Red Wings vs. Canucks GP...

Red Wings: 43-21-9

Canucks: 47-17-9

Red Wing Zen:

Johan Franzen

27-24-51, +/- 7, 50 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Roberto Luongo

33-14-7, 2.23 GAA, .925 SV%

Red Wings 3, Canucks 6: Post Game Snipes...

• All that goodwill that Ryan Kesler built up during the Olympics? Gone.
• Sure the goaltending could’ve been better tonight, but the real problem was the guys skating in front of the goalies.
• At one point during the broadcast, Mickey Redmond went to such lengths to set up a jockstrap-in-the-rafters joke that there’s no way he didn’t have cue cards helping him get through it. I think it was worth the effort.
• Mickey was also thrilled when Datsyuk threw a sucker punch and took a penalty for it. He sounded like a proud papa whose kid just did something awesome. He might be hanging a copy of the box score on his refrigerator at home to commemorate it.
• I don’t know why it is, but it always seems like it’s the phantom penalty calls that result in powerplay goals. It’s never the blatant hooks or obvious cross-checking calls that teams cash in on. It’s the calls that make you want to bang your head on a wall in the first place.
• By the second half of the third period, when it had become clear that the Wings weren’t going to recover, all I wanted was to keep Luongo’s GAA down. I realized that I accidentally started him on my fantasy team and I figured that I might as well get something good out of the night. Then Franzen went and scored, and I was stuck trying to figure out if his points were worth weakening Luongo’s stats. I’m still not sure, but every game reminds me more and more how much we missed The Mule.
  

GP Answers:
1. The last time the Wings won three games in a row was in a different century (or at least that’s what it feels like). Can they make it three in a row tonight?
No. And except for a few minutes in the first period, they didn’t really look like they wanted to.

2. Can the powerplay actually keep working consistently after a good performance against Colorado on Monday?
Well, it didn’t much matter.

3. How is Lilja going to hold up in his second game back? This is when his conditioning should start catching up to him.
I didn’t really notice him much tonight. For a third-pair defenseman, that’s a good thing in my book.

4. Just how Danglelicious is Pavel Datsyuk going to be tonight?
He showed some moments of brilliance, as usual, but the Dangleliciousness that we’ve seen recently wasn’t there for most of the night.

5. How many goals are going to be called off because of Tomas Holmstrom’s behind?
Thankfully none. Although that might’ve actually gotten me interested in the game. This one was barely watchable.

Cookies and Cupcakes for Johan Franzen
If Franzen had been in the lineup all season, the Wings wouldn’t be in as bad of a position right now. I guarantee it.

Niklas Kronwall gets the Golden Facepalm
At one point, he had a glorious scoring opportunity, but only managed to step on the puck and wipe out. I got a kick out of it, and was still laughing as the Canucks proceeded to retrieve the puck, carry it down the ice, and score. At that point, I stopped laughing.

What I Learned:
We’re in for an ugly, ugly March.

The Night I Met Steve Yzerman...

These are going to be even less coherent than normal due to the fact that I’m still a little bit giddy, and I’m not entirely convinced that I didn’t just imagine this entire evening.

Post game snipes:

• So, uh, tonight I got to watch the game from a suite at the Joe, hang out with a bunch of other crazy Wings fans who Twitter, and MEET STEVE YZERMAN. I don’t have a whole lot to say about the game, though, since I was so completely distracted by the overload of awesomeness that I experienced.
• I wasn’t particularly impressed with the Wings’ play tonight, but let’s face it, from the first intermission on, I could not have cared less about the outcome of the game. Vancouver outplayed them for most of the game, and on any other night, I would’ve been sitting at home frustrated and yelling at my TV. But not this night.
• I was a little surprised/disappointed at the lack of "Stevie! Stevie!" chants during the puck drop ceremony. Who would pass up an opportunity to rock the Joe with that old favorite one more time? You never know when you're going to get another chance to do it. Shame.
  
