In the spirit that is the pre-season, this is just going to be a mish-mash of notes and thoughts, rather than a fully fleshed out game recap.

• First up, Mountain Time sucks.  It’s great for the games on the West coast, sure, but for 7pm ET starts?  I live 5 minutes away from work, and I had to book it so I could get home for the puck drop, which is something I really hate to miss.  I’m seriously thinking about coming into work half an hour early on 7pm game days during the regular season.
• Tomas Tatar looks awesome.  I can’t wait until this kid’s gotten some more experience in the AHL and gets the call up.  He’s slick but not enigmatically so.  And from what the Olczyk and Pat Foley from CSN were saying, he didn’t even take warmups prior to the game?
• Jimmy only faced 8 shots, but he looked good.  And before we all start drawing comparisons to Osgood, can I just put out a plea to take the defense into account?  Osgood saw 27 shots in two periods thanks to what sounded like a lot of poor defense.  I’m not saying that Oz couldn’t have played better, or that Jimmy wasn’t the better looking of the two in terms of play, but still.  Some perspective, please.  Let’s see how he plays behind the full roster, please.
• The Mursak goal was a nice instance of being in the right place, in front of the net, and ready to tap in the rebound.
• I love watching Lidstrom bomb pucks from the point and seeing them go in, with Holmstrom’s ass in the goalie’s face.
• Until he shot the waived off goal, I felt like Kronwall had whiffed on about 4 shots from the point in a row.  Here’s to hoping that playing with Nick drags him up to the level we’ve been looking for.
• Ericsson looked a little… confused.  Saw him fumble the puck unnecessarily a few times.
• It’s so great to see the Pav-Z-Homer line out there again.  I see the argument for trying to spread out the scoring if necessary, but they’re just so effective together.
• I think everyone needs a refresher on the “goaltender interference” rule when it comes to being in the crease.  From the way the refs have called it the past few seasons, to even listening to the Chicago pxp guys, you’d honestly think that simply being in the crease was cause to waive off a goal.  I distinctly recall hearing Versus always harping on about Holmstrom’s skates being on the edge of the blue paint as if that were the deciding factor for goalie interference.

For tonight’s game, Khan has the lineup:

Jordan Owens-Valtteri Filppula-Todd Bertuzzi
Drew Miller-Justin Abdelkader-Francis Pare
Jamie Tardif-Cory Emmerton-Jan Mursak
Tomas Tatar-Joakim Andersson-Aaron Downey

Brad Stuart-Jonathan Ericsson
Doug Janik-Brendan Smith
Jakub Kindl-Logan Pyett

Chris Osgood
Thomas McCollum

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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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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.

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Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Dan(ny) Cleary (Filppula, Holmstrom); Henrik Zetterberg (pp; Holmstrom, Datsyuk); Derek Meech (pp; Bertuzzi, Filppula); Patrick Eaves (Rafalski, Draper)
San Jose: Joe Thornton (Heatley); Joe Thornton (Heatley, Demers)

– The first two goals were awful.  Jimmy has got to do something about those rebounds. Both goals were because he didn’t completely corral the puck after making the save. It wasn’t even juicy rebounds; they were fairly close to him.  Yeah, Rafalski could have backchecked a little harder on the first, or whatever, but still, it’s a pretty big weakness in Howard’s game right now.  It was pretty much a wide open net both times for Thornton.

+ That being said, I like that he didn’t have a meltdown after letting in 2 in about three and a half minutes.  He pulled himself up by his big-boy pants and played pretty well for the rest of the game.

= In what was only funny after the fact, Kronner was sliding around the ice during the PK with one knee on the ice.  At first blush I was horrified and thought his knee or leg was completely messed up.  Thankfully it was revealed that the blade on his skate fell out and he literally didn’t have an edge to stand on.  It was initially terrifying watching him wobble and fall back down like a young fawn.

+ It pays off to go to the net.  Cleary was in the perfect position, right in front of Nabovok and tipped in Filppula’s pass.  Similarly, Zetteberg was hanging out at the side and had all the time and space in the world to get the rebound after Nabokov made a pretty great save on Homer.   Eaves also camped out at the side of the net and banged it home as the recipient of a gorgeous long pass by Rafalski.  Being in the right places really helps, eh?

