Red Wings vs. Penguins GP...

Red Wings: 28-11-6

Penguins: 28-14-4

Red Wing Zen:

Tomas Tatar

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

Point and Laugh:

Mike Rupp

4-4-8, +/- 1, 72 PIM

Red Wings 5, Flames 4 (SO): Post Game Snipes...

• This one's going to be brief since I have to wake up insanely early to hit the road tomorrow morning.
• Jimmy has me worried.
• When did Darren Helm learn how to finish? I'm liking it.
• I was stunned to find out that Rafalski hadn't scored a goal until tonight. He scored on two long shots that probably should've been saved, but I'll take whatever I can get.
• Ken Daniels credited Helm with a “Datsyukian deke.” Little brother was excited because it had been a long time since he'd heard that. Evidently it made his day.
• How about that backcheck from Tomas Tatar to keep the game tied in the third?
• On the same play, Stuart fell victim to a nasty headshot that only went down as “roughing.” Yeah, right. It was from the blindside, he was vulnerable, the head was targeted, and there was an injury on the play. Am I missing anything? This is the kind of hit the NHL's supposedly trying to crack down on. I would imagine that it'll be looked at by Colin Campbell tomorrow.
• That penalty kill during OT was phenomenal. I'm not normally one to hope for shootouts, but in that case, it was better than the other likely outcome.
• I'm not used to this whole winning shootouts thing. It's a bit confusing.
• Why is Z so BAD at the shootout?  I really feel like he should be better.

Hero: Brian Rafalski
He picked up his first two goals of the season tonight.

Villain: Tom Kostopoulos
He laid a textbook headshot on Stuart and lucked out with only a 2-minute roughing penalty.

Final Thought:
I'm going to be offline for a little while as I get settled into my new digs. I have no idea how often I'm going to be able to watch games for the rest of the season. I'll be keeping up with captions, trivia, and GPs, but recaps may be few and far between. It's hard to tell at this point.

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

• This was a weird game in the sense that I didn't think the Wings played terribly, but they still managed to give up four goals to the lowly Islanders and lose in overtime.
• Nick Lidstrom scored one of the Islanders' goals for them. Though generous, it was a decidedly un-perfect play.
• When I heard that Tatar was getting called up, I thought, “Gee, he seems like the kind of guy who'd score a goal in his first NHL game.” It wasn't a prediction per se, but it was pretty sweet to see him do it.
• You could almost predict that the Wings were going to give up a goal on that OT penalty kill after Franzen had his stick slashed in half with no call. Those kinds of screw-ups always lead to goals.

Hero: Tomas Tatar
He stepped up as a last-minute call-up in his first NHL game. Here's hoping he keeps it up.

Villain: P.A. Parenteau
Thanks for ruining New Year's Eve.

Final Thought:
The Wings still ended 2010 with single digits in their regulation loss column. The only other team that can say that is Vancouver; they've played two fewer games, though.

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.

Capping Off A Sports-Tastic Day...

I’ve been in sports mode pretty much since I got up this morning. I was at the UM game in the Big House starting at noon, then I went home and caught a few innings of the Tigers game, and then I followed that up by driving down to Detroit for the Wings game. It was by far the most sports-tastic day of my life. Too bad I was only 1 for 3 in terms of victories.

Anyway, it was absolutely fabulous to be at the Joe for some real live hockey. I realize that it’s only been three months since the end of the playoffs, but it feels like forever and a day. I was excited to see the Joe full of energy even though it was just a pre-season game. Right off the bat, there were “Let’s Go, Red Wings!” chants, and they continued throughout the game. There was also a pretty loud round of “Miller sucks” after he tripped Kris Draper in the third period. Yeah, we’re Hockeytown. (Unless, of course, they were just expressing their dislike of that particular variety of beer...)

I posted my pictures over here. I went down to the Wings' end to take some close-ups of their warmups, but unfortunately, as soon as I made it down to the glass, my camera battery died. And, as luck would have it, the spare pair of batteries that I brought with me turned out to be dead as well. Instead, I ended up taking a few videos on my phone. I’ll put those up on Youtube as soon as I’m reunited with my microSD adapter tomorrow. Be sure to check out the “Osogod” jersey that I found, though. It was literally the first thing I saw when I stepped through the curtains. I don't know whether that's a good sign or not. On one hand, it's a fail. But on the other, I'm okay with him attaining deity-like status in Detroit. That can only be a good thing.

I’m not going to bother with a game recap because I’m liable to doze off right at my keyboard if I try to do anything more substantial than point out a few observations.

The top line of Franzen-Datsyuk-Holmstrom was pretty impressive, as you would expect them to be. Pavel Datsyuk does things with the puck that most players can’t even imagine, much less execute. He’s just that good. His setup for Franzen’s goal was spectacular.

The line that really stood out in my mind, though, was Eaves-Draper-Abdelkader. They seemed to be making an impact every time they were on the ice. Draper looked like he was flying, which is a good sign for the coming season, and Abdelkader was all over the place as well. I didn’t notice anything spectacular from Eaves, but he made some solid, hard-working plays, which is about what I expect from him. If the fourth line can find its way back to relevance this season, regardless of who ends up playing on it, that bodes well for the Wings.

