHLers including: Mark Pysyk, Johan Larsson, Tim Schaller, Mikhail Grigorenko, and Joel Armia who played in his first ever NHL game.
The NHL holiday break came at the ideal time for Nolan whose team won't play or practice again until Saturday when they host the NY Islanders. Nolan has told his team to drink a lot of fluids, rest, relax and recover over the Christmas holiday break in the action.
Buffalo played with fire and got scorched.
The Wings power play went 4 for 6 against the Sabres, including their final three goals with the man advantage, and the rest is history. The Red Wings have now scored 32 PPGs in 35 games played. Their man advantage units are crazy talented with Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Franzen, Tatar, Jurco, Nyquist, Kronwall and Smith inflicting damage.
The Wings have now scored 23 of their 32 PPGs on home ice in front of their fans.
After the game, Sabres goalie Michal Neuvirth admitted that he didn't even see the shooter on three of Detroit's 4 PPGs.
In the end, the Wings out shot the Sabres 39-16 and won it in the third period.
Afterwards, Franzen said that getting pissed off was all his team needed to do to take control of the depleted Sabres.
"I think coming back was a matter of getting a little pissed off...I think, you know, just getting pissed off and getting it done."- Mule ðŸ´
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) December 24, 2014
Franzen was on the ice for all three Buffalo goals, which they scored on three shots on goal.
Thanks, Macon Daily
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Detroit sustained an injury to their #1 D when Nik Kronwall was smashed by Sabres forward Tyler Ennis, who smashed the veteran Swede while on the fore check. Kronwall would fall awkwardly after the hit , wiping out Drew Stafford.
Kronwall left the game and didn't return to action in the third period.
Losing Kronwall for any amount of time would be a serious problem for the Wings. Kronwall skated 23:45 average TOI per game.
Let the Tyler Myers trade talk rage on. Myers average 25 minutes TOI.
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