Red Wings 2, Canucks 0: Post Game Snipes...

• Normally, I'd be aggravated and cranky about a four-day break in the schedule, but just this once it was okay because it meant that I got to devote all of my attention to the Tigers. They won their afternoon game today, setting up a perfect Detroit double-header. It seemed like the Baseball Gods were smiling on us today.
• So, I guess I should get back to hockey, eh?  I'm pretty sure that's what this blog is actually about, though it's been kind of a while since I was updating regularly.  Whoops.
• The game started off pretty slow, especially after the heart-attacks from the Tigers game, and the Wings looked exactly like you'd expect a team to look after being off for entirely too many days for such an early point in the season.
• The Wings managed to hold the Canucks off until the second period, at which point they proceeded to have their way with them. Granted, Vancouver was playing the tail end of a back-to-back, but they didn't exactly look like a team that went to the Finals just a few months ago.
• Pavel Datsyuk seemed determined to put on a good show on his bobblehead night. One of my oldest friends was at the Joe tonight, and I gave her a mission to obtain a bobblehead for me. She failed. Anyone have a spare?
• I really like the fact that Abby followed up his fight with a goal.
• Back-to-back shutouts. Not bad, eh?

Red Wings vs. Canucks GP...

Red Wings: 2-0-0

Canucks: 1-1-1

Red Wings Zen:

Point and Laugh:

Video Candy:

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%

Weekly Wrap-Up Volume Seventeen...

Caption Mondays: The general consensus this week was that the gentlemen in the stands were checking out Henrik Zetterberg. In light of that, here are two sets of captions for your reading pleasure.

From Norm:
Linesman: "Hey 40, those guys behind the glass-are they checking you out too, or just me?"
Zetterberg: (silence)

From Sara Neuie:
Zebra: I just don't get it man... I'm not a bad-looking fella, I'm tall, I've got a job with authority, why can't I get a girl?
Hank (gnaws on mouthguard): I'm telling you, chicks dig beards. Especially Swedish chicks.
Zebra: Really? You think that'd work?
Hank: Well, whatever you do, don't go around making faces like the guys behind us...

Trivia Tuesdays: Clark beat TimFill to the punch this week. That'll teach you to read things, Tim.

This week's question: The Wings hold the record for most home overtime losses in a single playoff run. How many OT losses did they have? What year did they set this record?

The Answer: They set this record during the '02 Cup run with four home overtime losses. One was against Vancouver, two were against Colorado, and one was in the Finals against Carolina.

Red Wings vs. Canucks GP...

Red Wings: 26-10-5

Canucks: 27-8-5

Red Wing Zen:

Niklas Kronwall

8-13-21, +/- 6, 22 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Ryan Kesler

23-16-39, +/- 17, 38 PIM

Red Wings 5, Canucks 4 (OT): Post Game Snipes...

• I was planning on going to the Joe tonight with student rush tickets, but when we got there, we discovered that it was already sold out. We ended up at a freezing cold bar in Greektown instead.
• Pav's been the Wings' best player this season, and losing him for a month is killer. Luckily, I was at Astoria when I got the bad news, so delicious baked goods were within reach. What had begun as a victory celebration at the bakery turned into the ever-so-rare celebratory/eat-your-feelings pastry excursion.  Thank god for carrot cake.
• I already miss Pav...the most.
• We were quite amused (after it was over, of course) by the play when Jimmy Howard was way out of the net and Rig was left to play goalie. It was terrifying at the time, but we got a good laugh out of it.
• Except for that one play with Rig as a goalie, the beginning of the game was all Wings.
• Look, it's a Homerfly!

• You know what's awesome about being a Red Wings fan? Sitting back after an exciting overtime victory and picking apart all of the things your team did poorly during the game.
• Our reaction to Fil's goal went something along the lines of, “Wait, he shot the puck? Are you sure that was Flippy?”
• Dan Cleary continues to amaze everyone.
• Luongo should've made the save on Z's overtime goal. I would've been pretty upset with Jimmy if that shot had gone in at the other end of the ice.

Hero: Henrik Zetterberg
Two goals on the night are usually enough to earn a guy hero status.

Villain: Mikael Samuelsson
He's on my list now for sure. As if tripping Pav when he broke his hand/wrist wasn't enough, Sammy had to go and add a goal later.

Final Thought:
Fil, Mule, and Hudler all need to do more to make up for missing Pav for the next few weeks. Zetterberg needs to be as dominant as he was tonight for the rest of his fellow Eurotwin's absence.

