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. Oilers GP...

Red Wings: 39-20-8

Oilers: 23-37-8

Red Wing Zen:

Mike Modano

2-9-11, +/- -4, 6 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Kurtis Foster

5-11-16, +/- -9, 41 PIM

Have fun at H2H2, sunshines.  You have no idea how crushed I am that I can't join in the festivities.  Bring copious amounts of awesomesauce and know that I'm there in spirit.  Here's hoping I'll make it to H2H3.

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 vs. Oilers GP...

Red Wings: 24-10-5

Oilers: 12-18-7

Red Wing Zen:

Henrik Zetterberg

14-30-44, +/- 10, 18 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Colin Fraser

2-1-3, +/- -1, 47 PIM

Red Wings 6, Oilers 2: Post Game Snipes...

• Well, that was fun. The Wings started the game flying like bullets downtown (har dee har har) and never gave Edmonton a chance to get going. This was one of those wins where you sit back and relax because, well, the Wings are going to win. It's kind of the equivalent of putting your car in cruise control on the highway.
• I think Mickey Redmond said, “hot to trot,” at the beginning of the game. I have no idea what it means, but it sounds terrible.
• The clips of players thanking the veterans were nice, but incredibly awkward. My favorite was Jimmy Howard's. The sideways glance at the end sealed it.
• Hey, Jiri Hudler, welcome back to the NHL. How was Russia?
• You know what I liked about most of the goals the Wings scored tonight? They were ugly goals. They were scored from close range with traffic in front of the net. The Wings have a tendency sometimes to try to get too cute and make the highlight reel fancy pants plays, but goals like the ones from tonight win playoff games.
• Dan Cleary is the frontrunner for the title of Most Improved Over Last Season on the Wings.
• Bertuzzi's play to set up Cleary's second goal was impressive. Didn't Chris Chelios switch his hands on the stick like that on the point from time to time? I'm not sure I've ever seen it actually result in a goal, though.
• Penalty shots make for great drama, but when you have a great offensive team like the Wings, it almost seems like a waste.
• Immediately before Franzen scored I was telling my friend that he'd been stuck on goal number 99 for a while and that if he scored, he was liable to go on a tear. As soon as I finished talking, he swatted the puck into the net. You could kind of sense that he was going to do something good tonight. He was flying right from the start.
• Tomas Holmstrom was doing his usual Homer thing in front of the net tonight.  He was rewarded with a pair of goals.  
• I find it oddly amusing when Pavel Datsyuk hits people. I don't even know why. It just makes me laugh for some reason. I kept rewinding the part where he knocked Dustin Penner down over and over again on the DVR.

1. The Edmonton Sun posted a game preview article that featured this as the intro: “Welcome to Detroit, where the forecast, as always, is muggy, with a chance of murder. When you’re trying to breathe a little life back into your year, this is not the place to visit. And not just because they use more white chalk at crime scenes than they ever did in the schools.” There's nothing like a good old knee-slapping murder joke to introduce an article about hockey. I hope the Wings live up to their billing in the article and dominate Edmonton like they did last week.
I spent the evening downtown (although sadly not at the game), and the only thing I saw outlined in chalk was the Oilers' season (see what I did there?). Okay, to be fair, there was also a chalkboard at Astoria, so I guess there were things outlined there. I'm pretty sure the chalk was yellow, although I'll be the first to admit that I was a little distracted by the delicious and fattening (for you, Neuie) baked goods.

2. Mike Babcock was shuffling lines in practice yesterday. Will changing things up help spark things?
I'd say that six goals counts as a spark.

3. Brian Rafalski's return made an immediate impact on Monday. How will he look in his second game back?
The defense didn't really have a whole lot to do tonight. Rafalski was just fine.

Hero: Dan Cleary
That dude has been on fire.

Villain: Dustin Penner
It was hard to pick a villain for this one. There really wasn't a whole lot of hockey-related stuff to hate on. I went with Penner for breaking the shutout and netting the Oilers' first goal.

Final Thought:
This is totally unrelated to hockey, but after we ate dinner downtown, my friend and I were standing on the edge of the street waiting for traffic to clear. A helpful homeless man saw us waiting and decided to assist us in crossing the street by jumping in front of a bus and telling it to stop. I really thought the bus was going to run him over and was actually reaching for my phone in case I needed to call 911. The bus managed to stop, and the guy stood there in front of it waving us across the street. We were quite content to just wait for the crossing signal, but he insisted that we cross and we obliged since he had just had a near-death experience in order to get us on our way. According to him, he runs this whole town, so it was no problem.  Just another day in Detroit.

Red Wings vs. Oilers GP...

