The NHL certainly didn’t do the defending Stanley Cup champions any favors.After sending Anaheim to London to open the season with two games, the Ducks traveled to Detroit and won’t play in front of their home crowd until the middle of next week.
“We seemed to be very taxed,” Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said Wednesday night after a 3-2 shootout loss to the Red Wings.
Jiri Hudler scored and Dominik Hasek made three saves in the shootout to win Detroit’s opener in front of thousands of empty seats.
“We have a real nice hockey team,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “We’re going to play as hard as we can to get people to come out.”
Several upper-deck sections had empty rows and patches of seats in the lower bowl did not have fans in them, continuing a trend in a place that calls itself Hockeytown.
“I think it’s the local economy right now,” Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom said. “I think it’s hurting us as well as everyone else.”
In other NHL games on Wednesday, it was: Montreal 3, Carolina 2 in overtime; Ottawa 4, Toronto 3 in overtime; and Colorado 4, Dallas 3.
Anaheim’s Todd Bertuzzi scored and set up a go-ahead goal late in the second period against his former team, but the Red Wings tied it at 2 early in the third.
Tomas Holmstrom’s goal came off a cross-crease assist from Henrik Zetterberg, who had scored midway through the first period.
Detroit had an extra skater midway through the third period, was on the power play for the final 30 seconds of regulation and early in overtime, but couldn’t get a shot past Ilya Bryzgalov.
Bryzgalov, playing for the injured Jean-Sebastien Giguere, made 40 saves.
“We only played 10 to 15 minutes of the kind of hockey we need to play to win, but our goalie gave us a chance,” Carlyle said.
Hasek stopped 13 shots before turning away all three attempts in the shootout.
“It was the game people could see everything,” Hasek said. “We were up; we were down; we came back; and we won in the shootout. So, it’s a great feeling to get the first win of the season in the season opener.”
Detroit was also encouraged to get a key contribution from one of the youngsters it is counting on: Hudler, a 23-year-old forward.
“He’s a confident player, and he’s gifted,” Babcock said.
Anaheim split its two games in England with Los Angeles, and will play at Columbus and Pittsburgh later this week before going home to face Boston on Oct. 10.
By the time the Ducks face the Bruins, they might have Giguere back. He is day to day after hernia surgery.
“He’s starting to take shots now, but we really don’t have a timetable,” Carlyle said.
[via AP]
