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.

Lockout Hockey Photos...

I was digging though some of my old pictures, and I came across some from a charity game that some of the Wings played at Yost Arena during the lockout. I honestly can’t remember what they were raising money for, but a bunch of NHLers faced off against the USA 18-under team. In desperate need of a hockey fix, my friend and I headed down to the rink to see (among others) Steve Yzerman, Nick Lidstrom, Kris Draper, Chris Chelios, Manny Legace, Steve Duchesne, and Derian Hatcher. I’m also about 80% sure that Kid Rock coached the NHL team. It was interesting looking back through the pictures because I spotted a young Phil Kessel on the ice for Team USA. I can’t find a roster for ’04-’05, but I would suspect that if someone located one so we could compare numbers, we’d see some other familiar names. Unfortunately, my camera back then was less than stellar, so the pictures aren’t great quality.

My friend and I had total crushes on the USA goalie. That explains the numerous pictures of him as I tried to get a shot of his face. I wonder what ever happened to him…

Another good part of the game was when the PA announcer mocked Cheli for something (I can’t remember what). He proceeded to lurk menacingly around the penalty box. The PA guy then said, “Why is Chris Chelios by the penalty box?” which was a lot funnier then than it is now that I’ve typed it out.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun at the game (which I think USA won), and I love coming across hidden treasures like this.

I also finally got around to uploading my pictures from the game against Edmonton on March 30th. I’ve got shots from warm-ups, some from the alumni suite, a couple of stalkerish pictures of Sara’s family and my brother taken from the balcony, and some shots of Larry Murphy on the concourse. Click and enjoy.

Red Wings 5, Wild 1: Post Game Snipes...

• You know what the best thing about this win was? You never felt like it was going to get away from the Wings. Even after that goal they gave up at the end of the first period, it seemed like the game was well in hand.
• They started strongly, didn’t let up in the second period, and finished strongly in the third. It was as complete an effort as this team has given in a while.
• I’m not ready to call it a turning point or a statement game yet, though. We’ve seen flashes of brilliance from this team all season long, but it hasn’t been sustained for any significant amount of time. That being said, the fact that the offense has really kicked things into gear recently (five goals tonight, five against the Hawks, five against the Predators) is a good sign. Over the last few games, they have started to put together bits and pieces of dominant efforts where they looked like the real Wings for stretches, but couldn’t string together a whole game. The fact that they didn’t quit once they had the lead and kept pressing is incredibly encouraging. Maybe, just maybe, they finally got the message. We’ll see.
• Zetterberg certainly turned things around after getting called out by almost everybody.
• Bertuzzi was completely invisible all night except for that part where he took a penalty. That was only the second time all game that I noticed him on the ice.
• I was incredibly uncomfortable when Miller’s goal went to review. It certainly looked like a good goal to me, but this season has killed any faith that I had in the NHL’s review system.
• Dan Cleary had one of his best games of the season, I thought. He appeared to be working hard and doing good things out there. Now he just needs to keep that up.
• Once again, if the Wings had had Franzen all season, we’d be a lot more cheerful around Hockeytown right about now.
• At one point, after some slick passing by the Wings, Ken Daniels called it “pinball wizardry.” Being a big fan of The Who, I liked it a lot.
• Seriously, this is what watching a Wings game ought to feel like. It’s been too long.
  

GP Answers:
1. Can Valtteri Filppula spark Z? I still maintain that he’s not 100%, but I guess that could just be Todd Bertuzzi’s aura dragging him down. Maybe getting some time away from Bert will help get Z’s offense going.
Zetterberg had his best game in a long while. His goal came when he was on the ice with Patrick Eaves and Kris Draper, not his normal linemates, but he seemed to be buzzing all night. Keep it up, sunshine.

2. In the event that the Wings manage to get a lead, will they be able to hang onto it?
Yes. Yes they did. And they looked good doing it.

3. What percentage of the game will the Wings bother to play tonight? I think I’m going to make this like the Lidstrom question earlier this season and post it in every GP until I see a 100% effort.
I’ll give them the 100%. I was going to go with 99% because of that letdown at the end of the first, but I’m in a good mood right now and I’m feeling generous. I’m still going to ask this question on Saturday though. One game of a solid effort doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.