Red Wings: 9-3-1

Oilers : 4-7-2

1. The Edmonton Sun posted a game preview article that featured this as the intro: “Welcome to Detroit, where the forecast, as always, is muggy, with a chance of murder. When you’re trying to breathe a little life back into your year, this is not the place to visit. And not just because they use more white chalk at crime scenes than they ever did in the schools.” There's nothing like a good old knee-slapping murder joke to introduce an article about hockey. I hope the Wings live up to their billing in the article and dominate Edmonton like they did last week.
2. Mike Babcock was shuffling lines in practice yesterday. Will changing things up help spark things?
3. Brian Rafalski's return made an immediate impact on Monday. How will he look in his second game back?

Red Wing Zen:

Ruslan Salei

0-3-3, +/-2, 22 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Nikolai Khabibulin

4-7-1, 3.42 GAA, .896 SV%

Red Wings 3, Oilers 1: Post Game Snipes...

• Abby got the scoring kicked off early with his second goal of the season. Getting him back in the lineup has made a huge impact on the third line.
• Jiri Hudler, on the other hand, didn't really do a whole lot on the fourth line.
• My rant of the night centers around the two second period fights. Both of them were for stupid reasons. What was worse was the way the linesmen jumped in to break them up. In the first fight, Ericsson was dominating until the linesman grabbed him and tied him up so he couldn't get his arms free. Brule took that opportunity to land several punches while Rig couldn't defend himself. It was dangerous. The exact same thing happened during the second fight, except that time it was the linesman tying up the Oiler. If a fight's going to be broken up, both guys need to be tied up. Otherwise you're just asking for trouble.
• You know what else is stupid? The instigator rule.
• Khabibulin made a spectacular, highlight-reel save as he was laying flat on his back and reached up and batted a puck over the top of the net. It had everyone sitting around in my living room yelling in amazement.
• Jimmy Howard continued to be lights out. It was about this time last season when we all decided that he was worthless and was just filling a spot on the bench until one of the other prospects was ready to take over. My what a long way he's come.

1. The big mystery is who will be sitting tonight. Did the third line's performance on Wednesday change Babcock's mind about putting Hudler back in the lineup? Will he replace a fourth-liner? Will he sit Modano after he played his best game of the season?
Drew Miller drew the short end of the stick and had to sit out tonight. Hudler didn't accomplish a whole lot in his return to the lineup. It'll be interesting to see who ends up sitting tomorrow night. I would've bet on Modano with it being the second game of a back-to-back, but he's played much better the last couple of games. It might be hard to sit him now.

2. The other question mark is Johan Franzen. He sat out practice yesterday, and is iffy for the game tonight. Will he be able to go?
He was indeed in the lineup, but didn't contribute much offensively. The second line was pretty quiet tonight.

3. The Oilers are last in the Conference. Usually the Wings don't bring their A-game for matches like this. Will we get to see the team that dominated Calgary on Wednesday, or are they going to sleep through the start of the game?
I thought it was a good effort all around. It wasn't quite as dominating as the game on Wednesday, but the Wings got the job done.  Even when it was tied, the Oilers never really seemed to be in the game.

Hero: Dan Cleary
He ended up with a goal and two assists for the night. It's nice to see him finally getting rewarded for the hard work he's been putting in on the ice. The last couple of games have really showcased how valuable he can be.

Villains: Don Henderson and Jay Sharrers
Breaking up those fights the way they did was just wrong. Stupid, dangerous, and wrong.

Final Thought:
I love how much happier this season makes me than last year's did.

Red Wings vs. Oilers GP...

Red Wings: 7-2-1

Oilers: 3-5-2

1. The big mystery is who will be sitting tonight. Did the third line's performance on Wednesday change Babcock's mind about putting Hudler back in the lineup? Will he replace a fourth-liner? Will he sit Modano after he played his best game of the season?
2. The other question mark is Johan Franzen. He sat out practice yesterday, and is iffy for the game tonight. Will he be able to go?
3. The Oilers are last in the Conference. Usually the Wings don't bring their A-game for matches like this. Will we get to see the team that dominated Calgary on Wednesday, or are they going to sleep through the start of the game?

Red Wing Zen:

Drew Miller

0-1-1, +/- -4, 0 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Nikolai Khabibulin

3-5-1, 1 SO, 3.44 GAA, .897 SV%

Lockout Hockey Photos...

I was digging though some of my old pictures, and I came across some from a charity game that some of the Wings played at Yost Arena during the lockout. I honestly can’t remember what they were raising money for, but a bunch of NHLers faced off against the USA 18-under team. In desperate need of a hockey fix, my friend and I headed down to the rink to see (among others) Steve Yzerman, Nick Lidstrom, Kris Draper, Chris Chelios, Manny Legace, Steve Duchesne, and Derian Hatcher. I’m also about 80% sure that Kid Rock coached the NHL team. It was interesting looking back through the pictures because I spotted a young Phil Kessel on the ice for Team USA. I can’t find a roster for ’04-’05, but I would suspect that if someone located one so we could compare numbers, we’d see some other familiar names. Unfortunately, my camera back then was less than stellar, so the pictures aren’t great quality.

