The Center comes back to help out.
Brad Richards makes subtle plays. Breaks up a pass here, pokes the puck off a stick there. Stuff that goes unheralded, but makes a huge difference.
Last night, in that thrilling OT win over the hated Red Wings, he saved a goal. At first, we thought Turco made a miraculous stick-save behind his back after sliding completely out of the net. Then Razor and Beninatti watched the slow motion replay and decided that Marian Hossa accidentally knocked it out himself.
They showed this play in their game highlights on TSN.ca and there was Brad Richards reaching in with his stick to yank Hossa’s out of the way. The reason Hossa tapped the puck away from the net was because Richards was there to pull his stick away.
That’s the kind of stuff he does. That’s what makes him a great player. That’s what makes him so valuable even when he’s not leading the whole team in scoring (and when he is, like now).
The Minus Meander (c. Katebits)
What a game that was. Another game where the Stars could have given up early and then didn’t. Even after it was 2-0 early, they still kept up the forecheck. The spent a ton of time in Detroit’s zone.
Nicklas Grossman got his first NHL goal right before the end of the first period and it looked like they’d go to the locker room only down by one, but Marian Hossa scored with Lehtinen in the penalty box to send them to the room down by two.
I think that made them mad. They came out for the second period and just swarmed the Red Wings. The Wings didn’t look nearly as uninterested as they did in our first win over them, but I don’t doubt that they figured they had the game won and didn’t have to worry about it.
Then Robidas scored right at the beginning of the second and Parrish scored at the end to tie it up. The Stars had a whole game’s worth of shots (23) in that period and the Wings had about 10. The Wings had only 5 shots in the third period.
The Stars had another chance to give up early in the third when Datsyuk got one of his annoying highlight-reel goals to go ahead, but they just kept swarming. They were all over the net and spent all their time in Detroit’s end and eventually, with three minutes left, Otter scored from Osgood’s lap to tie the game.
I would have been happy with that. But I’ll be damned if Trevor Daley didn’t score in overtime to win the game! His celebration yell was priceless!
Three of the five goals were from defensemen, and they were all over the place. Defensemen were down around the net, up at the blue line, skating all around everybody.
That’s the way this team has to play from now on. As if they’re playing the Red Wings.
Oh Patty! You just made my heart all warm! He was a huge part of the OT goal, but didn’t get an assist. That’s just the way it works sometimes. He’s often invisible, and that is ok. Your team will be better for it.
I thought about you when I saw that, Sarah!
It really was a fabulous game. They are good, they just have to believe they are, and work for it. Hopefully they will learn from this. Good things.