Red Wings vs. Blackhawks GP...

Red Wings: 46-25-10

Blackhawks: 44-28-9

Red Wing Zen:

Tomas Holmstrom

17-19-36, +/- -5, 60 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Patrick Sharp

34-36-70, +/- -2, 38 PIM

Red Wings vs. Blackhawks GP...

Red Wings: 46-24-10

Blackhawks: 43-28-9

Red Wing Zen:

Jiri Hudler

10-26-36, +/- -5, 28 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Patrick Sharp

34-35-69, +/- -3, 36 PIM

Red Wings vs. Blackhawks GP...

Red Wings: 44-22-9

Blackhawks: 40-26-8

Red Wing Zen:

Joey MacDonald

5-4-2, 2.05 GAA, .928 SV%

Point and Laugh:

Fernando Pisani

7-9-16, +/- 3, 10 PIM

Weekly Wrap-Up Volume Fifteen...

Caption Mondays: TimFill had this week's best caption. I loved it.

"Darren, if you hit 88 out there, you will go back in time. It's a truth fact. You yoost can't do it."

Trivia Tuesdays: Ari Twice got this week's answer.

This week's question: Which player holds the Wings record for most powerplay goals in a single playoff series?

The Answer: Andy Bathgate had 5 in the Wings' series against the Blackhawks in 1966. He's tied for second place in league history behind only Chris Kontos with six.

Red Wings vs. Blackhawks GP...

Red Wings: 29-12-6

Blackhawks: 25-18-4

Red Wing Zen:

Johan Franzen

20-15-35, +/- 3, 24 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Nick Boynton

0-6-6, +/- 2, 34 PIM

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

• It's easy to get caught up in the ridiculousness of the Wings not getting a single powerplay tonight (and yes, it was ridiculous), but to do so would overlook the fact that the really didn't look all that good.
• Chris Chelios was honored before the game. The Blackhawks fans thanked the Chicago-native for spending the best years of his career in their uniform by booing him. All because he was traded to Detroit and found a home in a more successful and better-run organization. I'd be willing to bet that at least 95% of the fans there last night had no idea about any of his achievements while on the Hawks or why they were booing the man.Mickey Redmond was especially offended by the fans' behavior. He went on more than one rant about their lack of class.
• I'd really like to adopt Mick as my unofficial grandpa. Both of mine are long gone, so I'm kind of in the market for a new one. I really think he'd liven up Christmas dinner. He and my dad could prop their feet up by the fire and sip ginger ales while swapping stories about the good old days when men were men and hockey players used wooden sticks. Then we could play a family game of Cranium and he could say, “Bingo Bango!” every time his team successfully completed a challenge. After the kiddies went to bed, we could switch to euchre, and he'd say, “Look out!” every time we were close to euchring our opposition. Then Larry Murphy would inexplicably come down the chimney and leave a tray of dollar hot dogs under the tree. Admit it: you'd want to be a part of a Mickey Redmond Christmas.
• Pavel Datsyuk continued his streak of 18,492 consecutive games in which he did something that made me laugh out loud because of how absurdly good he is.
• I'm glad that the majority of the Wings' fanbase exists to cheer on and support the Wings, not for the sole purpose of hating another team.

Hero: Patrick Eaves
He got the Wings' only goal tonight. It seemed to give the Wings new life for a while and get them back into the game.

Villain: Tomas Kopecky
Oh, so now you want to act like you know how to play hockey?

Final Thought:
I certainly hope the Wings put on a better show on Sunday when Ozzie's going for his 400th win. He deserves that.

Red Wings vs. Blackhawks GP...

Red Wings: 20-7-3

Blackhawks: 16-14-3

Red Wing Zen:

Nick Lidstrom

7-19-26, +/- 5, 8 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Jake Dowell

4-8-12, +/- 7, 40 PIM

Caption Mondays Volume 7...

This one is from the Wings' first pre-season game against the Blackhawks.  What are the guys up to here?

Weekly Wrap-Up Volume Four...

Caption Mondays: Rob won this week with his crack about James Wisniewski's recent suspension.

"I will not pull a Wisniewski, I will not pull a Wisniewski, I will not pull..."

Trivia Tuesdays: Andy won again this week, although Clark chipped in with an assist.

This week's question: Which team do the Wings have the most all-time regular season victories against?

