Red Wings vs. Sabres GP...

Red Wings: 15-7-1

Sabres: 13-10-1

Season Series: 0-0

Red Wings Zen:

Point and Laugh:

Video Candy:

Complete with Stevie fighting and goalies throwing punches.

Weekly Wrap-Up Volume Twenty-one...

Caption Mondays: Jeffy Neuie cracked me up with this week's caption winner.

Darren: Aaarf, aaarf, arrf!
Dino: Huh?
Darren: That's seal for: gimme some water!

Trivia Tuesdays: TimFill managed to continue his impressive trivia run.

This week's question: Who was the first overall draft pick at the only entry draft held at the Joe?

The Answer: Buffalo selected Pierre Tugeon at the Joe on June 13, 1987.

Red Wings vs. Sabres GP...

Red Wings: 37-18-6

Sabres: 28-25-6

Red Wing Zen:

Nick Lidstrom

12-36-48, +/- 0, 16 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Nathan Gerbe

7-11-18, +/- 6, 26 PIM

Wings vs. Flames GP...

1. Those games we enjoyed so much against the Wild and Sabres aren’t going to mean a whole lot if the Wings can’t pull this one off tomorrow. There’s only one question today: will they show up? This season, the Wings have had a stunning inability to rise to the occasion when these big games come up. Let’s hope that that trend reverses itself against the Flames. The big guns are going to have to show up, and the role players are going to have to bring their best game. Losing this one’s not an option.

Red Wings 3, Sabres 2 (OT): Post Game Snipes...

• The first ten minutes of the game looked like a continuation of the Minnesota game. The Wings were in vintage form, and I was as thrilled as can be. Then, oddly enough, the Wings started to sit back and allowed the Sabres back into the game.
• Pavel Datsyuk’s goal was from an incredible angle. I have no idea how he managed to put it in the net from that close to the goal line, with a defenseman in the way.
• Eaves’ goal was the result of straight up hard work. I liked it a lot.
• I skimmed through the last few minutes of the first period because my new housemate who’s moving in tomorrow showed up and we were chatting. I don’t regret anything.
• They managed to play the start of ‘Piano Man’ right at 9 o’clock. I was really amused. If I was in charge of the audio at the Joe, I know that I’d be hoping that there was a stoppage in play right at nine so that I could play it right on the dot. It’s the little things in life that amuse me.
• I really don’t like seeing Jason Williams (Who?) and Todd Bertuzzi on the ice together. It just seems like a bad idea.
• It turns out that the Sabres' tying goal came on a play that should've been blown dead because the puck hit the netting. I had no idea until that information found its way to Twitter via the Salers. FSD pointed it out later during intermission. Based on history and karma, we should expect the Wings to play the Sabres again this time next year and score a goal on an eerily similar play off the netting. At least that's what happened when San Jose was the beneficiary of a missed call like that two seasons ago, only to see the Wings get retribution almost exactly one year later on a bounce like that. See folks, this is why we believe in the Hockey Gods.
  
• The Sabres rang a shot off the post late in the third period that I was 100% sure was in the net. I was so sure that I started yelling at my TV for half a second. Luckily, I was wrong.
• That overtime goal was pure Olympic Rafalski. I’m sure Ryan Miller was wishing that they were still on the same side.
• I was a lot happier to see R. Miller give up an OT goal this time around.
• This game brought the Wings dead even in the goals for/against category. That makes me sad.
  
• All in all, I’d say that this was a pretty typical ’09-’10 Wings game.
  

GP Answers:
1. Miller vs. Miller tonight. I can’t tell you what I’d give to get a chance to take on one of my siblings in an arena like this. Which one will prevail?
Drew wins! Sure he didn’t score on his brother, but I have a feeling he’d rather have these two points in the standings.

2. The powerplay’s suddenly caught fire since Johan Franzen returned. Can it keep going after a having such a rocky first part of the season?
How nice is it that the Wings have a powerplay again? They’ve got a nine-game conversion streak going on right now. In those nine games, they’re 6-2-1. I guess that’s what a real, live powerplay does for a team, eh?

3. Zetterberg had one of his best games of the season on Thursday after having his line shuffled. Can that success continue?
He wasn’t nearly at the level we saw on Thursday, but he was definitely more visible than he’s been in the recent past.

4. The game against the Wild was remarkable in the sense that the Wings displayed a level of effort and commitment to win that has been lacking this season. What are the odds that we get to see a game like that twice in a row? If they play like that again tonight, I might have to call this the start of a trend. By itself, though, the Wild game doesn’t mean a whole lot.
During the fist ten minutes of the game, it looked like we were seeing the same team that dominated the Wild. Then they went and let up. Still though, they’re looking like a team that can go places right now.

