Are we ever going to win another game this season?  Is Chris Osgood ever going to play another game again?  Will we ever win in the shootout?  These are life’s big questions right now.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Johan Franzen (pp; Zetterberg, Lidstrom); Jason Williams (Lebda, Holmstrom)
San Jose: Joe Thornton (Wallin, Boyle); Dwight Helminen (Mitchell, Nichol)
Shootout: SJS – Patrick Marleau

= FS Detroit has started doing the digital advertisements on the back glass behind the nets now.  It was funny because there were a ton of people on Twitter who were in an uproar over people “paying good money” for those seats, only to have an ad plastered in front of them.  People, they’re digital.  They’re not actually, physically on the glass, they’re slapped on by FSD for television.  MSG has been doing them for a while, and you really get used to them and start to notice them less.  But, I can see were people are annoyed.  I don’t really care one way or another.

+ The Wings looked like they had more jump than in other games, with some more crashing and banging around than we’ve seen.  I still don’t understand why they can get up for these games against San Jose, which mean nothing in terms of tangible points and standings, but they let teams like Anaheim and Los Angeles walk all over them.  This season seriously makes my brain hurt.

+ Franzen got his first goal since coming back, the first of the game, and on the Power Play.  Shortly before that, he’d sort of whiffed on a shot and it looked like his timing was still a work in progress.  But that PP goal was a beautiful snipe over Nabokov’s glove hand.  Welcome back, Mule.

– Poor Nick, a linesman got dumped over the boards and into Nick’s lap.

= Meech gets a pass for missing on what looked like a stupidly easy shot on an open net, but upon replay it was revealed that his shot was redirected by a Shark player.  Otherwise it really would have gone in.  But he’s right back on my shit-list the minute he screws up again.

– Way to get up a goal about 35 seconds after scoring.  Not exactly the type of shift you’re hoping for after scoring.

+ No shit, Holmstrom beat out Dan Boyle to negate an icing.  Really.  Boyle must have had dead legs, because otherwise there’s no way Homer outskates him.

+ Pavel was really riled up tonight.  He may not have scored, and he did have two giveaways, HOWEVER, he was still everywhere, all over the ice, and playing physical.  He had some chances, played gritty, and was just a beast all around.  Would have been great to see him score–but then again, I want Pavel to score every single game.  Unfortunately the world and the game doesn’t work that way.  He’s still been one of the better Wings forwards, if you ask me, regardless of the lack of goals (so there, Brian).

– Nabokov is usually a sieve.  Why not tonight?  He’s usurped Turco for sole ownership of worst SV% versus the Wings.  Except today he actually had to play fairly well.

+ Williams had a pretty little toe drag on his goal.  I bet you he gets traded tomorrow.  According to Ken Daniels, Holland is definitely making a roster move before the Olympic freeze, and I’ll just bet it’s Williams.  Maybe he just upped his market value?

– I friggin hate the shootout.  We’d have several more wins if it weren’t for finishing the game in such an artificial way.

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Is anyone concerned that the Red Wings have only won 2 out of 7 pre-season games thus far? And that they’ve dropped the last 5 consecutively?

I’ll be honest: it’s a little disturbing to see the same trend that plagued the Red Wings last year rear its head again. That trend was playing 20 to 40 minutes of a game, usually either starting slow or falling asleep in the middle, and cranking it up in the third.

The goaltending I’ve seen so far also hasn’t done a whole lot to inspire confidence. Howard has been what I expected–inconsistent and not extremely solid. Larsson looked to be fighting pucks a bit the two games I’ve seen him in. McCollum looked nervous in the one I saw. Pearce has yet to play, as far as I’m aware, which is a little odd since he hasn’t been cut, either. Greg Eno wrote a piece on the promise Osgood made to never have as season like 08-09 again, and to be better prepared this year. Oz isn’t looking awesome so far. He’s certainly not playing like he did just a few months ago during the Finals, but does anyone really expect that? He knows this is pre-season, and he’s not going to blow his groin out to make a save now. But I think he’ll be ready when the puck drops for real. I believe in Oz.

What concerns me more is the defense. I watched the game they played against the Leafs on Friday, and while they iced mostly regulars, it was not Red Wings defense that I saw. Kronwall’s played about 4 or 5 games, but he still looks like he’s figuring a few things out. As is Ericsson, but that’s more expected given that he’s had fewer years of experience. Meech and Lebda are absolutely killing me and I fear for the third pairing on the back end.

Babcock knows all this, but still he’s not freaking out–too much:

“You always wonder, ‘Geez, what’s going on?’ But you just watch and see how things go.”

And Kirk Maltby makes a blindingly obviously, yet still astute comment that basically sums up what they need to do:

“…we need to start getting into regular-season mode now and not wait until a month into the season.”

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Goals were as follows:
Detroit – Leino (Filppula, Ryno); Maltby (Abdelkader, Delmore)
New York – Prospal (pp; unassisted); Lisin (pp; Gaborik, Sanguinetti); Callahan (Grachev); Anisimov (empty net)

I was at MSG for the game last night, and did a decent amount of twittering. You can check my twitter page, and most of my recap will be from those same tweets.

• Pavel Datsyuk is stupifyingly amazing, even just watching him warm up.  The things he can do with the puck are really ridiculous.
• The Rangers scored stupidly early into the start of the game (1:34), but it was waved off due to a penalty by Ericsson. This pretty much set the tone for the rest of the game.
• PIMs were 18 to 10, Detroit, but I will tell you that I have a hard time recollecting New York even getting 5 penalties all game. Absolutely way too many trips to the box. I don’t care if the refs were calling ticky-tack penalties, they need to be aware of what’s being called and play accordingly.
• Marian Gaborik is a beast, and bulldozed his way around the Detroit net for Vinny Prospal’s goal, the first of the game.
• The PK was not good. The first two Rangers goals were on the power play.
• Along those lines, Larsson didn’t look incredible. I thought he was shaky and looked to be fighting the puck a bit.
• I also still cannot believe that I actually saw Dan Cloutier in a Red Wings uniform with my own eyes. He managed to get a holding penalty shortly after taking the net over, and also got into a bit of a scrum with Aaron Voros.
• Meech was absolutely brutal on defense. As was Andy Delmore–they don’t call him “Any Elmore” for no reason. I cringed every time I saw them out on the ice.
• The first period shots were 18-4, New York. That also led to 3 goals for the Rangers, and 1 for Detroit. Hey, at least Detroit had a better shot:goal ratio, right? Right…
• Matt Gilroy is the real deal, and I will be stunned if the Rangers do not sign him with the big club for this season. They look like a different team with a puck-moving defenseman. They finally have a quarterback for the power play.
• No, seriously. Dan Cloutier. He really played. He only faced 8 shots, but at least he saved them all. There were a few overly dramatic moments, but oh well.

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