Red Wings 2, Sharks 5: Post Game Snipes...

• Sure, most of the game looked like a trainwreck on skates, but, hey, the Wings scored TWO powerplay goals. I guess that's a good sign.
• This one hurt because things looked so good for most of the first period. The Wings looked great until that shorthanded goal at the end.
• After San Jose got on the board, the Wings pretty much completely shut down and went through the motions until the very end of the game.
• Their too little, too late push toward the end was encouraging, but not nearly enough to overcome the hole they dug for themselves.
• I miss the good old days when this blog's namesakes would do things like snipe and dangle. I want my Eurotwins magic back.
• Why does Larry Murphy not have a reality show?
• Brendan Smith looked pretty good in his NHL debut. He made some mistakes, but he didn't look horribly out of place. That's not too shabby for a rookie defenseman.

Red Wings vs. Sharks GP...

Red Wings: 9-6-1

Sharks: 9-5-1

Season Series: 0-1

Red Wings Zen:

Point and Laugh:

Video Candy:

Red Wings vs. Sharks GP...

Red Wings: 5-2-0

Sharks: 4-3-0

Red Wing Zen:

Point and Laugh:

Video Candy:

Red Wings vs. Sharks Game Seven GP...

3 Red Wings vs. Sharks 3

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

(Cake, don't fail me now.)

Three things:

• Anything can happen—It's Game Seven. One bounce, one bad break, one turnover can decide the series.
• Goalies—Howard and Niemi may very well end up deciding which team moves on to the Western Conference Finals.
• Mental edge—The Wings have had it throughout the whole series. Here's hoping they'll use that to their advantage tonight.

Red Wing Zen:

Justin Abdelkader

0-0-0, +/- -4, 22 PIM

Red Wings Youtube video of the day:

Red Wings vs. Sharks Game Six GP...

2 Red Wings vs. Sharks 3

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

(Might as well stick with the cake theme, eh?)

Three things:

• Showing up—Which Wings team will show up tonight? And for how long? The team that played the third period of Game Five is nearly unstoppable. The team that muddled through the first period? Not so much.
• Taking charge—Despite facing elimination, with the series shifting back to Detroit, anything could happen. The Wings' fate is still in their hands. Win or lose, the outcome is going to be their own doing.
• Mule—He's still a huge question mark. Babcock wants to play him if he's able to go, but is it worth it to risk being down a man if he re-tweaks it again? The injury's obviously been affecting him this series as it is.

Red Wing Zen:

Henrik Zetterberg

1-5-6, +/- 4, 2 PIM

Red Wings Youtube video of the day:

Red Wings vs. Sharks Game Five GP...

1 Red Wings vs. Sharks 3

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

(Since the cake picture worked out for Game Four, I present this one that's even better.  Just look at that frosting.)

Three things:

• Intensity—Playing like they did in the first period of Game Four would go a long way towards prolonging the series.
• Sixty minutes—Did you know that that's how long the game lasts?
• Special teams—Whoever wins the battle of special teams is going to win the game. The powerplay and PK have been huge factors all series long, and the Wings haven't been particularly good at either one.

Red Wing Zen:

Patrick Eaves

3-1-4, +/- 2, 6 PIM

Red Wings Youtube video of the day:

Red Wings vs. Sharks Game Four GP...

0 Red Wings vs. Sharks 3

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

Three things:

• One game at a time—If Philly could do it last season, who's to say that the Wings can't?
• Pride—Please, for the love of the Hockey Gods, don't go down with a sweep.
• Franzen—This is the game where he's supposed to go crazy and play like an unstoppable machine according to last season's series blueprint.

Red Wing Zen:

Jiri Hudler

1-2-3, +/- 2, 4 PIM

Red Wings Youtube video of the day:

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. Sharks Game Two GP...

0 Red Wings vs. Sharks 1

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

Three things:

• Jimmy Howard—If he keeps playing like he did in Game One, I like the Wings' chances of coming back in this series.
• Penalties—You all know the drill on this one. I don't want to talk about it because I'm just going to get riled up again.
• Intensity—The Wings got outplayed for long stretches of the first game. They were lucky to be in the position they were at the end of regulation, officiating nonsense aside. They're going to need to step things up today if they want to pull even.

Red Wing Zen:

Jonathan Ericsson

0-1-1, +/- 1, 2 PIM

Red Wings Youtube video of the day:

Red Wings vs. Sharks Game One GP...

