Now is not the time to talk dirty

Saturday came and went and the NHL didn’t suspend Ducks forward Mike Brown, known in Hockeytown as The Baddest Man On Skates, for his hard hit on Detroit’s Jiri Hudler during the Red Wings’ 3-2 victory in the opener of the teams’ second-round playoff series.

Now, maybe they can get back to playing hockey today at Joe Louis Arena instead of playing victim and maligned villain.

Hudler, who had just released the puck and didn’t see Brown come a long way and possibly a split-second late, had a small bandage on the cut above his left eyebrow while practicing with his teammates Saturday. He didn’t talk to reporters, but he’s expected to play today.

Red Wings Coach Mike Babcock maintained Brown went for Hudler’s head and “we’re supposed to be protecting each other’s heads.” He said he wasn’t surprised there was no suspension for Brown, who received a game misconduct and a five-minute major that led to Detroit’s first goal, but Babcock wouldn’t say whether he thought Brown deserved more punishment.

“What do I know?” Babcock said.

He knows how to play the part of aggrieved coach, and that’s fine. He should protect his players and not show up the referees or the folks in Toronto who review such plays, in case another incident occurs.

Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle maintained it was a “hard hockey hit” and asked why Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall wasn’t called for cutting Ducks center Ryan Carter on his nose late in the first period. “It was amazing there weren’t any replays on that,” Carlyle said.

His mom probably never told him two wrongs don’t make a right.

Brown’s hit was borderline-bad but not heinous. His punishment and the burden it put on the Ducks were appropriate: They had to play five minutes at a disadvantage against the NHL’s most potent power play and play the rest of the game without one of their top penalty killers.

Despite that, and errors in defensive coverage and the Red Wings’ 37-24 edge in shots, the visiting Ducks came within 50 seconds of taking the game to overtime.

That was lost in the frenzy here to create a simplistic and catchy Evil vs. Good scenario.

Perhaps the most reasonable person in town was Red Wings center Johan Franzen. Asked whether the Ducks were dirty or merely aggressive, he shrugged.

“I haven’t seen anything too dirty so far,” he said. “We give and we take, and that’s how it is in playoff hockey.”

Exactly.

The Red Wings didn’t get this far purely by skill. They’re physical, and Tomas Holmstrom and Franzen have been known to cross the line and interfere with goaltenders.

The Ducks didn’t get where they are purely by goonery, but the outlaw reputation cultivated by former general manager Brian Burke has stuck, sometimes but not always deserved.

“There’s an image of this team, and it’s going to take a while to change,” said Bob Murray, Burke’s successor.

The Brown hit wasn’t the reason the Ducks lost.

They turned the puck over in the neutral zone late in the third period, creating the chance for defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom to fire his own rebound past Jonas Hiller with 49.1 seconds left, his second goal of the game.

“We got ourselves in a situation where we gave up a goal with a minute left. That’s unacceptable,” Carlyle said. “It’s playoff hockey, and those are the difference-makers.”

The Ducks also hurt themselves by winning only 29% of faceoffs, a gift to an opponent that plays a puck-possession game.

“I think they did a better job of supporting their centers in those situations as far as that loose puck, and their winger or their defenseman got it before ours,” Carlyle said. “Those are the things you try to improve on, on a game-to-game basis.”

The Red Wings, who had an eight-day layoff after sweeping Columbus, said they shook off their rust as the game progressed but can be better yet. They’ll have to do that without defenseman Brian Rafalski, who will miss his second straight game because of an unspecified upper-body injury.

“We have to go to the net more often and try to shoot from the corners and get the guys in front of their goalie,” Detroit’s Marian Hossa said. “It seems like when he had nobody in front of him he had no problem with the pucks, but all of a sudden when we got [Holmstrom] in front of him or Franzen or [Dan] Cleary, there [were] lots of rebounds and we have to capitalize on those second chances.

“That’s going to be key. Their defensemen were doing a good job with their sticks, and they’re not allowing shots from the outside. We have to find a way to get the shots and get those second chances to get the dirty goals.”

Franzen said Brown’s hit won’t change the tone of the series.

“It’s going to be physical. We know that,” he said. “We’re going to go out and try to play the same way. Maybe step it up a little bit. I don’t think it will be dirtier or anything like that.”

Dirty goals, sure. Dirty plays, no. And that goes for both sides.

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helene.elliott@latimes.com