4. Can Jimmy Howard get those rebounds under control? They’ve slowly become an issue again since the Olympic break.
There were some shaky rebounds, but nothing bad came of them. Minnesota’s only goal bounced in off of Stuart’s leg, and Jimmy had no chance on it. Hopefully this game will settle him down some.

Cookies and Cupcakes for Henrik Zetterberg
Like I said before, this was his best game in a long time. With any luck, he’ll get on a roll and we’ll get to see dominant Zetterberg more often.

An Extra Stick Tap for Johan Franzen
How can you not love the Mule? I mean really.

Chris Chelios gets the Golden Facepalm
He marked his return to the NHL by deflecting a shot into his own net tonight. I know it wasn’t his fault, but it wasn’t exactly a banner way to start his tenure there. What’s that you say? He’s not a Wing anymore and is therefore ineligible for the Golden Facepalm? Well, I get to make the rules around here, sunshine, and what I say goes. So there.

What I Learned:
I don’t think there are many teams that can beat the Wings if they play like they did tonight. There are definitely only a few out there who could win a best-of-7 series against the version of the team that we saw tonight. Now if we could get treated to that version more often…

The Great Debate: '97 vs. '02...

According to Japers’ Rink, a book called Hockey’s Greatest Teams has listed the ’97 Wings as one of the top 15 hockey teams of all time. The 1949-50 Wings also make the list, thanks to the legendary Production Line. Anyway, I thought it was interesting that ’97 was chosen over the ’02 squad. I would argue that the ’02 team had more pure talent than the ’97 team did, and there were significantly more future Hall of Famers in ’02. In fact, I honestly can’t remember a roster that looked better on paper being iced in my lifetime, even taking into consideration the fact that Pavel Datsyuk hadn’t yet developed into the star that we all know and love today. It’s been said that the ’02 team should easily end up having eleven members in the Hall of Fame down the road, and I don’t count nearly that many from ’97. Igor Larionov, Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille, and Scotty Bowman are already in the Hall/about to be inducted, and you can bet on Brendan Shanahan, Nick Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov, Chris Chelios, Dominik Hasek, and Datsyuk joining them in their due time.

I would argue that the ’97 Cup probably meant more to the city than the one in ’02 did, just because it ended the 42-year drought, but talent wise, 2002 has to win out. From the first day of the pre-season that year, the expectation was that the Wings were going to win the Stanley Cup. Anything short of that would have been deemed an absolute failure. They were just that much better than anyone else. Their roster that year wouldn't have looked out of place in a fantasy hockey league.

Anyway, take a look at the rosters listed over at Japers’ Rink and see what you think. The ’08 roster is included over there as well, but I still think ’02 wins. I like that '08 was post-lockout/salary cap just to silence those critics who accused the Wings of buying the Cup, but that also means that the talent level was lower. Don't get me wrong, the team was still better than anyone else in the league, but we're just never going to see a team like '02 again under the salary cap.

So Long, Cheli...

So no more Chris Chelios. I have to say that even though I'm not remotely surprised, I'm a little torn about this. On a personal level, I'm much more likely to survive the next season now that my blood pressure won't be spiking every time he sets foot on the ice. On the other hand, I have a lot of respect for the guy, and I think he's one of the last great "old school" players out there. Every time I screamed, "Chellllliiiiiiiiiiii!!!" at the TV during his playoff appearances this year, there was a little voice in the back of my head that was telling me that I should be nicer to him. I would never dream of apologizing for my words or actions during the heat of a playoff game, but sometimes I did feel a little bad. I certainly hope he ends up somewhere next season. Guys like Cheli deserve to go out on their own terms. I wouldn't be particularly surprised if he ends up as the 6th or 7th man on a young team that needs a mentor for their D-men. He did a pretty good job working with Kronwall and Jiri Fischer back in the day.

Seriously, one of the highlights of my high school days was when his son played travel baseball in the same league as my little brother. I got to meet him at games a few times, and he was just a straight-up nice guy. He actually reminded me of my dad a little bit. The last time I saw him was at the end of the second round in the '02 playoffs. He was listening to the Colorado-San Jose Game 7 on a Walkman (yeah, an old-school Walkman. In 2002.) waiting to see who the Wings would be facing. He was sitting in his son's dugout and someone asked him who he'd rather face. He said, "San Jose," without any hesitation. I remember finding it funny because earlier I had read the standard, "we don't care who we play, blah, blah, blah," quote from him in the newspaper (Quick nostalgia moment: remember when we used to get papers in Detroit?).