Cookies and Cupcakes for Brian Rafalski
You score an overtime goal and you get the baked goods. That’s the way things go.

Jimmy Howard’s rebound control gets the Golden Facepalm
Rebounds led to both goals. This continues to make me nervous.

What I Learned:
Drew Miller and Ryan Miller are brothers. Wowzers!!!

Red Wings vs. Sabres GP...

1. Miller vs. Miller tonight. I can’t tell you what I’d give to get a chance to take on one of my siblings in an arena like this. Which one will prevail?

2. The powerplay’s suddenly caught fire since Johan Franzen returned. Can it keep going after a having such a rocky first part of the season?

3. Zetterberg had one of his best games of the season on Thursday after having his line shuffled. Can that success continue?

4. The game against the Wild was remarkable in the sense that the Wings displayed a level of effort and commitment to win that has been lacking this season. What are the odds that we get to see a game like that twice in a row? If they play like that again tonight, I might have to call this the start of a trend. By itself, though, the Wild game doesn’t mean a whole lot.

Go East, Young Men...

In an effort to avoid the million things that I’m supposed to be doing, I decided to play around with the standings differential between the Eastern and Western Conferences. We’ve long maintained that the Wings would’ve been even more dominant if they’d been able to cakewalk through the East for all these years. These are the numbers that I came up with for so far this season (through Sunday):

The 15 Western Conference teams have a total of 730 points. The 15 teams in the East? Merely 683. I was so surprised by the differential that I double checked my addition. The current playoff teams in the West have a total of 438 points, while the Eastern teams only have 409. The eighth place team in the West has 51 points, but the eighth place team in the East has 45. The Wings’ 48 points would place them 6th in the Eastern conference, because they have a game in hand on the Senators who also have 48 points.

I came up with two possible explanations for the difference in numbers: 1. The teams in the West have played more overtime “three-point” games or 2. The Western Conference teams have been winning more of their games against the East.

The teams in the West have accumulated a total of 78 overtime losses, 61 of which have come against in-conference opponents. On the other hand Eastern teams have 81 overtime losses, with 65 of them coming against other teams in the East. Teams in the Eastern Conference have actually played more three-point games than teams in the West have.

Looking at the Western Conference’s cumulative record against the East gives pretty good support to explanation #2. The West is 84-44-17 in games against Eastern teams. The East is only 61-68-16. They’re not even .500 against the West this season. In fact, only three Western Conference teams are below .500 against teams from the East. Those three teams are St. Louis, Edmonton, and Anaheim, who currently occupy three of the bottom four spots in the West. There are only six Eastern Conference teams who have winning records against the West: Pittsburgh, Boston, Buffalo, Atlanta, Washington, and Florida. Not surprisingly, that group of teams accounts for positions 2-5 in the standings, with only Atlanta and Florida being the outliers.

That just goes to show you that when we call it the Leastern Conference, we really mean it. Must be nice, eh?

Wings vs. Bruins GP...

Wings vs. Bruins @ 7 PM

1. I’ve been told that the third line looked as fast and tenacious on the ice as they did on paper last game. Will they be able to keep it up?
2. Will Nick Lidstrom take this opportunity to avenge his lost Norris Trophy? Probably not, but it sure would be nice to see him put on a defensive clinic and show Chara that he’s still the best defenseman in the league.
3. How will Ville Leino respond to sitting out on Saturday? So far benching Helm seems to have been effective, so will Uncle Mike’s magic work again on Leino?
4. Was Saturday’s game an isolated effort, or a sign that the Wings have finally decided to show up for this season?
5. The Bruins, like the Wings, have gotten off to a slower than expected start. Which of them is going to show up tonight?
6. I'm not sure why, but the Wings always seem to play their worst when they're on Versus (case in point: the Buffalo game). Will they find it within themselves to not look like a trainwreck in front of a national audience?

I know it’s been said by pretty much everyone else already, but the Wings need to put together a string of wins to pull themselves away from the .500 mark. This team still has the ability to shut other teams down and they need to build on what I’m told was a strong effort on Halloween. It’s November now, and it’s time to get serious.

It's Time to Play Some Hockey...

I ended up missing most of the game last night. From what little I saw, I’m pretty convinced that I’m better off for it. I tuned in just in time to see the Wings’ goal in the first period that tied it up at one. I was excited, and glad that I had made dinner plans somewhere where I could still catch the game. By the time I got picked up to go eat, the Wings were down by 2. By the time we made it to the restaurant, they were down by 4. The greeter at Friday’s sat us at a table where we couldn’t see the TVs in the bar. Normally I would’ve complained about this, but I think he secretly knew that it was in my best interest. Despite the fact that this paragraph has been completely pointless, writing it has made me feel better.

