The major good news is that Franzen is back.

In lieu of a real preview, I’m sending you off to the rest of the blogosphere for better insights:

GDT – Game #6 : Red Wings host Flames (7:30)
Game Day Notes: vs. Calgary
Oct 21 :: Which Is, Like, February in Dog Years
Red Wings vs. Flames GP

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In a word: unacceptable.  I have nothing good to say about this game.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Niklas Kronwall (Bertuzzi, Hudler)
Dallas: Brad Richards (pp; Niskanen, Ribeiro); Loui Eriksson (Richards, Neal); Brenden Morrow (Ribeiro); James Neal (Richards, Daley)

– The forecheck showed up occasionally, but it wasn’t steady, and I’ve still yet to see strong puck possession from this team, outside of the season opener against a weak Ducks team.  It simply didn’t look like anyone was hungry for the puck.

– The turnovers!  Detroit had 9 giveaways and Dallas took the puck back 12 times.  Even The Perfect Human had a turnover.

– Going into this game we all talked about Osgood’s ridiculously good record against Dallas.  Unfortunately, your career record won’t win the game for you.  Sadly, it felt like that’s how the team treated this game.  You can’t pin the entire game on Osgood.  Yeah, 4 goals in 15 shots.  I see that.  But the skaters up front weren’t doing much to help.  This was a team effort in failure.

= So Dallas only got 15 shots on goal, but it makes me wonder if that’s more due to the Stars’ offense more than Detroit’s defense.

– Mule has a concussion after being hit by Mark Fistric.  I don’t know if it was an elbow to the head or what–to be honest, it looked more like a shoulder that jammed upwards from the Dallas feed.  Regardless, this is not good news.

– The power play is just… sterile.

+ I lied, I do have something good to say: Kindl looked good.  He wasn’t too noticeable, but for a rookie that’s always a good thing.  He played quite a bit more than I thought: 19:14, with 4:13 on the power play.  He had 2 shots on net, and finished the game even.  His TOI says a lot about Babcock trusting him with the minutes.  He had a good 3 more minutes than Salei.

= Speaking of TOI, Babcock really rode the workhorses.  Datsyuk played 21:52, Zetterberg 21:35, and Lidstrom played a whole 27:01.  With Franzen out in the first period it makes sense that Pav and Z’s minutes were up, but Nick’s are pretty astounding.  Too bad they ended up -3, -2, and -2, respectively.

– As much as the boys didn’t put in the effort to win for Modano, he wasn’t too fabulous himself, with 0 shots on net.  He did manage to escape with an even +/- in 15:14 TOI, and went 55% in the face-off circle.  I had wondered in the game preview if he was going to look more like a deer in the headlights or a man on the mission.  More the former over the latter, to me.  One thing that stood out to me was twice in one power play he was on the point with Lidstrom and the puck just went sailing between them and out of the zone, forcing everyone to exit and regroup.  A similar thing happened again in a later power play, when one of the other players had to come down and try to corral the puck, but it slide out of reach, past Modano who was hanging out at the boards, and into the neutral zone.  Were some of them errant passes?  Yes, but playing point is more than just cranking bombs from the blueline.

= I also agree with Ted Kulfan that Dallas really could have, and should have done more for their former franchise player.  20 years and all he gets is a minute or so of applause with a little “thank you” on the Jumbotron?  Serven put it best: “I hear no booing. Classy by the Stars fans. VERY classy by the Stars fans. BUT, you get no points for doing the right thing #RedWings”  I know he’s in another uniform now, but that doesn’t and shouldn’t immediately and automatically discount what he’s done for your franchise.

I know it’s only 4 games into the season, which ultimately means nothing, but losing back to back games is not a habit to get into.  The 4-0 season opener win means nothing.  The gutsy 3-2 win against Chicago at their banner raising means nothing.  Two inexcusably awful losses in a row?  That means something.

p.s. as a note on this Saturday’s game, I won’t be around, so no posts from me.  I’ll be in Denver that night to run the Denver half marathon on Sunday.

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Oh hai.  Coincidentally the minute the hockey season started work picked up and I’ve been absolutely slammed during the day, leaving little to no time for previews and recaps.  Thus, I’m getting this out rather earlier than I’d want.

