Wings 3, Hawks 0

#41 Ray Whitney celebrates his 2nd period goal with #27 Darryl Bootland and #26 Jiri Hudler Obviously, the Wings' team meeting on Sunday had the desired effect because they played a solid game last night and shutout the Blackhawks at the Joe. Their performance was much improved over that of Saturday, with few defensive lapses and much less lazy play. They led 3-0 after 40 but did not give up their lead in the 3rd by playing poor defense. The Hawks only got three shots on net in the last 20 minutes of the game and Dom made the necesary saves. There was a noticeble level of effort that had been lacking in previous games. Offensively, the Wings played a much cleaner game. There were fewer turnovers and more exciting plays than have been common recently. The game was fairly closely fought until the 2nd period when the Wings scored their 3 goals and pulled away. Datsyuk, Whitney and Shanahan scored the Wings' goals. Surprisingly, Boyd Devereaux had a good game. Maybe the rumor in the Toronto Sun about him going to Pittsburgh for Straka gave him a little extra motivation to perform. He's had an awful year so far but maybe he's turning it around. Another player who seems to be turning it around is Brendan Shanahan. He's had a poor year as well but his last couple games have been good. He has 4 goals in 3 games and has actually been an offensive threat. It was good to see Dom in net again. In contrast to his last game, he was sharp and looks to be about fully recovered from his groin injury. Darren McCarty did not play last night because of his back and will not make the three game trip with the Wings. It's a heck of a lot harder to write on lasts night's win than it is to write on the Wings' losses. When I'm not in rant-mode, I can't think of as much to say and when things are going badly in a game, I seem to remember much more detail than when they go well. So I apologize if this post was a little less in-depth than others. Maybe when it's not such an enormous shock for the Wings to win in such an fashion, I'll be able to go in to more detail. Now, the Wings just have to win tomorrow and Friday in Dallas and Chicago. Their performance in these next two games will show us just how recovered they are and whether last night's game will be another 3-0 Calgary win or not. I have enough confidence in the Wings' professionalism that they will not be satisfied with a win-lose-win-lose pattern for the rest of the season, though Jerry Green of the Detroit News has other ideas. It's too bad we have to read that kind of crap in our own Detroit newspapers. Go write for the Denver Post or some other such publication, Mr. Green. It's one thing to express fears that such a thing could happen/be happening (as I have tried to do) and it's quite another to treat it as a current fact. Let's give the Wings a break and wait to see if they can pull out of this or not. If they don't, then we can make pronunciations of mediocrity. You may be willing to give up on the Detroit Red Wings but I am not. I do believe that this is most likely their last year as a top team but they still have the rest of this season to go before the end of their run. As long as the NHL operates under the current CBA, the Wings will be a powerhouse. So, don't give up yet, Wings fans. Wait until after the league gets its new CBA to give up, if you're going to give up at all. As for myself, I'll never give up completely on my team, though I may be hard on them at times. Next up: @ Dallas, tomorrow, 8:30 Freep | News | ESPN | Box Score