Scouting Report: Blues vs. Wings, 12-15-10

Scouting Report

Today’s scouting report comes from Anders Ajer, Detroit Red Wings blogger at Fight Night At The Joe. Read my Q&A with Andy for tonight’s game on his site as well.

Detroit has seemingly regained form as an elite club in the cutthroat west. Has a longer summer helped this time around or are there other factors?

The long summer definitely helped. If we look back at the period of 07-09, the Wings went to the final four all the three years and the finals twice. Throw in a season opener in Stockholm last year (my only Wings game live to date, I can never forgive the Blues for that one) and the summers have been very short. This has definitely affected the legs and the injury recovery time of the guys a little, especially since the Wings aren’t the youngest team, but most of all, I think it affected them mentally. They got a little tired in their heads last year, while this year they all came to camp hungry to play hockey.

But I think there is a couple of other big factors. The biggest is that aside from a few smaller injuries here and there (and Modano’s recent one), this Wings team has been fairly healthy this year. Last year was lost to injuries. Franzén, Kronwall, Zetterberg, Cleary, Ericsson, Maltby, Williams, Holmström and others all lost significant time to injury. There was a time in December last year where the team lacked 7-8 starters. This forced them to play a different brand of hockey than usual and the team never got set and never really got to play their right brand of hockey. This year the team has been healthy and it shows in the way they play. The fact that there were no surprises this summer, no players bolting to the KHL and free agency also helps.

Dan Cleary has 13 goals on the season and only 1 on special teams. What has he been doing right to be such an effective player at even strength?

Cleary has been a surprise this year, but maybe not as big of a surprise for us Wings fans. He has had good offensive seasons before and before the trouble last season he was in the discussion for the Canadian Olympic team and did attend Team Canada’s summer camp. So a fair bit of his success comes down to his health. He lost 18 games last season to an injury, but spent the rest of the season playing with a knee that was so bad that he barely could walk outside of the ice. This year he is fine, which is a big factor. Cleary’s game is built on speed and grit. He’s fast and he came to the Wings after the lockout as a grinder. He’s defensively responsible, a great penalty killer and on every shift you’re gonna see him as one of the hardest working guys on the ice. He goes into the tough areas, plays physical hockey and gets the puck to the net. And this year he has discovered the scoring touch that he showed a few years ago when he first impressed us here in Detroit. He just gets in the right place at the right time, works hard for his chances and the puck has seemed to always go in when he shoots. I think that something even more valuable than his scoring has been the fact that every line that he has played on this year has become a better line. Even the times when he has played with Datsyuk and Zetterberg he has made them better.

What has Jimmy Howard done, to date at least, to avoid a sophomore slump of Steve Mason quality?

I think one thing that definitely helps Howard is that while Mason was a young kid in his rookie season, Howard was 25 (now 26) and had a lot of years playing at the college level and in the AHL behind him. He has a lot of experience and knows what it takes and he has continued to work really hard. He finally got to take the time to go on a honeymoon this summer after marrying last summer, but after that he really worked hard all summer and has continued to work hard with goalie coach Jim Bedard to keep improving his game and be sharp. He’s a kid with a great attitude and hasn’t let his success go to his head and he doesn’t let a bad game get to him either. So I think his continued good play this year is down to hard work and good mental preparation.

Nik Lidstrom is playing as well as he ever has at the age of 40. Brian Rafalski is pretty consistent at a high level at 37. How do these two old dogs continue to keep up with the game’s youth movement?

The key to Nick and Rafalski playing well at such an advanced age is the way they play. None of them were ever big physical defensemen. None of them were ever the speediest guys on the ice. Rafalski’s strength lies in defensive positioning, a terrific outlet pass and good passing and smart shots in the offensive zone. Nick’s strenghts are of the same type. He is always well positioned, he is great with his stick defensively, often poke-checking the puck away. His passes are excellent and he is one of the smartest shooters in the league. These guys do all the little things right. They don’t rely too much on physique, instead they rely on their smarts. Rafalski is one of the smarter players in the game and when he is healthy that is clearly visible. And the reason Nick has been so good for the last 20 years isn’t because he is especially fantastic at anything, he is just really good at everything and every night he is the smartest player on the ice. This allows both of them to continue to be effective even at that age.

St. Louis will beat Detroit if…?

Well, the Wings have been a little up and down lately and I think there are a few things the Blues can do to beat them. A stellar performance by Halak would go a long way, especially if the Blues can use their speed to break up the Wings’ passing game. The last time these teams met, the Blues were the better team for two and a half periods and the way they did it was by being physical and by always bothering the puck carrier and forcing the Wings to rush every pass and not get their passing game set. If they can do the same thing today, overload the Wings on the forecheck and be effective on their offensive opportunities and Halak at the same time shuts down the Wings’ big guns, the Blues will have a good chance of beating Detroit.

Further reading on the Wings:

Check out Mark Spizzirri’s Gameday Blog on Hockeybuzz.com

Check out Chrsitina Roberts’ Recap of the Wings/Habs game on NHLHotStove.com.

Check out Andrew Knoll’s recap of the Wings/Kings game on TheHockeyWriters.com.

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