Red Wings 2, Coyotes 3 (0-1): Post Game Snipes...

• The Wings looked pretty good at the start of the game.
• Homer’s goal from close to the blue line was wonderful. It just kind of floated into the net past Bryzgalov’s glove. In his intermission interview (which totally validated For Sure…), even he didn’t know how it went in.
• I was kind of amused by the fact that the Wings’ first powerplay came off of a goalie interference penalty against Phoenix, when those memos the NHL sends out every year usually target Homer. Irony. It’s delicious.
• Mickey Redmond dropped a “for sure” when talking about Homer’s goal. I loved it.
• Lidstrom’s goal was one of those perfect seeing-eye shots that couldn’t be replicated if he tried it a million times.
• I never had a problem with Shane Doan before this season. Maybe I just never paid enough attention to him (It’s that whole, “Oh yeah, they have a team in Phoenix,” mentality, I guess.), but I never realized how dirty he was. He’s going to hurt someone before this series is over.
• The game-winner for Phoenix came after some textbook interference was ignored right after the faceoff. Guess who it was? Shane Doan.
• What happened to the penalty kill? Seriously, of all the times to fall apart.
• The non-call on the high stick that Lidstrom took was atrocious. And people wonder why Wings fans are conspiracy theorists. A four-minute powerplay there could’ve changed the game.
• This game was miserable to watch. The second and third periods felt like they dragged on forever.
• The Wings’ big names need to act like it.
• I hope the Wings come out angry on Friday.
  

GP Review:
16. Every single playoff round for as long as I can remember, my nightmare has been seeing the Wings come up against a hot goalie. This seems like it happens over and over and over again to them, and Ilya Bryzgalov is definitely the kind of guy who can cause me to lose sleep.
Bryzgalov was not the issue tonight. He hardly had to work for the last 40 minutes. And Homer’s goal was way soft.

15. The Wings are starting their playoff series on the road for the first time in forever. I’m still a little confused. Still, it’s intriguing.
Their whiteout was actually pretty impressive. In this day and age, though, it’s kind of stupid with the road team wearing white.

14. Will there be more octopi than snakes thrown on the ice?
Twitter told me that there was an octopus before the game, but I don’t have any visual confirmation of that. There was, however, one confirmed snake sighting.

13. Jimmy Howard’s making his playoff debut. I think he’ll be just fine.
He should’ve had the third goal, but looked good other than that. He made a bunch of nice saves, and was far from the problem.

12. What tin-foil-hat-inducing moment will we bear witness to?
It’s probably best if I don’t even get started on this one.

11. The FSD crew will be in rare form tonight, I’m sure. I can only imagine what beautiful turns of phrase they’re going to grace our ears with. I’m still mad I missed Murph’s mock awards on Sunday.
Ken Daniels referred to Datsyuk as “The Datsyukian One” during the third period. Is that new?

10. What percentage of the crowd will be cheering for the Wings? I’m willing to bet that half of the crowd noise the broadcast feed picks up will be LGRW chants.
The Coyotes fans were actually louder than I expected. I figured there would be more Wings fans in attendance.

9. I hope the game doesn’t go to a shootout. Oh. Wait. You mean ties are decided by real hockey in the playoffs? Wowzer.
Honestly, I would’ve been okay with a shootout, if only because there aren’t many opportunities for dirty hits during the skills competition.

8. This probably goes without saying, but it’s crucial to start out strong and stomp on the Coyotes’ little Cinderella story right out of the gate. Set the tone right off the bat and don’t let them get even a spoonful of confidence.
I thought this was what the Wings were doing at the stat of the game, but then they went to sleep.

7. Sixty minute game? Oh pretty, pretty please.
No.

6. How much support is the defense going to give Jimmy? As much as I’d love to see him stand on his head, my life expectancy will be a lot higher if he doesn’t have to save the day.
Not nearly enough. This loss wasn’t on him.

5. Two words: Playoff Zetterberg. Oh my goodness, do I ever love watching that man drive opposing star forwards batty.
Sadly, Playoff Zetterberg did not seem to make an appearance tonight. It’s wakey-wakey time, Z.

4. In a similar vein: Playoff Helm. Yeah.
Early on, he was in hit everything mode, but kind of faded as the game went on. Of course, he blended right in with the rest of the team.

3. One huge difference between last year’s playoff roster and this one is Andreas Lilja. I never expected to be that relieved to see him in the lineup. Wouldn’t it be ironic if he turned out to have been the missing link?
Well he certainly didn’t have any effect on the penalty kill. I thought that was supposed to be his thing.

2. I hope you’re not expecting rational thoughts or actions from me for the next little while. Word to the wise: It’s best if you don’t speak to me on gamedays. It’s also advisable to avoid me for a 24-hour period after any Wings’ loss. Trust me, you’re better off.
I really should’ve warned my roommates that the playoffs were starting. Yelling, screaming, jumping on my bed. It all happened. I’m also going to be running on 4 hours of sleep tomorrow thanks to my wonderful life decisions to stay up and watch hockey/blog about it.

1. No fear. No excuses. No mercy. No limits.
The Wings certainly looked intimidated by the Coyotes’ rough play. They were probably more concerned about making it through the game intact than anything else.

Hero: Tomas Holmstrom
He scored one of the most uncharacteristic goals of his career, and then gave a fantastic intermission interview. I really do love that guy.

Villain: Shane Doan
You know why.

Final Thought:
I’m all for Abdelkader being in the lineup instead of Williams (Who?) on Friday.