Mike Babcock certainly said it best, ‘catchup hockey is losing hockey’ and the Wings were definitely playing catchup hockey tonight.
The Flyers were able to end a 20 year losing streak at the Joe Louis Arena tonight by beating the Red Wings 3-2.
After a scoreless first, the Flyers were able to tally three goals in the second period. James van Riemsdyk and Daniel Carcillo both got Philly’s first two goals off of deflections while Scott Hartnell got Philadelphia’s third tally by putting it top shelf on Wings’ goalie Jimmy Howard.
The Wings however tried to make it interesting in the third period after Valtteri Filppula was able to score 51 seconds into the period. Henrik Zetterberg later added as second goal for the Wings on the power play ending an 0-7 power play slump for the Wings.
“We just have to keep working on it,” said Zetterberg of the power play. “Of course you want to score once in a while when you have the chance, but you just got to keep doing the right thing. Shoot the puck and be there for the second chances.”
Even though Zetterberg’s goal seemed to give the team a spark, the Wings couldn’t recover from their slow start and fell to the Flyers at the Joe for the first time since November 4th, 1988 when they lost 4-3. The loss also kept the Wings win-less during their short home-stand going 0-1-1 after winning three consecutive road games prior to coming back to Detroit.
With the way Philadelphia got the majority of their goals tonight, it still seems like the Wings are in need of a defenseman that can clear the front of the net. As many Red Wings fan know that last time they really had a defenseman that could do this was Vladimir Konstantinov back in the early and mid 90’s. Since Konstantinov’s tragic car accident after the teams Stanley Cup victory in 1997 the Wings have been searching for that player that can really do what Konstantinov did.
tonight.
