Wings Take Round 2 In OT

This game was clearly the 2nd half of a back to back as both squads seemed to have heavy legs for the majority of the night. The fatigue lead to grade A opportunities from both sides yet no one was able to capitalize in regulation thanks to some great saves by both Gustavsson and Bernier. Just as I was preparing for another shootout, Kronwall cut through the neutral zone after receiving a great pass from Big E. Kroner drove to the corner and passed back to Z in the high slot where he hammered a one-timer inside the post for a Red Wings win with under 10 seconds left in OT.

Change in D pairs- For the majority of the game we saw 27/65 and 2/4 as the new defense pairings. I thought Quincey had played particularly well the last few games so this may be a matter of KQ getting promoted rather than Smith being demoted. That said, Smith and Kindl were on the ice at the end of regulation so I’m curious to see how Babcock would describe the depth chart.

4^th Line Does 4^th Line Things- Babcock threw the 4^th line into the fire on many occasions matching them straight up against the Leafs top line. Despite this tough matchup 41/18/20 were able to get sustained pressure in the Leafs zone and even create some scoring opportunities. While I realize my expectations may be too high for this personnel, the Wings really need the 4th line to provide some occasional goals if the Wings are to compete with the best.

3^rd line struggles- Helm Nesty and Weiss were matched up against the Leafs 2^nd and 3^rd line and seemed to be continually hemmed in their own end. This is the one area where the injuries seem to be catching up on the Wings. With Franzen and Datsyuk out, the 3^rd line becomes Helm and whatever extra forwards Babcock can find. With Nesty at times seeming like the rookie he is and Weiss' rust Helm's ugly CF of 22% is somewhat understandable.

Weiss returns- Part of the problem with the 3^rd line was that Weiss looked like a player who hadn’t played in over a year. While I have hope that he can be a useful player at some point this season, he clearly still needs to get back up to game shape before he can play a regular shift. Not surprising that he only saw only one shift in the third period and was the only Red Wings to have under 11 minutes of ice time

PP improvement- At the end of the first the Red Wings changed up the PP, putting 15 40 14 21 and 55 out as the first unit. The new unit continually switched sides and used passes into the high slot to create space. By not allowing the Leafs to cut the rink in half the Wings were able to create numerous opportunities despite being unable to convert thanks to the great play of Bernier.

Monster Mash- In his first start of the year Monster did well enough searching through the traffic in front to get the shutout. However, he continues to struggle with rebound control and it leads to many chaotic plays in front that the Wings defenders need to clean up. For this reason I am still not comfortable with him in net when the Wings take on some of the more elite teams in the East, let alone the West.