+ Welcome back Homer.  2 assists for Demolition Man, and I wonder if his return didn’t play a little in sparking the team and giving them some jump.

+ The best part about the game was that the Wings didn’t look defeated after the 2 early goals.  They didn’t slow down or get frustrated.  They just charged themselves back up and really took over after Cleary’s goal.  The two penalties by the Sharks also helped, leading to Zetterberg’s power play tally.  They got outshot terribly in the first, 18-11, and then they took it in the second, 13-8.  They still let more shots through than I would like to see with 34, but they also got 37 off, which is big, after two games of barely scrapping over 20.

- About 5 minutes into the 3rd Ken said that Kronwall wasn’t on the bench (that was why Meech was out on the PP).  Turns out Kronwall “tweaked” something, nothing serious, but wasn’t going to return.  And he’s not going to be playing against Anaheim tonight.

+ Meech… scored?  Hey, Meech scored!  I honestly didn’t notice him until he scored, and I didn’t notice Lebda very much either.  In terms of the two of them, and their games, that’s what I like from them.  I don’t want to notice them, because it means they haven’t made an egregious error.

- Anyone else have another moment of fear shoot through them when Eaves missed on the breakaway and slammed ridiculously hard into the boards?

= What a crazy last few minutes. Ken and Murph made a comment that it looked like 3rd down, and with the amount of stoppages and time it took to play the last minute or so, it was apropos.  Joslin had an open chance for the Sharks, slid the puck straight through the crease behind Howard, but a hooking call on Lidstrom and a quick whistle saved us.  I’ll take the penalty in that case.

- I almost had a heart attack when Thornton slid into Howard, who went crashing into the net and laid on the ice like he was dead for a few minutes.  All the while Thornton’s yelling that he was tripped.  I love when the mics pick up sound.

Now we hope that they didn’t burn up all their energy last night and that they have enough for tonight.  I want to see the same amount of effort that they brought in San Jose against the Ducks.

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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.

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And, it seems that Mickey wasn’t as drunk as we thought during the Kings game, as Lilja has gone 13 days without a headache from his concussion (he needs to go 14 in order to be cleared by doctors).  Obviously this doesn’t mean he’ll be back right away, but it’s still huge news regarding his career and the state of the Red Wings’ defensive lineup.  I am thrilled to hear that he’s finally getting better.

Defenseman Andreas Lilja said he has been headache-free for 13 days and that he was told by doctors needs to be symptom-free for 14 days before being cleared. Unless he has a setback in the next day or two, he will meet with team officials this week and could return from a concussion that has kept him out since Feb. 28 of last season.

“My plan from the start was to go 14 days without headaches and I’m hitting 13 today, so we’ll see what happens,” Lilja said. “I’ll stick to that plan and negotiate after that.’’

By negotiate, he meant discuss with doctors and management when he should be activated.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen. I have to stick to the 14-day plan first,” Lilja said. “It feels pretty good.’’

He said he doesn’t know when he’ll play.

“It’ll be up to the coach,” Lilja said. “I feel pretty ready, so we’ll see.’’

Not to take anything away from Kronwall’s imminent return because that’s also really important, but Lilja being able to resume his career is huge, to me.  I know a lot of people don’t care for him and can’t let go of that turnover in the 2007 playoffs, but he was turning to a great stay at home defenseman and PK specialist before he got hurt.  Besides, look at me with a straight face and tell me that you’d rather see Meech and Lebda out there over Lilja.  Try me.

Finally, good news.