The Answer: The Wings have racked up the most victories against none other than the Chicago Blackhawks. Their all-time record against the Hawks is 360-258-84-8. The next-highest number of victories are against Toronto. The Wings have beaten Toronto 274 times in their history.

Red Wings 5, Predators 2: Post Game Snipes...

• Tonight was much more fun than Thursday was. It's always nice when the real Wings show up to play.
• I wasn't planning to go to the game, but my family attended the Hockeytown Authentic costume contest this afternoon in an attempt to win tickets. My brother and sister went in our two-person horse costume and ended up winning. Since my brother had a previous commitment, I got to be my sister's chaperone to the game. You can add our visit to Hockeytown today to the long list of ridiculous things I've done in the name of my Red Wings fandom.
• The team actually got off to a good start this time around. They slacked off a little in the second period, but still managed to hold off the Predators.
• During the second period, there was a play where Nashville had the puck at the blueline and TAWD dove at the defenseman and knocked the puck away. I have to give credit to him for making a nice defensive play, but in fairness to the Predator (I can't remember who it was), I'd give up the puck too if there was a serial killer lunging at me.
• Pavel Datsyuk is a ridiculous human being. Find me a better stick-handler in the NHL right now and I'll eat my hat.
• Jersey foul or not?
• One of the personal highlights of the game for me was introducing my little sister to the fine art of Kesler Dancing.
• There were quite a few people in costume at the Joe. My favorites were the guys dressed as the Blues Brothers who were running around high-fiving people on the concourse after the game. I also liked the dude in a Darth Vader mask that he had painted red. I though pairing it wit a Lidstrom jersey was a bit odd, since I would've thought a TAWD one would be more appropriate.

Hat Trick:
1. Ozzie's getting the start again. Here's hoping he looks better than he did on Thursday.
He looked much, much better, as did the rest of the team.

2. Nashville is inexplicably leading the division right now. Let's fix that.
Well, the Wings tied the Predators in the standings, but the Blackhawks jumped ahead with their victory over Minnesota. No worries, though. The Hawks have already played 13 games, as opposed to the Wings who've only played 9. Despite this disparity, the Hawks find themselves a mere 2 points ahead of the Wings.


3. Is the team going to show up on time for a change?
They looked much more prepared to start the game at puck drop tonight. The second period was a bit rough as they let Nashville carry the play more than any other time in the game, but they rebounded with a stronger third period.


Hero: Pavel Datsyuk
The man is on fire. He looks unstoppable out there right now. I said to my sister tonight that we're truly lucky to get to watch him play every night. Not many other guys out there can guarantee at least one moment of jaw-dropping brilliance during every game.

Villain: Shea Weber
He drilled Ozzie right in the mask near the end of the third period. Luckily Ozzie was fine, and the crowd spent the delay caused by his broken mask chanting “Ozzie! Ozzie!” just like old times. It made me smile.

Final Thought:
That game gave me some much-needed peace of mind to carry me through to Wednesday when the Wings finally play again. At least it's not Thursday, I guess.

Weekly Wrap-Up Volume One...

Caption Mondays:  There were some good entries in the Caption Contest from last week. Allison from The Secret Lives of Hockey Players came in with a last-minute submission an hour before the contest ended to take home the prizes. Who knew that Ozzie saved Jimmy's life all those years ago?  I guess we have him to thank for Jimmy's play these last two seasons.  Allison wins some Wings swag from last season, as well as a copy of the program from opening night. I popped her captions into the original graphic so you can get the full effect:

Trivia Tuesdays: This week, Andy from Fight Night at the Joe had the first trivia answer, although Graham wasn't far behind. The question was: The Wings hold the record for fastest two goals scored by the same team in a playoff series. Who scored the goals? How far apart were they?

Answer: Norm Ullman scored the goals 5 seconds apart during the second period. Detroit was playing Chicago in the 1965 playoffs. The Wings won that game 4-2, but ended up dropping the series in Game Seven.

Stay tuned next week for another picture to caption on Monday (although not for prizes this time) and some more trivia on Tuesday in addition to the usual SSDD nonsense you've become accustomed to.

Red Wings 3, Blackhawks 2: Post Game Snipes...

