Big Red Machine

Not content to merely take the starting goaltender job from Chris Osgood this season, Jimmy Howard has also taking it upon himself to steal all of Ozzie’s dreams, one at a time.

Today he was invited to take batting practice with the Tigers (along with Draper, Miller, Chelios, and McCarty), and got to catch a few balls in the bullpen from Justin Verlander.

If you’ve ever read a Helene St. James profile piece on Osgood, you’ll know that one of his “dream jobs” after retiring from hockey is to be a bullpen catcher for the Tigers, in addition to the Mayor of Plymouth, and a spokesperson for Bowflex.

And now Howard’s gotten to the bullpen first, it seems.

Bill Roose:

Verlander, who threw a no-hitter in 2007, praised Howard’s natural ability behind the dish.

“He did a really nice job, especially with breaking balls,” said Verlander, who is 5-4 with a 3.75 ERA this season. “I thought that he would be really good with fastballs, because there isn’t much movement, similar to a puck. But then the breaking balls, he did a much better job then I anticipated. He caught all of them, and that’s not easy to do.

“You see most guys who haven’t caught a breaking ball before and it catches them off guard. He did a great job, but it’s not surprising though; he catches 100-mile-per-hour pucks.”

Well… I don’t know about the mayorship of Plymouth, but I’m sure there’s an opening for a late-night infomercial spokesperson for Bowflex.

I don’t want to talk about it.  I really don’t.  That game sucked in more ways that I know how to express.

The only plus from Game 3 was Shane Doan getting upended by Jimmy Howard and crashing into the boards, and going out for the remainder of the game.  Except even in the long run, the Coyotes seemed to step it up after it was heard that Doan wasn’t going to return, and the Wings let them.

They really shat the bed on this one, and I’m too irritated to write much more than that.

I WILL say, however, that I am not on board with any of the calls to bring in Osgood.  Look, I’m a huge Osgood supporter, which is no secret around here.  And yes, Jimmy hasn’t been stellar.  He’s let in bad goals both in terms of difficulty and in terms of timing, at least one per game.  But it’s not like the team up front has bailed him out much.  What does annoy me is that he’s letting in softies that, were is Osgood, everyone would be screaming to pull him from net.  If Ozzie had allowed a goal 29 seconds into the game, I know for certain my Twitter feed would have blown up with anti-Osgood tweets.  Jimmy’s getting the benefit of the doubt, I assume, because it’s his first ever playoffs.  At least that’s how I’m looking at it.  The thing is, he needs to make those imperative saves.  And if he doesn’t shore up tomorrow, then yeah, I’ll be wondering if Osgood shouldn’t get his fair shot.

Let’s. Go. Red Wings.

Well, Trade Deadline Day came and went, and true to his word, Ken Holland was fairly quiet.  The only moves he made was to ship Kris Newbury off to Hartford for Jordan Owens, and apparently also moved Andy Delmore to Calgary for Riley Armstrong.  I know nothing of either Owens or Armstrong.

On to the game.  I DVR’d this and watched it after, but once I realized the result, it felt like kind of a waste.  It certainly was a wasted effort by the Wings.  I, along with many others, I think, thought that Monday’s game was a sign that they were ready to really make a strong push in the remaining games and win those 15 out of 20.  Apparently not.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Jason Williams (Zetterberg, Bertuzzi); Henrik Zetterberg (Lilja)
Vancouver: Livonia Native Ryan Kesler (Raymond, Rome); Alex Burrows (D. Sedin, H. Sedin); Kyle Wellwood (Rome); Sami Salo (pp; Demitra, H. Sedin); Mikael Samuelsson (D. Sedin, H. Sedin); Ryan Kesler (pp; D. Sedin, Ehrhoff)

- According to TSN, the Red Wings have had 18 disallowed or waived off goals this season alone.  EIGHTEEN.  In 63 games.  That’s 1 every 3.5 games, or a goal called off in 28.57% of games.  With 19 games left, that means we can look forward to 5.4 more goals disallowed for the rest of the season.  Hooray.

- I realized that there are no Red Wings with 20 goals on the season yet.  That’s a hideously depressing stat.  Datsyuk and Zetterberg have the most, with 17.

- Kronwall  had an atrocious game.  He was in the box for 2 Canuck power play goals, one of them 5 seconds into the PP, and he also indirectly led to another goal after he stepped on the puck and fell in the Canucks’ zone.  The defense as a whole looked sloppy and disorganized, but Kronwall looked particularly out of sorts all game long.

