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Red Wings Impressive on Western trip, But San Jose Awaits
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Detroit vists Joe Thornton, Devin Setoguchi, and the rest of the Sharks on Saturday night
The Detroit Red Wings are the probably the biggest road attraction in the NHL and this week they took the show out west for a five game road trip. Detroit started the trip with an overtime loss in Dallas. The Red Wings will probably kick themselves if they finish a handful of points out of first in the conference because of games like the one that took place Monday in Dallas. The Red Wings controlled the early portion of the game, jumping out to a 3-1 lead after one period. but they fell into a lull and allowed the Stars to come back in the second and third periods of the game. Trevor Daley's overtime goal gave Dallas the victory. While the Wings cannot afford to drop easy games, they must take some solace in being able to go into Dallas and take a point, considering they had played four games in the previous week.
The Red Wings then moved on to Anaheim on Wednesday night to faced the Anaheim Ducks. I don't think that it is any secret that Detroit and Anaheim are not very fond of each other, and as usual, the two teams put on an entertaining game. Anaheim took control early taking a 2-1 lead after the first off of goals from Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. Tomas Holmstrom's first period goal got Detroit on the board, however they faced an uphill battle trying to come back against a tough Anaheim team. Nevertheless, the men from Hockeytown stormed back with two enormous third period goals from Daniel Cleary and Johan Franzen. The two goals were scored thirty five seconds apart in the third period, and were enough to give Detroit a hard fought 4-3 road victory.
Detroit was equally as impressive in Los Angeles on Thursday night. Considering that this was the second night of back to back games, and also factoring in Los Angeles's improvement game, one could have expected a lackluster performance from the Red Wings. But Detroit jumped out on the Kings early and never looked back, cruising to a 4-0 victory. Ty Conklin posted his fifth shutout of the season and the duo of Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby emerged from was has been seemingly a season long slumber to post a goal and an assist each, and Johan Franzen tallied his 20th goal of the season in the efficient defeat of an improving young team.
Now Detroit's eyes turn toward the enormous match-up Saturday night in San Jose. Detroit only sits three points out of first place in the Western Conference. This game is probably the biggest match up of the regular season so far, especially since many consider the two teams to be the best teams not only in Western Conference but in the entire NHL. San Jose is an extremely talented team having a great season, and Detroit is the defending Stanley Cup champion and is in great position to repeat. This contest will have the feel of a playoff match up and I am curious to see if the two teams will amp up the physicality during this anticipated contest.
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