Daniel Sedin 4, Wings 2

On the second night of a back-to-back, the Wings were outhustled in a 4-2 loss to the struggling Vancouver Canucks. Daniel Sedin had 4 goals for the Canucks, with leading scorer and captain Markus Naslund out with a concussion. Legace got the start. In the first period, both teams came out flying. Daniel Sedin opened the scoring at 12:33, assisted by Marek Malik and Nolan Baumgartner. On the play, Sedin skillfully redirected a point shot from way out on the left side of the net. 1-0 Canucks. Henrik Zetterberg followed with a power play goal at 17:26, assisted by Brett Hull and Ray Whitney. On the play, Whitney fed the puck toward the net, Hull redirected it to Henrik, who poked it up over Dan Cloutier. 1-1 tie. After reading my pregame article, Darren McCarty decided that Bryan Allen had to pay for what he did to Hatcher and Zetterberg. McCarty dropped the gloves with Allen after a scrum in the corner, and got in a few punches to remind Allen that you can't dish it without taking some of it too. It was a short fight, maybe 15 seconds, but, for a Wings team that has lately lacked physical presence, it was refreshing to see Mac delivering some cowboy justice. I also loved seeing Zetterberg score against Allen and the Canucks. Shots in the period were 15-12 Wings. In the second period, the pace of play was a bit slower than in the first. Kris Draper scored a power play goal at 6:36, assisted by Mathieu Schneider and Steve Yzerman. On the play, Drapes got his 24th of the season on a point shot that beat Cloutier because of Tomas Holmstrom's presence in front of the net. Another factor that contributed to the goal was that the puck bounced off Bryan Allen in his attempt to block the shot. 2-1 Wings. Daniel Sedin scored at 9:43, assisted by Marek Malik and Nolan Baumgartner. On the play, Baumgartner had a breakaway on Legace, was stoned, but the rebound was controlled by Malik behind the net and fed out to an open Sedin, who one-timed it into the net. Definitely not Legace's fault, but rather the Wings defense, which failed to cover a trailing Sedin on the break. 2-2 tie. Shots in the period were 10-7 Wings. With 4 minutes left in the second, Chelios was hurt on a scramble near the left circle. On the play, Cheli fell to the ice going after a loose puck, and became the bottom of the pile as 240 lb Todd Bertuzzi and Kris Draper were tripped up. The result was Chelios on the ice in agony, holding his left arm and then his shoulder. As the Canucks fans had booed Cheli every time he touched the puck throughout the game, some classless pigs found it appropriate to boo Chris as he lay on the ice injured. Chelios went to the locker room, and the diagnosis is that he has a bruised left shoulder. Hopefully, that's all it is and he'll be back for Thursday's game against the Flames. And with 30 seconds left in the second, Nicklas Lidstrom let off a blast from center ice and almost beat a shaky Dan Cloutier. The play was eerily reminiscent of the center-ice goal by Nicklas Lidstrom with 25 seconds remaining in the second in Game 3 versus the Canucks. It was the first round 2002 playoffs, and, after that Game 3 gaffe, Cloutier was haunted to the tune of four consecutive wins by the Wings, a 4-2 series win. In the third period, the Wings let the game slip away as the Canucks took over in shots with a commanding 14-5 margin in their favor. Daniel Sedin scored at 13:02, assisted by his twin Henrik Sedin and Todd Bertuzzi. On the play, Daniel Sedin made a pretty move on his off-wing, and roofed the puck on the backhand on a partial breakaway on Legace. The hats rained down on the ice, with young up-and-coming Daniel Sedin notching a hat trick. 3-2 Canucks. The Wings mounted a late effort to get the equalizer. But I knew things were bad when, at around two minutes remaining, Brett Hull made a back-pass to the blue line in hopes of a point shot and nobody was freikin' there. Some scholars on the Wings bench had decided that that was the best time for a line change, so the Wings had three guys in and no defenseman covering the blue line. That's about as sloppy as it gets, especially at such a crucial point in the game. But I guess that's the kind of stuff you see when your team has played two nights in a row. It's also fair to mention that the Wings were playing with 5 defenseman with Cheli out, so I'm sure the guys were winded. At 19:26, with Legace pulled and the Wings desperately trying to hold the puck in the Vancouver zone, Daniel Sedin put the nail in the coffin with an empty net goal, his fourth of the game, assisted by Brendan Morrison. 4-2 Canucks. Final shots 33-30 Canucks. It was a disappointing result for the Wings, ending a four game unbeaten streak. And it was the second night in a row that the Wings were outplayed by the home team. The Wings have picked up 1 of a possible 4 points so far on this short Western Canada trip, ending Thursday night at Calgary. Notables: Pavel Datsyuk and Brendan Shanahan have gone 8 games each without scoring a goal....It was startling to hear Ken Daniels call the name "Fedorov," but I soon realized Sergei's brother, Fedor Fedorov, was a Canuck. And in a first intermission interview with John Keating, Fedor was extremely rude and curt, giving 3 word answers and looking away from the camera like he wanted out of there. I guess apples don't fall very far from the Fedorov family tree....Hull trails Datsyuk 34-33 for the team lead in assists....Shanahan and Fischer did a great job matching up to the physical play of Bertuzzi and Morrison, especially in the third....the Wings converted on their first two power play chances, which is impressive considering Vancouver's top-ranked penalty kill....Cujo joined the Wings in the morning skate, but Marc Lamothe dressed as backup tonight. FSN Goofs: It was a late night game, so it was hard to notice any pixelation problems because it was likely me nodding off. But I did catch road color-commentator Larry Murphy making up a word. When talking about Draper's second period goal, he said the puck "redeflected" off Allen in front, sort of a combination of redirected and deflected. Ok, I'm fishing for something. The FSN crew did a good job tonight!! (Editor: Here are the lines from the game, courtesy GWB) Thomas-Draper-McCarty Whitney-Datsyuk-Hull Maltby-Draper-Yzerman Shanahan-Zetterberg-Holmstrom Thomas-Mowers-McCarty Maltby-Draper-McCarty Fischer-Chelios Lidstrom-Schneider Rivers-Dandenault Schneider-Dandenault Lidstrom-Fischer Fischer-Dandenault PP- Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Hull Shanahan-Yzerman-Holmstrom Whitney-Lidstrom Schneider-Draper PK- Maltby-Draper Shanahan-Zetterberg Zetterberg-Datsyuk Lidstrom-Chelios Lidstrom-Dandenault Fischer-dandenault Lidstrom-Schneider Fischer-Rivers 6 on 5- Legace pulled- Shanahan-Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Hull Lidstrom-Fischer Net- Manny Legace