+ Congratulations to Mr. Zetterberg for his 200th career goal!  It was a beauty, too.  He froze Luongo, and patiently waited to shoot in a pretty much open net from the side.  Lovely.  He also tied the game at 2-2, with the last Wings’ goal before Vancouver started running away with the game.

- I felt like there was a plethora of missed passes and pucks bouncing off sticks tonight.  It didn’t help the Wings get any sustained pressure, and towards the second half of the game, it felt like they had a lot of one and done chances.

+ Lilja got his first point back as a Red Wing.

- I was honestly kind of surprised that Howard got pulled.  With the reluctance Babcock has shown to play Osgood, I expected him to stick it out.  But I guess that’s what gut-check time does, and desperate times call for desperate measures.  In this case, it came in the form of Chris Osgood.

- Who didn’t really play fantastic.  He’s an old man coming in cold which doesn’t help, but getting beat by a Mikael Samuelsson no look shot?  Yikes.  Ozzie probably figured Sammy was going to go wide by a country mile, except he actually hit the net.  Do I think he played better than Howard?  He made 10 saves on 12 shots.  Howard had 17 on 21.

- What was with all the Vancouver fans in the Joe?  I heard a lot of “Looooooooo”s through my TV.  It was annoying.

+ I love having the Mule back.  Goals in the past 4 games for Franzen.

What a shit show.  They had a 2 goal lead with 1:30 remaining and they blew it.  Tippett pulled Bryzgalov with almost 2 minutes left in the game, and I knew that Phoenix would at least get a 3rd goal.  But Jesus, you know what kind of season it’s been when you expect your team to give up a late goal.

I missed most of the first period while half-paying attention and talking to my mother on the phone. I had intended to go back and re-watch more intently during intermission, but my DVR recording got cancelled. Which was just a sign of things to come, I suppose.

+ I did get to see the Pavel goal, although not the entire play around it.  That was apparently his first goal in 7 games.  He looked dangerous all game long, and was one of the best fowards on the ice.  According to the boxscore he had 1 takeaway, but I saw almost a takeaway per shift in the second half of the second alone.  Babcock said in the post-game scrum that he had the puck on a string quite a bit, and I’d have to agree.  He ended the night with a goal and an assist.

- I don’t know if it was Versus, my cable box, or fuck knows what, but I had zero sound for the 2nd and third periods.  None whatsoever. I would normally rejoice being saved the pain of listening to the horrible announcers on VS, but I can’t deal with dead silence.  I ended up streaming the radio off 97.1, and just suffered through that being about 1:15 behind.

+ Thank God for Patrick Eaves.  He scored 11 seconds after the Coyotes did (yet another goal seen from a mile away).  That’s what it means to have a good shift after a goal against, and the third line of Draper-Helm-Eaves is totally responsible for that happening.  They were great.

+ Wings looked much more awake after Eaves’ goal.  Good sustained pressure by the Wings in the end of the second.

+ Two goals by Nick.  I loved the second one he got, just popped it in a wide open net on the power play from Doan knocking him over during the little scrum that ensued around Howard.  Now that the blue line is getting healthy and stronger, he can focus on offense a little more and not have to cover all the defensive holes.

+ Datsyuk and Zetterberg got a little scrappy, which I loved.  I’m really a fan of the Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Cleary line.  Cleary is more willing to set up in front of the net ala Holmstrom than Bertuzzi is.  He’s also quicker, and is able to keep up with the Eurotwins better.

+ The Wings looked confident; way more than we’d been seeing recently. They looked like they weren’t going to allow the Coyotes push them around.

- And then the wheels fell off.  Complete and utter collapse.  A minute and a half remaining in the game with a 2 goal lead and they blew it.  I don’t even care if it was goaltending, lack of coverage by the D, inability to get the puck out of the zone, whatever.  I’m blaming the whole damn team for not being able to hold on for a minute and a half.  To state the obvious, Nick missing that empty netter was huge.

- Brad Stuart with a -3 tonight.  No one else was worse than -1, and Rafalski was actually +3.  I am really hoping that once Kronwall settles back in, that Stuart can start playing a little more physical.  He had to put that aspect of his game on the backburner with Kronwall out, but now he can start being grittier in front of the net.

– SOG were almost dead even each period with 8 in the 1st, 12 in the 2nd, and 14 and 15 for Phoenix and Detroit, respectively.  OT was telling though, as Phoenix got 3 shots and Detroit just 1.  And Phoenix scored and Detroit didn’t.

= Kronwall had 0 points, went -1, 1 blocked shot, a hit, and giveaway, and took 30 shifts for 21:57.  It was such a relief to see him out there, and not have to worry about a boneheaded play from the likes of Lebda or Meech.  He’ll get his sea legs, so to speak, back quickly I think.

