Not-A-Podcast - Episode One

Under normal circumstances, this would be a post that introduces another podcast.  Due to a few circumstances, we were not able to get together to record this week.  Instead of a podcast, we're each going to write a few thoughts on some of the major happenings of the Wings in the last week.  Come for the DeKeboners. Stay for the Ouellections.

WOOOOOOOOUELLET!
Photo credit: Kevin

Dan(ny)(iel) Cleary Being A Healthy Scratch

Kevin: Absolutely deserved.  A player on the second line and power play only having three points in 18 games?  Yeah, no. I know he's one of Babcock's guys, which should tell you how bad it was for Cleary's game.  He wasn't a total waste defensively and on the PK, but wasn't Helmtastic enough on the PK to justify a roster spot being used. He also didn't have to dress up for Halloween because he's a zombie. Exhibit A:

This picture was not edited at all.  Zombie.

Michelle: Maybe this makes me a jerk, but this is pretty close to what I expected from Cleary when we re-signed him. I don't think he's as good a player as he was in the playoffs. He's 24th out of 25 players on the team in relative corsi at even strength. I still don't like that we re-signed him, and I'm still scared that we'll do it again.

Tomas Tatar (Almost) Being A Healthy Scratch

Kevin: Fuck this shit.  I'm taking my ball and going home.  I know he ended up playing, but my point stays the same.  If he ever sits in favor of Dan Cleary, I may lose my shit.  Hopefully, in Babcock's office.

Michelle: Tatar didn't end up being a healthy scratch, thanks to Daniel Alfredsson continuing the Wings plague of groinitus. I don't agree with the decision to plan to scratch Tatar though, especially after he plays well, and certainly not so that Dan Cleary can play. I'm trying not to let the frustration of the Wings current lack of winning cause me to be too harsh, but I can't agree with benching Tatar in that situation regardless.

Danny DeKeyser and Xavier Ouellet Not Being Old and Being Awesome

Kevin: We'll have more on Mr. WOOOOOOuellet later this week.  Spoiler alert: WOOOOOOuellet is good at the hockey.

Mr. DDK is also good at the hockey.  He's been playing some top line minutes with Kronwall recently and has not disappointed.  Yes, he makes some mistakes, but the fact that he's played less than a half season of NHL games so far tell you that he's going to be real solid.  I sound like a broken record saying this, but it's true, so deal with it.

Michelle: I'm running out of creative ways to say that Danny DeKeyser is an incredibly special player and I may be in love. As Kevin said, he's not exempt from making mistakes, but the number and severity of mistakes he makes are small, especially when you consider that he's only played 34 career NHL games. When Ericsson hurt his shoulder, it was DeKeyser, not Kindl or Qincey who got promoted to the top pairing with Kronwall, and that had to be the easiest roster decision Babcock's made all season. DeKe is smart, calm, doesn't panic, and most of the time just makes the correct, simple, effective play. What more could we ask for from a rookie defenseman? What, you want some offense too? Jeeze you're greedy. He's also 7th on the team in points with 2 goals and 7 assists; including a short handed goal and a power play goal. Kronwall is the only defenseman with more points at 12 (1G 11A).

I think Ouellet will be the next DeKeyser, the defenseman to come in and be surprisingly good, even early on. We'll have something special coming soon on Ouellet.

Patrick Eaves Being Waived

Kevin:  Hockey wise, it makes sense.  Every other reason just sucks.  I've met Eaves on multiple occasions and he always took plenty of time and interacted with all the fans. The way he worked his way back from his injuries was amazing and I really hope he does awesome things in the future.

Also, fuck the Wings for not having the decency to tell him before the reporters informed him.  That is completely unacceptable and I won't forget about it anytime soon.

Michelle:  :(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( *Thanks Kevin, that pretty much sums up my feelings*. The Wings are in a situation where people have to go somewhere, not many teams have cap space to take on more players, and it seems that for numerous reasons, teams aren't interested in trading what we have to trade. I understand it's a business decision that had to be made, but that doesn't make it suck any less. I like Eaves a lot, he's one of my favorite players to cheer for and it goes beyond hockey. I feel bad for Eaves and his family. He now has to leave his wife and 2 young daughters (and Rueben too) in Detroit and head to Grand Rapids. Basically, everything about this sucks.

Gustav Nyquist Not Being Called Up Anytime Soon :(((((((((((((((((

Kevin: Fuck this shit.  I know the roster situation - there are eleventy billion forwards on the Wings and the Griffins.  I know the financial situation - the Wings have about $1.34 in cap space.  I know Nyquist's waiver situation - once he plays two more NHL games, he would have to go on waivers to be sent down, and he would not clear them because duh.

I also know he's done all the developing he can do in the AHL and playing there will slowly start to hurt his progress (see my theory on Tatar, Tomas).  I know that he's an NHL player and brings more to the table than some of the current Wings.  I know that he is NOT the Wings savior this year.  He may provide some solid secondary scoring, but he's not going to be a point-a-game guy (yet).  I believe he would help the Wings, but the longer he stays in the minors, the longer it's going to take him to adjust to the NHL once he does get called up.

Michelle: I'm so tired of hearing and talking about this. I want Nyquist up, I think he can help the team be better, it's not going to happen any time soon, and there's nothing I can do about it.

Other Things That Happened During The Weekend Games

Kevin: I hate my life.

