Wings 1, Bruins 2 (OT)

The Wings didn't look all that great yesterday in their 2-1 overtime loss to Boston. It looks like they may be hitting a team slump because they've played fairly flat over the last two games. Already, Brett Hull and Pavel Datsyuk are slumping which only adds to their troubles. It's nothing major yet but they aren't playing as well as they have the past 20 games. While Pavel Datsyuk probably went too far in the third period, it was good to see him play a physical game against a much bigger team. He knocked at least three guys to the ice during the game, including the hit he was ejected for. My favorite was the hit he put on during the first period when he was near the blue line. A Bruins player came up to pressure him and Pavel just decked him with one arm while keeping the puck. His hit in the third was pretty dirty but I'm sure he did not mean to do it. The player, Michal Grosek, turned at the last second and ended up face first in the boards. The league will review the hit but I doubt Pavel will get any thing more than a fine. He'd better be careful in dealing out hits because eventually he's going to have to answer for it. Also, as good as it is to see Datsyuk throwing his weight (small though it is) around, I'd much rather see him scoring goals and assisting on them. He has not had a point in four games, the longest streak of his career. The Wings got away with some pretty dirty stickwork yesterday, most notably the high stick Brendan Shanahan got Martin Lapointe in the face with and another hit stick by Mathieu Schneider that time on a Bruins player's neck. The Bruins are lucky to have a player like Joe Thornton. He looked like he'd be a dud after being drafted first overall a few years ago but he has really become a top player. They would be complete fools to trade him or ever let him leave Boston. He's one of the top three #19's in the league with The Captain and Joe Sakic obviously going first. I was on the radio at SportsTalkCleveland.com for their new hockey show "Hockey Insider" before the game. We talked about CuJo, McCarty, the Griffins players stepping up, Draper and Woolley/Schneider v. Lidstrom. When I get a hold of a link, I'll post it here so you can listen to it. Apparently, they want me back sometime later in the season and if it does in fact happen, I'll mention it beforehand. For a more in-depth look at the game, see Brian's postgame report, the Detroit News', ESPN's and the Box Score. Here are the lines from the game yesterday, courtesy of GWB: Draper-Datsyuk-Hull Maltby-Yzerman-Whitney Shanahan-Zetterberg-Holmstrom Devereaux-Mowers-Dandenault Draper-Yzerman-Whitney Shanahan-Mowers-Hull Shanahan-Yzerman-Whitney Maltby-Draper-Dandenault Zetterberg-Yzerman-Whitney Lidstrom-Schneider Fischer-Chelios Kronwall-Woolley Woolley-Chelios 4 on 4- Datsyuk-Hull Lidstrom-Schneider PP- Whitney-Datsyuk-Hull Shanahan-Yzerman-Holmstrom Shanahan-Yzerman-Hull Woolley-Zetterberg Lidstrom-Schneider Woolley-Chelios PK- Draper-Maltby Shanahan-Yzerman Zetterberg-Datsyuk Datsyuk-Hull Lidstrom-Schneider Fischer-Chelios Lidstrom-Chelios Kronwall-Woolley OT- Shanahan-Yzerman Whitney-Hull Draper-Maltby Lidstrom-Schneider Woolley-Chelios Net- Curtis Joseph