And part of the traditions of celebrating Festivus is the “Airing of Grievances”–a declaration of how you’ve been disappointed by those in your life the past year. We may be only 30+ games into the season, but I’ve still got enough grievances to share…

Chris Osgood: You really let me down, Chris. I’ve been in your corner for a long time, defending your ability to actually be a number one goaltender, and then you go out for your first start in like, 40 games, and can’t even save the marshmallow-soft goals from 50 feet out. I know that’s typical for you, but you swore up and down during the summer that this season wouldn’t be like the last one, and that you’d be mentally ready this time around. Well sorry, Chris, but I didn’t see it in Sweden, and I haven’t seen it recently either, when Jimmy has been pushing you to improve your game. I thought after losing last season you would come out on fire, ready to prove your critics wrong once and for all, and it’s sorely disappointing to see otherwise.

Ville Leino: When Kenny went out and picked you up for pretty much nothing, we all crowed about how we got the Finnish Elite League MVP, laughing that we weren’t going to end up like the Dallas Stars, winners of the Fabian Brunnstrom sweepstakes, who has since failed spectacularly to live up to expectations. You were being lauded for your offensive capabilities, and in your first NHL game you scored on that beautiful spin-around backhand. I thought that you were well-suited to pick up some of the slack in terms of scoring. Last year you threatened to return for Finland if you didn’t get a spot with the big club, so when you did, I assumed that meant you were ready to roll. But you’ve clearly proven me wrong with your inability to finish, refusal to skate hard, and utter indifferent attitude.

Brett Lebda: You are not a forward, Brett, you are a defenseman. Please stop moving up with the offense on the rush.

Brad May: At the beginning of the season it was a novelty to have a pugilist back on the team, and you fought like 5 times in your first 5 games.  But now it’s just getting silly, with the most glaring example being that of the “fight” with Kry Barch of the Dallas Stars.  You’re supposed to “keep the flies off,” but I have to say that I haven’t seen much of that recently.

Kirk Maltby: Same goes with you, Malts.  Sometimes you look like a real NHLer again, like at the start of the season when you scored a shorty, had some chances, and got a few points.  Now you’re back to floating around and occasionally blocking lanes and shots.  You’ve given Detroit a lot, and they’ve given back by keeping you on the roster.  But you are slowly being replaced by Justin Abdelkader.  Please don’t overstay your welcome.

Todd Bertuzzi: You know, Todd, I honestly can’t find too much fault with you right now.  You’ve backchecked, and hustled, and now you’re finding chemistry with Pavel to regain that scoring touch.  So I just have one grievance with you, and that’s to please, for the love of all that is holy, stop with the spin-o-rama.  I understand that you scored with it earlier this year, but I know, deep down, you were just as surprised as I was to see that puck actually go in the net and not sailing wide.  But why don’t you just put that move away for a while–you don’t want to become Brian Campbell.

Jonathan Ericsson: It’s not entirely your fault, kid.  Part of it was the inevitable letdown from a strong playoff performance by a rookie defenseman to figuring out the grind of the regular season. But I was disappointed to see very little to none of the confidence and poise you exhibited in the post-season.

Pavel Datsyuk: Yeah, Pavel, you.  Until recently you simply haven’t looked like yourself out there.  I didn’t see the usual Pavel Datsyuk that we’ve been privilege to the last several years.  Where were the Datsyukian Dekes and the dangle dangle?  I’ll be honest, I was getting very close to being frustrated with you.  I know, I know, notoriously slow starter, you had some problems finding a good stick, Bertuzzi couldn’t finish on an open net, whatever.  I’m glad you seem to be getting things going now, there was a time when I was Not Very Happy with you.

Well, those are my grievances for the year so far.  Feel free to share yours in the comments.

The Red Wings also share some of their grievances with each other at the Freep, which are honestly pretty hilarious.

What about the “Feats of Strength”?  Well, news has arrived that Rafalski may not play due to the flu, so for the Red Wings, their feat will be trying to beat a largely complete Blackhawks club, with an insanely depleted roster.

As for the rest of us?  Well, our feat of strength will likely have to do with how long you can deal with abdominal pain from the dry heaves as you cling to the toilet bowl all afternoon.

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I remember when we first acquired May, and he did an intermission interview with FS Detroit.  I was extremely and pleasantly surprised with how articulate and well-spoken May is.  To put on my publicist hat for a moment, he’s a fantastic interview, and should be at the top of the list for any media outlet looking for someone to talk current hockey topics and share a few anecdotes.

Hockey players are fairly bland interviewees, playing it safe with clichés.  They also use the word “obviously” way too often (though I can’t blame them when they’re asked questions whose answers are ridiculously apparent).  May doesn’t really rock the boat with sound bites ala Jeremy Roenick, but he’s thoughtful with his answers, and clearly has his opinions on several topics in hockey.  He also doesn’t mumble, which is always a bonus.  I could very easily see May doing some form of broadcasting when his playing career is over (he has a good voice for radio).

