Red Wings shut out by Bruins in first preseason home game
By Stefan Kubus –
DETROIT – For the second straight game with essentially the same line-up, the Detroit Red Wings were unable to find the back of the net.
The Boston Bruins handed the Red Wings a 2-0 loss in their first home preseason game of the 2013-14 season at Joe Louis Arena.
Former University of Alaska-Fairbanks standout Chad Johnson recorded the shutout in goal and Carl Soderberg tallied both goals for Boston, who improves to 3-1-0 this preseason. The Red Wings, meanwhile, drop to 2-2-0 with the loss.
“Most of this lineup, in two nights, we haven’t scored a goal,” Babcock said. “We don’t move the puck very good from the back so it’s kind of a grind-fest out there. I thought they did lots of good things… I didn’t think we were good enough.”
After thumping the B’s at the TD Garden 8-2 just two nights ago in Beantown, Gustav Nyquist and the Red Wings knew Boston would be back with a vengeance this time around.
“I don’t think we got on them as hard as we should’ve tonight at home,” Nyquist said. “We knew they were going to come out hard. They didn’t like [the 8-2 loss Thursday night] obviously, but we’ve got to be more ready and I think we’ve got to spend more time in their zone to grind them down. That’s our game and I don’t think we did that enough today.”
The Bruins controlled the play early on, but things settled down for Detroit not too long after, with each club recording six shots on net.
To spice things up a bit, Todd Bertuzzi dropped the mitts with Boston’s Mike Moore in a spirited scrap to send the Joe Louis Arena faithful into a frenzy.
Nyquist said having Bertuzzi on his line notably opened up more space for him.
“Todd’s a great player, he’s so strong on the puck,” Nyquist said. “I feel he moves the opposing players around where he wants to, stays on the puck and makes a lot of space for me, too.”
Gustavsson wasn’t called on too much in the first frame, but did make a remarkable pad save on a back-door play that kept things scoreless.
It appeared there would be no scoring after another period of play, but the Bruins’ Soderberg changed that late, banging home a Chris Kelly rebound past Gustavsson to make 1-0. Stretching over to try and make the save on Soderberg, Gustavsson appeared to have tweaked his groin, something Babcock later confirmed to be true.
“I thought he played well until he hurt his groin,” Babcock said, declining to comment further on the situation.
Petr Mrazek came on to start the third period for Detroit in relief of Gustavsson. And just 41 seconds into the third while on the power play, Soderberg popped home his second of the game, on another rebound, to make it 2-0 Boston.
That’s the way things would stand, as Detroit found no offense and were outgunned by the Bruins all night long.
Newcomer Stephen Weiss, who played his junior hockey for the Plymouth Whalers, did look good on the defensive side of the puck most notably with his speed and backchecking. Weiss said it was a tough loss to take, though nice to get his first home game in at Joe Louis Arena.
“It was good, a little jumpy, but nice to get the first one out of the way,” Weiss said. “We couldn’t find a way to get a few on our side to make it a hockey game tonight.”
With Boston now being a division rival, Babcock said there’s a lot to be excited for this upcoming season.
“I think it’ll be fun, eh? They’re a good team, they’ve got lots of good players,” Babcock said. “Eriksson is a heck of a player. I know they gave up a good player in Seguin, but you add Eriksson and Smith thrown in with him, they’ve got a pretty good group back there.”