Michelle: It's getting tougher and tougher to find bright spots when the Wings go 2 weeks without a win, but I'm going to keep trying. Hey, at least we keep finding different mistakes to make in order to lose games, right? The Wings play ok, they lose. The Wings get outplayed, they lose. The Wings play well and do the right things, they lose. It's not all doom and gloom, and we shouldn't give up on the season. There is still time to turn things around and get back to winning and make something good out of the season. But each game that goes by where we lost yet again, makes it increasingly difficult for the team at a whole, for the players as individuals, and for us fans. Hopefully I don't have to dig this deep for happy thoughts for very long. Just win please, Wings... Just win.


And that's what we would have talked about on the podcast.  We'll be recording a podcast this week, so hooray for that.  Per usual, you can find us and yell at us/give us podcast and other topics on the twitter:

Michelle
Kevin
BlueLinePatrol

Or the e-mail:  bluelinepatrol@gmail.com

Until next time....GO WINGS!!

Goal Analysis: Danny DeKeyser's First NHL Goal

And what a shot it was!  If you didn't already know, Danny DeKeyser scored his first NHL goal on Monday at Winnipeg.  I love when a player gets his first goal, especially while shorthanded.  DDK Forever! If you haven't seen it yet, please evaluate your life choices, then watch below.  If you have already seen it, watch it again below:

Holy awesomeness! 

Obviously, this goal is really easy to break down, so I won't do the usual screenshot/explanation thing.  What happens: Weiss makes a Weiss decision to win the faceoff back to Kronwall, who then quickly passes to DDK, who then blasts a one-timer on the low glove side.

...okay fine, I'll post one screenshot and talk about it a little:

This is from the moment DDK shoots the puck.  Let's get our hockey nerd on!

The biggest reason the goal was scored (excluding the awesomeness that is DDK) was the Jets player is screening the goalie when the puck was shot.  When you re-watch the video, notice how he's going from left to right across the screen.  This definitely doesn't allow Montoya to track the puck properly.  He's unable to get a solid read off the shot since his teammate is in the way as he shoots.  Don't do that to your goalie, kids.

Because Montoya can't see exactly what's going on, his angle is slightly off.  I had a goalie coach growing up who had a saying, which my parents re-created to the following, which explains oh so much about numerous things: "Always line your butt crack up with the puck and the center of the net".  Hi, I'm a hockey blogger (and I wonder if how much Michelle regrets starting this project with me).  But yes, Montoya is slightly favoring his blocker side, leaving just a bit of room on the glove side for DDK to slam it home.  I would feel an NHL goalie should be able to read this play better and play the proper angle, especially off a face off.  But, he didn't, and DDK was rewarded.

Something else I thought of that is just a theory:  This was an offensive zone face off while on the PK.  Obviously, NHL teams have set coverage they use when losing a draw on 5 on 5, 5 on 4, etc., I'm just curious as to how often they practice this situation - a 4 on 5 face off in their own zone.  I would think that each winger would just skate immediately towards the point, while the center took the other center, and one d-man would cover the other forward.  However, because this happened so quickly, I doubt it would have made much difference.  Maybe if the forward had covered the entire shooting lane from DDK?  Who knows.  I'm glad they did what they did.

Also, YAY HAVING ALMOST ALL LEFT HANDED PLAYERS!  If any of the three players who factored in on the scoring were righties, this goal would not have happened, at least in this fashion.  Weiss won the draw on his strong side.  The puck went to Kronwall on the boards.  If he's a righty, I doubt he would have made that accurate of a pass to DDK because it would have taken him a half second to gather the puck and he'd have more pressure.  And if DDK is a lefty, there's no way he would have been able to one-time the shot with such authority.  Long story short, had Samuelsson been on the ice, it would have led to disaster.

In summary, a clean face off win, quick pass, DDK being amazing, and a screen causing the goalie to be slightly off angle are the main reasons this goal happened.  DDK forever.

Follow us on twitter and let us know what you want to hear/read:
BlueLinePatrol: @BlueLinePatrol
Michelle: @Slapshotg0al
Kevin: @KevinN37

And the first person to e-mail bluelinepatrol@gmail.com will receive an autographed puck from a current Red Wings player!  You want this so hard, I know!

Blue Line Patrol Podcast: Episode 7

Welcome to the WOOOOOuellet episode of the podcast. Kevin and I tried to keep our Ouellet and DeKeyser excitement contained, but that's asking a lot.We had a lot to cover and not a lot of time, so here we go! In this episode we've got...

• Brief recaps from Colorado and Phoenix, the McLeod hit on Kronwall, Riggy making us proud, what missing Kronwall means to the team.
• Danny Mother Frking DeKeyser!
• Xavier Ouellet (WOOOOUELLET!): Amazing? or incredibly amazing?
• What we learned against San Jose: Our young defense is better than a lot of people gave them credit for. 
• Kevin and I attended the Grand Rapids Griffins home opener. What happened, who looked good, who will eat your face off, and oh yeah, Ouellet Ouelletwalled someone and it was amazing.
• Darren Helm saga and what the Wings roster looks like in the near future. 
• And more Ouellet and DeKeyser talk. These guys are very, very special players.

The podcast is available for your listening pleasure here ---> Episode 7

Here's the marvelous, wonderful, amazing, fantastic [insert other synonyms here] video of Ouellet knocking Joe Thornton on his assterisk.


And here's a sample of things to come.. a mini Ouelletwalling as Ouellet hits Andrew Desjardins.



You can also find more Griffins (and other Wings Prospects) details (box score, highlights, in game observations, etc...) here in my prospects report on Winging it in Motown.


We hope you enjoy the podcast and always welcome suggestions. If you'd like to hit us up on Twitter, we can be found here Kevin and here Michelle. You can send us an e-mail to Bluelinepatrol@gmail.com.
You can also follow the Blue Line Patrol Twitter feed @BlueLinePatrol 

Let's Go Red Wings!!! Let's Go Griffins!!!