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Zetterberg Extends Point Streak to Six Games with a Heads-Up
Play
By
Chris Turner, Zetterbergfan.com, December 31,
2006
Henrik Zetterberg
extended his point streak to six games and the Detroit Red Wings
defeated the Los Angeles Kings 6-2 at the Joe Louis Arena on this
New Years Eve in Detroit. Zetterberg’s current
streak is the longest since his career high point streak of seven
games from Nov 17th- December 1st 2005.
In tonight’s game,
Zetterberg had the first assist on fellow countryman Tomas
Holmstrom’s first period goal, giving the Red Wings a 1-0 lead. On
the play, Pavel Datsyuk stole Los Angeles defenseman Aaron
Miller’s pass in left face-off circle, zipped a pass across to
Zetterberg, who was wide-open in right face-off circle. Henrik could
have taken a clear shot from the hash-marks but he spotted Holmstrom
moving in towards the open side of the net, as King’s goalie Mathieu
Garon came across his crease to face Zetterberg. Hank made a nice
pass right to the stick of Holmstrom who one-timed the puck into the
back of the net.
Zetterberg was a +3
(plus/minus) in the game and is a +7 in the last two games, giving
him a +15 so far this season.
Henrik
Zetterberg Feature
Fox Sports West, December 31st,
2006
Fox Sports West ran a
second intermission feature on the Red Wing’s Swedish Sensation
during the King’s game. Here is the
transcript:
Back in 1999 the
Detroit Red Wings made Henrik Zetterberg of Sweden the
210th pick overall. There is no doubt, he has certainly
made his mark in the NHL. (Highlights)
He has looked smooth
on the ice since he made it into the NHL. But now in his fifth year,
Henrik Zetterberg is more comfortable than ever before, which is not
a good sign for goaltenders around the league.
“I think I am more
calm now than I was when I got over here the first time, you know.
So, to come here from Sweden, it’s a different
lifestyle. Just to find a house, find a car, find a cell phone, you
fly here, you fly there, you play here, you play there, sometimes
you wake up after a pre-game nap, you don’t know where you are. And
now, you know, its more calm, you settle down, you know whats going
on. I think that it helps me play good too,” says Zetterberg.
It also helps to have
Pavel Datsyuk on your team:
“Well, I think we like
to play the same kind of style. We like to pass the puck. We kind of
have the same thinking when we are on the ice. It’s fun.”
His on-ice moves can
be dazzling, and Zetterberg credits that to another sport he has
played his entire life:
“In the summer I
played soccer and in the winter I played hockey. And it’s almost
like it was the same team, you just have the puck in the winter and
you have the ball in the summer. We had a lot of fun.” Says
Zetterberg. “I think soccer, you have to be really quick on your
feet, and I think that’s true in hockey, you have to be quick. In
hockey, it’s a faster game, but if you look at a really good soccer
game, they are really fast too. The movement of the ball and the
movement of the puck, I think it is something there, but I don’t
know what.” “Most of the team, they play two-touch before the game.
We always have battles. You can warm-up your body and also you have
fun.”
Along with fun, Henrik
provides leadership this season in a new role.
“It’s an honor to be
an Assistant Captain in the Detroit Red Wings. You can’t say no to
that, you know. It’s unbelievable. And hopefully I can be the leader
too, that they want me to be, and just learn from that too. It’s not
east to come in and just be a leader. You just get used to being
one, and hopefully be here for a long time.
Goal,
Assist, a Penalty, and +4 for Henrik as Wings Defeat
Jackets
By Chris Turner,
Zetterbergfan.com, December 28th, 2006
Henrik Zetterberg had
a career high +4 (plus/minus) while scoring a goal and an assist on
the road tonight, in the Detroit Red Wings 7-4 come-from-behind
victory in a see-saw battle with thier divisional rivals, the
Columbus Blue Jackets.
Zetterberg was on the
ice for four of Detroit’s even strength goals,
having a hand in two of them. He scored a goal in his second
straight game, and his third in the past four games, at 8:45 of the
second period. Tonights goal came after defenseman Brett Lebda faked
a slap-shot and then sent a pass to the open Zetterberg, down low.