Red Wings vs. Canucks GP...

Red Wings: 20-8-4

Canucks: 19-8-4

Red Wing Zen:

Niklas Kronwall

7-8-15, +/- 7, 14 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Ryan Kesler

16-10-26, +/- 10, 30 PIM

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

• I don't know what the first period looked like. I also don't know what all but the final 1:22 of the second period looked like. Why? Nobody's been able to explain that to me. Somehow, the recording that I had set to begin at 7:30 didn't begin until 9:06.
• I'm told that the first two periods weren't that exciting anyway, so maybe it's better that I only got to watch the third period. Sadly, I also missed overtime for other DVR failure-related reasons.
• What I did get to see of the third period looked like solid Red Wings hockey. The Wings were carrying the play to the Coyotes and playing their standard puck-possession game.
• You know what Justin Abdelkader has done since coming back into the lineup? He's made those around him better.
• You know what Jiri Hudler has done? Nothing.
• How nice was it to see Rafalski back in the lineup?
• Zetterberg's overtime tip-in was beautiful hockey.

1. We get to see how the Wings bounce back from a less-than-stellar performance in Vancouver on Saturday tonight.
They definitely looked better in the portion of the game that I got to see. It's hard to make an assessment based on such a small sample, though.

2. How about playing a little defense tonight?
There were more turnovers than I would've liked to have seen during the third period, but it was a much improved effort over Saturday night.

3. The Wings dropped their last game against the Coyotes, so here's hoping they find a way to solve Bryzgalov this time around.
It was indeed a much happier outcome than the last time around.

Hero: Henrik Zetterberg
He came through with the winner in OT. Not only was it a pretty tip-in, but it also ensured that we wouldn't have to witness a shootout tonight.

Villain: Lee Stempniak
I still haven't witnessed the Jimmy Howard writhing in pain incident, but perhaps that's for the best. Just thinking about it makes me nauseous. And stabby.

Final Thought:
Have you ever ordered a Coke in a restaurant and gotten served a root beer? That's what it feels like to come home, sit down on the couch, and prop your feet up expecting to watch your recording of a hockey game only to discover that someone decided that you shouldn't be able to watch the Red Wings that night.

Red Wings 4, Canucks 6: Post Game Snipes...

• I had the great pleasure of watching this game with the Commune at Sara's belated Halloween party. Regardless of the outcome of the game, watching the Wings play with the Commune is always infinitely more fun than watching alone. Those of you who haven't had the chance to do so are missing out. I feel sorry for you, really.
• Last night was an awfully sad defensive play from two of the best teams in hockey.
• Vancouver's throwback jerseys were nice and all, but the lack of names on the back was killing me.
• The turnover by Datsyuk that led to Vancouver's shorthanded goal was surprising. We all kind of looked at each other and said, “That was Pav?” It was uncharacteristic for sure, but those things happen sometimes. Hopefully he'll come back fired up on monday.
• The parade to the penalty box at the end of the game was unhelpful, to say the least. It seems like the Wings have a habit of taking a lot of late-game penalties. Or maybe it's my imagination.
• The only three Wings who ended up with positive +/- ratings were Kronwall, Zetterberg, Stuart, and TAWD. Lidstrom was an ugly -3.

1. How will the Wings look playing in the second night of a back-to-back?
They were incredibly sloppy and disorganized in the third period, and it wouldn't surprise me if that had a lot to do with having played the night before. Plus, they were probably pretty confused about not having four days off between games like they've been having. “What do you mean we have to play again already?”

2. The second line has been kind of quiet over the last couple of games. I want to see them have a big night tonight.
Neither one of the top lines looked like their usual dominating selves.

3. Ericsson's looked pretty good in the couple of games he's played since coming back from his injury. I guess he doesn't want to lose his job to Kindl after all. Can he keep it up tonight against a better Vancouver team?
He actually scored a goal and he didn't really look that out of place on the team last night. Then again, the rest of the guys didn't really look that spectacular either, so I guess that made him look comparatively better.

Hero: Niklas Kronwall
He netted two goals last night. That should be enough to stand out on any night.

Villain: Manny Malhotra
He also scored two goals last night, including the shorty that put Vancouver in the lead in the second period and seemed to turn the tide definitively in their favor.

Final Thought:
The Wings didn't look so good, but it happens. Even dominant teams have their off nights.