Lineups:
Nothing official out yet, but I can only assume that they’ll run with the same lines that were iced against Colorado.  Ericsson and Abdelkader are still out, Draper has experienced a set back, and Rafalski’s out 3-4 weeks.  Osgood, with his 28-11-4 career record against Dallas, will be in net.  According to Babcock the plan all along was to alternate Oz and Jimmy for the first few weeks due to the schedule, so this is a good chance for Osgood to prove that he’s  ready and able to shoulder  a moderate load this season.  And step closer to career win 400.

What I’m looking forward to:
The headline-maker for Thursday is Mike Modano’s return to Dallas.  This is, coincidentally, the home opener for the Stars.  Modano scored a goal in his first game in a Wings uniform, but hasn’t recorded a point in either of the following 2 games.  It will be an emotional game for him to return to the franchise for which he played 20 seasons and won the Cup in 1999.  I’m sure he’ll be feeling pressure, and the question will be if he comes up big, or wilts a little under it.

Who I’m looking at to have a good game:
Try as he might, Doug Janik didn’t exactly endear himself to Wings fans on Tuesday.  With Rafalski out for a couple of weeks and not much of a timetable on Ericsson, this is a great opportunity for call ups to make a statement about being able to play with the big boys.  The defense has not been very solid so far, so I’d like to see guys like Janik and Kindl step it up.

Also, going back to the Modano point, I’d love to see him channel the emotion of coming into Dallas wearing a different uniform into a productive night.  His line with Hudler and Cleary was -3 after the Colorado game.

Improvements to be had upon last game:
Defense, defense, defense.  Detroit was tagged with 15 giveaways on Tuesday, plus Colorado’s 6 takeaways.  Against Chicago, they totalled 18 turnovers.  Versus Anaheim, 20.  Matt touched on this in his Avs game recap, but they really need to shore up and get back to displaying complete, team defense.  And as a self-proclaimed puck possession team, they should probably hold onto the puck when they have it.

LGRW.

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Here are the lineups for both teams, from Khan (since there’s nothing on the D pairings, I just swapped in Kindl for Ericsson, but who knows how that’ll actually pan out come game time):

What I’m looking forward to:
The Wings were riled up last night, and out to prove that they can still win.  Can they keep up that momentum?  The Wings will have to sit through the banner raising ceremony prior to the game–and I hope it makes them pissed.  Hopefully they can use that as motivation to go out and play spoiler to the Blackhawks’ big night in front of their home, bandwagon crowd.

I’m also looking forward to seeing Turco the first of 6 times.  Will his record with Dallas against Detroit continue now that he’s with Chicago?  He’s 6-12-5(T) against Detroit for his career.

And the power play needs to start cranking, because going 0-6 against the Ducks last night is really rather embarrassing.  It’s easily overlooked thanks to the 4-0 shutout, but I have a feeling they’ll need all gears turning tonight.

Who I’m looking at to have a good game:
Osgood gets his first start of the season in the second game due to back to backs.  This is a good chance for him to go out and prove himself early on and show the naysayers that he can still handle around 20 games this season, so he needs to be sharp.

Kindl also gets his first look at NHL action earlier than anticipated, and while I’m not certain if he’s playing with Lidstrom or not, it’s also good to see him dig in now.

The Ducks were more or less an easy opponent last night, and while Chicago lost practically half their team to Atlanta, it will still be more of a test.  Media types are saying that Chicago is still the team to beat, which is at least true in the fact that they are, like it or not, the reigning champions in the league.  A dominant win would help quiet Hawks bandwagon, and solidify the fact that the Wings are serious this season.

LGRW.

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That’s really all I have to say.

Nicole from the Red Wings sent out an email confirming that Nick Lidstrom has signed a contract to return to the Wings for the 2010-2011 season.

detroitredwings.com:

The giant breeze that rolled up the freeway arteries leading out of downtown was the collective exhalation of a Red Wings’ organization relieved to know that one of the best players of this generation will be back.

Nicklas Lidstrom, who is widely considered the world’s best defenseman in hockey, will return for a 19th season, signing a one-year contract, the Red Wings announced Tuesday.

I’m just so relieved.

