Forget Floppa, or who’s in goal, or whether Adam Foote will finally show up tonite in some role other than painting the end boards with his jaw.

The keys to a victory tonite have everything to do with how the Wings play.  We know Denver’s going to be excited.  Little Lappy’s going to be running around and Petey’s gonna show some glimpses before the groin/ankle/foot/spleen...oops, forget the spleen...start acting up in the second.  And Three or Four, based on probability alone, isn’t going to give up 4 in forty. 

So it’s up to the Wings to play that perfect road game.  You know the kind.  The type of game where they methodically exert their will.  Letting the third and fourth lines soften the already weak Denver defensemen.  Osgood playing steady, holding the Wings in it, within one goal after one.  Forgetting the matchups and rolling the same lines they’ve done through two games.

And getting Homer off the schnide.  Tomas Holmstrom, to me, is absolutey a key tonite.  If Three or Four is going to prove again that he’s no money goalie, it’s got to have something to do with Homer’s big Swedish ass planted in his crease, blocking all that warms JoeSay and makes him secure.

We know they’ll focus on Franzen, but not as much as they will Zetterberg and Datsyuk, your co-Selke winners.  Denver still isn’t deep enough to check the top line, then the second one that features the hottest scorer in the league.

But Homer, as I think I said, is a big key.  Not necessarily at regular strength, but on the power play.  2 for 7 you say? Not bad.  But if Homer’s active, and I believe the pain is getting to him, the scoring threats become in(un?)defensible. 

First ten minutes?  Oh, yeah.  I’m sure that will be discussed. Weather the storm, Uncle Mike will say.  Take that initial energy boost and stem the the onslaught that’s sure to come right off the hop.

More than anything, more than Osgood’s play, or the recent signs of Filppula and Cleary waking up, the degree that the Wings are able to play that perfect road game is what will determine this series.  Yes, the series, because if we wake up tomorrow with a 2-1 lead instead of a throat choking 3-0 advantage?  Well, that’s no good for anybody...except you drunk asses who haven’t left the Hasek Club Car for almost three weeks.

Logically, there is no way Denver should beat Detroit tonite.  They’re too banged up, especially compared with the seemingly completely healthy Wings.  Their goalie is three goals away from getting escorted to the airport and out of Denver for good.  But logic never works.  Ever.  Sasquatch suspended?  Nifty.  A loss immediately followed.  A beaten Bubba?  Not in the SoGay they weren’t.  Not with a two goal lead and not when Bubba popped one, then another, then another.  Oh no.  Logic has no place.

But maybe Mikey can change that.  Just maybe Mikey’s finally gotten through to these guys in Scotty-like fashion.  Maybe he’s discussed with them how dangerous it is to let an inferior team out of a chokehold just because their face is turning purple like the Wonka chick who who would have provided favors to every oompa loompa in the factory if it meant one more golden egg.

Tonite has nothing to do with who plays for the Dive, or how loud that fake crowd is, or what kind of meltdown Quenneville has planned in the off season.  Tonite has everything to do with the Wings playing their game and finally--finally--putting a definitive stamp on a series when they have the chance to do it.  Get a lead. Build on it.  Choke the life out of the Ass Can and out of the Dive themselves.

The Wings will need a killer instinct over the next two series’.  That characteristic has to form in Denver tonite.  No room to breathe, not on the ice and not in this series.

Questions: Does Uncle Mike play Maltby because of his experience in foreign territory, or does he stick with Helm...yet another revelation from the Nill youth movement?  Does Franzen stay hot?  I’ll tell you that if he does, that becomes Key number 1.  If they can’t stop him, it’s Sayonara Sister.  But it all has to stay within the framework of that perfect road game.  Puck possession, steady goaltending, creating opportunities and shutting up a crowd that will wilt at the first sign of adversity.