Red Wings vs. Islanders GP...

Red Wings: 24-9-4

Islanders: 10-19-6

Red Wing Zen:

Ruslan Salei

0-6-6, +/- 4, 32 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Josh Bailey

6-4-10, +- -1, 12 PIM

Weekly Wrap-Up Volume Ten...

Caption Mondays: Sara Neuie wins this week with a last-minute entry.

Rig: Hey Pav! There's something wrong with your pants!
Pav: Huh? *looks down* I see nothing wrong.
Rig: But your pants- they're gaping open. Your thigh shows when you stretch like that.
Pav: Huh? They're what?
Rig: You have a giant hole in your pants, Pav!
Pav: *looks again and looks up at Rig more confused than before* Huh?
Rig: Ugh, I'll just tell Hank...

Trivia Tuesdays: Crater got this week's answer, with Ryan chiming in with some additional info.

This week's question: Who holds the Wings' record for points-per-game in a single season? What year did he set the record?

The Answer: Steve Yzerman scored 155 points in 80 games for a 1.94 points-per-game average in the 1988-89 season. That's...a lot.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Red Wings 7, Stars 3: Post Game Snipes...

• Free curly fries tomorrow! The Hobo's treating us all to lunch. I know having a hobo buy your food might seem a bit backwards, but just go with it. There are free curly fries.
• I'd like to take partial credit for the curly fry accomplishment because when I was getting ready to ski today, I reached into the inner pocket of my coat where I sometimes stash hidden treasures and forget about them (hey there, bluetooth headset that was missing for eight months), and I pulled out the curly fries coozy I got at the Big Chill.  It was fate.
• Hey, Jiri Hudler. Guess what happens when you start shooting the puck.
• I went skiing tonight, so I only got to watch the second period live. It just so happened that we went into the lodge as the puck was being dropped at the start of the second and we hung out at the bar until the next intermission. Some are convinced that this was more than a coincidence, but I assure you that it was just a happy accident. I managed to catch the third period on the late-night replay because, you guessed it, someone messed with my DVR recording again.
• I figured the Wings were sunk when they had their little three-goal implosion during the second. It was pleasantly surprising to head back out on the slopes with a tie game in Dallas.
• I get score updates texted to my phone, and my goal horn alert kept going off inside my jacket while we were out skiing. I couldn't read the texts because I would've had to take my gloves off and unzip my whole jacket to get to the phone. It was killer because we didn't know which team was scoring all of the goals. I finally caved and checked the texts and we had a nice little celebration at the top of the mountainhill.
• I really enjoy it when the Wings score seven goals.  It's a lot of fun.

Hero: Patrick Eaves
Hobo is feeding the masses tomorrow. Also, probably playing some ping pong to celebrate.

Villain: Steve Ott
I still hate him.

Final Thought:
This has nothing to do with hockey, but if you ever find yourself on a ski slope, queue up the Top Gun Anthem before you take a nice, long run. It will be epic. I promise.

Red Wings vs. Stars GP...

Red Wings: 23-9-4

Stars: 22-11-4

Red Wing Zen:

Niklas Kronwall

8-12-20, +/- 8, 20 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Adam Burish

4-1-5, +/- 0, 50 PIM

Trivia Tuesdays Volume 10...

Who holds the Wings' record for points-per-game average in a single season? What year did he set the record?

Red Wings 4, Avalanche 3 (OT): Post Game Snipes...

• First of all: congrats to the old man on win #400 tonight. You kids stay off his lawn now, you hear?
• This game was a tale of two Ozzies. The second goal he gave up in the first period was incredibly typical of his play for the last two seasons. Then, he somehow found another gear and played like a crazy man for the rest of the game, looking like he did back in the '09 playoffs.
• I loved the celebration after the game. I especially loved the fact that Draper was the first one out to congratulate the old man.
• As those of you in the twitter crowd know, Jenn Ho caught Ozzie drinking a Pepsi during practice on the first day of training camp this fall. I don't think it's a coincidence that he played like that in the Pepsi Center.
• So that Jiri Hudler guy scored a goal. I'm not sure what's up with that.
• During an interview, he referred to Tomas Holmstrom as a “Swedish Terminator.” I loved it. I loved it a lot.
• How about the powerplay tonight? It was absolutely lethal.
• Did the Wings even touch the puck during the second period? It's been a while since I've seen them get worked over like that. Ozzie absolutely stole the game for them during that stretch. He was especially spectacular during the 5-on-3 kill.
• Toward the end of the game, the Wings fans in attendance got a couple of, “Ozzie! Ozzie!” chants going. I want to track each and every one of them down and hug them. Way to represent Hockeytown.
• That late-game tying goal was oh-so-reminiscent of the game against Dallas. I was crushed. I was sure the Wings were going to blow it for Ozzie. Luckily, the Wings got a powerplay late in OT and were able to salvage the victory for him.
• I'm not normally one to talk to my TV and try to vicariously coach the players (the playoffs being the obvious and understandable exception, of course), but this game had me mumbling things about shooting lanes and making shots count during OT.
• Jan Mursak wasn't terribly noticeable, which is good for a rookie making his NHL debut. The one thing (other than the penalty he took) that stood out was when he hustled back to negate a break for the Avs. It was a small play, but it stood out in my mind.
• How many times over the course of your Wings fandom has there been an odd-man rush against the Wings that's caused you to panic until that glorious moment when you realize that Nick Lidstrom is the man back? As soon as you see TPH back there, it seems like the odds are suddenly stacked in the Wings' favor, despite being outnumbered on the rush. Please don't ever leave us, Nick.