My friend and I had total crushes on the USA goalie. That explains the numerous pictures of him as I tried to get a shot of his face. I wonder what ever happened to him…

Another good part of the game was when the PA announcer mocked Cheli for something (I can’t remember what). He proceeded to lurk menacingly around the penalty box. The PA guy then said, “Why is Chris Chelios by the penalty box?” which was a lot funnier then than it is now that I’ve typed it out.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun at the game (which I think USA won), and I love coming across hidden treasures like this.

I also finally got around to uploading my pictures from the game against Edmonton on March 30th. I’ve got shots from warm-ups, some from the alumni suite, a couple of stalkerish pictures of Sara’s family and my brother taken from the balcony, and some shots of Larry Murphy on the concourse. Click and enjoy.

Red Wings Stats and Trivia Geekfest...

I’ve never been much of a stat-head before. I think people tend to put too much stock in them a lot of times. I am, however, absolutely enthralled with the game notes packet I got when I was covering the suite event on Tuesday (and that Drew was kind enough to leave for me). I know it’s a little weird, but it is what it is. These were current at the start of the Edmonton game, so the numbers may have changed a little bit, and I’ve updated things like their record and points. I’m not messing with the percentages and decimals and things like that, though.

• In one-goal games, including the one against Edmonton, the Wings are an impressive 19-6-13 (Well, not so much the 13, but you get the idea.). Being able to win tight games like that is going to serve them well down the road. They don’t fare quite as well in two- and three-goal games (10-7 and 11-10 respectively).
• The Wings have a 22-29 record all time in the shootout. That’s one that I will never understand.
• This season, the Wings are 25-14-7 when outshooting their opponent. They’re also 13-7-6 when being outshot. I know at least a couple of those 13 wins that were Jimmy specials.
• They have almost identical records against the divisions in the Western Conference: 10-6-3 in the Central, 10-6-4 in the Pacific, and 11-6-3 in the Northwest. That’s consistency.
• This is one of my favorite breakdowns: March was their best month by far with 25 points. Next was November (Remember when we all thought that would be the turning point of the season?) with 17 points. December and January each brought 16 points (Side note: Edmonton didn’t have a single win in January. Ouch.). They only got 13 points in October. They picked up 6 points in February, but that was the Olympic Break so it doesn’t really count. I guess it’s good that they’re peaking at the right time.
• The boys have scored 62 first period goals, 70 second period goals, and 71 third period goals. In contrast, opponents have scored 59 first period goals, 67 second period goals, and 62 third period goals. (This one was updated to include the Edmonton game.)
• The Wings had outshot opponents 827-695 in the third period prior to the Edmonton game. The other period breakdowns aren’t that interesting. I like the third period shot differential though.
• The Wings rank second in the NHL in terms of penalties taken.
• The boys have been outscored 5 on 5 this season 130-140 (updated to include Edmonton). They’ve also been outscored 6-7 4 on 4. They’ve also scored ten empty net goals.
• Z is only 2 for 11 in the shootout. Even Jason Williams (Who?) is 3 for 8.
• Nik Kronwall leads the team in shorthanded points with four. Darren Helm leads them in shorthanded goals with three.
• As of Tuesday, the Wings had lost 300 man games to injury this season. Edmonton, in contrast had lost 464. That divides out to more than 5.5 whole seasons for the Oilers. Ouch.
• Jimmy Howard’s starting streak is the longest for a Detroit goalie since Tim Cheveldae started 29 in a row in ’91-’92.
• Prior to the Edmonton game, the penalty kill had been clicking at a rate of 94%. They’d killed off 63 of 67 penalties in that span. In the previous twelve games, they’d killed off 33 of 34 penalties for a rate of 97%. Where were those numbers during the playoffs last year?
• Datsyuk has had the team’s longest point streak this season. It lasted six games from February 13th to March 9th.
• Homer had the team’s last hat trick on the road in February of ’07 against Nashville.
• Brendan Shanahan was the last Wing to have a four-goal game in March of ’01 against Calgary.
• Sergei Fedorov was the last Wing to have a five-goal game the day after Christmas in ’96. That event was near and dear to my heart because I’d unwrapped a spiffy new #91 jersey the day before and was wearing it as I sat on the floor and watched that game. It was my first moment of belief in the Hockey Gods, as I was sure that he was scoring all of those goals for me. Little did I know that just a short while later he would fall from my favor. No Red Wing has ever had a five-goal game on the road.
• Valtteri Filppula has taken the team’s last home and last road penalty shots. He scored in December ’07 at the Joe, but missed this past October in Buffalo.
• Kirk Maltby is the last Wing to have scored two shorthanded goals in a road game. He did it against San Jose all the way back in October of ’02.
• The Wings are ranked 2nd in the NHL in shots on goal per game, averaging 33.3.
  

