Wings 3, Coyotes 2: Post Game Snipes...

• Well another game, another injury. At this point, I’ve given up hoping for the Wings to finish a game without an injury and resorted to just hoping that they’re short-term. Ericsson’s knee certainly didn’t look good. He went down immediately and wasn’t putting any weight on it as he was helped off the ice.
• That’s twice this season that the Wings have given up a goal while a defenseman was injured. That’s just a cruel, cruel joke.
• There is not one single thing that I like about this season. Not one thing. And yet I keep coming back night after night after night. That says nothing good about my state of mind.
• Mickey informed me that Kris Newbury played 2:20 in the first period. In that short time, he managed to take two penalties and score a goal.
• Kris Draper got the primary assist on Kris Newbury’s goal. I’m pretty sure I should’ve gotten the secondary assist just based on name association.
• The penalty kill continued its dominance tonight. The units had several key kills to keep the Wings in the game and Patrick Eaves came up with a huge shorthanded goal in the first period.
• The powerplay, however, continued to be a miserable failure.
• Meech’s goal was every bit as unexpected as Newbury’s was. Imagine that. Two different guys getting their first goals of the season for the Wings. It wasn’t quite as fun as that game last month when everybody netted their thirds of the season, but I’ll take it.
• Don’t look now, but the Wings have a winning streak going.
• The first period looked pretty good. It was one of the Wings’ better starts. Somebody must’ve set their alarm clocks an hour early tonight or something. They let up a little after Meech’s goal, but managed to hold on for the win.
• Bonus: No overtime, so it didn’t turn into a three-point game.
• The Wings could not clear the puck when Phoenix had an empty net at the end of the game. I’m pretty sure I scared my roommates by yelling at the TV.
• Before the game, they played a clip of an interview with Bertuzzi in which he was wearing a silver puffy vest. I texted some sort of sarcastic comment to Twitter, but it never actually showed up in my feed. However, exactly two hours later, it popped up on Twitter. Literally as they were showing more of the same interview. It’s like Twitter was holding that text just waiting for the right moment. At the suggestion of @jennyquarx, I’m going to send a text that says “curly fries” before the game on Thursday. If I remember…
  

GP Answers:
1. The Wings have had trouble with consistency so far this season. They’re coming off of a couple strong performances over the weekend. This is a good chance to string some wins together and start climbing the conference standings. Will they show up to play tonight, or will we all be banging our heads on the wall by the end of the game?
The biggest plus of the game was the way that the Wings came out in the first period. I’m so used to seeing them sleepwalk through the beginning of games that I was actually confused when they scored.

2. Jimmy Howard’s getting the start tonight. With the exception of that one goal against Anaheim, he had a good week. He would’ve skated away with two wins if the offense had done anything worthwhile against the Blues. Who would’ve thought at the beginning of the season that his play would be the least of our worries right now? I think we were all pretty pleased with the way he bounced back from that tough loss to St. Louis and the softie against Anaheim. His confidence has to be at an all-time high. Will he continue to create a “goalie controversy” here in Detroit?
He made the saves he needed to. He looked a little shakier than he has over his last couple of starts, but he got the win, and that’s what matters.

3. When is Nick Lidstrom going to score a goal again? It’s been the better part of a decade since he put one in the net, and I’m going to copy/paste this into every GP until he does.
Not tonight. During one of the Wings’ powerplays, I really felt like this was the night he was going to score. I even said as much on Twitter. If I’m still copy/pasting this when I get back from vacation, I’m going to be really frustrated.

4. How many sticks is Pavel Datsyuk going to break tonight? Any takers on a prediction on his average number of broken sticks per shift?
I don’t think I noticed any break tonight, but I was only half-watching the game.

5. How many glorious scoring opportunities is Zetterberg going to send wide? It’s time for him to stop drinking the Mikael Samuelsson Kool-Aid.
I only noticed one. Not that it really matters if I answer my crazy, passive-aggressive, sarcastic questions to myself.

Cookies and Cupcakes for Patrick Eaves
He was all over the place tonight. Not only did he net the shorthanded goal that put the Wings up 2-0, but he had a ton of good chances. I think I like him up on the second line.

Brian Rafalski gets the Golden Facepalm
This might be a little harsh, but he was the lone man back right in front of the net after Ericsson got hurt. He tried to make a play on the Coyote who was walking in, but ended up kind of listlessly spinning around in front of Howard. Honestly, it looked like all three Wings down low just kind of gave up on that play, but Rafalski was front and center, so it’s his turn to get picked on.

What I learned:
The Hockey Gods have officially declared war on the Wings.