Tomas Tatar definitely looks like the real deal. He had several good chances, and it was telling that he was out on the ice in the final minute when the Wings were trying to score with the goalie pulled. I’m even more excited that he’s going to be playing somewhere in North America next season, and I’m expecting good things from him in the future.

I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see Thomas McCollum tonight. I don’t know if the plan was for Jimmy Howard to play the whole game, or if they just left him in because he was pitching a shutout, but I was looking forward to seeing McCollum. Howard certainly didn’t have a whole lot of work, but he actually looked pretty solid. The two goals he let in weren’t particularly bad. In fact, I think the Detroit News’ recap treats him a little harshly (I know. I’m defending Jimmy Howard. Not that I put a whole lot of faith in their reports anyway. How do you not mention how well Draper and Abdelkader played?).

The other guy I was looking forward to seeing was Jakub Kindl. I didn’t notice him very often, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing for a defenseman.

I hope everyone saw Logan Pyatt tripping out of the penalty box. I had a good laugh. I'm sure he took a good ribbing about it after the game. These are the little things that make my days go by.

During one of the intermissions, we happened to see the new arena hostess lady walk by a couple of times (she and her handler seemed lost for some reason...), and if anyone figures out how she manages to make it up and down the stairs in the stands in those stiletto boots, let me know. Lord knows I have enough trouble sober and in sneakers.

I also discovered that every time the Wings find themselves down 2-1 near the end of the third period, I’m going to have traumatic flashbacks to Game 7. For the rest of my life, probably. I just kept imagining…never mind. I can’t talk about it.

Despite the fact that they lost, I had a great time at the game. Any day I get to wear my Stevie Y jersey down to the Joe is a good day in my book, and just walking around seeing the arena filled with the sounds of “Let’s Go Red Wings” chants and pucks on sticks is enough to bring a smile to my face. There’s absolutely nothing like live hockey. I am SO ready for the season to start. Can it be October 2nd yet?

Interesting Quotes (This will be a semi-regular feature, as I have a long history of collecting random quotes from those around me and compiling them on the internet):

Girl: “Ew, that guy smells like seafood.”
Boyfriend: “Eh, he probably just has an octopus down his pants.”
Girl: *completely confused and disturbed*

(Only at the Joe...)

Guy: “I can’t see because she’s leaning too far forward. I was gonna say something, but then I noticed that she’s got an Yzerman on, and I can’t bring myself to yell at a girl like that.”

(I’m fairly certain he was referring to me. If so, this was cleverly calculated to be just loud enough for me to hear it without being obnoxious. I also apologize for any viewing obstructions that I caused. However, as my dad and I explained to my mom, nobody watches hockey while reclining back in their seats. Also, I’m inappropriately intense when the Wings are on. Deal with it.)

Random News on a Friday Afternoon...

The Wings' season hasn't officially started yet, and I'm already stressing about injuries. This is not a good sign. It's entirely too early for us to be worrying about Henrik Zetterberg and his groin. Seriously. According to The Detroit News (and many other reports), Z won't be in the lineup tonight (or tomorrow) because of that nagging groin injury. Which is lovely, because it's exactly the way I had envisioned this season starting. Probably the only good thing about this report is the picture that accompanied it. Look at Mike Babcock's eyes. I'm a little bit intimidated just looking at the picture.

In other Zetterberg news, the Free Press reported that he's looking forward to having Todd Bertuzzi on his wing this season:

"It's going to be fun to play with Bert," Zetterberg said Thursday. "He's a great player. I've played against him many times, and he's strong with the puck and is really skilled and a big guy. Most of the time with Todd, when he gets the opportunity he puts it away."

Which is nice, but really, what else was he supposed to say? "Yeah, it's really going to suck playing with Bert, but I'm going to try to make the best of things and cover for his defensive lapses whenever possible?" I'm not saying that that's how he feels or anything, but I'm cynical and kind of a jerk, so those are the things that I think whenever I read quotes like that. If you're looking for a more optomistic take on things, The Production Line has an excellent post called "What if Hank is Right?"

What if he is? If that's the case, Kenny Holland will be invited to join Mensa, if he hasn't already. I'm on the record as being very anti-Bertuzzi, but if he can perform, it won't take much to get me to back his signing. I'm not saying I'll ever be his biggest fan or like him personally, but performing well in a Wings uniform is a really good way to get me on your side. He may just turn out to be a great pick up for the team, and as I said before, I would love nothing more than to spend some time next summer writing about how his season was one of the great redemption stories in the NHL.

In one final bit of news, Tomas Tatar has signed a three-year deal with the team. At the moment, it's not clear whether he'll end up in Grand Rapids or Plymouth, but having him in North America will be a good thing. From what I've read, he had a great prospects tournament and pre-season, and I'm looking forward to seeing him play. It sounds like he's got the right skill set and attitude to fit in well on the Wings. But really the real reason that I'm posting this little bit of info is because I'm taking a Russian history class right now, and one of the important factors in the formation of their empire was a group of people called the Tatars. And every time my textbook mentions the Tatars, I get distracted thinking about hockey. In the chapter I'm currently working my way through, this happens approximately every two paragraphs. This doesn't bode well for the rest of the semester.