My former roommate, and recent convert to Red Wings nation (and hockey in general) back in New York IM’d me shortly after the game ended and made a comment that caused me to laugh a little:

ok, don’t get me wrong, i’m glad we won
but i wish that the entire game had been like the last 5ish mins

The Wings were flat for the first period and a half.  But guess what?  I couldn’t care less.  They won.  We won.  They cranked it up and played like the 2008 Detroit Red Wings rather than the 2006 Detroit Red Wings.  They get to go back home to the JLA with one win, and we got 7 goals and free curly fries courtesy of Mr. Zetterberg.  I’ll take it.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Henrik Zetterberg (pp; Filppula, Kronwall); Pavel Datsyuk (Franzen, Holmstrom); Valtteri Filppla (Bertuzzi, Ericsson); Justin Abdelkader (unassisted); Henrik Zetterberg (Bertuzzi); Valtteri Filppula (pp; Stuart, Kronwall); Henrik Zetterberg (EN; unassisted)
Phoenix: Keith Yandle (Hanzal, Vrbata); Wojtek Wolski (unassisted); Matthew Lombardi (Doan, Wolski); Shane Doan (Fiddler, Morris)

– I don’t exactly understand why the Wings thought that playing the dump-and-chase for the first period and a half was going to be effective, but they did.  And it made me want to tear my hair out.  It was like watching the 3rd period of Game 1 all over again.

– We can thank Dennis Larue for the even, consistent, and unbiased officiating.  Because when Sami Lepisto drops his stick, we all know that’s actually a slashing penalty.

+ I’m convinced that the Wings turned it around mid-way through the 2nd period because I changed my shirt.  Hey, whatever we think works, right?  Hell, I’d change my underwear every intermission (yeah, I was totally going to say “every period” but, ah, poor choice of words there) if it would mean the Wings played like they did the second half of the game.

+ On a more serious note, hey, wow, look what happens when you start winning faceoffs, possessing the puck, getting secondary and tertiary chances, and hitting people.

– The 2nd period reminded me of a trend from last year’s SCF games against the Penguins when the Wings would score, and then allow Pittsburgh to score immediately after.  Can’t get caught celebrating your goal still after the puck drops again–and they seemed to rectify that in the 3rd.

+ It was nice to see the Wings really wake up after Filppula’s first goal.  Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Flip, Lidstrom were just very ON from that point on, and the pace of the game completely changed.  The three forwards had 6 SOG a piece, and each scored at least a goal.  This is what Detroit needs from their top 6.  Is that the flip of the switch that we’ve been waiting for? (Get it?  Flip?  Filppula?  ’Cause he scored the goal that…oh… nevermind).  Speed can kill a team, and from about the 10 minute mark in the 2nd, it felt like the Wings were just taking it Phoenix, fast and furious.  The turning of the tide was punctuated by the fact that Detroit did not allow a Coyotes’ goal mere seconds after Flip’s.  Keep the pace uptempo and fast, and they’ll continue to “turnstile” the Coyotes, who can’t keep up.  That was the best hockey I’ve seen the Wings play all season, and that’s the team that will rip Phoenix to shreds.

+ Holy Justin Abdelkader, that puck strip and goal was shades of Datsyuk.  I was on the fence about replacing J-Wills with Abby, since quite frankly, there were other players who didn’t play up to par in Game 1, but I can’t deny that having his physicality injected into the lineup helped.  He got the goal, 2 SOG, and 5 hits in 8:27 TOI, and went 6 and 5 in the faceoff circle (54.5 win percentage).  In short, he completely outplayed Kris Draper, statistically.

– Shane Doan is still a massive jerkoff.  Just sayin’.

+ I never thought I’d say this, but I was never more relieved when Versus ended their coverage of the Blackhawks/Predators game in time for the 2nd and 3rd of the Wings/Coyotes game.  Rick Peckham and Daryl Reaugh actually have done a very good job on the broadcasts, and Reaugh also gets bonus points for managing to talk about the long change in the 2nd without sounding like a complete douche, ala Eddie Olczyk.

I am now trying to figure out how I can get my ass down to Phoenix for Game 5… we’ll see how that ends up working out.

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