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.