CrashingTheGoalie

by desert dawg
The last time we played the Wings I compared them to the famed red army teams of the 1970s & 1980s. But after watching the first period, I’m now of the opinion that a more apt comparison is to The Borg.

Put them on screen, Mr. Worff:

Vancouver Canucks Hockey Team! Surrender now.
Your DNA will be assimilated into our culture. Resistance is futile.

So how do you stop a team like the motor city Borg? Well, we could try remodulating the shields with a random defense pattern. But then, they’d probably just find another way to invade our zone.

No other player exemplifies the Borg mind-set better than Nick Lidstrom. Every hockey observer will tell you, Lidstrom is not only the best D-man, he is preternaturally calm. He doesn’t seem to need rush his decision making, he is always in position. John Garrett (and I don’t care what you say, John has slowly become a top notch colour man) makes the point that Lidstrom never seems to make a mistake. Jeeze, Lidstrom even knows how to break the Sedins’ famous cycle game. Of course, Nick does this because he operates on the statistical notion that one Sedin will most always try and find the other Sedin. Nick just gets in between them and breaks up the play more often than not based on the statistical probability that they will pass to each other.

No sense going through the first period. You watched it. The first Borg power play was ineffective…until it wasn’t. And then one lazy clearing play, one brilliant pass, followed by a wickedly fast one-timer and it ends up one to nothing.

The second period then becomes a clinic on the Borg power play. There is simply no substitute for skill. The Wings have more finishers than the Ethan Allen Furniture Factory. Mike Bossy had a great shot, but the reason he scored so many is that the puck was never on his stick for more than a millisecond. When Trottier passed Bossy the puck, he didn’t take time to stop it, he wired a one timer catching the opposition goalie moving. I watch the Wings do this continually during the second period.

And when skill works hard, as the Borg, do…then they seem to outnumber the other team all night long. We try and force them but they do not panic, they simplify. Block this avenue, they take that avenue. Our D-men aren’t doing that tonight. They are over- thinking the breakout and the Borg forecheck is whipping them. Our D looks lost much of the night.

And lets give full credit here: the Olympic hockey team has not yet been picked for 2010, but Babcock is an obvious consideration as head coach. No knock on Coach V. He may even be on the team as well, but if you think talent is enough to win the Cup, then how come San Jose can’t even get to the final let alone win it? Babcock has inspired all these skilled guys to work as a team. And the Wings don’t just use one system. They rotate systems. They go between a left wing lock to a two man forecheck with ease…sometimes on the same shift.

Last year, with the Wings up three to one after two periods, the tendency would be to start channel surfing. If the Canucks aren’t on, we might as well see what else is on. But this year’s team can score, we know that now. And we came back from a three-one deficit earlier this year against these same Wings. So maybe we can send the Borg the “sleep command.” Lull them into complacency. The game is not out of reach for these Canucks.
And it’s not like the we don’t have skill. Certainly the Sedins have great hands, and a guy like Wellwood does at least two things a game that makes me sit up. His goal in the third period is an example of patience and soft hands, but the play in the second period where he one-timed it onto a net that was behind him at the time made me jump up.

But the Borg seem to have a dozen guys with great skill sets. And the ones who don’t? Well the Borg assimilates them. Think I’m exaggerating? On how many teams has Brad Stuart been an offensive, puck moving D-man who continually gave the puck away at inopportune times? Just ask San Jose, Boston and Calgary. Sure the guy has skills, but now that he has been assimilated, he plays a safe, simple game under Babcock. Or Dan Cleary? Highly rated offensive star out of junior, the Oilers gave up on him and his career looked like it could be over when Ken Holland rescued him.

AN ASSIMILATED BORG

So do we hand these guys the Cup now?

No, only Toronto and Edmonton award the Stanley Cup in November. There are a lot of good teams, and it is a very long season.

Slowly I see the Canucks becoming a team, a single unit, much like the Red Borg. We have lots of new faces that Coach V. is working into the system. We still lack the cohesion that produces a winner. We need another skilled player in the top six and once we get these first brutal two months out of the way, maybe an early Xmas gift will see a point a game finisher join this team and give us a chance to do some damage this year.