Game 45 – Carolina Hurricanes @ Detroit Red Wings – Bad and Bored

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

This was a real low key affair, wasn’t it? I forgot most of the 2nd period even happened. 5v5 was basically a crapshoot, the only thing that mattered tonight was the special teams and we at least got a few goals to keep us from completely dozing off.

The Good

Tomas Tatar, good ole Tommy Taters, had himself a game. Though he’s had a somewhat lackluster season, he slammed a PowerPlay one timer home with brutal efficiency in the 1st period and had an almost equally highlight reel goal in the 2nd that beat Ward but went off the post. Blashill’s new PP lines seem to have worked for now, which will definitely continue because a sample size of 1 is good enough to base things on.

Larkin continued his streak as our best player, starting right off the puck drop with a solo effort in against Ward. He continued to harass the Canes, got some good chances. His line with Bertuzzi and AA was the line I noticed most tonight in a game where very little was noticeable.

The Bad

My favorite thing about this PP goal against is that DDK takes a penalty on the play as Lindholm scores so we get to celebrate a failed PK with another PK. That’s pretty much the most dejecting thing that I can think of, especially since it happened less than 3 minutes into the first period. Our PK continued to be not very good, letting up another goal later on from who else but Lindholm again with a rebound that Howard manages to get a little of but not nearly enough. Here I’m upset that Lindholm was left alone enough in front to get that play off a Faulk shot. I understand its the PK but even still, you should cover the net front better than that.

The most frustrating part of tonight’s game was that it felt slow and boring due to a lack of urgency and hustle by the Red Wings. When you have just had almost a full bye week again, you really need to come out and play a higher intensity game than they did tonight. When they finally did realize they were almost out of time, they made mistakes and eventually gave up a game sealing 3rd goal from Justin Williams.

The WTF

Jimmy Howard whaaaat!? What an amazing save. You’re not going to see a much better save than that.

It’s nice to do one of these that isn’t outrage or a principled stand. Sometimes you just get a nice save from your goalie.

Next Game

Monday against the New Jersey Taylor Halls

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