• I missed the entire first period and most of the second due to a combination of work (we're lucky enough to have Dish Network there) and birthday stuff for my bro. I'm probably never going to get to see the DVR recording of it due to the fact that the TV's been claimed for the rest of the day.
• The banner ceremony was ridiculously long. I was pretty happy about it though, because I was stuck at work and I would've missed way more of the game if it had actually started at 8:30. Instead, puck drop wasn't until 9:05 and I was able to get home during the first intermission.
• I arrived just in time to see Jiri Hudler's interview about returning to Detroit. Needless to say, the rest of the evening was spent quoting his, “I missed Ozzie...the most,” line with ever-longer awkward pauses. We even got to see the creepy tongue clucking thing he does with apparent BFF Ozzie after the game. I think having Hudler back makes up for the loss of Brett Lebda, especially since Huds has actual hockey talent.
• I was so glad that the Wings were able to spoil their party. I didn't realize just how much I wanted that until it was tied in the third period and I was
• I'm not sure why the review on Bertuzzi's goal took so long. It looked pretty cut and dry from what FSD was showing. I was starting to wonder if karma was going to even out for allowing Cleary's goal to stand on Friday.
• I was disappointed that I missed most of Kindl's season debut. I've been on the Nugget's bandwagon since training camp and I was excited to see him in the lineup last night. I was told that he looked solid, but I didn't really get to see enough of the game to tell.
• My first reaction to Filppula's game-winner wasn't to cheer or to clap or any of the normal goal celebrations. I just sat there and laughed. Welcome to the Marty Turco era, Blackhawk “fans.” It wasn't a shot on net. It wasn't even a pass. It was just an accident...that ended up in the net. I loved it.
• How about that second line, eh? Remember last December when the Hawks shut the Wings out twice in a row and they were feeling all high and mighty? The Wings' second line back then featured Ville Leino and high-scorers Justin Abdelkader and Drew Miller. Little bit different now, huh?
• How sad is it that when the Wings received their 5-on-3 powerplay in the third period, everyone watching the game began bracing for the inevitable makeup calls? There are days when I hate the NHL. Yet for some reason I keep coming back day after day after day.

Hat Trick:

1. Last night set a tone. Let's see if the Wings can follow through with it.
Starting out the season 2-0 is much better than last year when they went 0-2 in Sweden. Even better is the fact that I'm already having way more fun this season than I did at the start of the last one.

2. Ozzie's getting the start. This should be interesting.
I thought Ozzie looked pretty good from what I saw. He made some good saves in the third period and he made some key saves late in the game to preserve the Wings' lead.

3. Please, pretty please ruin the Blackhawks' banner night.
Mission accomplished. Now let's get down to the business of leaving them far behind in the Central Division.

I've Got My Eye on You:

Henrik Zetterberg: 0-0-0, +/- 0, 0 PIM
The whole top line seemed to have a quiet night last night, but that's the beauty of the kind of depth the Wings have.

Niklas Hjalmarsson: 0-0-0, +/- -1, 0 PIM
I really enjoy hearing Hjalmarsson's name called on the broadcast. I didn't get to watch much last night, so I can't really comment much beyond that.

Hero: Valtteri Filppula
A two-goal night is usually enough to qualify for game hero status. I'm especially fond of the way he scored his second goal.

Villain: Duncan Keith
He got away with a nasty elbow on Ruslan Salei during the second period.


Final Thought:
Boy was ruining their party ever fun.

Red Wings vs. Blackhawks GP...

Red Wings: 1-0-0

Blackhawks: 0-0-1

Three Things:

1. Last night set a tone. Let's see if the Wings can follow through with it.
2. Ozzie's getting the start. This should be interesting.
3. Please, pretty please ruin the Blackhawks' banner night.

Players to Watch:

Henrik Zetterberg

0-1-1, +/- 2, 2 PIM

Zetterberg will be leading the first line with renowned pugilist and fellow Eurotwin Pavel Datsyuk. I've been predicting a good season out of both of them, so here's hoping Z is still feeling feisty from last night.

Niklas Hjalmarsson

0-0-0, +/- -3, 0 PIM

I kind of find myself liking Hjalmarsson because of the fact that the offer sheet he signed with San Jose this summer caused the Hawks even more cap problems than they had before. It's possible that this makes him my favorite Blackhawk.

