I was pretty disappointed with the play of the Sabres against the Red Wings last Saturday. If it wasn’t obvious to anyone before, Detroit is a much better team than the Sabres. They’re a perennial Stanley Cup contender. The final score was 3-1, but the score doesn’t adequately reflect the Red Wings performance. The Sabres were out-shot 48-22 by the Red Wings. Detroit had more shots in the third (23) than the Sabres had in the entire game. Wow.
This game reminded me of some of the regular season games against Ottawa three or four years ago. The Sens, like the Red Wings, used to badly beat us with superior puck control and skating. The Sens would score something like six or seven goals, and the game wouldn’t even be close. This Detroit game, likewise, wasn’t even close.
The Wings methodically broke the Sabres down. They played a perfect game, actually. The Wings were patient with the puck in their zone when they needed to be, crisp with their passes through the neutral zone, and were unrelenting in the Sabres zone. It wasn’t that the Red Wings really outworked the Sabres; rather, their timely pressure and defensive pinching forced the Sabres defense, in particular, into bad mistakes. It was laughable watching some of the Buffalo players try and make break-out passes.
The Detroit players are talented in all facets of the game. Detroit won 65% of the face-offs in the game. This far in the season, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Draper have won 57%, 54% and 60% of their face-offs, respectively. That is absurd.
Beyond that, Detroit is well coached and has some of the best veteran leadership in the league. It’s because of their strong core of leaders and solid coaching that Detroit has been able to overcome some goaltending problems. For years, the Red Wings have been winning at a high level without the benefit of a top tier goaltender. It’s actually incredible. Their starting goaltenders this year are Chris Osgood and Ty Conklin that have combined for a .902 save percentage and a 2.72 goals against average. That’s pretty awful when you consider the quality of defense that plays in front of them. For the record, Detroit allows the 5th fewest shots on goal in the league.
One final thought: Ales Kotalik is atrocious at handling the puck. I’m sick of watching him continuously give it away on the power play and in his own zone. The guy has a terrific shot but the 20 or so goals he scores a year is not enough for me to want to keep this guy beyond this year. Kotalik’s short-comings as a hockey player were in full view against Detroit. That’s really all that matters, right? When it comes down to it, Kotalik is clearly not a player capable of competing and making a positive difference against upper echelon teams like Detroit.