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The Wings proved that they’re not done yet, but realistically, it’s one game.  And a blowout, no less.  It’s not abnormal to get that in an elimination situation.  It’s keeping it up and not losing in San Jose for Game 5.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Todd Bertuzzi (pp; Franzen, Zetterberg); Johan Franzen (Zetterberg, Lidstrom); Johan Franzen (Bertuzzi, Lidstrom); Johan Franzen (unassisted); Valtteri Filppula (Holmstrom, Datsyuk); Brian Rafalski (pp; Bertuzzi, Franzen); Johan Franzen (Bertuzzi, Lidstrom)
San Jose: Dany Heatley (pp; Thornton, Marleau)

+ Holy. Johan. Franzen.  He was saying he hasn’t felt 100% yet.  We’ve all been saying “where’s the post-season Mule?”  Mule got hit with a too many men on the ice penalty a minute into the game, and Babcock was clearly unhappy with him, since it took about 4 minutes after that gaffe for him to see ice.  But boy oh boy did he make an effort to get out of the doghouse, with a hat trick.  Franzen recorded the 2nd fastest hat trick in playoff history in 3:26, only 2 seconds off the current record by Tim Kerr from 1985 (source: ESPN).

Welcome back, playoff Mule.  It reminded me of the 2008 Colorado series.  TSN showed a shot of Mule on the bench and he just looked so focused, and in the zone, it was incredible.  Utter domination.

+ Clearly, making the line changes up top helped.  Bertuzzi, Zetterberg and Franzen all combined for 13 points.  All three of them had a fantastic game.

+ 5 goals in the first period.  That’s what I’m talking about.  Hilariously, SJS actually outshot Detroit in the first, where all the scoring happened, 11-9.  For his services, Nabokov sits on the bench with a .444 SV% after 20 minutes.

+ Also, aLOL (™ Tyler) at Dan Boyle.  He tried to pass to Douglas Murray, who was camped out right in front of Nabokov, and the puck bounced off Murray’s skate, and slid past Nabokov, who wasn’t very aware.  That’s pretty much the second time this post-seaon that Boyle has, for all points and purposes, scored in his own net.

– I hate how GameCenter Live never shows the full feed from TSN–they cut to reruns of commercials and filler from NHLN during TV time outs and intermissions, and then I miss information.  Like Brad Stuart getting hit hard in the 1st and not coming back.  Good news is, he’ll likely be back for Game 5.

– Pot, meet kettle. Joe Thornton was making diving motions with his hands when he got sent to the box for knocking over Holmstrom, and has been quoted as saying “I thought they were diving around there pretty good.”  Just… shut up.  Seriously.  Now, I don’t condone the Wings stooping to their level, but the Sharks do deserve a taste of their own medicine, so to speak.

+ I love seeing Abdelkader being gritty and mixing it up.  He owned Nichols in their “fight,” just dropping him to the ice.  I’ve said it before, but he’s becoming the next Kirk Maltby in terms of agitating, and playing a simple, solid defensive 4th liner role.

What needs to be kept in mind is that this is one game–a game that several are calling an outlier because it was such a blowout.  And many are also quick to point out that the Wings haven’t strung together two strong games back to back in this post-season yet.  But Saturday’s another Game 7.  And from what we’ve seen, the Wings have done pretty well in elimination scenarios.

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Now that’s what I’m talking about.  I had faith in this team that they would bring it.  And boy did they ever, dismantling the Coyotes 6-1.

Pavel had 2 goals, Zata had 3 assists, and Nick had 2 power play goals and an assist.  They were, rightfully, 1-3, the stars of the game.  The big boys stepped it up and brought their A game when the team needed it.  Rafalski and Filppula also had 2 assists apiece.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Pavel Datsyuk (pp; Lidstrom, Rafalski); Pavel Datsyuk (Zetterberg, Rafalski);  Nicklas Lidstrom (pp; Filppula, Zetterberg), Brad Stuart (unassisted); Todd Bertuzzi (Filppula, Zetterberg); Nicklas Lidstrom (Rafalski, Franzen)
Phoenix: Vernon Fiddler (unassisted)

+ Detroit tore out of the gate.  This was an outstanding exhibition of classic Red Wings hockey.  Puck possession, defense jumping up, solid forecheck, and crashing the net.  A perfect penalty kill, including a 3-on-5.  A 3/7 power play conversion rate.  50 shots on goal to 33.  5 takeaways to Phoenix’s 9 giveaways.  Talk about finally putting the skate to the throat.  This was utter domination by the Wings.  This was them saying “if you think we’re done, go fuck yourself.”