Red Wings vs. Canucks GP...

Red Wings: 8-2-1

Canucks: 7-3-2

1. How will the Wings look playing in the second night of a back-to-back?
2. The second line has been kind of quiet over the last couple of games. I want to see them have a big night tonight.
3. Ericsson's looked pretty good in the couple of games he's played since coming back from his injury. I guess he doesn't want to lose his job to Kindl after all. Can he keep it up tonight against a better Vancouver team?

Red Wing Zen:

Henrik Zetterberg

3-10-13, +/- 8, 4 PIM

Point and Laugh:

Aaron Rome

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

I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to watch the game tonight so there may or may not be a recap.

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.

Red Wings vs. Canucks GP...

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?
2. Can the powerplay actually keep working consistently after a good performance against Colorado on Monday?
3. How is Lilja going to hold up in his second game back? This is when his conditioning should start catching up to him.
4. Just how Danglelicious is Pavel Datsyuk going to be tonight?
5. How many goals are going to be called off because of Tomas Holmstrom’s behind?

Red Wings vs. Stars GP...

1. The Wings are once again sniffing at a playoff spot tonight and they also have a chance to put some distance between themselves and a team that’s coming up behind them in the standings. They’ll need some things to fall into place for them, since both LA and Vancouver are also playing today, but by night’s end, the Wings could potentially be tied for 7th place in the conference. You’d like to think that this would be the kind of game the boys could get motivated for, so which version of the Wings will we get treated to this afternoon?
2. The Wings’ powerplay actually served its purpose a couple of times on Thursday night. This was quite an exciting change of pace for us Wings fans. Is there any chance that we’ll get to see a little more of that today?
3. Now that Lidstrom’s little scoring drought has been ended, I’ve decided to pick on Pav. He looked better last game than he has of late, but he’s had a tendency to fade away for a couple of games at a time before roaring back to life. Can he follow up Thursday’s effort with an even better one, or will we be wondering if he even played a shift by the end of the game?
4. Drew Miller had an amazing game Thursday night. If he keeps it up, he’s going to enter the realm of the unbenchable. Is he going to be able to follow that up with another remarkable effort?

Anyway, the one good thing about the LA and Vancouver games today is that they’re against teams in the East. I know the Western Conference is much better than the East, but at least if the results are favorable to the Wings, the two points will be going out of conference, and any potential 3-point games won’t hurt as much. Are you ready to root for Pittsburgh (and Boston, although that doesn’t hurt as much) tonight?

Interview with Andy from Fight Night at the Joe...

The third and final part of Q&A series is with Andy from Fight Night at the Joe (You can also follow him on Twitter @FightNightatJoe.). It's an English-language blog (so there's no excuse for not stopping by) written all the way from Norway. I hope you've enjoyed reading these as much as I have. I'll be back in action Wednesday morning with a GP for the Chicago game if things go according to plan.

How did you first become a fan of the Red Wings? Why did you choose them over other pro teams?

This one has a bit of story behind it. My first favourite hockey club was the Canucks, because when I was four or five (92 or 93) my dad went to Canada and brought home one of those horrible jerseys the Canucks had at the time. It was the white away jersey by the way. When we got a channel that showed NHL in early 95 (they sent some re-airings of games during the day and now and then I was allowed to stay up and watch games live) I realized that except for Bure, the Canucks bored me, while these guys in Red and White had nice jerseys, a good swede, a russian line and Steve Yzerman. So I kinda started rooting for them then. And got to see a couple of pretty disappointing post-seasons, which really actually is something that makes you love a team more. The defining moment came in the summer of 96 though. I was at a hockey camp in Asker (15 minutes outside of Oslo) and we got visited for an afternoon and a morning by Scotty Bowman and Barry Smith (who were both in Europe for some reason). They had an on ice practice with us and coached us in an inter-group game (they coached each team for half the game) and also handed out some Red Wings effects. I still have a sticker saying "Proud to be a Wings fan" and I've been ever since the day I got it.

How large is the community of Wings fans where you live? Are there a lot of other NHL fans?

I've met a few dedicated Wings fans through the years, but none of my friends are Wings fans. Only three of my friends are NHL fans and they support the Avs, Caps and Pens respectively. Actually, most of the people that compliment me on my awesome Gordie Howe hall of fame t-shirt are guys who have been the Wings on the EA Sports NHL games.

