Wings 7, Ducks 4: Post Game Snipes...

• I live blogged the game from a bar tonight with two of my classmates. It was a pretty good moment in my college career. So if you happened to be out and about and you saw three people typing away on their laptops, there’s a pretty good chance it was us. I can't imagine that there were many other people out with a setup like that on Saturday night. I’m fairly certain our waitress thought we were nuts. Especially when we asked if there was any way we could move closer to an electrical outlet. Fun times. It probably would’ve turned out better if we hadn’t sat around talking the whole time instead of blogging. Maybe.
• Z scored a hat trick. Guess what I’ll be having for lunch tomorrow. I don’t think anyone else understood why I yelled, “Yes! Arby’s!” when he put it in the empty net. I’ve been coveting that for quite a while now, as it fits perfectly into my freegan lifestyle. He was buzzing all night. You just kind of had a sense that he was going to put one in eventually.
• The Wings looked excellent during the first period. I was pretty happy with their effort when they went to intermission. The second period was a little shaky, but they managed to escape with the lead. The third period was just...crazy-nutso, to quote the great Wayne Brady.
  
• During the third period, George Parros left his feet to hit Ericsson, driving his face into the boards. You know you got some good air when you manage to do that to the Big Rig.
• The Wings took a pretty obvious too many men on the ice penalty during the third. I was really confused because I was reasonably sure they were on the penalty kill, but there were actually 5 skaters on the ice. They realized and one of the guys bolted for the bench, but they got called anyway. This kind of made me wonder why that call couldn’t have been made in the Stanley Cup Finals. Apparently the NHL didn’t think of teaching their referees to count single digit numbers until this summer.
• Ericsson’s non-fight amused me a lot. While he never did quite get his helmet off, it was nice to see him step up and at least attempt to defend Z after he got mauled out in front of the net.
• It was nice to have a little confirmation that, yes, I do in fact still hate the Ducks.
  
• Cleary, Rafalski, and Helm also picked up goals for the Wings. Cleary's was briefly reviewed, and while I was fairly certain that it would count, after watching the video from last night's Toronto-Chicago game, I wasn't ready to take anything for granted.
  
• At one point, Brad Stuart made an awesome save in the crease. I can’t say for sure, but I’m pretty sure this was his best game of the season.
• Zetterberg had a 5-point night. Datsyuk had a goal. Kronwall had two assists. I mention this because all three of them are on the fantasy team that I’m matched up against this week. It figures that they would choose now to wake up. I can’t really complain, though.
• The Wings have scored 19 goals in their last 3 games. Not bad for a team that had 1,192 goals walk away in the off-season, eh? They’ve also already equaled their win total for all of October so far this month. They currently sit exactly one point behind Chicago for the division lead. I’d also like to point out that the Wings have scored 10 goals more than the Hawks have thus far, for what it’s worth.
• No games until Wednesday again. I hate long breaks like this. Don’t people know that I need my hockey fix? I guess it’s a good opportunity to get Ozzie healthy, though.
  

Cookies and Cupcakes for Henrik Zetterberg
Z finally, finally hooked the citizens of Hockeytown up with our long-awaited free Arby’s. As if, you know, we needed another reason to love him.

Jonathan Ericsson gets the Golden Facepalm
You know why. He apparently thought Christmas came early and decided to gift wrap a goal for Corey Perry. I’ve watched the replay of this goal several times now and I still don’t understand what he was thinking or trying to do or looking at.

What I learned:
That there is, in fact, such a thing as free Arby’s.