0 Red Wings vs. Sharks 0

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

Three things:

• Shaking off the rust—It's been an eternity since the Wings last played. The Sharks will want to get an early jump and catch them sleeping. Here's hoping the Wings are ready to bring it right from the opening faceoff.
• Z is back—It goes without saying that this is a huge boost for the team. Their first round sweep was all the more impressive because they did it without him setting foot on the ice.
• Penalties—Last year in their series against San Jose, the Wings' constant parade to the box was killer. With their penalty kill struggling mightily during the first round this season, it's crucial that they stay out of the box. Then again, Babcock can always pop Datsyuk, Z, and Lidstrom onto the PK for an instant boost. It's not a bad ace to have up your sleeve. It would also be helpful if the refs managed to not fall for the Sharks diving this time around.

Red Wing Zen:

Pavel Datsyuk

2-4-6, +/- 6, 0 PIM

Red Wings Youtube video of the day:

Red Wings vs. Sharks GP...

Red Wings: 39-19-6

Sharks: 37-21-6

Red Wing Zen:

Patrick Eaves

13-6-19, +/- -2, 10 PIM

Point and Laugh:

John McCarthy

2-2-4, +/- -7, 8 PIM

Red Wings 2, Sharks 5: Post Game Snipes...

• I got a last minute invite to the game, so I headed down to the Joe straight from work. Unfortunately, I was wearing a shade of blue that was dangerously close to the Sharks' colors. Fortunately, I was also wearing an ugly, old man cardigan that covered most of it.
• Tonight was the quietest I've ever seen the Joe. Even during the first when things were going smoothly, it was quiet.
• During warmups, someone set their pop on the boards. Jiri Hudler noticed and shot the puck at it, knocking it off and spilling it all over. That was about the only good thing he did all night.
• Poor Budd Lynch must be coming down with a cold. His voice sounded awful, and kept getting worse as the game went on. He barely made it through the post-game announcements. Someone really should've gotten the man a cough drop. Feel better, Budd.
• San Jose's powerplay in the first period looked like it was moving in slow motion.
• I was pretty optimistic after the first period. The Wings looked pretty good and looked like they were getting ready to cruise to a win. Apparently they thought so too, as they proceeded to fall asleep.
• The Sharks' goals eight seconds apart just killed everything. What little crowd energy there was was gone, and even though the Wings were only down by one, it didn't seem like there was anything going.
• Why was there a dude in a Rangers jersey sitting behind the Wings' bench?
• I'm not sure if this ended up on the broadcast, but at one point, Homer took a pass at center ice right in front of the penalty boxes, and promptly fell flat on his back. The puck was scooped up by a Shark and returned to the Wings' zone. This is the conversation that ensued: “Was that Homer?” “Of course it was Homer. Who else would it be?”
• There was a trivia question posted on the big screen in which Sid Abel's name was spelled wrong. It's not like his last name is displayed prominently somewhere in the building that could be used for a spelling reference or anything.
• Hudler just isn't working. He makes me angry nearly every time he's on the ice and contributes nothing postive.
• Zetterberg was an impressive -4 on the night. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that he hasn't had many games like that in his career.
• Stop being a baby when you get hit. Just because someone nailed you doesn't mean you need to fight them. Try keeping your head up next time.

Hero: Mike Babcock
“Cute-fest.” I love it. It reminds me of how I like to say, “Awww, you're so cute,” in a baby talk voice to my dad. He usually snarls and says, “There's nothing cute about me,” and tries to do something macho like pretend to be Rocky.

Villain: Dany Heatley
As this debacle was going down, I thought to myself, “well, at least Heatley's on my fantasy team.” Of course, then I realized that since I went to the game straight from work, I hadn't had a chance to set my lineup and Heatley was benched. Thanks for nothing.

Final Thought:
Bert winked and did a finger gun at some guys standing near us during warmups. There's no word on whether or not they made it home alive.

Red Wings vs. Sharks GP...

Red Wings: 17-4-3

Sharks: 12-9-4

Red Wing Zen:

Pavel Datsyuk

8-21-29, +/- 7, 11 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Scott Nichol

(This was from his Calgary days. It was actually kind of hard to narrow it down to just one bad picture of him.)

