Detroit Red Wing FANATIC Thoughts

for all the fanatics of detroit!

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

great job boys!

PITTSBURGH -- The first victory of the Red Wings' season Saturday might be a preview of how they'll win many games this season.
Saturday's 2-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins was one of those hard-earned, edgy, tough games that won't get the Wings in many highlight films around North America, but they don't care.
It was two points in the standings, and this year in the Western Conference, any team will take those two points gladly.
"I want us to be harder to play against," coach Mike Babcock said. "I want us to be a better forechecking team and a harder team at the net. That's going to be our focus."
While saying that, Babcock also made mention of the Wings' first goal Saturday, by Johan Franzen in the first period.
Franzen found his way to the front of the net, the Penguins' defense couldn't, or didn't, move him out, and Franzen batted the puck past Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
"I want our team to score those kind of goals," Babcock said.
Franzen, arguably one of the Wings' best players during the exhibition season, wants to score those goals, too.
At 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, Franzen is beginning to use his size and strength. He's driving to the net, battling for position, and it's beginning to bring results.
The entire Wings team was willing do the difficult things, Franzen said, to eliminate the memory of Thursday's disappointing home-opening loss to Vancouver.
"After you lose that first game, you want to come out for the next one and do all the little things, the dirty jobs, and don't do the fancy stuff as much," Franzen said. "We played good defense, did all the little things we needed to do to win. We weren't very happy with the first game."
Give them credit
The Penguins are one of the league's promising young teams, but they learned a few lessons playing the Wings.
Penguins coach Michel Therrien hoped his team took stock of how the Wings won.
"It's a well-balanced team with a lot of experience," Therrien said of the Wings. "They didn't pick up 124 points for nothing last year. They were desperate to win. This (the Wings) is a quality team, but I'm not going to use that as an excuse.
"Some of our guys could have been better, and they didn't give us the effort we need to win a hockey game.
"You have to give credit to the Wings. It was a different game tonight, but in a different game we have to find a way to win hockey games. We didn't find that way. We have to use our speed a lot more. It's a reason why they (the Wings) generate a lot of offense."
"They're smart," Penguins forward Colby Armstrong said. "They tightened up in their own end; they had guys coming back hard. They made it tough on us to make things happen."
Ice chips
Not having another game until Wednesday, when they host Phoenix, the Wings didn't practice Sunday. They'll be back on the ice today.
Saturday's shutout was No. 69 of Dominik Hasek 's career, and it was victory No. 325, tying his teammate Chris Osgood .
Brad Norton had his first fight of the season, getting in a spirited battle with Pittsburgh enforcer Andre Roy 4:26 into the game.
"That was a good one, eh?" Babcock said. "What it does for you is, you know you have someone (Norton) looking after you. You don't have to worry about nothing. Just play. That's a real good thing."
Babcock liked what he saw from the fourth line of Norton, Tomas Kopecky and Dan Cleary .
"Nortie did his job, and Kopecky, after his first shift settled down and he got to playing, and obviously Dan Cleary is a real good player for us," Babcock said.
You can reach Ted Kulfan at (313) 223-4606, or ted.kulfan@detnews.com.
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all i can say is go wings! ill put something more meaningful up when i get the chance.

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