I’ll be honest, I sort of zoned out halfway through this game.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Tomas Holmstrom (pp; Zetterberg, Datsyuk); Henrik Zetterberg (Stuart, Kronwall); Niklas Kronwall (EN; Howard, Stuart)
Vancouver: Mason Raymond (pp; Bieksa, Kesler)

Pluses
+ Jimmy Howard.  He had a good game.  I didn’t feel confident, per se, but I also didn’t have a miniature heart attack everytime he went to make a save.  He played back to back for the first time… ever? and managed to come out with a win both times.  Granted, he could have fallen asleep in the crease against Columbus and it wouldn’t have mattered.  More importantly, he kept the Red Wings in the game in this one.  He was easily the only player awake in the first period, at any rate.  Jim’s looking like an NHL goaltender.  Sort of.
+ Brad May had a much better fight tonight against Rick Rypien, until he got his sweater yanked up over his head.
+ Very glad that Eaves was able to come back after crashing into the boards awkwardly.  Last thing we need is yet another forward out.
+ This doesn’t really fall under plus or minus, but it’s more of a plus because he didn’t suck–Drew Miller wore #20 (also worn by Luc Robitaille, Aaron Downey, and Brad May, briefly) and played fine.  I didn’t notice him a ton, which is really neither here nor there.
+ What a shot by Zetterberg.  According to Kevin Allen of USA Today, Luongo said of the goal: “Not many guys can do that, only a handful of guys in the whole league.”

Minuses
– The guys had no legs for most of the game.  It took until the 3rd to get cranking, but prior to that they looked like they were skating through mud.
– Shots on goal were pathetic.  At one point in the 1st period they were 12-4, Vancouver.  They ended the period 15-5.  The game totals were somehow 32-29, advantage Canucks.  I was afraid that the Wings had used up all their offense on Wednesday.  Through at least 2 periods both Datsyuk and Zetterberg had zero shots.  Total.  No shots on net, no missed shots, no blocked shots.
– I had to watch the CanucksTV PPV feed, and they had a 2-part feature on Mikael Samuelsson.  I get that they’re a little infatuated with the guy since he’s been putting up decent numbers, but sheesh.  Man crush, much?
– The refs sucked.  Gord Dwyer and Dave Jackson had a  field day calling weak penalties against Detroit in the 2nd.  Conversely, Vancouver only got tagged for 3 minors, even though I saw several plays for which Detroit was called.  Totally weak.

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