Tuesday, December 09, 2003

Wings 3, Kings 2 (OT)

Brett Hull celebrates his 732nd career goal which put him in the #3 spot all time and won the game for the Wings in overtime last night agains the Kings The Wings salvaged what could have been an embarrassing loss last night by beating the Kings 3-2 in overtime. The Wings led 2-0 at the start of the third before giving two goals in the last nine minutes of the game to a Kings team that slightly outplayed them the whole game. The Wings scored on their first two shots and did not score again until their last shot. There wasn't a whole heck of a lot excitement between those either. Dominik Hasek was in net last night and he looked better than he did against the Blues, though he was still rusty. I only saw the goals he let in on replay but from what I saw, they were fairly weak, especially the second one. Hopefully he did not re-injure his groin because he had to make some fairly acrobatic saves at time which I'm sure tested his healed injury a lot. Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, the Wings get another major injury. During the first period last night, in yet another seemingly harmless collision, Chris Chelios tweaked his knee. He went down immediately after former UM star Mike Cammalleri barely hit him and had to be helped off the ice. He retured at the start of the second period but had to leave after one short shift. He had an MRI today and the Wings have announced that he will miss three to four weeks with a sprained knee. I guess it's better than a torn ACL but it's still terrible news. The Wings need Chelios even if he hasn't been as strong this year and are now going to be even weaker defensively than they have been. To cover for these injures, the Wings continued their butchering of the Griffins, bringing up RW Kevin Miller and D Niklas Kronwall while sending Nathan Robinson back down. That forced the Griffins to do a few signings and move-ups of their own. I feel sorry for Grand Rapids fans because the Wings keep taking away their players. Hopefully these injuries will end soon. You gotta wonder how much longer this bad luck can continue...... More bad news: Ray Whitney, making a comeback after missing 10 games, had to leave in the second period after he aggrevated his groin injury. He looked good for the little amount of ice time he had, though, and the Wings really need him to be back soon. Brett Hull scored his 732nd goal last night off a perfect pass from Mathieu Schneider and won the game for the Wings in overtime. He is now in sole posession of third place all time in goals scored and perhaps even in striking range of #2. Obviously, he'd have to have at least two more good years after this one but with his style of play, that's not impossible. His only obstacle is a lockout and that's why I have a feeling he will be stuck at #3. Brett said "Just to be there behind Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe, I can't put it into words. One guy is known as the greatest player ever and the other guy in known as Mr. Hockey." The biggest mouth in hockey can't describe the feeling. Pretty amazing, huh? Hull has got to go down as one of the greatest acquisitions the Detroit Red Wings organization has ever made and Hull as one of the best players ever. To think that I used to hate the guy. He's been amazing ever since coming here. Thank you, Brett and congratulations! Brendan Shanahan's first period goal was his 544th career goal and tied him with Maurice "Rocket" Richard for 19th place all time. The Captain did not play. The Wings' 35 points keps them two points ahead of the Blues for first place in the Central Division but St. Louis now has five games-in-hand on them. Colorado now leads the Western Conference with 36 points though Philly leads the league with 41. The Wings are now 16-10-3-0. Next up: @ Buffalo, tomorrow, 8 EST Freep | News | ESPN | Box Score Lines- Shanahan-Mowers-Whitney Thomas-Datsyuk-Hull Maltby-Draper-Dandenault Devereaux-Williams-Bootland Shanahan-Williams-Bootland Maltby-Draper-Devereaux Lidstrom-Chelios Fischer-Schneider Woolley-Rivers Lidstorm-Schneider Lidstrom-Dandenault Fischer-Dandenault PP- Thomas-Datsyuk-Hull Shanahan-Draper-whitney Shanahan-Datsyuk-Draper Lidstrom-Schneider PK- Draper-Maltby Shanahan-Whitney Datsyuk-Hull Lidstrom-Chelios Lidstrom-Schneider Fischer-Dandenault OT- Maltby-Draper Datsyuk-Hull Lidstrom-Dandenault Woolley-Schneider Net- Dominik Hasek

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