The Two-Line Pass

The Lead

If this had been 1997 or so, tonight’s game would have been an outstanding one to put on national television.

But given that it’s not 11 years ago, and almost no one from either team in those fabled Detroit/Colorado games that featured so much violence and drama and hatred still remains, only the shadow of a dead rivalry, rather than palpable tension, remained hanging over the Versus broadcast.

Those games, complete with line brawls and goalie fights and probably four or five of the best players in the world, leave fan, media and player alike hoping for something that is impossible to achieve. What remnants may have remained of the rivalry have been rendered obsolete and irrelevant by passage of time.

As a result, tonight’s 3-2 Avalanche win, even though it was a perfectly good hockey game that was ultimately decided by a penalty shot in the third period, was more or less dramaless. Where the Wings/Avs games of old were circle-this-on-your-calendar, not-to-be-missed events, this was in just about every way one of 82 of the schedule.

Maybe it’s because Detroit has positively owned Colorado over the last few years, winning each of the last eight and 16 of the last 18. Maybe it’s because Claude Lemieux and Patrick Roy aren’t around to stir up passion and anger from the strangely emotionless Red Wings, who have spent far too much time playing from behind of late thanks to slow starts and the expectancy that they’ll win simply because they’re the best team just about every night. Or maybe it’s because there isn’t one person on the Red Wings anyone is afraid of.

In any event, the Avs came out completely unintimidated and beat up on Detroit with the counterattack. Both Wojtek Wolski and Paul Stastny scored first-period goals that capitalized on Red Wing mistakes and it was 2-0 Avs just 4:34 into the game. Detroit was punchless and seemed disinterested in the game. The Red Wings only blocked two shots all night, while the Avs blocked 16. There wasn’t a tremendous amount of checking (except for Brad Stuart, who led everyone with six hits), and there wasn’t a tremendous amount of inspired play from the Detroit bench.

Any time Andrew Raycroft completely shows up your team, for instance, you had a bad night. Raycroft stopped 34 of 36 shots in the win, and Detroit didn’t exactly make him earn it either. Lots of shots came from the perimeter, and Detroi’s shot selection in general (as evidenced by the high number of blocked shots) was poor.

Jordan Leopold’s eventual game-winner that came on the aforementioned penalty shot at 1:51 of the third was very nice, and a dagger to the Red Wings, who had been composing themselves a bit for the latter part of the second period. Marian Hossa’s goal to close the scoring was largely unimportant in the grand scheme of the game.

It was pretty sad, really. Versus spent most of the lead-up screaming, “RIVALRY GAME!” and the general malaise in the game from both teams was disheartening. It would have taken Tomas Holmstrom spontaneously combusting at center ice to make it even remotely interesting to someone who remembers watching that Detroit/Colorado game live.

Elsewhere…

San Jose 3, Los Angeles 2 (SO)

You probably had this chalked up as a win for the Sharks, and understandably so. But I suspect the Kings surprised most of the people that tuned in by just forcing overtime, never mind getting the game to a shootout that they could have won if not for Jason Labarbera’s atrocious performance in the deciding gimmick. The Kings jumped out to a two-goal lead with first-period scores from Matt Greene and Teddy Purcell, but Ryane Clowe cut it to 2-1 before the first intermission with a power play goal. Patrick Marleau shut the door on the regular scoring, and indeed any hope of a Kings win, with a shorty late in the second. Clowe’s shootout goal clinched the game. Oh yeah, and Erik Ersberg left with a “lower body injury” early in the second period. So, good luck going forward, L.A.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 at 3:39 am and is filed under Good night. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.