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Goals were as follows:
Detroit: Brad Stuart (pp; Lebda, Cleary); Pavel Datsyuk (pp; Rafalski, Lidstrom)
Montreal: Mike Cammalleri (Kostitsyn, Spacek); Mike Cammalleri (Kostitsyn, Plekanec)
Shootout: DET: Datsyuk, Zetterberg

Pluses
+ Laraque’s bone-headed play gave the Wings a 4 minute and 2 minute powerplay.  They managed to cash in on both opportunities.
+ Plus to young Jimmy for winning yet another game, and in the post-game skills competition.  I always feel negatively towards the shootout, because our goalies don’t tend to fare well, so I just assumed we were going to lose and was happily surprised when we didn’t.
+ The Eurotwins both scored in the shootout.  Pavel deked and Zetterberg didn’t do the damn postage stamp Forsberg move.  All is right with the world.
+ This is going under plus, because I was expecting worse–sounds like as of now, Kronwall will be out 2-3 weeks with a sprained MCL in his left knee. The same knee he’s injured in the past.  Wonderful.  Some have tossed around the not-all-together-crazy idea about signing Chelios to a 2-way contract that would allow the Wings to send him back down to Chicago if need be.  Not a bad idea,  if you ask  me, but I have a feeling they’re going to see if Meech is up to it, then maybe dig through GR.  It’s nuts, our defensive pairings now look something along the lines of Lidstrom/Rafalski, Stuart/Ericsson, Lebda/Meech.  That last one makes me want to cry, or be sick.  Or both.  Please get better, Andreas.

Minuses
– Very much not a fan of how Babcock kept throwing the PP unit of Bertuzzi-Cleary-Leino out first.  Bert holds onto the puck too much, tries to dipsy-doodle around, and ultimately loses it.  It’s a great way to eat seconds off the clock, except it’s on the power play.
– Pavel needs a finisher.  He’s definitely trying to “more shoot” (he’s averaged 5 SOG in the last 3 or so games), but unfortunately it doesn’t help when his winger is Bertuzzi (see above.  Bert does the same thing 5-on-5.  For the love of God, give the puck to Pavel).  Tragically, Pav would likely just pass it back anyway, and more often than not, Bert ends up fumbling the puck (Holmstrom is exempt from this argument because he just sets up in his office and does his thing).  I have been in the pro-Bertuzzi camp since the beginning of the season when he showed us he could hustle and play defensive hockey.  But my patience is wearing thin with him.  Matt called it a “black hole of suck,” and I can’t find myself disagreeing.
– Way to sit back in the 2nd and 3rd, boys.  Also, Cammalleri was scary determined.
– This is a minus for the Habs, but those blue jerseys were really lame.  Save them for a non-Original 6 matchup, next time.
– And a minus to FSD for no longer airing the Pavel Datsyuk Dr. Rahmani Eye commercial anymore.  Instead we’re stuck with Ben Gordon.  Please bring back Pavel.  And on that note, why isn’t Pav in the “Hockeytown, No Limits” commercial?  I’m pretty certain he could spit out an “anywhere” or “Hockeytown”.  If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s (finally!) on Youtube.

I can only hope that everyone’s read this far, but don’t forget that Darren McCarty is going to appear on Versus Monday as a guest analyst for the Redwings/Predators game.   Should be fun.

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#3: Dan Cleary
2-3-5 for this past week, and was +7.  He’s rounding into form, finally, and contributing offensively.  The line with him, Zetterberg and Leino looks strong.

#2: Niklas Kronwall
3-4-7 for the week, with at least 2 points in all three games.  Junior’s been solid on the power play, getting 2 goals and an assist on the man advantage.

#1: Henrik Zetterberg

This is a no-brainer if ever there was one.  4-5-9 in the last three games, with a hat trick and 5 points on Saturday against the Ducks.  Not only has Zata been blowing up the score sheet, he’s just been a beast on the ice.  He was everywhere–on the forecheck, mucking around in the corners, and busting to get back on defense.  And to the joy of Wings fans (apparently those even outside of Michigan), he scored free Arby’s curly fries for all with his hat trick.

Kronwall said:

“He kind of took over. He’s been playing really well for us as of late. He had some good chances early, too, and he stuck with it and really came through when we needed him the most.”

Of both Cleary and Zetterberg, Babcock said:

“I thought that whole line was great,” coach Mike Babcock said of Zetterberg, Cleary and Ville Leino, a line that accounted for four of the seven goals. “I thought Cleary (goal and two assists) was fantastic. But whenever we play against the dominant players in this league, Zetterberg always lifts his game and he did that tonight.”

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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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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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