- I was not impressed with Howard.  Not saying that every single goal was his fault, but he looked tired.  According to Left Wing Lock, Osgood is your starter for tonight anyway.

So, the player I’m looking at to have a good game is Osgood.  I said on TOV this week that he needs to STFU.  I just want to see him play, to the best of his ability and not whine about the situation he’s put into, or the end result.  He’s not sitting on the bench for a month straight between starts, so no blaming “rust” this time.

I would also like to not see the Wings blow a 2 goal lead.  Or any lead, for that matter.  Minnesota is creeping up the standing, and the Wings can ill afford to have them making a run.

It’s (yet again) another must-win.

CaptNorris5 over at The Winged Wheel has a great “manifesto” in defense of Osgood.  I agree with every point he made, and have tried to make them in past on the blog, but clearly CaptNorris5 is a better blogger than I am and was able to convey it much better.

We also debated Oz/Howard a little on this week’s episode of TOV (keep an eye out for that tomorrow morning), but I know I didn’t make my argument very well, so eh.

Anyway, I have nothing to add to what’s already been said, so go check out The Winged Wheel for a great case for Chris Osgood.

About 5-10 minutes into this game I thought to myself, SOG are 5-0 Detroit. If they can keep this up and not lay back, we’ll win for sure. Well fuck me, because while they kept it up for most of the game, they had a magnificent third period meltdown that let the Capitals score 2 and walk away with the win.  Boudreau called it “men vs boys” and it was, for 55 minutes.  But those 5 minutes where the Wings just stopped moving their feet, and stopped concentrating did them in.  Washington had no business winning that game.

+ Washington with zero shots on goal up through 14:22, and the Wings had 13.  Great for the defense to shutdown the highest scoring team in the league like that.

+ Kirk Maltby. What a ballsy, or maybe stupid move to block an Ovechkin shot after losing the bucket. Jesus Christ.

+ “Don’t give the guy the puck. I want to keep the puck.” Pavel on Ovechkin during the interview. His English also seems much improved, even from last year. He’s a great interview, and I wish that he’d be on more. I don’t know if he just declines, or if media just doesn’t bother to ask him. He’s pretty flippant with most of his replies, and it’s refreshing from the canned cliches.

– I had suggested that Pavel would at least get a point, since he’s done well against Washington in the past, but he was held off the scoresheet.

+ What an individual effort by Dan(ny) Cleary.  He had a great shot, Theodore saved it, Cleary picked it up again for a backhand and in.  Awesome.

– PP really regressed tonight.  Matt suggested that they were sitting back a bit in an effort to support Osgood more than they had been doing with Howard.

+ The Perfect Human made a perfect play to save a goal on a wide open net in which Oz had completely vacated the front.  Pavel saved him again on another play later in the second.

= Speaking of, Oz was REALLY aggressive, coming out to challenge shots.  Almost a little too aggressive.  It’s a good thing that the D has played well in front of him, bailing him out a few times.  Look, the guy didn’t stand on his head, but it wasn’t his fault entirely that they lost, either.  I know several of the Osgood haters out there are screeching for Babcock to nail his ass to the pine and never play him again, or trade him immediately.  But there was fail on every part that led to the Capitals mounting a comeback.  Could Osgood have played better?  Yes, of course.  Did he lose the game for the Wings?  No.  The Backstrom goal I am planting squarely on Bertuzzi (and Stuart, who got turned inside-out), and the Steckel goal ricocheted in.

– But still, I’m a little stunned to read that he told McCosky “I’ve gotten him a lot of points, you can write that… I got him to the Stanley Cup Finals the last two years, you can write that, too.”  Shut up, Oz.  We know you have the most playoff wins in DRW history, and yeah, you did take us to the Finals twice in a row and won two seasons ago.  But this is a whole new ball game right now, and you need to start caring like it’s the playoffs, because right now there’s no guarantee we’ll even be in the post-season at this rate.  I’m not going to argue that having a whole month off is a little questionable, but if you want to play again any time soon, criticizing Babcock to the media is not going to help your cause.  I’ve been in the Pro-Osgood camp for a long time, but Shut Up, Play Well, and then you can open your mouth again.  *deep breath*

– I will say, the Bradley goal?  Come on, Jonny E, can’t stand around like a pylon and wait until he goes past you before you start backchecking.

+ Is Rafalski warming up, too?  He’s 2-1-3 in the last 3 games.  He wired a shot from the circles for the go-ahead.

