Red Wings vs. Oilers GP...

Red Wings: 7-5-1

Oilers: 9-4-2

Red Wings Zen:

Point and Laugh:

Video Candy:

Red Wings vs. Avalanche GP...

Red Wings: 6-5-1

Avalanche: 7-6-1

Red Wings Zen:

Point and Laugh:

Video Candy:

Caption Fridays Volume Five...

This week's winning caption comes from one of my favorites, Mr. Stabbityjones.

Stuart: "I warned you Abby. If you eat all of your Halloween candy in one sitting, you're going to get a tummy-ache."

Here's another picture from Sara Neuie to caption:

Red Wings vs. Wild GP...

Red Wings: 5-3-0

Wild: 3-3-3

Red Wing Zen:

Point and Laugh:

Video Candy:

Caption Fridays Volume Four...

We had another anonymous winner this week.

"Hmmmm...I could do that move Pavel just did."

This week's picture to caption comes from Sara Neuie of A Neuie Perspective.  Caption away, and please do make sure to check out her other photography on her blog.

Red Wings vs. Sharks Game Three GP...

0 Red Wings vs. Sharks 2

Random picture from a google images search of "Red Wings" that caught my fancy:

Three things:

• Win the game—It doesn't matter how. It just has to happen.
• Goals—You know what else would be fun? Scoring more than one goal in the game. It would also help accomplish point number one.
• Discipline—The Wings looked frustrated during the third period of Game Two and played uncharacteristically chippy hockey. With any luck, they can turn that frustration into positive energy and come out looking better than they have thus far in the series.

Red Wing Zen:

Brad Stuart

0-0-0, +/- 2, 4 PIM

Red Wings Youtube video of the day:

Tomorrow will be exactly one year since we pulled this crazy stunt.  Shockingly, we're in exactly the same spot we were in back then.  Here's hoping that it turns out better this time around.

Red Wings vs. Coyotes Game Four GP...

3 Red Wings vs. Coyotes 0

Random picture from a google images search of "Red Wings" that caught my fancy:

Three things:

• Skate to throat—Nobody wants to have to deal with extra games during the playoffs. Get it done in Phoenix. No need to drag them back to Detroit.
• Skate to throat—No seriously, don't do what Vancouver did last night. Just win the hockey game.
• Injuries—I hope the boys put an extra layer of bubble wrap under their pads because Phoenix will be even more nasty than they have been with their backs against the walls. They have no qualms about injuring anybody.

Red Wing Zen:

Brad Stuart

0-0-0, +- 0, 0 PIM

Red Wings Youtube video of the day:

Red Wings vs. Blue Jackets GP...

Red Wings: 42-20-8

Blue Jackets: 32-27-10

Red Wing Zen:

Brad Stuart

3-13-16, +/- 3, 36 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Mathieu Garon

9-10-5, 2.61 GAA, .905 SV%

Weekly Wrap-Up Volume Eighteen...

Caption Mondays: Friend of SSDD Sara Neuie was at it again this week.

Hank: ...and then Millsie totally Eavesed in front of everyone!
Stuart: Ha! I can't believed I missed that! Anything else happen while I was gone?
Hank: Well, there was this time Millsie...
Rig: *interrupting and nodding toward Drew* Uh, Hank...
Millsie: Not this story again...

Trivia Tuesdays: Clark got the answer again this week. I went a little off the reservation with the question, but it was sort of Wings-related.

This week's question: The NHL's all time leader in penalty minutes spent a small part of his career in Detroit. What was his name and how many minutes did he rack up?

The Answer: Tiger Williams (How glad are you that I didn't make a tiger blood joke there? It would've been so easy, too. It was practically teed up for me.) racked up 3,966 minutes in 962 games. That averages out to 4.12 minutes/game. If he would've served all of his penalties to completion, he would've spent 66.1 hours in the box (not to mention the fact that his teams would've had an unbelievable PK%). He was only a Wing for part of one season, but still managed to accumulate 158 penalty minutes in 55 games in Detroit.

Caption Mondays Volume 18...

Here's one I took during warm-ups before the game at Tampa Bay.  I was really excited to see Stuart making his return.

Caption Mondays Volume 16...

Caption Monday returns this week after a laziness-induced hiatus.  Since it's Valentine's Day, I decided to go with this charming picture of Ozzie and Piet Van Zant sharing a moment.

Red Wings 5, Flames 4 (SO): Post Game Snipes...