• I got to bring one person with me to the game, so after much agonizing, I selected my dad. We ended up getting to the Joe right as the door opened, so after picking up our Yzerman plaques, we decided to take a leisurely stroll around the concourse before heading up to the suite. It turned out that if we had gone straight there, we would’ve been able to watch the first period from right behind the Wings’ bench. Oh well.
• We stopped to enter a raffle for a signed plaque with the famous picture of Kronwall destroying Havlat. The woman working at the table kept yelling, “win an autographed Kronwall!” I asked her which one. She didn’t get it. Maybe the winner gets to choose.
• The Stanley Cup (and the Conn Smythe and some other trophies that we don’t really care about here in Hockeytown) was on display in the concourse in all of its shiny glory. I knew then that it was going to be a good night.
• While we were waiting outside the Joe, we saw Filppula pull into the lot (driving one-handed, of course). Then Larry Murphy showed up a couple of minutes later. After seeing his vehicle of choice, my dad disgustedly said, “He drives an Audi?!” It was a pretty good moment.
• During the first intermission, I was standing kind of in the door between the suite and the seating area watching the kids do their shootout thing when my dad grabbed my shoulder and told me to turn around. Right there, not five feet away from me was my childhood hero Steve Yzerman. (I would also like to take this opportunity to not how immensely proud I am that I didn’t do anything completely embarrassing. It turns out that I’m occasionally capable of not acting like a psychopath after all.) The Wings’ PR staff that was there said we could only take one group shot that they would send to all of us so we were a little disappointed. However, after we posed for the picture, he said, “So…you guys want any autographs? I can stick around for a little while.” As if there was a chance in this universe that we would’ve turned down that offer. A mad scramble for autographable items ensued as people pretty much dove left and right trying to find stuff to get signed (I’m kidding. Everyone in the suite was incredibly nice and I think we all had a wonderful time together.). I shook Stevie’s hand, and he signed the back of my gorgeous old-school #19 jersey as well as the front of the old midget-sized one that I intend to get framed. He was incredibly gracious and I think there was a general consensus amongst the 12 of us there that we could all die happy right then and there.
• After he left, one of the guys realized that he had walked out with his Sharpie. He said (and this is one of those things that doesn’t really translate well to text), “Steve Yzerman just stole my Sharpie……*realization dawning*……STEVE Yzerman just stole my Sharpie! :)” I’ve included the little smiley face there to aid you in your interpretation of the quote. I really can’t do it justice. It was a pretty awesome moment in all of our lives. I just wish he had stolen my Sharpie instead. I don’t even know what that says about me.
• Okay, I am most definitely not the excitable type. I tend to be even-keel to the point that I’m often mistaken as being heartless. So it was absolutely bizarre to discover that my hands were still shaking a little at the end of the second period. All things considered, though, I think I handled it well. Prior to arriving at the game, I had wondered if a meeting might maybe be in store for us, and I had warned close friends that if they never heard from me again that it was safe to assume that I had had a heart attack and died. But it would’ve been okay because then when I got to the pearly gates (whether this would actually be my destination sparked some debate…) I would be able to say that Steve Yzerman was the last person that I saw on this earth. It turns out, though, that I didn’t die, which is probably evident by the fact that I’m typing this post.
• He was wearing his shiny new Hall of Fame ring. I didn’t get a picture of it, but I noticed it when he was signing things for people. Way cool.
• It’s now 3:30 AM. I’ve been up since 5:30 AM. I barely got 5 hours of sleep last night. I have absolutely no idea why I’m still typing. I definitely need to fix my priorities.
  
