Wings lose the Battle of Boredom

Last night's game was a stinker, to be blunt. The refs decided that the Nashville Predators could interfere all game without being penalized, and the result was a lesser-skilled team bogging down a highly-skilled team and winning the game 1-0 on a shot from the point that CuJo didn't see very well. And even on the goal, CuJo and many other Wings said that they thought the Predators were offsides on the play. CuJo on the goal: "I hesitated for a second, a split-second, a 100th of a second. If you just hesitate, you don't quite cover that much. I should've had it." It was the Predators third win against the Wings this season, but the win was much different than their two previous, higher scoring decisions. The most memorable being the game when Nashville scored 4 unanswered to win the game after the Wings held a 3-0 lead coming into the 3rd. But this game was almost more frustrating, at least in the fan perspective, because the Wings just couldn't get many quality scoring chances, and Tomas Vokoun didn't give up any rebounds. The Predators pretty much cheated their way to victory, although the Wings probably should've scored on a couple chances where Vokoun robbed them. The Wings led in shots, 21 to 17. That's not a lot of shots at all. There were only 9 total shots in the final 20 minutes. Not too entertaining a game to watch. I felt bad for the home-crowd that they had to pay for such a crappy game. Even Mickey Redmond, who at one point of what I thought was a boring San Jose game, said it was a "very entertaining game," said that last night's game was pretty bad. Of ten powerplays, neither team could convert. The Wings' six powerplays were especially agonizing, as they either had a hard time establishing themselves in the Preds' zone or held a passing clinic their for the duration of the advantage (notice I give no mention to the word "shot"). A couple times the Wings just downright wasted their powerplays when guys tried to carry the puck in themselves rather than dump it in. This is where the absence of Sergei Fedorov really has left a gap, as he was a master of taking the puck in on the powerplay. Overall, it was a painfully boring game because the refs don't know the rules of the game anymore, and have decided to allow weaker teams to obstruct the upper echelon of the NHL, artificially creating Gary Bettman's beloved communistic system whereby any team, no matter how bad they are, is able to win. He doesn't want powerhouses like the Wings and Avs to survive, and is really moving to destroy the formation of dynasties in the league.