Henrik lifted a snap-shot over Columbus goaltender Fredrik
Norrena. The tally gave the Wings a 3-0 lead. But, the Blue Jackets
came back, scoring the next four goals, taking a third period,
one-goal lead on a power-play notch by defenseman Adam Foote, after
Zetterberg took an interference penalty 3:45 into the period. The
usually gentlemanly Swede now has a career-high 34 PIM in less than
half a season.
Detroit made a late come
back, with Zetterberg assisting on one of Pavel Datsyuk’s
third-period goals. He was also on the ice as Danny Markov scored an
empty-netter with just 1:23 left in the match, giving him his first
ever +4 game, making this one of Zetterberg’s top ten career games.
The two points tonight also ties Henrik with Kelly Kisio for
58th on the Red Wings All-time scoring list with 197
career points for the franchise. He is only two points shy of Adam
Oates, and only three points short of the 200 career points
milestone.
Zetterberg Scores Game Winner Against Minnesota,
Had a Wild Series
By Chris Turner,
Zetterbergfan.com, December 27, 2006
Henrik Zetterberg
scored the game-winning goal and the Detroit Red Wings took five of
six possible points in a three game regular-season “series” against
the Minnesota Wild. Zetterberg had two goals and an assist in the
three consecutive games against Minnesota, and has scored a point
in each of the last four games.
Henrik’s game-winning
goal came 4:03 into the second period, giving Detroit a 2-1
lead. He slipped alone into the slot, took a Pavel Datsyuk pass from
along the end boards, and fired the puck high stick-side past Wild
goalie, and fellow Swede, Niklas Backstrom. The Wings went on to win
the game 3-1. Hank also took a hooking penalty in the third period,
which set a personal career-high for PIM with 32, in just 36 games.
His previous high for a season was 30 PIM in 77 games in 2005-06.
With tonight’s goal,
Zetterberg is now tied with Daniel Cleary for the team lead with 14.
He is on pace to score 32 goals. However, he has only 9 assists,
nearly half-way through the season, and at the current rate would
have a career-low 21 assists and only 52 points this
year.
Hank
Scores Two in Classic Rivalry
By Chris Turner,
Zetterbergfan.com, December 9, 2006
Henrik Zetterberg
played over twenty minutes (20:40) and had a career-high nine shots
on goal, allowing him to score two of the Detroit Red Wing’s
power-play goals, in a 5-1 victory over “Original Six” rival Toronto
Maple Leafs, at the Joe Louis Arena on Saturday night.
Hank scored what ended
up being the game-winning goal on the power play with 2:44 remaining
in the first period. Coming in from the left face-off circle,
Zetterberg beat Maple Leaf’s defenseman Ian White to the loose puck
and banged it in off of the right pad of Toronto’s
scrambling goalie, Andrew Raycroft. The goal made it a 2-0 game.
Henrik’s 2nd
goal also happened with the man-advantage when he circled from
behind the net, around to the left side of the crease, picked up a
rebound off of Tomas Holmstrom’s attempt from in front of the
crease, and lifted a back-hander over the legs of Raycroft. This
tally came with only two seconds remaining in the second period,
giving Detroit a commanding 4-1 lead going
into the third.
After two goals on six
shots in two periods, Zetterberg had three shots on goal in the
third, and may have had more chances to get his first career
hat-trick had the contest not started to get a little nasty. Coach Mike Babcock decided
to keep his star player off the ice towards the end of the game.
“The way the game
went, a lot of hacking and whacking at the end. Sammy had two and Z
had two and you would like to get them three, but I just didn’t
think it was worth it to have them out there,” said Babcock.
Despite not getting
the third goal, Zetterberg was named the 1st star of the game, with
his two- goals, including the game winner, on a personal-best nine
shots. This was one of his top ten best career games to date.
Due to the NHL’s
scheduling system, the old school rivals don’t get to see each other
more than once every year or two. Many long-time fans and players
would like to see the sechedule re-adjusted to allow for classic
rivals to face each other more frequently. It certainly wouldn’t
bother Zetterberg. He has only played three games against Toronto in his
four NHL seasons, but has five goals against the Leafs.
Zetterberg leads the
Red Wings with 11 goals. He has just six assists in 28 games so far
this year, and is on pace for 50 points this season, with 32 goals
and only 18 assists. Currently, he ranks 60th on , with
87 career goals and 102 assists in 245 NHL games.