+ What a relief to see the special teams all back to normal.  The first power play unit got cranking, and the PK was functioning like it should, rather than that weird anomaly from Games 1 and 6.

– Jimmy really probably should have been more prepared for that faceoff in which Vernon Fiddler just slid the puck between his legs right off the draw.  There’s just really no excuse for that.

+ Happy Birthday to Nick Lidstrom.  2 power play goals and some seriously ridiculous defensive play just reinforced the fact that he’s probably actually part android, because there’s no way he played anything like a 40 year old.  He had 7 SOG (plus 5 missed shots for 12 total), played 23:59, and looked like The Perfect Human he is.

+ Nicole from the Red Wings set up a very cool video chat, drawing on the #redwingscommune get-togethers that have been happening in Detroit.  Lots of fun, and a great way for us out of staters to join in.  With this, however, came the revelation of my secret identity.

See, I’m actually Pavel Datsyuk.  And Nick Lidstrom.  And Brad Stuart.  And… well, maybe not Todd Bertuzzi.  Every single time I got knocked off the #redwingscommune video chat, the Red Wings scored.  Every.  Freaking.  Goal.  All six of them.  Which of course led to jokes that I’m actually running off to score for the Wings.

Yep.  That’d be me.  Goal scorer extraordinair.

+ Speaking of goals, those Pavel Datsyuk goals were just beautiful.  Sublime, as my dad likes to call Pavel.  1:41 apart, and 2 minutes into the period, Datsyuk took control and set the tone early in the second.  That pass from Z to spring him and then the curl-and-drag by Pavel… what a thing of wonder.  I know this is kind of mean, but I can’t deny that I enjoyed seeing Bryzgalov just sitting there and look utterly defeated after Pavel’s second.

- Helloooo penalties!  I don’t understand how Darren Helm gets called for Diving, when right before that Keith Yandle got a nice 8.5 for his dive on the Drew Miller “trip.”  It’s the playoffs.  Referees need to learn to let the two teams play.  Cue the tinfoil hat accusations, which I don’t necessarily agree with, but you have to admit they were a little whistle-happy in the 2nd period, overall.

+ One good thing that came from said penalties?  Brad Stuart zipping out of the box to pick up the loose puck and flip it home.

= Weirdly, Zetterberg didn’t have a great night in the faceoff circle.  He went 7 and 11.  Conversely, Datsyuk went pretty much the opposite, at 12 and 7.  Wings barely held the advantage, 37 to 31.

– Where, oh where have Mule and Cleary gone?  Moving into the second round, the Wings are going to need scoring from everyone.  And against the Sharks, having a physical presence will be important again.  These guys need to step it up.

+ Congrats to the Coyotes though, for having a great season, and (now that it’s over) for putting up a good fight and giving us great hockey.

+ I knew they would do it.  Thanks, boys.

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I received the opportunity to conduct a phoner interview with Brendan Shanahan, currently the VP of Hockey and Business Development (or, as his Twitter profile says, VP of “blah blah blahblahblah”) at the NHL.  I had a double-take moment where I debated the validity of this offer, and then immediately had a moment of panic after accepting.  I’m not a journalist (or a pharmacist, for that matter).  There’s a reason I have a career as a publicist, rather than working the actual media side of things.  But I think I got some decent questions in, and hopefully a little bit of insight from one of the game’s greats.  Maybe nothing Earth shattering, but hey, give me a break–I was talking to Brendan freakin’ Shanahan.  I’m surprised I managed to be coherent at all.

For season 2, REPLAY is taking the Detroit HS hockey powerhouses Detroit Central Catholic and Trenton from a 1999 game, in which the game was stopped at a 4-4 tie and never resumed, due to the nearly fatal incident of a player having his jugular slashed on the ice.  Eleven years later, players from those teams will be undergoing an 8-week training and nutrition program to get themselves back into game-shape for the rematch.  The program was created by the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, and will be conducted with local help from the Velocity Sports Performance center in Canton, MI.