So anyway, I really do hope he ends up somewhere. I wouldn't even care if that somewhere was Chicago. Maybe then his mom could get rid of that god-awful franken-jersey she was wearing during the playoffs.

Are We Seriously Still Talking About This?...

For cryin' out loud, can we just move on already? It's been a little over a week now, and the Handshake Incident is still being discussed. Snapshots has a link to yet another media "analysis" of it. I mean, really, there's nothing else we can talk about? There's nothing else Nick Lidstrom could've been asked about at the NHL Awards show? Nothing?

I realize that I'm only continuing the discussion by contributing it, but there's a certain amount that I can take in silence, and once that level is reached, I have to have my say about it.

The general consensus is that this whole thing was started when Kris Draper called Crosby out for not shaking Lidstrom's hand after the game. One of the Pittsburgh writers described him as having "piggybacked his way to four championships," which is a funny way to describe a former Selke winner who's been a heart and soul guy on the most dominant team in the NHL for 16 years now. Granted, under any other circumstance, I don't think Draper would've spoken out that way, but the fact remains that he wasn't the one who started this whole nightmare. It was Crosby, out on the ice at Joe Louis Arena, not participating in half of the handshake line.

The standard Crosby defense from the adoring media is that he's just a young kid reveling in his first Stanley Cup. That's wonderful, but he's still the captain of the Penguins. I'm one year older than Crosby, but you don't see me tossing my relative youth around as an excuse for all of my failures. You can either be an overwhelmed kid who got lost in the shuffle, or you can be a man who displays leadership worthy of wearing the C. You can't have it both ways if you want to earn any respect in this world.

Also, you'd think that a guy who's been followed around by media for years would realize when he's about to put his skate in his mouth. His quotes about the expectation to participate in the handshake line being "unreasonable" and having the "right to celebrate" did nothing to erase his league-wide (outside of Pittsburgh and Gary Bettman's office) as being a petulant child. Who knows? Maybe he's really a nice guy. Maybe he spends all of his free time helping little old ladies cross the street with their groceries. But the fact remains that all he had to do is say something to the effect of, "I'm sorry. I honestly didn't mean to insult anyone. I got caught up in the moment and I know I was a little bit late to the handshake line. I certainly didn't mean to disrespect one of our great hockey traditions," and it all would've gone away. Just like when Chris Chelios had to apologize for not shaking the Ducks' hands in '07 (and for the record, I was pretty angry at him when he left the ice like that.)

It clearly was neither the end of the world nor a career-defining moment for Crosby, so at this point, why should anyone care? Nobody in their right mind is going to say, "Gee, I really liked that Crosby guy until he skipped half of a handshake line." For the rest, and I think majority, of us out there, it's just one more incident to file away with in our mental Why Crosby's A Classless and Miserable Excuse for A Captain files. Believe me, if this didn't sway you, the Handshake sure won't.

Honestly, the worst part of all of this is the fact that it's resulted in Draper, Lidstrom, and Henrik Zetterberg, who also made an uncharacteristically blunt comment, getting dragged through the mud by almost everyone. I'm pretty sure nobody before now has accused any of those three guys of anything remotely controversial. Let's face it, this guy had to use Terminator effects and grope his chest to make a Nick Lidstrom interview interesting. (Watch Lidstrom's face at the end of this interview. I don't think he even knows what to do.) Mostly I suspect they all just want this to go away. But if there's one thing reporters love, it's controversy and scandal, so you can be pretty sure that this is going to be rehashed over and over again until it makes you want to kick babies.

Dangle Dangle Me Tonight...

There wasn't a whole lot going on today. It sounds more and more like Datsyuk is going to be playing in Game 4. Going into Game 3, I figured we'd be a lot more likely to see Dangle Dangle if the Wings lost than if they won. Sure enough, they lost, so here we are. Whether or not it has anything to do with the fact that this is a potential series-tying game is probably not something I'm meant to know.