2010-2011 Player Profiles: Johan Franzen...

Hey, kids, guess what? Hockey's almost here. That means it's time for me to get back into this whole blogging thing that I've neglected during the off-season. Since I lack the creativity to come up with a new gimmick, I decided to continue the Player Profiles series I did last year leading up to the season. I'll be taking a look at a different player (almost) every day between now and when hockey starts. By my count, there are 19 days until the Wings open the regular season. Get excited. Today's subject:

Johan Franzen

2009-2010 Regular Season: 27 GP, 10-11-21, +/- 1, 22 PIM

2010 Playoffs: 12 GP, 6-12-18, +/- 8, 16 PIM

Season Highlight: Game Four against the Sharks. This was the most obvious choice I've made for any of these profiles.

Season Lowlight: Missing most of the season after tearing his ACL.

Last season was supposed to be Franzen's big year after he signed that life-long contract. Instead, he tore his ACL in an early-season game against Chicago. Of course, he still managed to finish the game and score a goal, thus making the news of his injury even more shocking when it was announced the next day. Franzen's absence left the Wings with a huge hole in their roster and missing him was a major part of their offensive struggles.

He did, however, surprise everyone by returning to the Wings' lineup prior to the Olympics and even taking Tomas Holmstrom's place on Sweden's Olympic squad. After missing that much time, it seemed like he didn't fully round into form until the playoffs. There's no doubt, though, that getting him back on the roster played a huge role in helping the Wings power their way up the standings and into the playoffs down the stretch.

This season should be a much different story for the Mule. He has the ability to take over games when he wants to (case in point: the above-mentioned Game Four) and when he's on his game, it can be a sight to see. I have a feeling we're going to see good things from Franzen this season.

What he needs to do to make me smile: Be the Mule we all know and love.

Unofficial NHL Awards for 2009-2010...

Ah, yes, it’s that time of year again. It’s time for my mock NHL awards. This tradition started several years ago and was originally based off of the mock awards that were voted on in high school. Over the years, they’ve evolved quite a bit and fake trophies come and go every season. The real NHL awards show doesn't take place until tomorrow night, but it's never too early to get into the spirit.

The Dr. Rahmani Award (comes with a free lasik procedure) goes to Dennis LaRue. When I saw the Brad May no-goal on TV, I really thought I’d seen the most obnoxiously bad call ever. Of course, then Jim Joyce came along and had to one-up him right in front of my eyes, but since these are NHL fake awards, it goes to LaRue.

The Hatfield-McCoy Enemies Award goes to Wings fans and referees. No season in recent memory has been plagued by more obnoxiously bad calls. Call us tin foil hat wearers all you want, but there were a boatload of legitimate complaints this season. The bad officiating was rampant throughout the league, but plays like the May goal, the shootout winner against Dallas, and the better part of the San Jose series only served to reinforce the notion.

The Golden Pretzel Award for Epic Choking goes to the Boston Bruins. They had a 3-game series lead and a 3-goal lead in Game Seven and still managed to lose. Seriously?

The Class Couple Award goes to Gary Bettman and Sidney Crosby. Previous winners include Gary Bettman and Sidney Crosby. In fact, it should really be re-named after them, what with all of the discussion of renaming the real NHL awards to honor more modern players. It's fairly obvious why the commish and his Little Buddy won, so I won't go into depth. (Yes, I did just copy/paste this from last year’s awards post.)

The List Award (as in, "You're on my list.") is awarded to Shane Doan. I honestly never had an issue with Doan until the Wings faced Phoenix in the first round. He very quickly made his way onto my list where he shall remain forever.

The Chosen Ones Award goes to the Chicago Blackhawks. Their Cup victory was everything the NHL could’ve dreamed of. They got there thanks to young stars they obtained by tanking for a long time and using high draft picks to make no-brainer selections. They’re a huge media market, and their stars are young, North American, and marketable. If it couldn’t be Pittsburgh…

The first annual Eavesed Award goes to (shockingly) Patrick Eaves for his hilarious contribution to the H2H festivities. We’ll be laughing about that one for years to come. (Stick tap to Jenn for this one.)

The Mr. Invisible Award goes to Jason Williams (Who?). I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I follow hockey pretty closely. Despite the amount of time I spend obsessing over the Wings, I always managed to find a way to forget about Williams. I know I wasn’t alone. Even when he was getting ready to come back from injury, the reporters included his progress as an afterthought several days later. Poor Willy. (Stick tap to Amanda for this one.)