The hockey community in Norway is very small, which is weird seeing as we're neighbooring Sweden, Finland and Russia. We've got about 30 indoor hockey rinks and maybe a few more active clubs than that. The economy in Norwegian hockey is pretty bad, and a team actually had to pull out of our Elite League in the second week this year because of bankruptcy. Still hockey is the second most watched live sport in Norway. Sadly, it is not watched much on TV and it doesn't get much attention. So the NHL following here is pretty weak. But hey, we at least made it to the olympics!

What do you do to follow the team? Is it difficult to see games or find news about the Wings or the NHL in general?

To follow the team, I watch every game (and usually OnTheFly) and read Wings blogs. To answer the second question, that is not easy at all. We've got one pay TV channel that sends a few games per week live and then a few more as re-airings in the daytime. So to watch the games you have to shell out for ESPN 360 (which covers most of the regular season games) or resort to methods that I probably shouldn't discuss here. Another problem is that the games start at like 1-2 AM here, so unless it's the playoffs I usually watch re-airings or on demand. The papers write little about NHL. The one that's best on hockey maybe has 2-5 small notices about the NHL per week and a big article every second or third month. And the little they write is usually either about Sid, OV or one of our NHLers (right now that's only Ole-Kristian Tollefsen of the Flyers). So internet is the place for NHL news.

What made you decide to start blogging about the Wings?

My road into blogging started when I began reading the Hockeytown Blog. Their links hooked me on other blogs and I started to read Snipe snipe, Dangle dangle and the Triple Deke regularly. As the weeks went by I started reading more and more blogs and one day I was bored at the university I thought that writing a blog looked kinda fun. So I started writing there and then.

Have you ever had the chance to see them play in person?

Yes, me and a mate (the Avs fan) went to Stockholm and saw the first game against the Blues this October. It was pretty fun, though the fact Blues won was a bummer. But we had 2nd row seats behind the St. Louis goal, and all the goals except Leino's and the first Blues goal was scored right in front of us.
The only other NHL game I've seen live was Sabres beating the Leafs 4-1 at the ACC on New Years day this year (I was in Toronto as parent for my brother's hockey team, who were playing a tournament).

What is your favorite hockey memory?

On the ice: Winning a Norwegian chapionship for under 15s (though that was bittersweet as I got 1 shift in the final game), scoring a hat trick against our rivals once and being a part of beating Farjestad one of the best teams in Sweden over two nights.

As a fan it's pretty hard to choose. Seeing Nick with the cup in 08 at five in the morning, two hours before I was off for a German festival was a highlight. The 7-0 blowout against the Avs in the 02 playoffs another. And I'll never forget when Stevie handed the trophy to Konstantinov in 98.
But I've gotta go with game four in 97. Even though i was just 9 years old and had been a Wings fan for two years, I understood the magnitude of the drought, and seeing them winning was huge. McCarty's goal might be my favourite single hockey moment.

Who is your favorite player on the roster right now? Why?

Tough one. I'd like to answer Ozzie, Nick or Dats. And Helm is becoming a favourite too, but I have to go with Henrik Zetterberg. He is the leader, the star, the guy who neutralizes the opponent's stars, while he creates offense at the same time. And he seems like a nice bloke. Nick might be more perfect, and Datsyuk has more flash, but Z is the heart of the team for me, and I can't really think of a player that I'd pick over him in the whole NHL.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Not really, only that Stevie Y is the man and always will be and that female Norwegian Wings fans should contact me (though I have a feeling that's a non-existant race).

And yeah, thanks for getting a chance to be interviewed here!

Wings vs. Stars GP...

Wings vs. Stars @7:30 PM

1. So it appears that we won’t get to see Marty Turco tonight. That’s a shame, considering how he’s historically fared at the Joe. Will his backup manage to fail as spectacularly in Detroit as Marty has in the past?
2. I’ve seen different reports today regarding which Wings forward will be scratched. As of now, it sounds like Brad May will be in the lineup, though. Who’s taking bets on how long it’s going to take him to square off against one of the Stars? (Ott, anyone?)
3. Speaking of Ott, how many minutes into the game will it be before I begin throwing things at my TV whenever I see him on the ice?
4. Jimmy Howard is making his fourth straight start tonight. He was almost untested against Columbus, looked pretty solid against Vancouver, and looked shaky during the third period of the Anaheim game. All in all, it hasn’t been a bad run for him. I was starting to consider turning my opinion of him around until the issues toward the end of the game on Saturday caused me to hold off on that. Will he use tonight to continue work his way into my good graces as a reliable backup (please) or live up to my pre-season perceptions?