• Shortly after Yzerman departed, Joey Kocur stopped by. He stuck around for a while and chatted with us. He was not familiar with the concept of Twitter, so we took it upon ourselves to explain it to him. I don’t think we converted him.
• After we got done explaining things to him, he looked around the suite and said, “Hey, you guys got beer in here?” When he was informed that we did not, in fact, have any beer, he joked that he should’ve stopped by the Molson suite first.
• He actually signed all of his pictures “To Soandso, all my best…” This led to some fun moments when he was trying to talk and write people’s names at the same time thus leading to a couple of inventive spellings.
• All in all he was a pretty fun guy and I didn’t mind missing the first few minutes of the second period chatting with him. Still though, I felt a little bad. How do you walk into a room after Steve Yzerman has just left and expect to wow people? It’s got to be a little disheartening. Talk about a tough act to follow.
• I really liked Zetterberg’s goal. A lot.
• Jimmy Howard didn’t make me want to bang my head against the wall. Sure he gave up some juicy rebounds, but he came up with a few big saves, and he was tested a whole lot more than Luongo was.
• Kronner’s empty netter (Make sure you watch until the very end as Z gives Nik what must be some sort of strange Swedish sign of affection.) was one of the two most amusing empty net goals I've seen. We could see that the puck was heading on the right trajectory toward the goal, the only question was whether or not it would cross the goal line before the Vancouver player caught up to it. As it inched closer (seemingly in slow motion), the whole arena started to go, “oooohhhh,” rising in pitch as it neared the line. It was pretty awesome and completely unexpected. (For those of you who are curious, this is the other most amusing one.)
• I uploaded all of my pictures over here for your viewing pleasure. With any luck, I’ll have time to go through and actually label them tomorrow…and maybe even rearrange them so they’re in the right order. I might slap together another post about tonight if I think of anything else or bother going back to discover just how incoherent the rest of this post has been.
• Overall, we were treated like royalty by the Wings staff. We had an amazing time, and I can’t say enough about getting this opportunity.
• We made out like bandits. Obviously the two jerseys were mine before, but everything else was given to me.
  

Cookies and Cupcakes for Steve Yzerman.
Sure he wasn’t on the ice, but he made my life tonight. I’m never going to forget this game. The only reason I’m convinced that tonight actually happened is because there’s a big old signature adorning the 9 on the back of my jersey.

Brett Lebda gets the Golden Facepalm
It was only a matter of time before he ended up with one of these. I’m going to admit that this is more of a reputation call than anything else. He made a couple of pretty bad defensive zone turnovers that really stand out in my mind though, and I’m almost positive that he was one of the D-men on the ice during that long stretch in the third period when the Wings were hemmed into their own zone and unable to clear the puck despite having numerous chances to do so.

What I learned:
That meeting The Captain makes me giddy like a schoolgirl. Not that that should come as a surprise to anyone who has ever met me before.

One final note:
For one of my classes at school, I got assigned to live blog an event of my choosing. Obviously, it didn't take a whole lot of thought to decide to do a Wings game. As such, two of my classmates and I will be setting up shop at a bar on Saturday night and live blogging the game against Anaheim. (Yeah, we're going to be sitting in a bar on a Saturday night with our laptops doing homework. I'm pretty sure it's going to be the ultimate college moment ever.) I'll post the live blog here and send some reminders on Twitter over the next couple of days too.

Wings vs. Canucks GP...

Wings vs. Canucks @7:30 PM

1. Roberto Luongo came back from his injury/sickness/whatever else was ailing him during Vancouver’s loss the other day. He entered the game after Andrew Raycroft gave up 4 goals on 13 shots. So far this season, he hasn’t lived up to the lofty expectations that folks have for him (I know this because he’s on both of my fantasy teams), which naturally means that he’s probably going to choose tonight to find his game. Will the Wings manage to take advantage of the fact that he’s a little rusty, or make him look good by doing their little perimeter-shots-no-traffic-to-the-net thing that they’re apparently so fond of?
2. Daniel Sedin is still out with his broken foot. What creative way will FSN find to work the fact that the Sedin twins hold their sticks differently when they’re sitting on the bench into the broadcast?
3. The Wings haven’t played on back-to-back nights since the opening series in Sweden. How will they respond to the short turnaround?
4. Are we going to see the newly acquired Drew Miller tonight?
5. It’s Steve Yzerman night at the Joe today. I would imagine that that means there will be some sort of ceremony before the game. Will the team find a way to redeem itself for the embarrassment of Saturday’s Hall of Fame game in Toronto?
6. After a 9-goal outburst last night, will the Wings have any left for the Canucks?