The Goalie in A Past Life Award goes to Brad Stuart. How many goal line saves did he make this season? It seemed like every couple of games, he was knocking a puck out of the crease after it had gotten by the goalie.

The Master Thespian Award goes to the entire San Jose Sharks lineup for managing to make even professional soccer players shake their heads in disgust at their flopping. (Stick tap to Rob for this one.)

The Face Only A Mother Could Love Award goes to Shane Doan. His goal celebration in the first round inspired the awesome #Doanface photoshops. This could just as easily have gone to Crosby's Olympic celebration, but since that one wasn't actually from the NHL, Doan won out.

The Team MVP Award goes to Pavel Datsyuk for accumulating the most Cookies and Cupcakes throughout the season. He finished in first place with 11 sets of baked goods. Jimmy Howard finished just behind him with 10 awards. Hank and Homer tied for third with six each. Everyone who spent significant time on the roster managed to snag the goodies at least once except for Abdelkader, Draper, Maltby, May, Williams, Ericsson, Kronwall, Lebda, Lilja, and Meech.

The Team Scapegoat Award (maybe not an award, actually…) goes to Todd Bertuzzi. He managed to rack up eleven Golden Facepalms throughout the season. Big Rig was a distant second with six of them. Rafalski came in third with 5 Facepalms. The only major players to not get a Facepalm at least once were Draper, Franzen, Maltby, and May.

Thoughts for other awards or nominees?

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

• I missed most of the first two periods yesterday. This has become a disturbing trend over the last couple of weeks, but I assure you that it’s coming to an end now that the playoffs are starting. My little brother felt that it was his manly right to control the remote, and we ended up watching more Tigers than Red Wings (not that I was necessarily pitching a fit about this the whole time). No more though. It’s playoff time. Now things get serious.
• I particularly liked Brad Stuart’s shift at the end of regulation when he just kept knocking the same Hawk down again and again and again. Then he went and followed that up by scoring the game-winner in OT. You can probably guess who’s getting the baked goods at this point.
• Homer’s goal was another classic by him. In other news, if you haven’t seen it yet, Homer has a new fake blog, For Sure… (UPDATE: 4/13/10 11:58 PM: Uh, link fail.), which is being ghostwritten by several different people, including yours truly.
• It warmed my heart that the Wings were the reason the Blackhawks didn’t get to finish first in the West. A Hawks fan on twitter informed me that it was actually because San Jose likes losing games in overtime, but that makes little sense. I’m not surprised.
• The other day I said something about the Wings being done with the shootout for the season. As regulation ticked down and overtime went along, I was becoming more and more convinced that the boys were heading to a shootout just to spite me. Luckily, Brad Stuart was there to save the day.
  

GP Answers:
1. Are the Wings going to play like they want that 5th seed, or just coast through this game?
They got the 5th seed. Honestly, I don’t really care what they did to get there. It’s irrelevant now.

2. Can this game be at least a little more interesting than the last one against Columbus?
Tough call. I didn’t see most of it, but I was definitely entertained by the third period and overtime.

3. What glaring weakness is Chicago’s goaltending going to demonstrate?
Actually, from what I saw, he didn’t look too bad.

4. Can the boys just pretty please finish out this nightmarish season with a win over Little Brother?
:)

Cookies and Cupcakes for Brad Stuart
Oh my goodness, did ever look happy when he scored that overtime goal. I think part of it was relief that he didn’t miss the net, but I was happy to see him get the goal. He’s a guy that’s been solid for most of the year, but doesn’t get nearly enough credit.

Nobody gets the Golden Facepalm
Why? I’m feeling charitable today since I get to look forward to the playoffs now. Let’s head to the post-season with nothing but goodwill and rounds of Kumbaya.

What I Learned:
Bring on the Coyotes.

Red Wings vs. Blackhawks GP...

This is the last GP I’m going to be writing. I realized a couple of weeks ago that I hated writing them and that it was stupid to keep doing so since the whole point of this is to have fun. I’ve got an idea about something to do for the playoffs, and then I’ve got all summer to figure out something new for next season.