– Major meltdown in the third.  The Wings controlled the entire game up until about halfway through the third, and then they just rolled over.  I’m sick and tired of this Jekyll and Hyde act, of not seeing a 60-minute effort, and tired of feeling like they don’t even WANT to make the post-season.  Every chance they’ve had to leapfrog in, they blow it.

– Final SOG 46-23, and yet it’s a 2-3 loss.

+ Ovechkin was held shotless, but he did get an assist.  Looking on the bright side, here…

– ….I miss the Mule.

I guess the big news is that Osgood is getting his first start in 12 games.  I know a lot of people have jumped on him for whining, but if you read the articles by the beat writers as they filed, he explains himself at least a little better…

Khan:

“At the start of the year Howie didn’t play for about a month and then I didn’t play for a month. To me that’s not a good way of doing things, to let one guy get stagnant,” Osgood said. “You have to have both guys going, especially with the amount of games we have, especially coming back after the Olympic break we have a ton of games in March. So we have to have two guys in case something happens.’’

McCosky:

“I am just going to play,” said Osgood, who has played 31 minutes in the last 12 games dating to Dec. 20, but was to start Tuesday against the Capitals. “I’m not going to think about how I wish I would’ve played earlier. Howie has played great, but you don’t want to not be playing for that long a time.”

St. James:

“I think when I’ve played, I’ve played good, but I haven’t played for 12 games,” he said. “That’s not my decision, I can’t do anything about that. All I can do is practice. I don’t really think about it too much any more – I just practice and when I play, I play. Do I want to be sitting out 12 games? No, that’s way too long. But that’s not my choice. Howie and I don’t have those decisions to make – we just go out and play and try and play well and Howie was playing well, obviously. But you have to have both guys (going), and that’s important going down the stretch here. I’ll be ready for the playoffs – that’s so far away still.”

Anyway, it’s still not really an excuse for him–I’d rather him shut his mouth and just prove it all with his level of play.  He can run his yap all he wants when he stands on his head and steals a game.  And sorry, Oz, but the playoffs aren’t even guaranteed at this point.  I do, however, think he has a valid point that it’s questionable to be letting a guy get stagnant, and that it is important to have both your goaltenders in some sort of a groove.

That aside, the Wings are coming off that insane 3-4 shootout loss against the Blackhawks, and the Capitals beat the Flyers on Sunday 5-3.  So far this season the Western Conference has beat up the Leastern Conference (with the odd exception of Buffalo), and it sure would be nice to see that trend continue.

Maybe it’s the challenge of playing against countryman Alex Ovechkin, but Pavel Datsyuk always seems to get up for these games.  He is 4-10-14 in 8 games against Washington, and I recall him having an incredible defensive game back in October.  On the other hand, Ovechkin is 4-2-6 in 4 games against Detroit.  Can Pavel start a scoring streak tonight?

Verizon Center is notorious for some of the worst ice in the league.

Who I’m looking at to have a good game: Osgood, for obvious reasons, and Ville Leino, who is finally coming down from the press box.

The usually polite Sammy’s telling Sweden to go Eff themselves, and the typically Zen Osgood is getting frustrated and calling out Babcock’s goalie “rotation.”  What is this world coming to?

Howard’s been hot recently, winning games, and playing extremely well even in losses (see: Monday’s 0-1 vs Columbus).  Osgood hasn’t played since they were shutout 0-3 in the first part of the home and home vs Chicago on 12/20.  And he ain’t happy:

McCosky:

“I know how to do that [make good on his next opportunity],” he said. “I don’t think I have to prove that. I know how to play, I just have to play — that’s all there is to it. It’s not a matter of earning an opportunity. You have to get into some games and get into a groove and then I can play like I can. It’s not that I don’t know how to do it.

“But if you don’t play, it’s impossible to get to that point. I’m a goalie, OK, and I’ve been playing for 20-some years since Juniors. What I say (about goaltending) is closer to the facts than what he (Babcock) would say.”

Osgood pointed to the board in the dressing room that shows the Wings in 10th place, three points out of a playoff spot.

“It’s got to be sooner than later,” he said. “Listen, you’ve got to be a good team guy. For us, it’s all about winning and getting into the playoffs. That’s the main thing for me, no matter what.”

He goes on to say that while he’s happy that Howard’s playing well, he thinks he should be getting more starts in order to get ready for the playoffs, where it’s more or less a foregone conclusion that Osgood will be the starter if we’re in.  Osgood seems to think that he’s played ok in the starts that he’s gotten.