Wings 5, Canucks 4: Post Game Snipes...

And now for the debut of my shiny new post-game wrap-up:

• Don’t kid yourself. The Wings needed this win. I needed this win. We all needed a chance to end the night feeling good about this team.
• Ozzie looked horrible. And I’m a staunch defender of his. Giving up a goal 30 seconds into the game is miserable, and the fact that it never should have wound up in the net only made it worse.
• I can’t believe that Jimmy Howard came in and saved the day. He made several huge saves and kept the Wings in the game through some stretches. I don’t know what to make of this.
• In light of Jimmy’s two solid performances, maybe it’s time to think about giving Ozzie his yearly “mental break” now instead of waiting until the February doldrums. It would certainly send a message.
• I really, really liked what I saw from the team tonight. There were a few stretches here and there when Vancouver carried the play, but the Wings actually looked like themselves for the most part. It would’ve been easy to roll over when the Canucks scored 30 seconds in, but they battled back and notched four goals in a crazy third period.
• The boarding penalty on Brad Stuart was a joke. I pretty much agree with his assessment (via my lip reading skills) of the call.The powerplay looks to have gotten back on track. The Wings netted two goals with the man advantage in the third period. On the other hand, they also allowed two powerplay goals, so let’s not get too excited about the special teams just yet.
• I still can’t believe that Jimmy Howard played that well.
• I think it’s safe to say that this is the happiest I’ve ever been about a win in October in my life. Is this really how low I’ve sunk?
• My cable went out for five minutes which I spent running around my house trying various TVs in the hope that it was just a problem with my hook up. It wasn’t. I'm really seriously starting to think that Comcast is trying to kill me. Thankfully it happened during intermission. If it had been during game play, they would’ve been getting a(nother) very angry service call from me.
• I think this might’ve been Jonathan Ericsson’s best game of the season.
• I really feel like a guy as talented as Henrik Zetterberg could do better on a breakaway than to just rifle a shot into Luongo’s chest from the hash marks. At least try a deke or a toe drag, man.
• Here's hoping Ryan Johnson is okay after his nasty collision with the endboards. You never want to see anyone get carted off on a stretcher.
  

Cookies and Cupcakes for Tomas Holmstrom
(The player who brought me the most joy during the game gets imaginary cookies and cupcakes. It’s not necessarily the player of the game, but whoever earned my affection that night by doing something awesome. Who knows; if I don’t lose interest in this halfway through the year I may even tally it up at the end of the season.)
Homer was absolutely in vintage form tonight. Luongo is going to be having nightmares about the sight of Homer’s rear end for weeks. It kind of makes you wonder how the Wings would’ve fared with Homer healthy in the playoffs, eh? Let it never be said that I don’t love me some Demolition Man.

An Extra Stick Tap and a Gold Star for good measure go to Pavel Datsyuk
He couldn’t have picked a better time to come alive. He notched his first two goals of the season and picked up an assist on the Wings’ first goal (really though, would it have killed him to pick up the hat trick so I could have had some Arby’s?). I hope I’m not the only one who has a sneaky feeling that he’s getting set to go on a tear.

Chris Osgood gets the Golden Facepalm
(The Golden Facepalm goes to the player each game who makes me yell things like, “Oh my god, why would you do that?” “Turn in your jersey. Now.” and, “Seriously? Why?” the most times throughout the course of the game.)
As discussed above, Ozzie put up a horrendous performance. He needs to get things fixed. The Wings can’t afford to have him flounder his way through the season this time around.

What I learned:
It’s a lot more fun to write these things when the Wings win. Ok, so maybe that wasn’t exactly a revelation, but I haven’t had nearly enough happy hockey moments so far this season.