Okay, so I may or may not have phoned this one in. I can’t shake the feeling that I’m missing something important here, but school and illness are forcing my hand. I might be on Twitter during the game tonight. I might not. It depends on how much of my gigantic paper that’s due tomorrow night that I get done before puck drop.

Wings vs. Ducks GP...

Wings vs. Ducks @7 PM

1. Chris PYG may have departed from the formerly mighty Ducks, but there’re still plenty of goons to hate. So who’s going to make me want to throw things at the TV tonight? Perry? Getzlaf? Niedermayer? Someone’s bound to throw an elbow or two. I’d also steer clear of the press box if Bob Murray is in attendance, or at least make sure the seats are bolted down. Anaheim’s classiness doesn’t stop on the ice, sunshines.
2. I’m getting really tired of asking this question every day, but which Red Wings team is going to show up tonight? The one that absolutely walked all over Columbus or the one that had to rely on Jimmy Howard of all people to keep them in the game against the Canucks? I swear this team is schizophrenic.
3. Saturday’s aren’t always kind to us Wings fans. Will the boys put on a better show than they did last weekend?
4. There’s going to be a ceremony to honor Nick Lidstrom for his 1,000th point before the game tonight, so how long is it going to take the Wings to get their heads in the game? In addition to having a case of schizophrenia, I think this team has the attention span of a 3-year-old.
5. I’ve been assigned to live blog an event of my choosing for one of my classes. Since it was obviously a no-brainer to choose a Wings game, two of my classmates and I will be setting up shop at a bar tonight to run an event using Cover it Live. Yes, you read that correctly: I’m going to be doing homework on my laptop in a bar on Saturday night. I feel like it’s gong to be the ultimate college experience. How many strange looks will our little trio get? How many times are we going to be informed that we’re the ultimate nerds? It should be a rollicking good time, so feel free to join us.

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?

October Memoir...

Well it’s been quite the rocky month for us Wings fans. This has been by far the most stressful start to the season that I’ve ever lived through. The Wings currently sit at 19th in the league with a grand total of 13 points from 12 games. On the plus side, this is the first time they’ve topped the .500 mark this season, so happy dances for that. I’m still waiting for this season to become fun.

The Wings have had a number of issues throughout the season. They appear, at least in my ever-hopeful mind, to be slowly working through some of them. It’s seemed, so far, that every time they get one problem fixed, another one crops up. If there’s a problem a hockey team can experience, you can bet that the Wings have run into it during this still-young season. Defensive breakdowns, injuries, offensive slumps, injuries, poor goaltending, injuries, lack of chemistry, special teams failures, injuries, lack of effort, and, of course, injuries. If Brad May getting high sticked in the eye by his own teammate while sitting on the bench doesn’t exemplify the way the Wings’ season has gone so far, I don’t know what does. If there had somehow been a defensive zone turnover involved in the play, it would really have summed things up nicely.

I had such high hopes at the start of this season. I really did believe all that stuff I wrote over the summer about the Wings coming out breathing fire and dead set on avenging their loss. Imagine my surprise when they sleepwalked through the Sweden games and came home 0-2. Unfortunately, things didn’t exactly pick up upon their return home. Since I didn’t see the reportedly solid Calgary game, I can count on one hand the number of really solid periods of hockey that I’ve seen the Wings play thus far. Granted, my standards for what I consider to be “solid” are a little higher than the majority of NHL fans, but I’ve been spoiled and I go into every game expecting perfection.

Things have picked up somewhat over the last week or so. Despite the excessive amounts of goals allowed during the Vancouver and Edmonton games, the Wings at least showed a little bit of fire on those nights as they battled back from early deficits. Now the next step will be figuring out how to score the first goal… By my count, they’ve only done this in three games: October 3rd against St. Louis, the 17th against Colorado, and the 24th against Colorado. All three of those games turned out to be losses (one in a shootout), so I think this is the point where I’m supposed to comment on their ability to hold onto a lead or something. I feel like I’ve already done that numerous times, though, so I’m going to move on now.

Despite my excessively critical (and sometimes borderline angry) posts over the course of the last month, I still have high hopes for this team. I really get the sense that they’re getting ready to turn the corner and that come April, we’ll all be looking back and chuckling at the Great October Panic of 2009 (well, maybe not chuckling, but at least not ripping our hair out).

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.