Rough and Stumble: Presidents' Day put on hold as rout denies Wings the trophy
CHICAGO 6, DETROIT 2
Rough and Stumble: Presidents' Day put on hold as rout denies Wings the trophy
BY HELENE ST. JAMES • FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER • April 3, 2008
CHICAGO -- What hope the Red Wings had of capturing the Presidents' Trophy on Wednesday was squashed before the game was eight minutes old.
The Blackhawks, whose playoff hopes retain breath, ran up an early lead before a delighted and rambunctious crowd of 21,365 at the United Center and then answered every time the Wings threatened to rally, leaving Detroit with a 6-2 defeat.
"They were prepared and ready to go and we lacked discipline, which I can't say about our team very often," coach Mike Babcock said. "We lost our composure, and I'm not just talking about the penalties but with some of the plays we made. They won every battle from start to finish; their best players were better than our best players. They worked harder and they worked for longer. They looked desperate and we looked uninterested."
The Wings need just one point to clinch home ice throughout the playoffs and a chance to do so comes tonight at home against Columbus. The next chance comes Sunday at home, when the Wings host the Blackhawks.
"We didn't play well today, and that's unacceptable at this point in the season," Dan Cleary said. "We've got to start getting ready here. It's very uncharacteristic of us, six goals against, but we just had too many breakdowns. The sad thing is, it could have been a lot worse."
The Wings went through a disastrous opening stretch that ended with Dominik Hasek getting pulled after allowing three goals on his last four shots, and six total.
The downfall began when Chris Chelios cross-checked Patrick Kane four times in a row, drawing a penalty that put the Blackhawks up two skaters for 1:15.
"The fact he collapsed after I cross-checked him in the arm, I mean, what are you going to do about that?" Chelios said. "He's cross-checking me, I'm slashing him, or whatever, both just battling. I mean, it's not like I took his legs out; he just decided he was going to dive and he did and he got away with it."
Cameron Barker scored during the power play at 5:24, Jordan Hendry off a faceoff at 6:36 and former Wing Robert Lang at 7:52.
"We couldn't really recover after that," Nicklas Lidstrom said. "That was the downfall tonight, that first 10 minutes."
Out went Hasek; in came Chris Osgood, who had been slated to start tonight but instead will back up Hasek, who has been pulled in two of his last five starts.
"I didn't think Dom had a chance on two of the three," Babcock said. "Let's not be looking at the goalie here. There's 20 guys and the coaching staff never got their job done today."
Henrik Zetterberg dented the score when he notched his 42nd goal at 14:20 of the first period, on a power play, but Dustin Byfuglien restored the lead on a power play 3:13 into the second period. Kirk Maltby, who'd blocked a slap shot by Canton native James Wisniewski in the first period, scored on a turnover at 6:10. Kane scored just over a minute later, and Nikolai Khabibulin held the Wings at bay until Adam Burish put the game away at 15:41 of the third period.