Paging Val Filppula - Goals Needed In Game Four
We've pumped Val's tires all year here at NOHS and it was for good reason. After 6 years of playing pretty, he finally added a little toughness to his game. In return, he scored a career high 66 points, blowing away his previous best of 40 points.
I thought that having a new, powerful Val would take care of any worries we had about secondary scoring issues, but that doesn't look to be the case.
Johan Franzen, Valtteri Filppula, Jiri Hudler, Todd Bertuzzi and Danny Cleary have just one goal and one assist between them.
“When you look at the whole series, there's lots of guys who've had trouble getting it going,'' Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “So I don't know if you can pick one guy.
Babcock might not be able to pick one guy, but I can. We can survive without Hudler or Bertuzzi, but without Val scoring, Detroit doesn't win this series. Period.I want to see him skate with power, quickness and the dominance that we saw all year.
Has anyone seen the starting lines yet? Cleary with Dats and Franzen. What a joke. Cleary is playing on one leg and even when he's playing on two he's our least offensive forward. Any bets as to how long that line lasts??? I give it 1 period. This really pisses me off considering nearly every time Nyquist plays on our top two lines, we seem to be so much more dangerous. But instead, they're sticking him with Emmerton and Holmstrom. Nyquist is a playmaker, put him with other playmakers damnit!
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I think Buckets has been great so far and I think he'll be great on that top line. He'll bring some energy and get in on those d-men a lot faster than what we're doing. That line doesn't have a guy that can get in there with some speed and get the cycle going. Clears can do that. Bert's been good but I think Cleary will be more effective in that role against Nashville. I think it'll end up being a good move.
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@marti783 Cleary has been putting forth a lot of effort so far in the playoffs. His hard work, may be what we need to get the on time start that we so desperatly need. I don't know if he will score, but he will bring energy (even if hes only got one knee).
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@marti783 Cleary is the grinder that line needs. It leaves Franz and Datsyuk to rip the shots, cleary can battle in front and get tips. It may change thru the game anyway.
Fil has worked hard all year and shown some pretty awesome tenacity and determination to light it up. I can't wait to see him get going again.
I think tonight is going to be a complete turning point in the series. If they win I think they can get 4, if they lose it's over.
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This team needs a blowout win tonight. Winning by a goal is fine, but winning by 2 or 3 puts fear into the preds. If they lose by one they can pride themselves on how close they played
Good call. He had a rough outing in Game 3 but he's always been a solid playoff performer and Z's been dominating all series. Its only a matter of time before Fil leverages that into some goals/points.