• This one's going to be brief since I have to wake up insanely early to hit the road tomorrow morning.
• Jimmy has me worried.
• When did Darren Helm learn how to finish? I'm liking it.
• I was stunned to find out that Rafalski hadn't scored a goal until tonight. He scored on two long shots that probably should've been saved, but I'll take whatever I can get.
• Ken Daniels credited Helm with a “Datsyukian deke.” Little brother was excited because it had been a long time since he'd heard that. Evidently it made his day.
• How about that backcheck from Tomas Tatar to keep the game tied in the third?
• On the same play, Stuart fell victim to a nasty headshot that only went down as “roughing.” Yeah, right. It was from the blindside, he was vulnerable, the head was targeted, and there was an injury on the play. Am I missing anything? This is the kind of hit the NHL's supposedly trying to crack down on. I would imagine that it'll be looked at by Colin Campbell tomorrow.
• That penalty kill during OT was phenomenal. I'm not normally one to hope for shootouts, but in that case, it was better than the other likely outcome.
• I'm not used to this whole winning shootouts thing. It's a bit confusing.
• Why is Z so BAD at the shootout?  I really feel like he should be better.

Hero: Brian Rafalski
He picked up his first two goals of the season tonight.

Villain: Tom Kostopoulos
He laid a textbook headshot on Stuart and lucked out with only a 2-minute roughing penalty.

Final Thought:
I'm going to be offline for a little while as I get settled into my new digs. I have no idea how often I'm going to be able to watch games for the rest of the season. I'll be keeping up with captions, trivia, and GPs, but recaps may be few and far between. It's hard to tell at this point.

Red Wings 5, Oilers 3: Post Game Snipes...

• The fourth line was buzzing tonight. It paid off with goals from Darren Helm and Kris Draper.
• I barely noticed the top line except for a couple of shifts in the third period.
• Ozzie played great until he gave up that weak tying goal. In other words, you could say that it was a typical Chris Osgood game.
• I had my fingers crossed that Ken Daniels would say, “Petry dishes...,” when describing a pass by the Oilers' Petry. Alas, he did not. I'm a total nerd.
• Franzen did his best Brad Stuart impersonation and scooped a puck off of the goal line on a fluky play when the puck popped up in the air and landed behind Ozzie. How close was it to going in? Close enough to fool the spotlight operator into prematurely starting a celebration.
• I hate the jump-into-the-boards goal celebration. I keep hoping for the day when I get to witness someone go right through the glass live. I don't know about you, but when I'm happy, my first instinct is not to propel myself into walls.
• It was another 3 GAA game for the Wings.  I spent some time looking at goalie stats this afternoon, and they're not looking pretty lately.

Hero: Todd Bertuzzi
He came through with two goals after seemingly going ages since his last tally.

Villain: Ales Hemsky
Because he picked up two assists and I still haven't gotten over 2006.

Final Thought:
I was really hoping for Tuzzifries at the end. What gives, Todd?

Red Wings 2, Flyers 3: Post Game Snipes...

• Another year, another “Oh look, the Wings showed up to play one period of hockey” recap.
• Someone yelled at Filppula on the twitters shortly before he scored his goal. I can't remember who it was, but it was excellent work.
• You know who's playing good hockey right now? Henrik Zetterberg. Not that that's unusual, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
• Raise your hand if you were shocked to see Ozzie out there at the start of the third. I was.
• Somewhere partway through that game in Colorado, the Old Man found his mojo and has looked good ever since.
• Ozzie was able to completely relearn his goaltending technique a few years ago, but he seems unable to figure out the trapezoid rule. In his defense, it's a really stupid rule, but it's not like it's new anymore
• The 5-on-3 powerplay the Wings had in the first period was one of the worst 5-on-3s I've ever seen. They barely even got the puck over Philly's blue line.
• Mule couldn't have bought a goal tonight with his entire season's salary.
• I didn't see exactly what happened to Brad Stuart when he went down. At first, I thought he took the puck in the face. While getting nailed in the back of the head isn't great, it's probably better than the face. They never showed a replay at the Joe, so I was left diving for my phone to check my always-reliable Twitter feed to find out what happened.
• Because we bought tickets so late, our seats weren't together, so we “upgraded” during the first intermission. We befriended some Flyers fans who had evidently staked out the same row of seats. Even though they were rooting for the wrong team, they were nice and knew hockey. It was more than I could say for the two obnoxious Wings fans near us who we were secretly hoping would fall down the stairs.

Hero: Henrik Zetterberg
He's been great over the last few games as he took on a much bigger load with Datsyuk's absence. I hope he keeps his roll going and that his wonky back holds up.

Villain: Daniel Carcillo
For scoring a goal and being Daniel Carcillo.

Final Thought:
I miss Pavel Datsyuk...the most.

Red Wings vs. Avalanche GP...