“The
Enforcer”- Zetterberg is leading
the team in another statistical category you would not be expecting
him to be: penalty minutes. With the Wings lack of grit,
Zetterberg’s non-stop effort style of play and tenacious back
checking has drawn him 28 PIM in 28 games, four more than Kris
Draper and Mathieu Schneider. He is only one minor penalty away from
his career high 30 PIM, and it is only two months into the season.
At this rate, he will have 82 PIM this year.
Zetterberg, Datsyuk nets goals in 5-1 win
By Ansar Khan, Mlive.com,
December 6, 2006
Before Tuesday's game,
Detroit Red Wings coach Mike Babcock expressed some frustration over
the lack of production this season from his two star forwards,
Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk.
"You see how many
minutes they play?'' Babcock said. "The power play hasn't been as
good, but they're on it, aren't they?''
Both are well off
their scoring pace from last season. And Babcock can't explain why.
"I don't know the
answer to that,'' Babcock said. "But, I know to be successful in
this league, your best players have to be your best players. You
have to find a way for them to be the best players and help them do
that. And yet, they have to take some onus on themselves to do it as
well.''
When Babcock paired
them together Tuesday for one of the few times this season other
than special teams, they responded. Zetterberg scored his
team-leading ninth goal and Datsyuk ended a 15-game goal-scoring
drought with just his fourth goal as the Wings defeated the St.
Louis Blues 5-1 on a night when Brett Hull had his No. 16 raised to
the rafters at the Scottrade Center.
Zetterberg opened the
scoring with a power-play goal at 2:34 on a pass from Datsyuk.
Datsyuk made it 2-0 at 4:22 with his first goal since Oct. 27 in
Dallas.
"Pavel is the guy I
played with the most in my career, so it's a little bit easier to
play with him,'' Zetterberg said. "We play the same kind of style.
When it works, it works good.''
After 26 games,
Zetterberg still has only 15 points and Datsyuk just 17. And they
won't necessarily be together long.
"Why don't we just
play them together all the time? Because they both want to play
center,'' Babcock said. "Tonight, they worked it out on their own. I
don't know who was playing center most of the time.''
Now that Henrik
Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk are back on the same line, at least
temporarily, Babcock said it's up to them to decide who plays center
and who's at left wing, opposite Mikael Samuelsson. Usually Datsyuk
plays center, but on Tuesday, it was mostly Zetterberg.
"It's not that big a
deal for us," Zetterberg said. "The guy who's first in your own end
plays center."
Datsyuk said he's
perfectly willing to let Zetterberg play center.
"Now I don't need to
back-check, Hank back-check," Datsyuk said. "That's very nice."
Struggling Zetterberg, Datsyuk on Same
Line
Ted Kulfan, The Detroit News,
December 5, 2006
In an attempt to get
Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk going offensively, they'll be on
the same line tonight when the Red Wings face the St. Louis
Blues.
Datsyuk, in
particular, has struggled this season with only 15 points (three
goals, 12 assists) in 25 games. Zetterberg leads the team with eight
goals, but his 14 points ranks only fifth on the
team.
Wings coach Mike
Babcock put Zetterberg and Datsyuk on the ice together during
Friday's 3-0 victory over Minnesota, but neither was able to
generate much offense.
Wing’s Corner, Eurotwins Unite
By Helene St. James, Free
Press, December 5, 2006
Forwards Henrik
Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk practiced with Mikael Samuelsson.
Zetterberg and Datsyuk have in previous seasons played together to
great success, but aside from a few sparse shifts here and there,
this season they've only been paired on special
teams.
"We understand each
other so well," Datsyuk said.
Both are producing
below the standards they set last season, with Datsyuk at 15 points
and Zetterberg 14. "I think we can help each other out," Zetterberg
said. "Pavel is the guy I've played with the most with in my career
over here, so I think that's going to be a little bit easier to play
with him again."
The two are close
friends off the ice and are known to teammates as the Eurotwins.
Apparently, Zetterberg the Swede and Datsyuk the Russian have a
special way to communicate. "We understand each other so well. We
speak in a hockey language," Datsyuk said.
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