Good Morning Hockeytown Top Headlines: *Turnovers, Poor Puck Control Lead to 2-3 OT Defeat for Wings *No Nationally Broadcast Games Today *Wings Sloppy Puck Control Gives Away Game It did not look to me that the line changes made prior to last evenings game did much to help the Wings. After having scored exactly three goals in three games some radical changes were made, including splitting up Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, and the Wings did double their goal out put but some bad turnovers lost the game for them. Coming into last evenings game the Rangers had been averaging just 28 shots on goal, yesterday they were able to muster 40 through regulation and the OT. They also had averaged 1.5 goals and doubled that thanks to the Wings poor play with the puck. The Wings were able to take the lead in the first and when the Ranger tied it they were able to regain the lead but they could not find the offence to put the Rangers away. Turn overs especially in the neutral zone allowed the Rangers to keep the puck in the Wings zone too long. The Rangers were able to again tie the game in the third and the Wings could not get enough chances to restore the lead. A final bad turnover in the waning seconds of the OT, Quincey was caught pinching, allowed the Rangers to get a breakaway that led to the game winning goal. Here is how Coach Babcock analyzed the situation via freep, mlive and detroitnews: “The turnovers are absolutely killing us. Until we decide mentally what the right way is for this group to play, we have no chance. “There’s no consistency in our play. It doesn’t look like we’re wearing the other team out. We’re going to have to sort this out. We face a little bit of adversity here and we have to dig in. “It doesn’t look like we’re wearing on the other team and at the end of the night, I look at the shot clock and it says 40.We had 34, but 40 is way too many, 28 is way too many. We have a long way to go in that area. “The bottom line is they took the game over from us in the second period. I thought we fought to get it back in the third period, but in the second we got (out) skated, turned pucks over in the neutral zone, never got it behind them enough. When we get in their zone we’re one-and-done too quickly. Were getting skated and turning pucks over. If you dont get through the neutral zone, if you cant make them turn around and spend time in their zone, youre going to spend time in your own zone. If were stubborn and turn pucks over like that, you put a lot of miles on the defense. Information from freep, mlive and detroitnews was used in compiling this post. BELEIVE! ~~Red
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 11:01:46 +0000