Anderson Handles Red Wings

Craig Anderson continued his early season success Saturday against the Red Wings with an impressive 48 save performance. Photo Courtesy of The Hockey News.

I feel like Christmas came early this year! Any time I can watch the Detroit Red Wings take a loss, I’m a happy guy. When that loss comes at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche, it’s especially sweet. And when that loss comes because our goaltender absolutely put their vaunted offense to shame, well it doesn’t get much better than that!

Make no doubt about it – that’s exactly what happened last night. A power play juggernaut for the better part of this decade, Detroit ought to be looking for a generic Viagra prescription in Mexico because last night they were painfully impotent on the man advantage. It was embarrassing, really. Let’s wrap our minds around this. After the two double minors taken by each team were killed in the 1st, the Red Wings got six more power plays for the rest of the game. The Avalanche? They got one. What’s more, the Avs were essentially shorthanded for the last six minutes of the game, clinging to a 2-1 lead courtesy of Chris Stewart and TJ Galiardi.

None of this mattered to Anderson. The Red Wings gave him their best shot, and he gloved, kicked, and smothered everything they could throw at him. 48 saves and a .980 Sv% later, the Red Wings were still winless on the road almost a month into the season, and the Avs extended their Western Conference-leading point total to 18. Whether or not Colorado can continue it’s dominance of the NHL remains to be seen. For now, I’ll settle with our recent regular season dominance of the Detroit Red Wings.

By the way, one of the most overlooked aspects of Ryan O’Reilly’s game is his face-off prowess. How good is he? Joe Sacco sent him out to take the face-off in the defensive zone with just over a minute to play. Oh, and we were on the penalty kill, holding on to a one goal lead. How did the 18-year-old handle the pressure? He won the face off clean and sent it to Hannan, who passed it up ice to a wide open Paul Stastny, who chipped it into an empty net to ice the game. Gotta love being an Avs fan right now!