1. Are the Wings going to play like they want that 5th seed, or just coast through this game?
2. Can this game be at least a little more interesting than the last one against Columbus?
3. What glaring weakness is Chicago’s goaltending going to demonstrate?
4. Can the boys just pretty please finish out this nightmarish season with a win over Little Brother?

In other news, make sure you check out For Sure…, Tomas Holmstrom’s imaginary blog in which he chronicles his life on the road, describes his love of candy, and ponders why nobody understands him. It’s modeled after Andreas Lilja’s blog, which is guaranteed to improve your life by at least 10% when you read it.

Red Wings 5, Blackhawks 4: Post Game Snipes...

• This game didn’t get off to a particularly impressive start, but it sure got fun during the second period. Anyone know when the last time the Wings scored five goals in a period was?
• Of course the Wings couldn’t just coast to an easy victory by protecting their three-goal lead. They had to make things interesting by letting the Hawks back into the game. I’m sure NBC was thrilled because it was close at the end, but c’mon guys, get things together.
• The Wings managed to bring themselves within a point of Nashville with that win today. We all need to buckle down and root for Vancouver to win tonight. The Preds can’t be comfortable looking over their shoulders and seeing the Wings coming up behind them.
• Don’t look now, but the boys have won four of their last five games.
• Games like these always leave me looking forward to the next game more than usual. That game just happens to be against the Flames, who are only one point behind the Wings thanks to a win against Minnesota today.
• Bertuzzi left the game with what Babcock is now calling a charley horse. Let’s hope it’s nothing more (even though I was relieved to see that it was just Bertuzzi who was hurt…not someone more important).
• How refreshing was it to see a huge momentum swing from a questionable no-goal call go in the Wings’ favor for a change? Shortly afterward, the Wings started to take control of the game and things got a lot more enjoyable.
• I still can’t stand the calls when the refs wave off a goal, but don’t call an interference penalty on the play. It’s either interference or it’s not. Make up your mind. That irritation was compounded by the fact that Homer got called for a goalie interference penalty later on that was every bit as questionable.
• My mom and I had a grammar debate about whether it was “waived off” or “waved off.” Finally we consulted dictionary.com and my victory was confirmed. It’s “waved off.”
• Goalies diving makes me angry every time. Even when it’s done by a Wings goalie, I have to roll my eyes. Cowboy up, gentlemen.
• Today’s boxscore is sprinkled with a little bit of everything. There were some point shots from the blueliners, some secondary scoring, and a little bit of dangle dangle from Pavel Datsyuk himself. That’s what I like to see.
• Lilja was featured on the sounds of the game thing that NBC does. I was amused by the fact that he said something to Ladd after checking him and he sounded vaguely Irish. I was also amused by the fact that he says things while shooting.
• I’m pretty sure my favorite moment of the game was when Johan Franzen was mocking one of the Hawks who dove. When they were showing the highlights at the end of the game, I told my brothers that that clip had better be included. Sure enough, as soon as I spoke, they showed it. I grabbed a clip of it with my phone camera, but it’s not very high quality. I have no idea why youtube does weird things to the sound whenever I upload videos.
• I loved how the fact that Datsyuk’s breakaway was also racing against the clock made it that much more exciting. Jason Williams (Who?), Rafalski, Filppula, and Lidstrom also scored during the second.

GP Answers:
1. A game against Chicago on NBC? What more could Wings fans ask for? How much time is Pierre going to spend talking about Sidney Crosby?
After a little while, my dad said, “Wow, they really do talk about that guy a lot.” He finally figured out why I’m always complaining.

2. One of the best things about the Nashville game was the fact that the Wings’ stars were their best players. Can they continue to lead the boys?
Pavel Datsyuk has been incredible since the Olympic break. Zetterberg was less visible, but as NBC pointed out, he doesn’t look 100% health-wise. That makes me nervous.

3. What is Pavel Datsyuk going to do to blow our minds tomorrow?
Oh just a breakaway goal in the final seconds of the second period. It ended up being the game-winner. He was up to his usual slick moves and pick-pocketing all game too. He could seriously give Neal Caffrey a run for his money.

4. We haven’t gotten to see Olympic Rafalski since the break ended. When is that version of the hometown boy going to show up?
We saw flashes of Olympic Rafalski and flashes of regular season Rafalski today. I guess it’s a work in progress.

