Posted by Tim Kavanagh, special to ESPN.com
In the classic argument as to whether an NHL team's success is linked more to its offense or defense, the current tribulation of the Detroit Red Wings should give plenty of support to the latter. When injuries earlier in the season put two-thirds of Detroit's top offensive line on the shelf, the victory train continued unabated. Now, with Nicklas Lidstrom joining Brian Rafalski and Niklas Kronwall on the sidelines, that mighty train looks to have been derailed.
Friday night, not even their dashing conductor in goal could get the locomotive back on the tracks and they dropped to 1-6-1 in the past eight games, falling 1-0 to Calgary.
That conductor, Chris Osgood, stopped all of the 25 traditional shots he faced & but a first-period centering pass from Alex Tanguay ricocheted off of Osgood's teammate Brett Lebda, and went in past the stunned goalie. Osgood's opposing 'tender, Miikka Kiprusoff, finished with a perfect 38-for-38, picking up his first shutout on the season. While the big top line for Detroit was held scoreless, Tomas Holmstrom and Henrik Zetterberg did account for six and five shots, respectively, so all was not lost for their fantasy owners.
While the Red Wings are stuck in a tailspin with Nicklas "Baloo" Lidstrom out for three weeks, the Avalanche have seen the return of two of their flying aces in the past two weeks. Ryan Smyth returned on Valentine's Day after a two and a half month absence with a fractured ankle, and he was joined in the Colorado lineup for Friday's game by Paul Stastny, making his return after recovering from an appendectomy. Stastny made his father and his fantasy owners proud by scoring his 18th goal (point No. 50) during the first period, and his one-goal output was equaled by Marek Svatos, Steve Reinprecht and Derek Morris. However, it was the goaltenders that had the most impressive night as the game went to a 12-round shootout after both Mikael Tellqvist and the well-coifed Jose Theodore stopped 27-of-29 shots in regulation and overtime. The victorious shootout tally was scored by, aeronautically enough, Cody McLeod.
The next logical place to stop is Anaheim, where the Ducks got a game-winner from Samuel Pahlsson 32 seconds into overtime to beat the Blues, 2-1. Ryan Johnson, the lone goal scorer for the Blues, notched his third of the season, but the modest total for the Thunder Bay native is already better, in my opinion, than the entire 2007 fantasy season by the NFL's Rudi Johnson, his brother from a different mother. Teemu Selanne also scored goal No. 3 on the season, although he's far ahead career-wise, 543 to 32. Keep your chin up, Ryan. Manny Legace had a great effort in this game, withstanding a furious onslaught of Anaheim offense, and finished with 27 saves on 29 shots. Across the rink, Jean-Sebastien Giguere had slightly less impressive numbers, with just 16 saves on 17 shots, but earns the win. After being up for the late-round flier/waiver wire pickup of the year award earlier this season, Brad Boyes has hit an ice patch, with just two points in the past nine games.
The last quadrant in the Friday night tilt-a-whirl is Dallas, where the Stars finished off a four-game season sweep of the Oilers, winning 5-2. The star of Stars was Jere Lehtinen, who picked up two power-play goals, running his total to 10 points in 11 games since returning from a sports hernia injury. Linemate Brenden Morrow continued his mastery of both special team units, getting an assist on one of Lehtinen's power-play scores, and notching a shorthanded goal himself. The other Dallas goals came from Loui Eriksson and Mike Modano, and Marty Turco gleefully turned aside 20 of 22 shots in victory.
Edmonton, who last week added Sheldon Souray's profile to Shawn Horcoff's in the "Superstar out for Season" brochure, was paced offensively by Dustin Penner, who scored No. 18, and Curtis Glencross. While Mathieu Garon played ably for two periods, stopping 25 of 28 shots faced, he was pulled in favor of Dwayne Roloson for the third. Roloson, whose kids are being harassed at school according to this article, was likely being auditioned for a trade, although given his struggles this year, it's hard to imagine a move anywhere giving him much value for our purposes in fantasy.
Tim Kavanagh is a fantasy hockey analyst for ESPN.com