At any rate, it made me irrationally happy for approximately thirty seconds before I managed to suppress the feeling lest my hopes get too high. Being a Wings fan for all of these years has given me an almost super-power like ability to destroy my own hopes and crush my soul. So it's nice to see that it comes in handy from time to time. It's just that I find it less emotionally distressing to prevent my hopes from ever getting to high so that I don't have to deal with the paralyzing pain that occurs when they all come crashing down. This also possibly explains why I'm still single, but that's neither here nor there.

Also, in case you didn't know, Pavel Datsyuk's hilarious. Seriously. But you knew that already because you've seen this. Today's installment of Pavel Datsyuk's Comedy Hour is courtesy of Puck Daddy.

Datsyuk on having to sit out: "Oh, I tell you, this is not fun to watch. I take in lots of beer."
Datsyuk on whether he might play wing in Game 4: "I think at wing, center, defenseman, I want to play so bad."
Datsyuk on how long he'd like to play in Game 4: "The game is 60 minutes. I hope to play 60 minutes. But we make a decision tomorrow morning."

When I read the first quote, I had a mental image of him and Chelios making a drinking game where they chugged beers every time the Wings turned the puck over. The poor man's foot has probably been healed since Saturday. He's just been recovering from Game 1's hangover.

I've been reading "opposition" blogs for every round of the playoffs this year, and I have to say, The Pens Blog is by far the worst I've come across. I genuinely enjoyed reading Chicago's blogs, and even Anaheim's bloggers managed to not make me angry. But The Pens Blog is an entirely different story. I don't know if it's the stupid photoshops or their inability to compose paragraphs, but it feels like it's being written by fourth graders. I know it's a stupid thing to complain about, but seriously. It's pathetic.

I don't need to say that Game 4 is a must-win. You know it. The Pens know it. The Wings know it. If the boys show up to play, then there's the possibility that I'll be smiling Friday morning. If not, then I'll be frightening my co-workers even more than I did on Tuesday night. I have the day off tomorrow. Thank the Hockey Gods for that. Because, let's face it, I'm going to be useless tomorrow. And if you're a big enough fan to be trolling Wings blogs, then you know exactly what I mean. Enough said.

Is It Too Late to Re-open Rookie of the Year Voting?...

This game began with me nearly vomiting all over my dog. Finding out that Big E wouldn't be playing due to appendicitis just about sent me over the edge. It was worse than having the Lidstrom bomb dropped on me before Game 4, but only because Lidstrom was also out.

Then, the Wings spent the entire first period on the powerplay. Or rather, they looked like they were on the powerplay. I've never seen anything quite like it before. It was a beautiful thing to watch. Even though they had nothing to show for it on the scoreboard, it had to pay dividends late in the third and in OT just for the light load it placed on their defensemen. Seriously though, I was mocking Huet and his French-ness (apparently France has an Olympic hockey team. Who knew?), but he absolutely STOLE the first period. In fact, he almost stole the game. I was starting to wonder if The Chief's post over at Abel to Yzerman had caused the Hockey Gods to instill him with some sort of inexplicable brilliance. His save on Franzen at the end of regulation left me with my mouth hanging open, which wouldn't have been a problem except for the fact that my dog chose that moment to lick my face. Best believe that snapped me back to my senses quickly.

Possibly my only problem with the first period, other than that big fat zero on the scoreboard, was the fact that the Versus announcer kept saying things like, "he finessed the puck over." He must've used that phrase 100 times in the first twenty minutes. I think I would've stabbed myself in the ear with a spork if it hadn't been for that intermission. Not that I spent the first intermission with rainbows and unicorns dancing in my head or anything, but it's possible that it saved my life. I mostly paced nervously and scared my brother's friend with my intensity. There's a nasty lingering stench about Game 5s from last year, although to be fair, the boys have been dominant in both that they've played this season.