Cookies and Cupcakes for Pavel Datsyuk
For all of the wonderful things he does.

Valtteri Filppula gets the Golden Facepalm
He pretty much handed Andrew Ladd his first goal of the game. I’m pretty sure that turnover in front of the net came with a bow on top.

What I Learned:
It’s a lot more fun to have goals waved off when they don’t belong to the Wings.

Red Wings vs. Blackhawks GP...

1. A game against Chicago on NBC? What more could Wings fans ask for? How much time is Pierre going to spend talking about Sidney Crosby?
2. One of the best things about the Nashville game was the fact that the Wings’ stars were their best players. Can they continue to lead the boys?
3. What is Pavel Datsyuk going to do to blow our minds tomorrow?
4. We haven’t gotten to see Olympic Rafalski since the break ended. When is that version of the hometown boy going to show up?

This game starts at 11:30 am local time in Chicago. What an idiotic time to start a hockey game. Also, it’s going to feel good to be able to hate Patrick Kane again after those bizarre couple of weeks of Olympic hockey when we were rooting for him.

Red Wings 5, Predators 2: Post Game Snipes...

• One of my favorite moments of the night was when Bertuzzi took a pass while still standing in the penalty box. It almost made the whole penalty kill worthwhile.
• Pavel Datsyuk’s goal was absolutely amazing. It was Danglelicious in every sense of the word.
• Early in the game, my dad informed me that he thought Helm was a bust. We bickered about it for a while, because that’s what we do when we watch TV together. Helm resolved our dispute by scoring two goals. No only does Helm love children, he also promotes familial harmony.
• I was really hoping for Helm to get the empty netter, but there are no free curly fries in Hockeytown today.
• This is the kind of game that the Wings need to play on a consistent basis from here on out. If they keep that up, getting into the playoffs won’t be a problem. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen anything this season that has convinced me that this could be a reality.
  

GP Answers:
1. The Wings are currently hanging onto the 8th spot in the West thanks to the teams they needed to lose actually losing for once (Is that a sign of things finally turning their way? I’m guessing no, but it’s nice to fantasize about things like that every once in a while.). Nashville’s managed to open up a 5-point gap ahead of them, and St. Louis and Calgary are tied one point behind the Wings. Only four points separate 8-13 in the West. This is scary stuff. What are the odds that the Wings ease some of our fears in this important game against Nashville? (Yes, I’m still getting used to the fact that we’re now forced to consider regular season games against Nashville “important.”)
I don’t know about everyone else, but I feel a lot better after that game. The Wings have consistently been failing to show up for important games against teams they’re fighting for position, and the fact that they came out and played like a team that wanted to win is reassuring. Of course, I’ll probably be back to banging my head against a wall tomorrow, but it’s always nice to see proof that we’re not all crazy for continually saying that this team can still dominate.

2. How will Jimmy Howard rebound from his less-than-stellar outing on Wednesday? The Wings need him to be strong down the stretch.
Howard was fine, not that he needed to be spectacular. Nashville only had 8 shots total in the first and third periods. They picked things up in the second, but they still only finished with 22 shots on net.

3. What percentage of the game are the Wings going to show up to play? We should start a pre-game betting pool to guess numbers.
I’ll give them a 100% because I’m feeling magnanimous today.

4. Can Franzen keep up his red hot scoring streak? Can a scoring streak be considered red hot after less than a handful of games? I vote yes in the context of this season.
He was actually held to no points for a change. It’s okay though. He’s probably going to exact his revenge on Chicago tomorrow.

Cookies and Cupcakes for Darren Helm
Where did that finish come from? I’d completely forgotten how long it had been since he scored a goal. There aren’t many guys who can electrify a crowd like he can.

An Extra Stick Tap for Pavel Datsyuk
That goal he scored was just beautiful and fun. In fact, fans enjoyed it so much that Gary Bettman is currently working on a way to remove plays like that from the game.

Brian Rafalski gets the Golden Facepalm
On the Predators’ first goal, he made a bad turnover on a poorly-advised pass and then proceeded to get embarrassed as he was walked around en route to the net. Not good.

What I Learned:
Playing Nashville is so much more enjoyable when it’s at the Joe. The train whistle thing they do at whatever their arena’s called now drives me up a wall.