Wings get key victory over rival

[The old geezer]

Coming into tonight’s game the Wings had been winless since trading Kimmo Timonen to their division rivals in Columbus while conversely Columbus had found some upward momentum.
While neither Timonen or Jovanovski factored into the score sheet (both were 0-0-0, +0, 2 PIM) the meeting was well contested. As with the prior game Columbus somehow managed to goat some Wings who would not traditionally fight into an exchange of fists. Heck JP Dumont even got called for the fight instigator.

In the end the Wings managed to come away with the 2 points as Kris Versteeg had the game winner in the 3rd. The victory was key in the tussle for bragging rights as the “Detroit door Matts” are now assured at least a split in the season series with a current 4-2 games lead (3 in regulation and 1 via shootout).

Click to read more...

 

[Ohio Jones]

See! Where would you be without that pivotal bulletin board material I provided for your boys? I should get half your gates this season.

Fact is, I'm still figuring out the simulator. Hopefully this latest move (acquiring Zajac) will inject some added zip, because - on paper, anyway - outside of goaltending, my lineup should dominate yours most nights. On paper - but not, as we've seen so far this season, on ice.

Bah. Also, humbug.

EDIT: Whine time - it was interesting to see that the officials did their very best to tip the ice firmly in Detroit's favour, as my Blue Jackets - one of the league's most disciplined teams - gave up 5 power plays (including the first four in the game) to just one from the Wings. I guess I was lucky to keep you down to the single PP goal, but it clearly threw off my team's rhythm. But that's okay, it'll just make my victories in our future meeting all the more satisfying.

Also interesting to note that both Penner and Connolly made it onto the score sheet (1G and 1A, respectively) in their final game in Jackets uniforms. I guess Matt's lucky neither was injured!

 

[The old geezer]

Fact is, I'm still figuring out the simulator.

Clearly

it was interesting to see that the officials did their very best to tip the ice firmly in Detroit's favour, as my Blue Jackets - one of the league's most disciplined teams - gave up 5 power plays (including the first four in the game) to just one from the Wings.

Not unique to this game. The Wings are by far the least penalized team in the league @ 72 PK's total compared to the nearly double 129 taken by Carolina. The next lowest is 86 PKs. For the Wings it's sort of a matter of necessity when your team has an above average number of softies and more importantly no one capable of killing penalties when we do take one. We're near the bottom in PK% so I can't afford to take them.

Not a strategy I'd generally want to have to take, or recommend to anyone, as playing soft has some significant consequences. For some reason (I blame it on the SIM) other teams start taking liberties and as a result I've had more injuries already this season than the past 2 or 3 years combined and guys that don't generally fight get dragged into them. That's why Detroit's PIM/gm looks odd compared to the number of penalties it has to kill.

Come to think of it this might be the first game this year a Wing was not injured when playing a game against your cheap shot artists ... makes the victory all the sweeter