Hero: Chris Osgood
The old man stole the show tonight. It would've been good form to make him the hero on the night of his 400th win as a congratulatory measure, but this honor (Oh look, I've gone and developed an exaggerated sense of self-importance.) was earned, not given out of a sense of decorum. I want to see more of this edition of Ozzie.

Villain: Matt Duchene
He opened the scoring for the Avs in the first period, and then almost ruined the game by tying it up late in the third.

Final Thought:
Even the most die hard of Ozzie haters has to feel good for the guy tonight. It's been a long time coming.

Caption Mondays Volume 10...

What are Pav and Rig chatting about here?

Red Wings vs. Avalanche GP...

Red Wings: 22-9-4

Avalanche: 19-12-4

Red Wing Zen:

Brad Stuart

2-9-11, +/- 5, 24 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Daniel Winnik

5-8-13, +/- 5, 16 PIM

Red Wings 4, Wild 1: Post Game Snipes...

• I didn't get to watch the first ten minutes of the game thanks to yet another round of DVR problems, but the rest of the game looked fantastic. The Wings haven't played like that much lately.
• Both of their first period goals were banked in off of the goalie. That's got to be frustrating for the Wild.
• It was nice to see Draper get his first goal of the season.  I've always liked the guy.
• Homer scored another classic Homer goal. It was actually kind of an impressive feat that he was able to get his stick on the puck at all.
• When I was watching the late-night game replay, they showed the team leaving the ice during the second intermission. As Dan Cleary walked toward the camera, I wanted to try to warn him to dodge that slapshot later on in the game. I'm going to chalk that up to it being almost 3 am.
• Seriously though, losing the team's leading scorer (at the time of his injury) and its leading goal scorer in the same week is killer. It's especially bad with all of the games packed so closely together now. I just hope Cleary can regain the scoring form he had when he comes back from the injury.
• Kindl didn't do anything terribly noticeable in his first game back. That's always a good thing for a rookie defenseman.

Hero: Henrik Zetterberg
I think this is the third game in a row that he's been up here. (I suppose I could go check...) He's absolutely stepped up in Datsyuk's absence. Without Dan Cleary in the lineup, he's going to have to be even better.

Villain: Eric Nystrom
He was trying to challenge Brad Stuart to a stupid fight during the second period in an attempt to change the tide of the game. Luckily, Stuey didn't take the bait.

Final Thought:
Alright, who got a time machine for Christmas and sent us back to last December with the injury plague? Not cool, sunshine, not cool.

Weekly Wrap-Up Volume Nine...

Here's your belated weekly wrap-up. I hope everyone's holidays were fantastic.

Caption Mondays: Sara Neuie wins this week by making sense of the chaos going on on the Wings' bench during the stoppage in play.

Homer: For sure! I totally catch Nick belting out Dancing Queen when I was, eh, at his house last night! He was, eh, dancings too.
Stuart: For real? Dude, that's worse than when Kronner stopped by while I was watching Finding Nemo... What? It's a good movie!
Ericsson: You really think it will work?
McCrimmon: I'm telling you, just be yourself and the other kids out there will love you. And bringing in homemade Swedish meatballs never hurt anybody...
Rafalski: This score concerns me. Not as much as the humanitarian crisis in the Sudan, but still pretty troubling. *sigh* I wonder what my wife made for dinner?

Trivia Tuesdays: Clark's on a roll. He won this week again.

This week's question: What was the last season in which a Red Wing led the NHL in scoring? Who was it?

The Answer: Gordie Howe led the league in points in the 1962-63 season. He had 38 goals and 48 assists in 70 games.