Some folks have been trying to draw positives from the game, but much like Kyle over at BDS, I don’t want to hear it. As far as I’m concerned, there were no good things. If we follow that line of reasoning and bend over backwards to pay compliments, we’ll also find ourselves celebrating spectacular accomplishments like:

• The Wings only took one penalty in the second period! What discipline!
• There were four whole Wings who didn’t have a negative +/- rating for the game! Four!
• Ozzie had one of the best performances by a goalie who gave up five goals that I’ve seen in years! What an effort!
• Jimmy Howard didn’t give up a single powerplay goal! Our backup worries are over!
• The game was on Versus, so nobody saw their pathetic performance anyway! Thank you, DirecTV!
  

Forget it. I don’t want to hear any of it. It’s five games into the season now, and it’s about time the Wings showed up to play. After the first two games, we all told ourselves that it was just the hoopla surrounding the Swedes’ glorious return to their homeland. We ignored the lackluster start of the Chicago game because they pulled it out in the end. We celebrated the win over Washington despite the fact that there were still some big problems. Now we’re looking at a miserable 6-2 loss that has Wings fans jumping right back on the stress train.

We’re all used to their usual mid-winter phase where they phone in two or three weeks worth of play. We forgave them for sleeping through most of the games last year because they were able to find ways to win when they woke up in the third period. It’s far too early in the season for their winter doldrums, and so far their offense doesn’t seem able to stage the dramatic comebacks we saw last year. For all their off-season talk about being motivated and angry after losing Game 7 on home ice, this team sure hasn’t looked the part. They’re not losing games because they’re trying to do too much or because they’re over-skating. They’re losing games because they’re not trying at all. It’s frustrating. And it’s disheartening. And I know in my head that I’m overreacting. But it’s halfway through October now, and the Wings need to get their collective act together. It’s time to play some hockey.

As Promised...

I finally got the video files from Saturday's pre-game warmup uploaded. They're super-high quality, and for some reason, the audio uploaded as a bunch of metallic clanging noises. Youtube let me swap out the audio for one of the videos, but the 1st and 3rd ones don't seem to be playing the new tracks. Oh well, that's what the mute button's for, sunshines. At any rate, I'm done fighting with the settings on Youtube. I'll let it win this round. I tried to choose the least annoying ones possible, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to switch in Carol King's "It Might as Well Rain Until September" (in honor of the long and boring off-season) or one of the acoustic bluegrass "songs" (trust me, they were annoying) that were available.

Anyway, here are Parts 1, 2, and 3.

Preseason Scheduling and More of Jiri's Saga...

The Wings announced their exhibition schedule yesterday. This is exciting if for no other reason than that it gives us hockey fans a “light at the end of the tunnel” that we can look forward to. The real schedule is supposed to drop on the 15th or 16th, which is nice because it will give my friends and family plenty of advance notice for the 82 dates/times between October and April during which they should not attempt to contact me.

The Wings begin the preseason on September 16th when fan-favorite Chris Pronger and his elbows the Flyers come to the Joe. The Wings will also face the Rangers, the Sabres, the Leafs, and the Penguins before heading over to Sweden and playing Farjestads. Then they’ll kick off the real season with back-to-back games in Stockholm, which should be fantastically fun to watch.

The saga of Jiri Hudler continued today as the NHL filed some sort of complaint with the IIHF because they consider Hudler to be under contract with the Wings. Apparently filing for arbitration was an indication of his intent to play in the NHL next year. I find this all very ironic because it seems like not too long ago the KHL was complaining about NHL teams poaching players. My problem is that even if the IIHF were to rule in the NHL’s favor, would the Wings even want a disgruntled Hudler who felt like he got screwed by being forced to play for half of the money? I’m not sure I would.

The Examiner had a pretty good analysis of how the Wings can adjust for losing Hudler. I actually kind of like the idea of using Meech as a full-time forward. Especially if Lilja is able to play. The Wings don’t really need Meech back on the blue line, and he did a decent job at forward when he played there last season. I also like the fact that it would leave them with a little bit of cap room to play with at the trade deadline. If nothing else, it would give Kenny Holland a little while to adequately assess what the team needs instead of tying his hands now.

None of the options presented in the article are particularly spectacular, but thanks to the ever-lovely salary cap, there aren't a whole lot of options out there. All I can do is sit back and put on my "In Ken We Trust" t-shirt and know that he'll figure something out. (OK, I don't actually have a shirt like that, but you have to admit that it'd be pretty awesome if I did.)