3-2-5, +/-2, 26 PIM

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

• Aren't you all glad the game went on as scheduled? After several hours of wondering whether or not the Wings were going to be able to play tonight due to a power outage in the Sharks' building, we finally got word through Twitter that the problem had been fixed and the game was on.
• The Wings got off to a bit of a slow start in the defensive zone, making way more turnovers than were necessary. Jimmy Howard made some good saves to hold down the fort until they got their act together.
• The Wings got a powerplay goal from Dan Cleary early on. I'm pretty sure the puck ended up in the back of the net because the Sharks were still confused about the fact that the Wings had just gotten a powerplay. After the playoff series last season, I'm guessing they thought that the rule book had been amended to prohibit that occurrence.
• This was one of those games during which all I could do was shake my head at the Eurotwins. They do ridiculous things with the puck every single game, and on those nights when they really dial it up, watching them go to work is glorious.
• Pavel Datsyuk's goal was just pretty. He embarrassed the Sharks' defensemen as he danced right through them and then finished the play with a shot into the wide-open net from a bad angle.  After the goal, Ken Daniels yelled, "He dangles, and snipes!" Just saying...
• Zetterberg looked like a baseball player as he swatted his first goal out of mid-air. The hand-eye coordination needed to do that is pretty impressive.
• San Jose's second goal should've been goaltender interference. Last time I checked, sitting on goalies wasn't allowed...unless you're Colton Orr. If Tomas Holmstrom so much as gives the goalie a dirty look, he's called for interference.
• Patrick Eaves scored. I guess you wouldn't know that he plays ping pong.
• Z's second goal was set up by a beautiful pass from Datsyuk. As I've already said...amazing stuff. Just amazing.

Hero: Henrik Zetterberg
We were all pulling for him to snag us some free curly fries roast beef sandwiches tonight. The fact that he didn't trigger the Arby's promo doesn't take away from his four-point performance, though. He was phenomenal, as was his partner in crime, Pavel Datsyuk.

Villain: Scott Nichol
He ended up with four penalty minutes for going after Kronwall late in the third period. Kronner obviously had no interest in fighting. Good job, dude.

Final Thought:
I could watch the Eurotwins play hockey 24/7 and never for one second be bored.

Red Wings vs. Sharks GP...

Red Wings: 15-4-2

Sharks: 11-7-4

Red Wing Zen:

Brian Rafalski

0-10-10, +/- 3, 2 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Joe McCarthy

2-2-4, +/- 0, 6 PIM

2010-2011 Player Profiles: Brian Rafalski...

Hey, kids, guess what? Hockey's almost here. That means it's time for me to get back into this whole blogging thing that I've neglected during the off-season. Since I lack the creativity to come up with a new gimmick, I decided to continue the Player Profiles series I did last year leading up to the season. I'll be taking a look at a different player (almost) every day between now and when hockey starts. By my count, there are 7 days until the Wings open the regular season. Get excited. Today's subject:

Brian Rafalski

2009-2010 Regular Season: 78 GP, 8-34-42, +/- 23, 26 PIM

2010 Playoffs: 12 GP, 3-8-11, +/- 4, 2 PIM

Season Highlight: Olympic Rafalski.

Season Lowlight: The turnover leading to the game-winning goal in Game 5 vs. San Jose.

Rafalski's high point of the season was pretty obviously during the Olympics. When he put on that Team USA jersey, he seemed to flourish and played the best hockey I've seen out of him. I think we'd all like to see a return to his Olympic form this season.

He's slated to start the season on the second pairing with Brad Stuart, and I'm excited about the idea. When I first read about it, I thought it was stupid, but the more I think about it, the more I like it. I know I've said it before, but the theory is that he's “the guy” on the second pairing and he'll step up the way he did when he was “the guy” on the Team USA blueline. The fact that he's already taken maintenance days and had his knee drained are somewhat concerning, but we're used to Rafalski dealing with old man injuries.

What he needs to do to make me smile: Show some of those flashes of brilliance we got to enjoy when he was America's hero.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Part Three...

The Ugly

• There was more ugly this season than I care to remember. It was a rough year for the team and us fans.
• Brad May’s no-goal was the most ridiculously bad call I’d ever seen at the time. Of course, Jim Joyce had to go and one-up him a few months later (Can you tell I’m still bitter?), but this was disgraceful and bungled by the NHL. Objectively speaking, the May call was worse than the one in the perfect game because of its sheer ridiculousness even though in context it mattered less. This was a perfect example of officiating incompetence by the NHL and makes a compelling argument against the intent to blow nonsense that has been plaguing the league.
• That was the worst incident by far, but the officiating all throughout the playoffs was a joke. It wasn’t just the Wings-Sharks series. I don’t think there was a single series that wasn’t influenced by lousy calls and pathetic excuses for refereeing. Not that any of us should be surprised. This is the only measure of consistency the NHL has.
• The Wings didn’t suffer from an injury bug this season. It was a full-blown plague. There were several stretches when the team was fielding a roster that was half Griffins. The Wings didn’t lose the most man games of any team in the league, but I would argue that they lost more important man games than anyone else. They weren’t losing grinders; it was the stars going down. November, December, and January were absolutely brutal. A casual fan probably wouldn’t have even recognized the team they were fielding during that stretch. Ugh.
• Doanface and Crosby’s Golden Roar were two of the most disturbing images I’ve seen. *shudder*
• Of course neither one of them can hold a candle to the Shetuzzi. This is the stuff of nightmares. Behold it in all of its glory:
  
• NBC and Versus continued to provide astonishingly bad coverage. The announcers are pathetically bad, and at one point, NBC missed a Wings goal right off of a faceoff because they were showing nonsense. These are the NHL’s broadcast partners. I can’t stand when they pick up Wings games.
  