And now for the fun player facts:

• Chris Osgood likes the Black Eyed Peas. He’s got some pretty questionable taste in music.
• Dan Cleary, on the other hand, likes The Killers, which I can at least respect.
• Derek Meech idolized Steve Yzerman growing up.
• This one is one of my favorites: Patrick Eaves lists Five Guys Cheeseburgers as his favorite food. I would have to agree with him that they’re quite delicious.
• Kirk Maltby likes Metallica. Bring on the jokes.
• Jason Williams (Who?) and Brett Lebda both list sushi as their favorite food. Ew.
• Lebda’s idea golf foursome would include Tiger Woods, Megan Fox, and Robin Williams. Go ahead and make your jokes now.
• Kris Draper’s favorite food is steak with mashed potatoes and broccoli. Now that’s a meal I could enjoy. Not only are we name twins, but we’re apparently food soulmates as well. Mmmm steak and potatoes…
• Henrik Zetterberg’s favorite sport other than hockey is kite surfing. He also likes steak and Bob Dylan. I’m not 100% sure what kite surfing is, but I can definitely get behind the steak and Dylan.
• Darren Helm’s ideal golf foursome would be Tiger Woods, Shaq, and Mike Myers. That’s quite an eclectic group.
• Todd Bertuzzi’s favorite musical artist is James Taylor, which I find surprising (assuming I’m thinking of the right James Taylor).
• Nik Kronwall’s hockey superstition is that he always puts his skates on in the same order. This amused both Drew and me because, well, there are really only two options for the order in which one puts on skates or shoes.

Red Wings 3, Blue Jackets 2: Post Game Snipes...

• This was a good win, but there were way too many scary moments—Filppula and Franzen, I’m looking at you—when we were all crossing our fingers hoping the guys weren’t hurt. I could really do without that kind of stress in my life.
• It was kind of weird watching this game alone at home. I’d watched three in a row (H2H, post H2H, and the alumni suite) out and about with real people. It was like I actually had a life for a while.
• Henrik Zetterberg somehow ended up nearly getting a piggyback ride on Rick Nash. I still haven't quite figured out the physics involved, but it made me laugh.
  
• At one point, Bertuzzi spiked the puck into the net like he was playing volleyball. He must have been hanging out with Helm, whose favorite sport other than hockey is apparently volleyball. Bert followed that up later by deflecting a puck in with his skate. I was fully convinced that his next attempt would be a header.
• I was shocked that they overruled the no-goal call on Bert’s goal. That’s three calls in a row that have gone in the Wings’ favor—one against the Wild, one against Edmonton, and now this one. Those are the kinds of things you need to have going in your favor if you’re going to go anywhere in the playoffs. The kinds of things that were going against them early in the season.
• Pavel Datsyuk’s goal was everything that a goal should be. There was a little bit of dangle and a whole lot of snipe. I don’t think watching that will ever get old. Ever. He made all three Jackets trying to defend against him look ridiculous, and Mason never had a chance on the shot. Nobody stops that one.
• I think the general consensus is that Mule isn’t allowed to remove his skate until after the playoffs are over. It wouldn’t be hard. It would be just like those fake Zetterberg commercials last season.
  

GP Answers:
1. I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but are the Wings going to play a full sixty minutes tonight? There should really be a sign in the locker room reminding the team of the length of a typical NHL game. Maybe by the “To whom much is given, much is expected” sign, which has always bothered me on some level. There’s something wrong with the grammar, but I can’t figure out how to fix it. It drives me crazy. Really.
I don’t know anything about the beginning of the game since my professor decided to keep us late tonight, but aside from the first few minutes of the second, what I saw looked pretty solid. They gave Columbus more chances than I would like, but there weren’t many stretches when the BJs were dominating.

2. The Wings are riding a season-high six game winning streak. Can they “make it seven?” See what I did there?
Don’t look now, but the Wings have now won seven games in a row. I’m so glad that my lame attempt at being punny wasn’t a jinx.

3. Can the boys contain noted destroyer of Wings, Rick Nash?
His only appearance on the scoresheet was for his trip to the penalty box in the third. He didn’t even get a hat trick tonight. spectacular.

Cookies and Cupcakes for Pavel Datsyuk
That was one of my favorite goals of the season. He also assisted on Homer’s early goal.

An Extra Stick Tap for Tomas Holmstrom
He was all over the place tonight. I love that guy.

Todd Bertuzzi gets the Golden Facepalm
You’re carrying a stick for a reason, sunshine.

What I Learned:
Maybe, just maybe, the Hockey Gods are starting to come back around to the Wings’ side.

Red Wings 5, Oilers 4: Post Game Snipes...