I don't have a lot of time to recap on account of needing to wake up ridiculously early tomorrow, but I have to talk about Darren Helm. I was planning on writing about him just for that epic penalty kill where he single-handedly cycled the puck deep in Chicago's end, got a shot on net, grabbed his own rebound, and then killed off some more time. Beautiful. And then netting the goal in OT? This guy's got a great future. Someone on the live blog over at A2Y mentioned that he's now the all-time leader for most playoff goals scored before netting one in the regular season. And the goal that put him over the top for that? The Western Conference Finals series clincher in OT. Don't forget his beautiful breakaway goal in Game 7, either. This kid shows up to play in the big games, and that's exactly why Babcock has had him in the lineup since the beginning.

Gotta love Dan Cleary's redirection to finally break the seal. For all of their skill and "finesse" passing, the Wings score a lot of goals that look just like that.

And what about Chris Osgood? The man played the game of his life tonight. If he stays in form like that in the Finals, and there's no reason to think he won't, you have to like the Wings' chances. I've been an Ozzie lover since the beginning, and nothing makes me happier than shoving this game down the throats of everyone who spent the entire regular season ripping on him. I don't care the regular season, so long as it results in a playoff berth. It's utterly meaningless in my opinion. All Chris Osgood does is win playoff games. Early in the second period when the Blackhawks woke up and discovered that they were, in fact, involved in a hockey game, it was Ozzie who kept the Wings in the game. He made save after big-time save, and if you ask more of a goalie, you're a fool.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention two other guys: Brad Stuart and Kirk Maltby. Maltby played his best game of the season, by far, and Stuie stepped up big time on the PK. Bravo, sunshines!

I said it after Game 4, and I'll say it a thousand more times. No other organization in the NHL, or possibly all of sportsdom (yes, sometimes I make up words), could lose the caliber of talent the Wings had sitting in the press box tonight and still clinch a series. That's not to say that I didn't throw up in my mouth a little every time Chelios and Meech were on the ice. I didn't notice much of Meech, but Cheli made a couple of plays that were nearly disastrous.

And *drumroll, please* the boys managed to NOT give up a powerplay goal tonight! Granted, they did a pretty good job of staying out of the box, but still, it's something to build on for the Finals. And then there was Darren Helm, who I've already discussed. Ownage!

I also liked the look on Z's face when he was like, "I'm not touching that," with the trophy. He looked at the guy presenting it like he was a moron for even suggesting it. I was also amused by the big deal ESPN made about the Pens' decision to touch the Prince of Wales trophy. Hockey has to fight tooth and nail to get mainstream coverage most of the time, and there's a big Game 5 going on later and ESPN runs a history of the decision to touch the conference trophy? Seriously? I guess we'll see which strategy works out better.

More on the rematch, or as I like to call it, the re-ownage of Sidney Crosby. You have to imagine it's gut-check time for Marian Hossa. I'd like nothing more than to see him absolutely light it up in the Finals just to prove himself right. Especially since it seems like every other Wings player is injured.

PS. Dare I say it's time to bust out The Zetterberg Song? Or at least the end of it.

A Collective Temper Tantrum of Epic Proportions...

Wow. All I can say is that I'm glad I'm not a Blackhawks fan today. That had to be painful to watch from the other side. Not only did the Wings absolutely dominate, but the Hawks embarrassed themselves and their fans by throwing hissy fits all over the ice. Whereas upon finding themselves down three goals in the second period in Game 2, the Wings rallied and pushed the Hawks to overtime, the Blackhawks simply rolled over and threw a childish little temper tantrum. I guess the Wings just wrote the book on how to beat the Hawks. While Anaheim's roughing and assorted goonery made me angry, (I can't even tell you how much time I spent yelling at the TV during round 2), watching the Hawks try it just...made me laugh. They looked utterly pathetic. It would've been sad if it wasn't so amusing.

Seriously though, sunshines, this wasn't a pretty win. This was the inevitable triumph of composure and class over childish antics. Chalk one up for the good guys. Every once in a while, the world seems alright.

Pre-game, I was a wreck. I assumed Datsyuk would be out again despite the glimmer of hope Babs offered in his presser yesterday, but when one of my co-workers informed me that Lidstrom was out, I just about threw up. At first I thought she was joking, but then I saw Chelios skating by on TV and my worst fears were realized.