Thoughts? Additions?

Unofficial NHL Awards for 2009-2010...

Ah, yes, it’s that time of year again. It’s time for my mock NHL awards. This tradition started several years ago and was originally based off of the mock awards that were voted on in high school. Over the years, they’ve evolved quite a bit and fake trophies come and go every season. The real NHL awards show doesn't take place until tomorrow night, but it's never too early to get into the spirit.

The Dr. Rahmani Award (comes with a free lasik procedure) goes to Dennis LaRue. When I saw the Brad May no-goal on TV, I really thought I’d seen the most obnoxiously bad call ever. Of course, then Jim Joyce came along and had to one-up him right in front of my eyes, but since these are NHL fake awards, it goes to LaRue.

The Hatfield-McCoy Enemies Award goes to Wings fans and referees. No season in recent memory has been plagued by more obnoxiously bad calls. Call us tin foil hat wearers all you want, but there were a boatload of legitimate complaints this season. The bad officiating was rampant throughout the league, but plays like the May goal, the shootout winner against Dallas, and the better part of the San Jose series only served to reinforce the notion.

The Golden Pretzel Award for Epic Choking goes to the Boston Bruins. They had a 3-game series lead and a 3-goal lead in Game Seven and still managed to lose. Seriously?

The Class Couple Award goes to Gary Bettman and Sidney Crosby. Previous winners include Gary Bettman and Sidney Crosby. In fact, it should really be re-named after them, what with all of the discussion of renaming the real NHL awards to honor more modern players. It's fairly obvious why the commish and his Little Buddy won, so I won't go into depth. (Yes, I did just copy/paste this from last year’s awards post.)

The List Award (as in, "You're on my list.") is awarded to Shane Doan. I honestly never had an issue with Doan until the Wings faced Phoenix in the first round. He very quickly made his way onto my list where he shall remain forever.

The Chosen Ones Award goes to the Chicago Blackhawks. Their Cup victory was everything the NHL could’ve dreamed of. They got there thanks to young stars they obtained by tanking for a long time and using high draft picks to make no-brainer selections. They’re a huge media market, and their stars are young, North American, and marketable. If it couldn’t be Pittsburgh…

The first annual Eavesed Award goes to (shockingly) Patrick Eaves for his hilarious contribution to the H2H festivities. We’ll be laughing about that one for years to come. (Stick tap to Jenn for this one.)

The Mr. Invisible Award goes to Jason Williams (Who?). I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I follow hockey pretty closely. Despite the amount of time I spend obsessing over the Wings, I always managed to find a way to forget about Williams. I know I wasn’t alone. Even when he was getting ready to come back from injury, the reporters included his progress as an afterthought several days later. Poor Willy. (Stick tap to Amanda for this one.)

The Goalie in A Past Life Award goes to Brad Stuart. How many goal line saves did he make this season? It seemed like every couple of games, he was knocking a puck out of the crease after it had gotten by the goalie.

The Master Thespian Award goes to the entire San Jose Sharks lineup for managing to make even professional soccer players shake their heads in disgust at their flopping. (Stick tap to Rob for this one.)

The Face Only A Mother Could Love Award goes to Shane Doan. His goal celebration in the first round inspired the awesome #Doanface photoshops. This could just as easily have gone to Crosby's Olympic celebration, but since that one wasn't actually from the NHL, Doan won out.

The Team MVP Award goes to Pavel Datsyuk for accumulating the most Cookies and Cupcakes throughout the season. He finished in first place with 11 sets of baked goods. Jimmy Howard finished just behind him with 10 awards. Hank and Homer tied for third with six each. Everyone who spent significant time on the roster managed to snag the goodies at least once except for Abdelkader, Draper, Maltby, May, Williams, Ericsson, Kronwall, Lebda, Lilja, and Meech.

The Team Scapegoat Award (maybe not an award, actually…) goes to Todd Bertuzzi. He managed to rack up eleven Golden Facepalms throughout the season. Big Rig was a distant second with six of them. Rafalski came in third with 5 Facepalms. The only major players to not get a Facepalm at least once were Draper, Franzen, Maltby, and May.