• In my GP, I said that I was going to have to buy Hollis a beer next time we all get together. I lied. I’m going to have to buy him an entire keg. This was incredible and amazing and wonderful all wrapped in a blanket of spectacular.
• I got to the Joe early and headed down by the Wings’ bench hoping to meet some of my new favorite people to watch warmups. I got to meet Sara’s little munchkin, and Homer came over and flipped him a puck. I was also amused by Franzen, who was playing hacky sack with a puck to entertain his teammates.
• Then I headed up to the suite. Nicole had a little “blogger station” set up for Drew and me with the banners from SSDD (Really wish I'd gotten around to making my updated banner sooner...) and NOHS printed out so we almost looked credible.
• I also got a bag full of goodies left over from giveaways—the bag itself was one of them, in addition to one of the mini dental kits and a couple more Hockeytown: No Limits signs. I also snagged an autographed picture of Joey Kocur that I’m going to give away as the prize to that contest that I still haven’t gotten around to judging.
• Some of the folks in the suite came in from Florida after they won the tickets. That, sunshines, is dedication. I think everyone had a great time in the suite. I tried to hang back and not get in the way so the people who actually won the contest could meet with the alumni and enjoy themselves. I will, however, admit to snagging the last can of Coke out of the fridge. I was burning up in my jersey.
• At different times, Joey Kocur, Brent Fedyk, Dennis Hextall, and Gerry Abel stopped in to sign autographs and take pictures. I’m told that some of the folks in the suite also tracked Gordie Howe down out in the hallway, but I didn’t think it would be appropriate to chase him down the hall.
• Hextall hung around and watched the game in the suite for quite a while.
• It turns out that my brother skipped class to come to the game. I didn’t know that, and my mom found out he was there from something that I tweeted. I just so happened to be on the phone with her when he walked in the door after coming home. I was not at all sympathetic about inadvertently ratting him out. He ended up sitting really close to Sara. I tried to take a picture of him, but he just glared at me.
• We were having a grand old time when the Wings were up 4-0. When Edmonton got their powerplay that they scored four seconds into, Drew and I didn’t like the call, but figured it wasn’t a big deal since the Wings had a big lead. Oh how that would come back to bite us.
• When Edmonton tied it up in the third period, we were having flashbacks to October. Luckily (very luckily, in my opinion), they managed to pull out two points. And they even did it in regulation, not that giving up a charity point to the Oilers would be heartbreaking.
• The Wings caught a break on Stuart’s goal. I didn’t realize it had been deflected until the replay and I was busy laughing at how silly the shot had made D-D look. As soon as I saw the deflection, I had a terrible feeling that it was going to get called back. I’m almost positive that the only reason that goal stood up was because it was originally called a goal on the ice. If the ref had waved it off originally, I think we would’ve gotten to see overtime. It was close for sure, but I don’t think the video was conclusive enough to overturn the call on the ice. How awesome is it to see two reviews go in the Wings’ favor in such close proximity? It sure beats getting LaRued.
• At least Edmonton didn’t sweep the season series. That would’ve been pretty embarrassing.
• How many glorious scoring opportunities did the Wings blow by hitting the post or missing the net? They could’ve easily scored ten goals tonight. Those missed chances nearly came back to haunt them.
• It was Henrik Zetterberg's 500th game and Pavel Datsyuk's 600th game. How fitting was it that they both hit milestones not only on the same night, but on a night on which I was there representing SSDD, their namesake blog?
  
• On my way out of the Joe, I ran into a mob that was surrounding Larry Murphy. I got his autograph on my old jersey and took a picture with him. And for those of you who were asking, there wasn’t the slightest trace of alcohol. So there.
• Have I mentioned that I really enjoyed the game notes package? I’m going to try to find time to write some stuff up from it.
• I also took a bunch of pictures, which I’ll put up on photobucket as soon as I have time. That will most likely be sometime this weekend.
  

GP Answers:
1. Can the Wings keep up their meteoric rise through the standings by beating the worst team in the league? This is exactly the kind of game that they like to sleepwalk through, which explains why more than one tenth of the Oilers points this season have come against the Wings. (How many times have I written that exact same sentence this season?)
They looked darn good for the first part of the game. The shot differential was exactly the way it should be against a last place team. Then the team decided to make things interesting and let Edmonton tie the game. Sixty minutes, boys. Six-oh. That being said, I guess I can’t really complain about a victory at this point.

2. How is Jimmy Howard going to follow up his birthday performance, shut/shootout victory, and subsequent listing as a top 3 star in the NHL? Please let it be with more spectacular play.
I wasn’t a big fan of Mr. Duff’s goal. Despite playing as well as he has, Jimmy’s given up a couple of softies lately. It’s hard to pin anything on him though, since most of the team seemed to shut down after they scored their fourth goal.