I’m not going to argue that point.  I’ve questioned in the past about him not getting enough starts to have a fair chance to get into a groove.  Yes, Jimmy has outplayed Osgood this season, and when it’s a battle to get into the top 8 right now, you need every win you can get.  So of course Babcock’s going to ride the hot hand.  Hey, maybe he’s got a timeline in mind already for when he wants to get Osgood into more games.  Maybe he’s waiting to see if Howard hits the wall, and subs in Oz at that point.

But at the same time, Osgood has only played 18 games so far this season, well under half.  He also sits at 396 wins (on that note, let the guy get his 4 more to reach 400).  He needs to play in order to get ready for the playoffs.  It’s irresponsible to assume that Osgood is going to just throw the switch come the post-season without building up to it–just because he did it last year doesn’t mean he’ll do it again.

There’s a little over half the season remaining, so will Osgood see more starts then?  Maybe after the Olympic break?  Or is it possible that Babcock is quietly pushing Osgood into a backup role, without having the wherewithall to actually say it?

Babcock’s explanation:

“It’s amazing how it works,” Babcock said last week. “If Ozzie had a good night the other night in Chicago (3-0 loss), then he would have started (the next game) and we wouldn’t be talking about this. Just play the guy who’s playing the best — it’s that simple.”

Absolute lies.  Babcock’s a sports psychologist–he’s got a reason for what he’s doing, and it’s not as basic as starting whoever has been playing better.  You give the guy one start, with a depleted roster up front, against Chicago, and he played ok.  So you change goaltenders for the next game and the team plays better as a whole, though to the same score.  And that guy gets a run of starts.

I dunno–doesn’t sound simple to me.

It’s Festivus!

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.

Hey, Chicago?  Congrats on winning against the Grand Rapids Griffins.  This is not being bitter as a Wings fan, it’s a fact that Detroit iced about half of the team they had when they played in October.  So here’s a pat on the back for shutting out a Red Wings team without the majority of their firepower.

That being said, the Wings really shat the bed on this one.  I wouldn’t say that Osgood laid a total egg, because the entire team played like crap.  No jump, no legs, no motivation.

Also: is it just me, or has Ken Daniels taken to just yelling directly at the goalies this season?  Right in the middle of his play by play, when Osgood lost the puck, he just shouted, “sit down, Chris!” when it was under him.  Ken did this earlier this year also, when he told Jimmy to just grab the puck.

NHL Network was airing the 2009 Winter Classic before the game, and holy hell was it depressing to see guys like Mule, Lilja, Filppula, and even Hudler out there.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: none
Chicago:  Duncan Keith (pp; Toews, Versteeg); Brian Campbell (Sharp, Ladd); Dustin Byfuglien (Madden, Keith)

Pluses
+ Umm… Hossa was held to 0 shots on goal.  He was on the ice for Campbell’s goal, and so was +1, and had 1 takeaway.  I had also said in my preview that more than seeing Hossa get demolished, I wanted to see him held off the scoresheet.  Not quite, but close.  And I guess I should have specified that I wanted a win, too.
+ Patrick Eaves took a hard shot off the foot, but he did come back after getting an X-Ray.

Minuses
- It took 13 minutes and change for Detroit to get their first shot on goal, by Datsyuk.  13 minutes.  That’s ridiculous.  The end total was 20 shots.  Nowhere near enough when the Blackhawks are currently the best defensive team in the league.
– The last two goals that Osgood let in were pretty soft, and quite a few people in my Twitter feed were calling for him to be pulled in favor of Howard.  I’m sorry, but no.  I said in my preview that he was the player I was looking at to have a good game.  He didn’t have a great night, but it wasn’t horrendous either, by any stretch.
– Because when you spend as much time in your own zone as the Wings did, you’re bound to get scored on.  Way too many times to count, they were just incapable of clearing their zone, and got hemmed in.  There was so much standing around in their own zone, it was mindblowing.
– Good God did Doug Janik have a brutal game.
– We got absolutely wrecked in the faceoff circle.  16 to 29, ‘Hawks.  If you want to play a puck possession game, you have to possess the puck.  And the easiest way to do that is by winning faceoffs.  Datsyuk went 6:10 and Helm was 3:10.  Draper was perfect at 3/3.
– Along with Helm, Leino needs to ask for some new hands for Christmas.
– I frigging HATE that stupid Fratellis song they play at the UC when they score.  It makes it all the more obnoxious when the ‘Hawks score.  Also, real classy, Chicago, with the constant “Detroit Sucks” chant.

Wings are going to have to pull their heads out of their asses by Wednesday and wake up.  I am extremely curious to know who will be starting in net for Detroit.