True to Brian Campbell's word, the Hawks decided to run around and try to goon it up. They played right into Mike Babcock's hands. He pretty much dared them to try it during his presser yesterday. It turns out that they're spectacularly bad at this. At least when the Ducks acted like goons, they managed to avoid taking penalties. Although to be fair, you have to believe the refs were looking out for that what with Wings' series MVP Campbell announcing it beforehand. It makes me spectacularly sad to think that this moron is making ten times more money than I will in my entire life just to screw his own team over.

Also, Campbell was on the ice for four goals against. A+, Carrot Top.

Perhaps my favorite part was when Versteeg decided to take consecutive stupid penalties, further harming his team's cause. I'm pretty sure Quenville put him in a time-out when he finally got back to the bench.

Apologies for sounding disjointed, but I honestly don't even know what to make of this. I don't recall ever witnessing a meltdown of this magnitude. At one point, the refs probably wondered if they'd been sent to some strange referee hell where they were doomed to break up brawling high schoolers for all eternity. I've been making fun of the Hawks' youth by calling them teenagers, but tonight they were acting more like babies. It looked like the Wings were babysitting a bunch of toddlers in the throes of their Terrible Twos. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure at one point I saw Kris Versteeg laying at center ice pounding and kicking the ice. Chelios had to stifle a reflex to yell at him to gett off of his lawn.

Part of the blame has to go to Joel Quenville and his little tantrum at the start of the second. At the time, I didn't know what he was yelling about because I didn't realize any penalties had been called. Looking back, I can see why I missed the call because I'm pretty sure there wasn't anything worth calling, but it's OK, because it gave me another favorite presser moment. In his post-game, Quenville referred to it as the "worst call in the history of sports." Way to step right into the high-school melodrama there, Joel. The worst call ever? Seriously? You're going to say that after Kronner's excessive penalization in Game 3? And after The Goal That Wasn't in the last round? Or the hundreds of disgusting calls and non-calls that have been plaguing the entire playoffs, league-wide? Get over yourself. You made an fool of yourself today, and trying to brush it aside like you were making some kind of righteous argument only makes you look worse.

Aside from that, I really want to know what Ben Eager said to the ref when he got his first misconduct. I'm not kidding. I feel like that would be a useful turn of phrase to have in my arsenal.

________

On the Wings' side, I was delighted to see the big guns step up in the absence of Datsyuk and Lidstrom. If somebody could just find a way to convince Marian Hossa that every game is Game 4, a lot of my stress would be relieved. I suggest renaming them Game 4.1, Game 4.2, and so on. Game 4.5 is coming up on Wednesday, so look out. (Unfortunately, I won't be able to watch it, unless I can convince my friend to spend three hours of Cedar Point time holed up in a bar watching TV.)

Speaking of big guns, it was nice to see Z score a couple of goals with the goalie still in the net. So much for his empty-net record attempt.

I also have to give an honorary star of the game to Ken Holland. The Wings' ability to replace Nick Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk, two of the best players in the world, and roll on without a hitch tonight is due in large part to his overall brilliance. The rookies didn't contribute a whole lot offensively tonight, but they put in some solid minutes and were a lot less self-destructive than highly-paid veteran Brian Campbell. (The more I start to dislike someone, the more frequently they find their way into my discussions.) When a lot of other teams throw their rookies out, it's to eat up junk minutes and you spend their entire shift white-knuckling whatever is within reach. Not so with the Wings' rookies who've stepped in. They've been turning in solid performance after solid performance and are defensively responsible enough that I don't find myself holding my breath whenever they're on the ice.

I was fairly concerned when Ozzie didn't play the third period, but Babs has (for now) put my nerves at ease by explaining it away as dehydration. (Question: How does a goalie, who stands around next to two water bottles for the whole game, manage to get dehydrated? Especially when his team spends most of the period playing target practice with the back of the Hawks' net.) We'll see how that pans out, but I guess it was good to see Conks get some playoff action in which he didn't surrender a crucial, back-breaking goal.

The one big downside: ANOTHER friggin powerplay goal surrendered. Seriously guys? This is starting to get frustrating. I also feel like they might be attempting to set a record for most delay of game penalites in a single playoff run. Oh well, Hossa shut the crowd up pretty quickly after that and things were all downhill for Chicago from then on.

And PS: I noticed there weren't a whole lot of "Detroit sucks" chants going on tonight. Wonder why?