3. Am I going to survive the night, or just explode from pure joy right there in the middle of Joe Louis Arena?
Hey look, I made it. How about that? Seriously though, this was awesome. On my way home, I was thinking about the crazy ride this blog has taken me on, especially in the last week or so. I never imagined the opportunity to do something like this or attend a gathering like H2H when I randomly decided to start spouting my thoughts out into the internet a little less than a year ago. I really am grateful to the Wings organization and especially Nicole who is a full-fledged all star.

Cookies and Cupcakes for Brad Stuart
I still have no idea if his stick was actually below the crossbar, but kudos to him for tipping the shot for the winner and sparing us overtime/a shootout.

Patrick Eaves gets the Golden Facepalm
No really. This is deserving of a couple of these in a row. He totally got Eavesed.

What I Learned:
Greatest organization in sports. Final, period, end of discussion (tm Jeffy).

Red Wings vs. Oilers GP...

Exciting news: I’m going to be covering the game from the alumni suite that the Wings gave away tickets for. I’m told that it will be stocked with former players and plenty of food, and that I’ll have internet access while I’m there. I’m not sure yet what I’m going to do during the game (Twitter? Live blog? Pass out from excitement? The possibilities are endless.), but I’m sure I’ll figure something out. This is just another example of why the Wings are the greatest organization in sports (as if there was any confirmation needed after H2H). I’m also forever indebted to Hollis for this, and I’m going to have to buy him a beverage at E2H or H2H2 or whatever we end up doing in the future.

I’m keeping this GP short and sweet because I expect my recap will be novel-esque as it is.

1. Can the Wings keep up their meteoric rise through the standings by beating the worst team in the league? This is exactly the kind of game that they like to sleepwalk through, which explains why more than one tenth of the Oilers points this season have come against the Wings. (How many times have I written that exact same sentence this season?)
2. How is Jimmy Howard going to follow up his birthday performance, shut/shootout victory, and subsequent listing as a top 3 star in the NHL? Please let it be with more spectacular play.
3. Am I going to survive the night, or just explode from pure joy right there in the middle of Joe Louis Arena?

Red Wings 4, Blues 2: Post Game Snipes...

• I only got to see the third period last night thanks to work, driving home, my dog pouncing on me when I got home, and the need to hand out souvenirs from vacation to my family. As such, this is going to be the lamest recap ever.
• I was driving down 696 when the Wings scored both of their second period goals. I really shouldn’t be allowed to be behind the wheel of a vehicle while there’s a hockey game on the radio. It’s kind of a safety hazard. They should install some kind of ignition lock that scans the airwaves for hockey broadcasts similar to the breathalyzers they have for drunk drivers.
• Also, remember when 760 used to broadcast the games? We once picked up a faint broadcast from them all the way in Disney World. That’s about 1200 miles away from my front door. I can’t even get 1270 to come in while driving through the Detroit suburbs. Lame. Even more lame? The fact that I forgot to check 97.1 to see if they had the game until I was half of a mile away from home.
• When the Wings scored to break the tie in the third period, I yelled so loud that my little brother cam flying out of his room and down the hall to see what was going on. I’m always cool, calm, and collected. This is a lie
• I’m told that Ken Daniels came within inches of giving a shout out to SSDD on a failed Datsyuk attempt in the third. Unfortunately, I was stuck watching upstairs sans DVR for reasons that have yet to be explained to me (This is probably for the best because I have a sneaky suspicion that it was because of American Idol.) and had been distracted by something else at that moment. It’s amazing how quickly I’ve become addicted to being able to rewind my live TV. I was way more annoyed by the fact that I was just watching a regular old cable hookup and couldn’t do that than anyone really should be.
• See how I spent all this time writing about myself since I really didn’t see much of the game? I learned how to fill space with the best of ‘em in AP English (ahem, Pinky).
  

GP Answers:
1. So who is Jimmy Howard going to beat up tonight?
No one that I’m aware of. And I think that’s the kind of information that would’ve found its way to Twitter.

2. I’ve been hearing that Dan Cleary is supposed to return to the lineup tonight. How much of a difference will having an actual forward playing forward make? Dressing eight defensemen is a little silly.
Ummmmm…it turns out that half-watching the third period isn’t a good way to get material to write a recap. Who knew?

3. We’re down to ten games left in the season, and the Wings are still barely clinging to a playoff spot (this, of course, didn’t deter them from offering playoff tickets for sale, an announcement that made me cringe because I believe in jinxing such things). They have a tendency to fall asleep against teams below them in the standings (See: Edmonton), but they can’t afford to do that tonight. Will they bother to show up to play?
They looked pretty good from what I saw in the third, but my twitter feed has told me that the first period wasn’t pretty. They managed to pull off a win though, and at this point I don’t even care how they look doing it.

