Tuesday, December 23, 2003

Wings 2, Blues 1

Just a few short notes since Brian did such a good job of summarizing the game already. It was good to see the Wings rise to the occasion and get a win in such an important game even though they must be reeling from having to play so often in such a short period of time. They played 12 games in the first 22 days of December though thankfully only six of them were on the road and none on the West Coast. The people in charge of NHL scheduling sure are geniuses. The fact that the Wings have played one to six more games than everyone else is in itself ridiculous. It will all even out in the end, I know, but right now it's completely unfair. Curtis Joseph has been great in his last six games. He kept the Wings in it again last night and has really made a case for himself. I realize he's really only playing this well because he's getting steady work but he's really making a case for himself. I'm sure Dominik Hasek would be doing much the same if he were getting steady work and was healthy but he has not demonstrated that he is able to be healthy and so take the steady work. I say that if Hasek cannot make a real comeback from this groin injury of his after getting a week off, he should go back into retirement while he still has some kind of a positive reputation around the league and the rest of hockey. If he continues to go in and out of the lineup and play inconsistently, he will ruin his own image and end up being going out a joke rather than the star he left as in 2002. I'm not convinced he has it in him to complete his comeback. He needs to prove it to me and the rest of Hockeytown's Faithful. Joseph is in the process of proving himself right now. It's time for Dom to step in and do the same. Pavel Datsyuk is amazing. There's not much else I can say. His effort night after night combined with his skill make him one of the best players in the league. His defensive play gets better with every game and he shows us something new on offense every night. Jim Nill (who looked like death warmed over last night in the pre-game show. Send him to Florida to get a tan, Mr. Illitch, he's earned it.) and Ken Holland are geniuses for finding Pavel. The same with Henrik Zetterberg. Brian said "it appears that Nick Lidstrom has caught the Pavel Datsyuk pass-by-all-means bug." That's true but why apply that only to Nick? I say the entire team has gotten it, though Pavel seems to have a much less serious case than he used to. The Wings can't seem to get enough passes off and their power plays are just passing clinics. I'd like to see some shots on the power play for once. I didn't like seeing Chris Osgood get hurt near the end of the game. I don't think he should have played tough guy and stayed in but the Wings fan side of me is glad he did because that left the Wings vulnerable to a goal. The Wings scored the game winner soon after. Ozzie has some kind of knee injury which will hopefully keep him out of a few Blues games which would help the Wings a lot since he's played very well this season. Once again, it was not a very exciting game until the end when it became a mad scramble to score. It was the second time the Wings have beaten the Blues 2-1 this season and they now lead the season series 2-1-1. I love it when the Wings play the Blues....... The Wings are now 22-11-3-1. They lead the Western Conference and the Central Division by four points and the league by one. They now have three days off which will hopefully be enough for at least Tomas Holmstrom back in the roster (though Dave Lewis said he doubted it). I've written more than "just a few short notes" already so I'll stop now. Next up: vs. Minnesota, Friday, 7:30 EST Freep | News | ESPN | Box Score Lines- Zetterberg-Mowers-Shanahan Draper-Datsyuk-Hull Whitney-Yzerman-Maltby Devereaux-Williams-Rivers Whitney-Datsyuk-Hull Zetterberg-Yzerman-Shanahan Devereaux-Mowers-Williams Maltby-Draper-Dandenault Lidstrom-Woolley Fischer-Schneider Kronwall-Dandenault Woolley-Dandenault Lidstrom-Schneider Fischer-Woolley 4 on 4- Shanahan-Yzerman Schneider-Dandenault PP- Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Hull Shanahan-Yzerman-Whitney Lidstrom-Whitney Lidstrom-Woolley Kronwall-Woolley PK- Draper-Maltby Draper-Zetterberg Shanahan-Yzerman Datsyuk-Hull Zetterberg-Datsyuk Lidstrom-Schneider Fischer-Dandenault Net- Curtis Joseph

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