Canucks 4, Wings 1
My sleep-deprived thoughts after yet another Wings loss, this time in Vancouver: 1) Aaron Downey said it was simply yapping between himself and Vancouver's Alex Burrows which spurred that little verbal dust-up between several Canucks and Wings in the pre-game. Nothing more. Burrows likes to talk and Downey likes to respond, so it's no surprise. The best line may have come from Kris Draper who joked he couldn't remember the last time the Wings were involved in one of those pre-game flare-ups. 2) Say what you will about the young defense, but the Wings aren't scoring goals. Now, some of that lack of offense can be attributed to the fact the young D's simply aren't smooth and refined enough out there to generate offense. Still, the lack of secondary scoring (there goes that phrase again) is beginning to hurt this team again. 3) One young defenseman that's really been impressive this last week - Derek Meech. Maybe all he needed was a chance. He played 22 very good minutes. 4) On the other hand, Brett Lebda looked like he was trying to do too much out there against the Canucks. Not necessarily a bad thing. Babcock didn't think it was a bad thing. But playing against the likes of the Sedin twins, Lebda showed his inexperience, at times, going up against that caliber of players. 5) Ken Holland said he's extended an offer to Darren McCarty and is simply waiting for a replay from McCarty's agent. That positive reply should take come Holland's way fairly soon. 6) Jimmy Howard was fine tonight. He didn't look too out of place going up against Roberto Luongo. 7) What's happened to Jiri Hudler? I wonder if he'll be dangled as trade bait by 3 p.m. Tuesday? Hudler may have made himself expendable. 8) Jonathan Ericsson was minus-3 in 20 minutes and wasn't as noticeable as Friday in Calgary. 9) Livonia's Ryan Kesler is turning into quite a player for the Canucks. It's not far-fetched to think Kesler may be a Selke Trophy finalist this season. He's not as good as Zetterberg or Datysuk. But Kesler is close behind.