I can’t embed the interview, so here’s the link: HNIC Radio

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Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Henrik Zetterberg (Leino, Lebda); Br–(err, wait.  We’ll get to that.)
Dallas: Mike Ribeiro/Jonathan Ericsson (Just kidding.  Not really.  Oh damn, this is getting out of hand. pp; Richards, Robidas); Niskanen (Richards, Neal); Loui Eriksson (pp; Neal, Modano)

Pluses
+ Brad May won a fight.
+ Jimmy Howard was very good.  I saw him start to scramble a bit, which is something I feel like I’d seen less of over the past three games, but overall he was solid in 32 shots on goal.  I have a hard time saying any of the goals were really his fault.
+ Zetterberg was also up for this game, and his goal was a beauty, top shelf.  He extends his point streak to 4 games.

Minuses
- As I made apparent in the goal summary, a lot of ridiculousness happened.  First up is the Jonny Ericsson own-goal on Howard.  I appreciate that he went down to block the shot, but he hit the ice way too early and took himself out of the defensive play sliding past Ribeiro.  He tried to make up for it by swiping at the puck with his stick, and instead managed to shove the puck past Jimmy, who clearly wasn’t expecting that.  Congrats, Jonathan.
– Now the real meat and potatoes.   Weak calls by the refs happen every night, but this was taking it to a whole new level.  Mickey called it a circus at one point in the 3rd (and I don’t think he meant the Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom circus), and the refs did a great job playing clowns.  Here’s the play:

What I simply cannot wrap my head around, is the concept of saying that the play was blown dead when, upon multiple replays, it’s extremely apparent that the whistle blew a good 2 seconds after Brad May shot the puck into the corner of the net, and Alex Auld sort of trapped it there with his toe.  Auld even looked at where it was, like he knew it was in the net.  Replay shows it was.  Ok, so we all know the puck went into the net.  Dennis LaRue and Stephane Auger reviewed it, and then claimed that the play had been blown dead before the puck crossed the line.  For the love of God man, how can you even think that that’s a logical explanation?

What I really can’t understand is, if Toronto called, that means they reviewed it.  So why didn’t they overrule the ref’s original call?  If it’s unquestionably in the opposite direction of the original call, they can override.  So… how come that didn’t happen, if they had replay available to them?  I can’t wait to hear the reasoning on this one.
– To be honest, it never should have mattered in the first place because the Red Wings played a pretty uninspired game through three anyway.
– Bertuzzi needs to stop with the freaking spin-o-rama.  I don’t know if he’s trying to channel his inner Savard (Serge or Denis), or if he heard that Battle of the Blades has been renewed for a second season and wants to be invited to participate, or what.  But I swear, he tried that dumb move every shift tonight.  Scoring chances created from it?  Maybe one.  Maybe.
– Someone give Brendan Morrow an Acadamy Award for his acting that he got high sticked by Kris Draper.  You’d have thought he’d been shot the way his head snapped back.

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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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Goals were as follows:
Detroit – Nicklas Lidstrom (pp; Williams, Zetterberg); Draper (Maltby, Ericsson); Franzen (pp; Holmstrom, Datsyuk)
Chicago – Patrick Sharp (Versteeg, Seabrook); Kris Versteeg (pp; Sharp, Barker)

• Which, I have to say, made that 5-3 much less nerve-wracking.  At least a little.  Let’s just say that was a reaffirming moment for special teams.
• Kronwall had a solid game, as did Stuart.  According to the boxscore Kronner had 2 blocked shots, but he was great on that 5-3 PK.
• Ozzie looked pretty good, out on top of the crease and challenging shots.
• I really hope Ericsson isn’t hurt too badly.  Really unfortunate that he got hit in the same foot as in Sweden.
• I know it’s kind of a subjective stat, but Detroit had 18 giveaways?? Chicago had 16.
• Detroit got outshot 34-23.
• Loved seeing Bertuzzi and Williams buying into the Red Wings way and making an effort to backcheck and be defensive.
• That goal by Draper was a helluva shot.  Looked like it went straight through Huet.
• Great to see Lidstrom get point number 998.  Here’s to hoping he hits 1000 soon.
• Unsurprised to see Brad May get into a fight.  What was surprising was how articulate he was in the intermission interview.  He was clear, succinct, and most importantly, doesn’t mumble!  (I’m looking at you, Dan Cleary).

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Here are the lines from morning skates, thanks to Bruce MacLeod:

Holmstrom-Datsyuk-Franzen
Bertuzzi-Zetterberg-Cleary
Leino-Filppula-Williams
Eaves-Draper-Maltby
May
Helm

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Stuart
Ericsson-Meech
Lebda

Osgood
Howard

Biggest changes are Meech in for Lebda, Eaves in for Abdelkader, who was sent down to Grand Rapids, and the inclusion of Brad May.  The Red Wings signed May yesterday for a 1 year, $500K deal, per TSN.  If May can get his visa sorted out, he’ll play tonight in place of Eaves.  Babcock can’t wait:

“It was pretty interesting, we had May in a couple of games in exhibition, and no one got hacked or whacked or touched, and then we don’t have him and we get run,” Babcock said. “You get tired of watching it. Our guys, I think, do a real good job of competing hard, but we don’t have a team that twists off helmets at stoppages, and when you start seeing it all the time, it’s just nice when you’ve got someone to look after that stuff.”

I’m not entirely certain how I feel about this deal yet. It’s a 2-day, so he can be sent down to GR as well. I know that we need a little grit, but what about giving Eaves a chance? What about Helm, once he’s healthy? I have to assume that they’ll send May down at that point. This is half a no-brainer and half a head-scratcher to me.

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