Red Wings: 22-9-4

Avalanche: 19-12-4

Red Wing Zen:

Brad Stuart

2-9-11, +/- 5, 24 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Daniel Winnik

5-8-13, +/- 5, 16 PIM

Weekly Wrap-Up Volume Nine...

Here's your belated weekly wrap-up. I hope everyone's holidays were fantastic.

Caption Mondays: Sara Neuie wins this week by making sense of the chaos going on on the Wings' bench during the stoppage in play.

Homer: For sure! I totally catch Nick belting out Dancing Queen when I was, eh, at his house last night! He was, eh, dancings too.
Stuart: For real? Dude, that's worse than when Kronner stopped by while I was watching Finding Nemo... What? It's a good movie!
Ericsson: You really think it will work?
McCrimmon: I'm telling you, just be yourself and the other kids out there will love you. And bringing in homemade Swedish meatballs never hurt anybody...
Rafalski: This score concerns me. Not as much as the humanitarian crisis in the Sudan, but still pretty troubling. *sigh* I wonder what my wife made for dinner?

Trivia Tuesdays: Clark's on a roll. He won this week again.

This week's question: What was the last season in which a Red Wing led the NHL in scoring? Who was it?

The Answer: Gordie Howe led the league in points in the 1962-63 season. He had 38 goals and 48 assists in 70 games.

Caption Mondays Volume 9...

This one was taken during the third period of that awful 5-0 loss to the Kings.  What are the guys chatting about here?

Red Wings vs. Kings GP...

Red Wings: 19-6-3

Kings 16-10-1

Red Wing Zen:

Brad Stuart

2-9-11, +/- 10, 24 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Wayne Simmonds

4-4-8, +/- -3, 38 PIM

Red Wings 2, Kings 3 (OT): Post Game Snipes...

• Draper and Ozzie both came back from injuries tonight. Ozzie played well. Draper didn't get much playing time, so it's hard to pass judgment.
• The Kings have yet to give up a powerplay goal while at home. That's crazy considering that we're more than a quarter way through the season. I was hoping that the Wings would be able to end that streak, but they sadly did not.
• Ozzie got called for a trapezoid penalty. We can all pretty much agree that this is one of the stupidest things the NHL has ever come up with, right? If we're going to restrain the goalies, at least add some humor to the game by using a shock collar or chain.
• Another road game, another LGRW chant by the Wings faithful in attendance.
• Brad Stuart drilled someone late in the first period. Later on in the game, he knocked Davis Drewiske down. He followed that up with a little nod at Drewiske as he was down on the ice. I love the swagger.
• Ericsson started the scoring with a goal late in the first. I didn't see the puck go in the net at first because I was focused on Zetterberg who looked like he was going to slam into the endboards. Datsyuk picked up the assist on the play while Homer was causing his usual mayhem in front of the net.
• Rig looked dangerous in the offensive zone all night. He had several good chances after scoring his goal. It was definitely one of his better nights.
• Justin Williams tried to stickhandle past Datsyuk at one point and ended up just looking silly. Homer finished the play by coming in and knocking him down. It amused me.
• I was still settling onto the couch for the second period when LA tied up the score.
• Luckily, Bertuzzi put the Wings back in the lead shortly afterward. Ken Daniels yelled, “Snipe!” when he scored. Personally, when I hear the word “snipe” associated with Bertuzzi, I assume it involves a rifle and ghillie suit. After the game, someone asked him about his snipe, and Bert responded by asking for a lawyer.
• The Wings started out with a strong first period, but gradually faded as the game wore on. You could tell that they were feeling the effects of playing back-to-back games. They looked a little more lively during overtime, but the Kings ended up winning on a goal that came off of a Lidstrom turnover.
• Any team that doesn't have two syllables in its name should ban its fans from doing the, “Let's go, ______!” chant. It just sounds stupid.
• After the game, the Kings' mascot rode an ATV out to center ice and pretended to be having a seizure. This was after the Kings celebrated their OT goal in the same fashion that teams usually use for Stanley Cup clinching goals. It's still December, sunshines.

Hero: Jonathan Ericsson
He had the Wings' first goal, but more importantly, he looked good tonight. I kept noticing him for positive reasons, instead of after mistakes. I wish he could play like that consistently.

Villain: Anze Kopitar
He got the Kings' goal in OT to seal the win.

Final Thought:
I'll take 5 out of 6 points on a roadtrip all season long.

Red Wings vs. Blue Jackets GP...

Red Wings: 13-4-2

Blue Jackets: 14-6-0

Red Wing Zen:

Brad Stuart

2-7-9, +/- 8, 24 PIM

Point and Laugh:

RJ Umberger

(This was taken when he was on the Flyers.)

7-8-15, +/- 10, 24 PIM