So what does Brendan Shanahan have to do with all this?  He and Scotty Bowman are going to be honorary coaches–Shanahan for Trenton, and Bowman for Catholic Central.  I asked Shanahan how his chances are, and if he feels he’s at a disadvantage coaching against the legendary Bowman, to which he offered a sarcastic, “Against the winningest coach in NHL history?  Nah.”

Practices were run on Saturday and Sunday during a “Pro Training Day.”

The game will happen May 9, 3:00pm ET (doors at 2pm), at Compuware Arena.  Tickets are available for $10 starting April 24 at Kennedy Ice Arena at the Sports Service sotre.  Tickets can also be purchased on April 26 in the Catholic Central gym.  Tickets can also be won at Meijer through April 25 (today).  The game will be tape delayed on FSD (air date and time tk–check listings).

Learn more about the series at replaytheseries.com.

Getting Shanahan on Twitter was something that I know several of my friends joked about the minute we heard about his hiring at the NHL, and so it was a pleasant shock when I heard he had actually joined on.  It’s important because as a valued voice and a highly respected former player (and personally a favorite and hero of mine), Shanahan getting on board with the blogs for NHL.com and Twitter shows that the NHL is really taking social media seriously, as an effective method of communication.

“The NHL asked me to blog at the Olympics, and then I kind of fell off of it, and picked it back up again.  I get on [Twitter] every once in a while and try to be involved.  For the most part it’s been fun and I have had a good experience.  I try to keep it pretty simple and talk about the subject at hand.”

He added that he was surprised that the first day he signed up for Twitter, he traveled to Vancouver, and then logged on to find he had over 2000 followers in that short time (in no way, am I surprised at this.  The tweet announcing that he was on Twitter was RT’d like wildfire).

Shanahan commented that “I think it’s great” that players can use Twitter as a platform for communicating with fans directly. “Some of the conversations I have with players after games, where they’re just devastated after losses; I’m able to offer a glimpse of that,” continuing to add that getting those views from the players allows fans to connect with their favorite team and players, knowing that they’re all just as passionate and feel the same way about outcome of a game.

Guys like Dan Ellis (@dellis39), who interacts with his fans, and also talks about harmless, random things that are still entertaining and simply funny, are a good example of using the direct line to fans effectively.  It’s certainly made me more fond of him as a player, even though I don’t care for the Nashville Predators one bit.  (Along this note, I was catching up on episodes of the Grindcast podcast with Craig Custance and Sean Gentille of The Grinder blog over at Sporting News, and they have a hilarious segment talking about Ellis’ Twitter account in Episode 4.  I highly recommend listening to it).

Shanahan himself has also done similar, Twittering about things from his dog, to comparing the cleanliness of subway systems in NYC versus Toronto, and what line he rides (it’s the F train, for the record), to jabbing back and forth with Sean Avery (@seanaverydotcom, and talking about LOST: “One time I just made a comment about the TV show LOST, and all of a sudden I was getting hundreds and hundreds of responses about LOST.” With a mix of personal thoughts and hockey-related comments, it’s an extremely effective way to draw in more fans.

But there is, of course, the need for discretion, and understanding by players about how to make social media work for them.  Regarding players using Twitter, Shanahan said, “Players can do it, they just need to learn some parameters.  I’m a little bit of a guinea pig for the players… as we have younger players coming into the NHL now, they’re more comfortable with it–some of the older guys don’t care for it.

He added, “I’ll probably talk about this Gatorade REPLAY game on Twitter.  For someone who wants to get a message out, and talk about a good story, it’s a great way to get the word out.”

This last comment, of course, is something that Red Wings fans are extraordinarily familiar with, given the roaring success of Herm to Hockeytown.

I asked if he was surprised at all by what the Coyotes have been able to accomplish this season, given the ownership and financial issues going on.  He replied that he doesn’t think that kind of stuff really bothers the players:  “It’s a great story, what Tippett has been able to achieve, [but] the ownership stuff doesn’t really touch the lockerroom.” He also stated that he does think the Wings will win the series, but isn’t really surprised that the Coyotes have made it a tough series, and that it’s been good hockey between the two teams.