Thoughts for other awards or nominees?

Red Wings 1, Sharks 2 (1-4): Post Game Snipes...

• There’s not a lot to say about this one. I had a blast with the Commune. We even recruited my dad to join the festivities. Knowing that the Commune won’t be in session again until the fall is probably the worst part of this loss.
• I didn’t want to post it then, but I told Sara that the series was over at the end of Game Two. I pretty much knew then. I think most of us did.
• A second round exit isn’t bad for a team that was hovering in 10th place for a large part of the season.
• This series was a lot closer than a 4-1 outcome would have you believe.
• That penalty shot was a joke. I’m so, so, so glad the Wings’ season didn’t end on that call.
• I hate thinking about all of the “what ifs.” Right now, it’s the head shot on Franzen. Tomorrow, it’ll be some other little missed opportunity or turnover. It’s a long offseason.
• We got the plush zambonis that we’ve been coveting all year. This was the first time I’ve seen them at a viewing party. I also won a sweet t-shirt that looks all vintage-y and stuff.
• Can it please be October yet?
  

GP Review:
11. Game Four was about pride. Game Five is about whether or not the Wings want to make this a series.
It was nice while it lasted. :)

10. Special teams again: make or break.
The Wings needed to capitalize on their powerplay chances when they had them. I can’t really complain about anything else.

9. Shoot on Nabokov early and often. He can’t be feeling good after Game Four, and if the Wings can rattle him from the start, they might be able to get in his head.
I don’t think he even broke a sweat.

8. Once again: STAY OUT OF THE BOX!
Much better tonight.

7. Is Stuart going to be able to go today? What about Eaves?
Eaves was a no go. Stuart apparently played through a sprained knee.

6. Sixty minute effort—win or lose tonight, Wings fans can’t ask for anything more.
The guys just didn’t bring it tonight. San Jose was better for the majority of the game.

5. This is the equivalent of a Game Seven. Start strong. Finish strong. (And, you know, don’t forget about the middle of the game either.)
The middle was the only part that felt good.

4. Johan Franzen needs to take all of that recently-reacquired confidence and channel it into tonight’s game. I don’t necessarily expect another four-goal outburst, but if he’s going to give the Sharks fits if he’s firing on all cylinders.
He did pick up an assist on the Wings’ only goal, but he wasn’t particularly noticeable.

3. Zetterberg seems to have finally reached full playoff mode. He needs to keep shutting down opposing forwards and driving them crazy.
I can’t complain about Z. Ever, really.

2. Jimmy needs to keep doing his thing. He wasn’t tested a whole lot on Thursday, but he should be feeling good about only letting the one goal in.
I hope Jimmy learned some lessons during these playoffs. They’ll help him in the long run.

1. Will the physical play and cheap shenanigans from the end of Game Four carry over tonight?
Not especially, even though I’m still bitter about the head shot on Franzen.

Hero: Pavel Datsyuk
He didn’t score, but he was doing crazy things with the puck at both ends of the ice.

Villain: Douglas Murray
Cheap shot. I hope he gets suspended.

Final Thought:
Despite all of the stress and misery, I truly enjoyed watching this season and getting to know everyone online and in real life. It was worth every gut-wrenching second.

Red Wings vs. Sharks Game Five GP...

11. Game Four was about pride. Game Five is about whether or not the Wings want to make this a series.
10. Special teams again: make or break.
9. Shoot on Nabokov early and often. He can’t be feeling good after Game Four, and if the Wings can rattle him from the start, they might be able to get in his head.
8. Once again: STAY OUT OF THE BOX!
7. Is Stuart going to be able to go today? What about Eaves?
6. Sixty minute effort—win or lose tonight, Wings fans can’t ask for anything more.
5. This is the equivalent of a Game Seven. Start strong. Finish strong. (And, you know, don’t forget about the middle of the game either.)
4. Johan Franzen needs to take all of that recently-reacquired confidence and channel it into tonight’s game. I don’t necessarily expect another four-goal outburst, but if he’s going to give the Sharks fits if he’s firing on all cylinders.
3. Zetterberg seems to have finally reached full playoff mode. He needs to keep shutting down opposing forwards and driving them crazy.
2. Jimmy needs to keep doing his thing. He wasn’t tested a whole lot on Thursday, but he should be feeling good about only letting the one goal in.
1. Will the physical play and cheap shenanigans from the end of Game Four carry over tonight?

The #redwingscommune is convening at the Post Bar in Ferndale for what could be the last official viewing party of the season. Feel free to join us. The more the merrier. I promise you’ll be able to pick us out of the crowd.