4. The last two games have just been loaded with Eurotwin magic. What are they going to do to amaze us against St. Louis?
The dangling and the sniping have been in full force from the boys lately. Zetterberg in particular continued on his roll. This has to strike fear in the teams that the Wings are chasing in the standings. That can’t be a good feeling.

Cookies and Cupcakes for Valtteri Filppula
If only he’d listened to our pleading to shoot the puck sooner.

Jimmy Howard gets the Golden Facepalm
The Blues’ second goal had weak sauce written all over it.

What I Learned:
Listening to hockey on the radio is a miserable experience in every sense of the word.

Red Wings vs. Blues GP...

1. Now that he's a local hero, who is Jimmy Howard going to beat up tonight?
2. I’ve been hearing that Dan Cleary is supposed to return to the lineup tonight. How much of a difference will having an actual forward playing forward make? Dressing eight defensemen is a little silly.
3. We’re down to ten games left in the season, and the Wings are still barely clinging to a playoff spot (this, of course, didn’t deter them from offering playoff tickets for sale, an announcement that made me cringe because I believe in jinxing such things). They have a tendency to fall asleep against teams below them in the standings (See: Edmonton), but they can’t afford to do that tonight. Will they bother to show up to play?
4. The last two games have just been loaded with Eurotwin magic. What are they going to do to amaze us against St. Louis?

I’ll be joining this one in progress, hopefully sometime early in the second period. Word on the street is that some early H2H revelers will be visiting the Joe tonight. This is a good way to ease the arena’s staff into the chaos that will occur on Friday. If they don’t pull this one off, I suspect that there will be 672% more alcohol consumed at the pre-game party on Friday. That’s just a rough estimate.

Red Wings vs. Oilers GP...

I wasn’t going to do a GP today since I won’t be able to watch the game, but I didn’t want my 300th post to be a generic leaving-town-check-back-on-Monday post. As it so happens, I'm leaving town today. In fact, I'm posting this from the airport (Bless you, wireless internet). I thought it was particularly nice that the Wings had three days off before playing back-to-back games on the one weekend that I’m on vacation. I’ll be living it up in New Orleans at the wedding of one of my most beloved Splash Trashers and probably overloading Google’s score texting service checking for updates since I’m about 98% sure that nobody’s ever even heard of hockey down there. I may or may not be up and running in time for the Pittsburgh game on Monday.

1. The Wings have been playing well recently, which has made for a much cheerier bunch of Red Wing fans. Their random West Coast break has the potential to be a momentum-killer though. Can their strong play continue tonight?
2. The word on the street is that Jonathan Ericsson will be making his glorious return to the lineup tonight. Will he make us miss Brett Lebda?
3. Edmonton’s exactly the kind of team that the Wings like to overlook and get embarrassed by. Are they going to bother showing up tonight? Sixty minutes please, boys.
4. What is Tomas Holmstrom going to do tonight to make Wings fans swoon?

The Wings didn’t get any help during their layoff. Calgary and Nashville both picked up all of the points possible during their games. I don’t know what the deal is, but the out of town scores never seem to break the Wings’ way. I guess they’re going to have to do it on their own. The good news is that the Wings now have a game in hand on Calgary and two on Nashville.

Don’t forget to enter the Contest of Insanity. There are a lot of good ones already, but more is always better, so keep them coming.

Go East, Young Men...

In an effort to avoid the million things that I’m supposed to be doing, I decided to play around with the standings differential between the Eastern and Western Conferences. We’ve long maintained that the Wings would’ve been even more dominant if they’d been able to cakewalk through the East for all these years. These are the numbers that I came up with for so far this season (through Sunday):

The 15 Western Conference teams have a total of 730 points. The 15 teams in the East? Merely 683. I was so surprised by the differential that I double checked my addition. The current playoff teams in the West have a total of 438 points, while the Eastern teams only have 409. The eighth place team in the West has 51 points, but the eighth place team in the East has 45. The Wings’ 48 points would place them 6th in the Eastern conference, because they have a game in hand on the Senators who also have 48 points.

I came up with two possible explanations for the difference in numbers: 1. The teams in the West have played more overtime “three-point” games or 2. The Western Conference teams have been winning more of their games against the East.

The teams in the West have accumulated a total of 78 overtime losses, 61 of which have come against in-conference opponents. On the other hand Eastern teams have 81 overtime losses, with 65 of them coming against other teams in the East. Teams in the Eastern Conference have actually played more three-point games than teams in the West have.

Looking at the Western Conference’s cumulative record against the East gives pretty good support to explanation #2. The West is 84-44-17 in games against Eastern teams. The East is only 61-68-16. They’re not even .500 against the West this season. In fact, only three Western Conference teams are below .500 against teams from the East. Those three teams are St. Louis, Edmonton, and Anaheim, who currently occupy three of the bottom four spots in the West. There are only six Eastern Conference teams who have winning records against the West: Pittsburgh, Boston, Buffalo, Atlanta, Washington, and Florida. Not surprisingly, that group of teams accounts for positions 2-5 in the standings, with only Atlanta and Florida being the outliers.