With Game 6 this afternoon, and the chance for the Wings to close out at home, Shanahan said that the important thing for them to do is to “start well.  A good start is important.  It’ll be a tough game to play from behind.  With the travel back and forth [across the country], it’s less taxing to play with a lead.  They need to pour it on in the first 10 minutes.” This is a fairly common sentiment among the Red Wings bloggers as well, and I admit I feel ridiculously happy that I can say, to an extent, that Brendan Shanahan agrees with what I think the Wings need to do in order to win the series.  Yup.

More seriously, there have been a few interesting story lines and developments this post-season, including but not limited to, the Avalanche actually giving the Sharks a decent run for their money (maybe this shouldn’t be surprising at all, actually, given the Sharks…), the 70 too many men on the ice penalties been called so far this round, the goaltending musical chairs in Montreal, and more.  So I had to ask, what’s the biggest surprise to Shanahan so far, this post-season?

“I’m surprised that the Devils got knocked out early.  They have a good caoch, good depth.  But after the Kovalchuk trade, they weren’t able to really gel as a team.  It’s a team game, and you’re not going to win [if you're not together as a team].”

And, of course, when asked about his favorite playoff moment for himself, Shanahan unsurprisingly replied with, “They’re all special, but the first Cup is the most memorable.” It was certainly one of the most cherished moments for us fans, too, Shanny.

And damn, I forgot to ask about the story behind this photograph.

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As for the game, I don’t think I breathed the entire time the Wings held onto that 1 goal lead.  I’ve never been so relieved to get the safety goal.

Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Henrik Zetterberg (pp; Kronwall, Rafalski); Pavel Datsyuk (Franzen, Lidstrom); Henrik Zetterberg (Bertuzzi, Stuart)
Phoenix: none

– I missed the first 10 minutes, roughly, of the 1st period due to the awkward 6:30pm ET game start.  I did get home and fired up GameCenter Live just in time to hear Mickey and Ken Daniels trying to explain the Filppula non-goal.

– Looking at the faceoff stats after 1 period, I couldn’t even believe it.  7-20, in favor of Phoenix.  Shots were 17-9, Detroit, though, and the Wings did manage to even up on the draw to end at 30-31.  But that aside, 7-20 is just unacceptable.

+ I said after Game 3 that if Howard still looked shaky tonight, then I thought it might be time to pull him in favor of Osgood.  But Jimmy pulled up his big-boy pants, and has clearly taken to the Chris Osgood School of Zen in how he did not let Game 3 affect him tonight.  He was stellar in getting his first career playoff shutout.

– Niklas Kronwall has been absolutely brutal all series long.  Saler pondered if he was maybe injured, but a physical injury wouldn’t be causing his complete lapses in judgment and decision making.  My opinion has been if he’s not going to make the smart or even acceptable play, then he should at least step up in the hitting.

+ 5 goals in 4 games for Mr. Zetterberg.  He’s playing like the Conn Smythe winner of 2 seasons ago.  This is what the Wings need, and he’s giving it to them.

+ The PK was awesome tonight.  Less sitting back than we’ve seen, I think, and they were much more active in regaining the puck to shovel it down the ice.

– That said, can we please stop with the unforced turnovers?  My God, it just gives me a heart attack every time, because I could just see a bad giveaway leading to a tying goal by Phoenix.  Thank God Jimmy was on his game, because if he’d had a similar outing to Sunday, the result would have been drastically different.

= Every time I hear Petr Prucha’s name being mentioned in the PxP, I actually do a double-take.  I’m so used to him being a healthy scratch with the Rangers under Tom Renney that it’s weird to hear that he’s actually playing.

= Poor Helm was told to stand down by the ice after the game for the three stars, but it was actually Pavel who was the 3rd star, not Helm.

+ Speaking of Helm, he led the team with 7 hits.  Stuart was next with 6.  Franzen and Datsyuk each had 4.  It was good to see them pick up the physicality, and use it effectively.  Hits were 43-27, Detroit.  43!

= Mickey York totally called Crosby “Sidney the Kidney” during the intermission.  I don’t know if he was going for Sid the Kid, and then realized he’d said Sidney, but whatever.  It amused me.

+ It wasn’t a perfect game for the Wings, despite the shutout.  It wasn’t one of those brilliantly executed games where they just outplay their opponent in every regard.  But they ground out the must-win, from goaltending up to the top lines.  And that’s all that ultimately matters.

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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.

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