Healthier Red Wings show potential in victory over Kings
March 1, 2011
LOS ANGELES-- This is why the Red Wings didn't make a trade Monday at the deadline.
When they're healthy and near full strength, they have few weaknesses.
Monday's 7-4 victory over the Kings showed that.
Why mess with the chemistry? Why subtract anyone off the roster to maybe get a touch better?
General manager Ken Holland didn't feel the need to do it. And the way the Wings played Monday, it's understandable.
"We think we've made trades lately for Stewie (Brad Stuart), and (Mike) Modano and Fil (Valtteri Filppula, all injured players returning), getting our guys back," coach Mike Babcock said. "We like our team. We think we'll be a good team. We just got to keep playing at the highest possible level we can and that'll be our focus over the last 20 games."
The Kings took an early 1-0 lead. And the Wings responded with the next seven goals.
Drew Miller had two while Danny Cleary, Nicklas Lidstrom (power play), Pavel Datsyuk (power play), Darren Helm (shorthanded) and Jiri Hudler (power play) had the others for the Wings (39-18-6, 84 points).
On the day he signed a two-year contract extension, Jimmy Howard earned his league-leading 31st victory, stopping 35 shots.
"I felt real good out there, minus the one I lost in the ceiling," Howard said. "I want to just continue to go out there and play."
The Wings have also now won six consecutive road games.
"We keep it simple and we don't try to overdo it or get too fancy," said Howard of the recent road dominance. "We just play a north-south game and get pucks on net."
Michal Handzus (power play), Dustin Brown, Wayne Simmonds and Brad Richardson had the Kings (35-24-4, 74 points) goals. The Wings put six goals past goalie Jonathan Quick -- the Kings replaced him in the third period -- after Quick had allowed three or fewer goals in his previous 15 starts.
"We came out and scored the first goal and then I let up a bad goal and kind of took the momentum out of our end and put it in their end," Quick said.
Handzus opened the scoring at 4:09 of the first period with his ninth goal.
But Miller (2nd goal, 6:37) and Cleary (22nd, 7:07) scored goals 30 seconds apart to put the Wings ahead for good. Both goals were bad goals allowed by Quick.
"You've got to have your goaltender on top of his game anytime you play Detroit, and he (Quick) had a real tough game," Kings coach Terry Murry said.
The Wings killed two Kings power plays in the second period, preserving a Wings' 3-1 lead, and Datsyuk's power play goal with just 42 seconds left in the second period sunk the Kings.
"They came out hard but we just found a way to stay in it and not fall back on our heels," said Helm, whose shorthanded goal to open the third period began another Wings barrage. "It's huge when your specialty teams are playing the way we expect them to."
Miller rewarded
Miller was looking forward to playing against his brother Ryan on Saturday in Buffalo.
But with Modano and Filppula returning, and the Wings having 13 healthy forwards, someone had to sit.
It turned out to be Miller. But Miller responded Tuesday, returning to the lineup, with two goals.
"The guys were happy for him," said Babcock of Miller's two goals. "I always like to see the player respond in that situation and Millsie did a great job."
Miller was unavailable for comment after the game. But, like Babcock said, Miller's teammates were pleased.
"He comes to the rink every night and does what he has to do," Babcock said. "To get those two the way he did, the way he plays every night, it's great for him."
Ice chips
Lidstrom liked the fact the Wings put pucks on net and were active offensively.
"We're taking more shots and creating more chances," Lidstrom said. "We got a couple of lucky breaks on some of the goals but we're being rewarded by going hard to the net."