That just goes to show you that when we call it the Leastern Conference, we really mean it. Must be nice, eh?

Wings 1, Oilers 4: Post Game Snipes...

• The Wings put more pucks into their own net than they did into Edmonton’s. It turns out that that’s not a good way to win games.
• Ericsson left the game in the last few minutes of the third period. All of Hockeytown immediately fell into a collective fit of convulsions. It was initially speculated that it was an ankle injury, but John Keating mentioned that it was actually his knee. He said it didn’t look serious, but the way this season’s been going, I refuse to get my hopes up.
• I really thought Cleary’s goal at the end of the first could be a turning point in the game. Until then, the Wings hadn’t shown much life, and I was hoping that it would wake them up. It didn’t.
• Seriously, the Wings scored twice as many goals on themselves as they did on Edmonton. I know I’ve said that already, but I felt like it needed to sink in a little more.
• I’m about 92% sure that the entire Wings roster spent the summer punching babies. Karmic retribution is the only possible explanation for the events that have transpired so far this season.
  

GP Answers:
1. I’ll start with the obvious: Just how nauseous will the defense make us tonight? Rafalski’s going to be sitting out in all likelihood, and I’ve been having nightmares since I heard he left practice. I kind of have a feeling that Lidstrom is going to step up big time tonight, though.
I’m not really sure what the answer to this one is. If you take away the two goals the Wings scored on themselves, this is only a 2-1 game. There were turnovers, sure, but this was a team loss. You can’t really blame the defense.

2. How will Kindl perform in his first NHL experience? I’m operating on the assumption that we’ll be seeing him and I’m not sure if I should be excited to see his debut or crying under my bed.
Kindl looked fine. He ended up a -2, but I wouldn’t fault him for that. He certainly didn’t look out of place. That’s a good sign, especially if Ericsson’s knee keeps him out of the lineup.

3. Can Todd Bertuzzi keep up the nice little roll on which he ended November? Now would really be a good time for him to get things together.
He made a nice pass to set Cleary up for the Wings’ only goal of the night. I also didn’t notice any dumb turnovers from him, so I’d say it was a decent outing for him.

4. How will the new forward lines look out there? We saw a bit of shuffling during the Dallas game on Monday, but for now Leino’s slated to be bumped up to the top line to hopefully feed off of Datsyuk while Bertuzzi will be playing on Zetterberg’s wing. We’ll see what kind of chemistry the little shakeup leads to.
No comment on this one. Nobody looked good.

5. Edmonton’s in the basement of the Western Conference and they have a terrible road record this season. On top of that, they just lost their leading scorer to a long-term injury (Hi, welcome to our world.). Will the Wings take advantage of that and continue the strong play that we witnessed on Monday? Or will they make me look foolish for writing my previous post?
As was pointed out in the comments of the GP, this was exactly the kind of game the Wings like to lose. And that’s exactly what they did. Babcock called the game “un-Red-Wing-like” in his post-game statement, but when your team displays that kid of effort two nights out of three, there comes a point when that becomes what defines them.

Cookies and Cupcakes for Nick Lidstrom
There were slim picking for this one tonight. It has to go to Lidstrom for that gorgeous pass he made in the waning seconds of the first period.

Jimmy Howard gets the Golden Facepalm
Yeah, I know that two of the goals got deflected in by his own teammates, but his performance was still weak. Just when people were finally starting to think he was the real deal.

What I learned:
I spoke too soon with that whole turning point nonsense.

Wings vs. Oilers GP...

Wings vs. Oilers @7 PM

1. I’ll start with the obvious: Just how nauseous will the defense make us tonight? Rafalski’s going to be sitting out in all likelihood, and I’ve been having nightmares since I heard he left practice. I kind of have a feeling that Lidstrom is going to step up big time tonight, though.
2. How will Kindl perform in his first NHL experience? I’m operating on the assumption that we’ll be seeing him and I’m not sure if I should be excited to see his debut or crying under my bed.
3. Can Todd Bertuzzi keep up the nice little roll on which he ended November? Now would really be a good time for him to get things together.
4. How will the new forward lines look out there? We saw a bit of shuffling during the Dallas game on Monday, but for now Leino’s slated to be bumped up to the top line to hopefully feed off of Datsyuk while Bertuzzi will be playing on Zetterberg’s wing. We’ll see what kind of chemistry the little shakeup leads to.
5. Edmonton’s in the basement of the Western Conference and they have a terrible road record this season. On top of that, they just lost their leading scorer to a long-term injury (Hi, welcome to our world.). Will the Wings take advantage of that and continue the strong play that we witnessed on Monday? Or will they make me look foolish for writing my previous post?