Red Wings – Penguins Postgame Notes

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I’ll qualify the thoughts that follow by saying that I didn’t see the entire game tonight. As previously mentioned, I joined late due to another appointment.

From what I did see, tonight was the first night since all of the injuries hit that I thought the Red Wings actually looked shorthanded.

Whether it was because they are missing so many players (which they are) or because the Penguins played a very solid game (which they did) – or some combination thereof – I just kind of had a feeling like it was going to require a Herculean effort for Detroit to get a win tonight. That no matter what they could throw at the Penguins, Pittsburgh could stop it.

I don’t have stats to back that up, it’s just a feeling I got watching the game. That the Wings didn’t have enough gas to get it done.

The funny thing is that it wasn’t a lack of depth. The third and fourth lines had some great shifts.

It wasn’t that the top (remaining) guys weren’t performing. Henrik Zetterberg made a hell of a play and Patrick Eaves made a great pass on Johan Franzen’s goal.

It was a sense of sloppiness that maybe comes from unfamiliarity with teammates. Joey MacDonald taking too long to move the puck or Niklas Kronwall taking too much time to make a pass. Turnovers that turned into goals.

The Red Wings weren’t clicking like they can. Against the Blue Jackets last weekend it didn’t matter as much. Against the Penguins tonight it did.

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Clark founded the site that would become DetroitHockey.Net in September of 1996 with no idea what it would lead to. He continues to write for the site and executes the site's design and development.

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