Game 5 – Detroit @ Vegas – Shake’n’Bake

17-18 Good, Bad, WTF?
by Christian Schwartz

I’ve never had a back up team. I enjoy teams like Florida and Columbus, or any team that has Jagr, but I don’t generally support one. But I just love Vegas. They’re fun, they have great uniforms, I can root for Fleury without rooting for the Pens, and they’re in the West. Vegas is my back up team now.

But when the Wings play them? I want them destroyed, and I got my wish.

The Good

Nyquist is on the board!

You can’t draw up a 2 on 1 better than that play. Zetterberg setting up Nyquist perfectly on the tape, and I’m glad Goose got a goal early. His goal total has dropped that past two seasons and success on this team is going to require getting him going. The sooner we can the better.

Then, in the 2nd, did I mention Henrik Zetterberg?

I love this play because it’s driven by a couple things that aren’t just someone having hands. Glendening, being effective in his second straight game destroys Sbisa and the Golden Knights looking for revenge stack up on Helm leaving Zetterberg to walk in for his third goal of the season. Not that a goal and an assist was enough for Zetterberg. No, down 3-2 in the 3rd he decided that he just owned all of Las Vegas.

I was speechless. Zetterberg turned 37 this month, and is still easily a top 5 playmaker in the league. But with our terrible defense, a 4-3 lead won’t cut it and who did I just finish saying needs to get going?

Nyquist. Then, as punishment for my snippy comment about him being effective two games in a row, Luke Glendening destroys any shred of confidence Flower had left. I don’t mean this rude or anything but I would bet money that LGD will never score a goal like that again in his career. I kind of think it ramps up off the defenseman’s stick but it’s too hard to see on the replay.

So yeah, our offense is good. When it works, it works. We also scored all of these goals off of the Powerplay, which was a concern that I had as well after the start of the season. If they keep this level of play up, we’l be parade planning in May.

The Bad

Our defense. Good lord our defense.

This is already FULL of media so I’m just going to put this one here because let’s be honest do you want to see 2 versions of the same back door play where no one on the Wings is even trying to guard it? You cannot, under any circumstances, watch the puck in the NHL. You will get burned, as the Wings did twice tonight. I wasn’t even thrilled with the signing but thank Gordie we brought in Trevor Daley because he is the only defenseman with his head up while he’s out there. Everyone else looks lost or clueless or both.

And you know what his all started from? Xavier Ouellet lobbed that puck at Nielsen like it was a hot potato at best and a live hand grenade at worst, completely failing to clear the zone. Our breakout, when it doesn’t work, REALLY doesn’t work and leads to terrible goals. Ericsson did it a couple games ago. We. Need. To. Fix. This.

If we don’t, this team is not going to keep being competitive.

The WTF?

Has this fan base ever reversed opinion on someone as fast as they have on Mrazek? The expansion draft appears to have completely soured everyone’s opinion. Whether or not he had a bad attitude in the past everything coming out is that he is working hard and doing his best to make the situation work in Detroit. He has looked rough this season, I think his crease movement in particular is spastic right now, but can we please give him more than 2 games before we try to run him out of town. Do you really think that the 3 goals Vegas scored were his fault? No. Give me a break.

 

Tatar also threw a monster hipcheck and fought Eric Haula which…what the hell is Tatar doing fighting? It was a great fight but I swear if it comes out tomorrow that he broke his hand on that last helmet punch I will throw my couch out my window.

Next Game

Monday at home against Tampa Bay. Maybe we’ll do better without Bishop there to have our number.

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