Well, decided to make the winter switch to Molson Canuckian and am enjoying the game in the ghetto-fabulous garage.

Cleary looks great, Maltby actually looks fairly good, and Cheli… well, time for some first PP unit time?

Shootout? (I’d love to see it just once, I wouldn’t bet against him.)

Lilja hasn’t scared me as much this game.

When is Drake’s fight scheduled?

Datsyuk is due, you can tell he’s hitting a groove…

I may make an extensive Excel spreadsheet, which I shall keep to myself, that clearly demonstrates that the ‘07-‘08 ‘Wings will win at least the West.

Posted by TeamDub from The gratch. on 10/08/07 at 08:05 PM ET

Ah, yes. The infamous garage.  Nice.  Remember, the key to the spreadsheet is to talk about it consistently but never show it to anyone.

Posted by IwoCPO from Sunny San Diego, bitches on 10/08/07 at 08:18 PM ET

Remember, the key to the spreadsheet is to talk about it consistently but never show it to anyone.

Like an imaginary friend, eh?

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 10/08/07 at 08:30 PM ET

I think Datss with Zets may have been Babs plan all along.  He just did not want to tip off MacTavish.

Posted by HockeyTownTodd from hockeytown on 10/08/07 at 08:41 PM ET

Heh, the already battered ghetto garage suffered some cricket match related damage, but still holding strong.

One video was more than enough, that experiment won’t be repeated. Too many “Garcias” in the world, ya know?

Here’s to a ‘Wings win to lobbing Tomahawks at the Revolutionary Guard. Soon.

Posted by TeamDub from The gratch. on 10/08/07 at 09:03 PM ET

*and to* lobbing.

Friggin’ Canuckistan beers. (topped of with a Foster’s oil can, for good measure.)

Posted by TeamDub from The gratch. on 10/08/07 at 09:04 PM ET

Mikael Samuelsson had a great game tonight.  Apart from his nifty goal, I thought he played particularly well in the neutral zone.  He was skating and doing things defensively that I have never seen him do.

Rafalski is a great skater and a perfect partner for Lidstrom.

I thought Chelios played with a lot of jump (and a beauty goal to boot, eh?).

As the game wore on, the Oil refused to hang on to the puck if they saw #13 bearing down on them.  That’s right, fear.  Fear so strong you could smell it.  Of course it was the fear of a pickpocket not a freight train hit - but the fear was palpable nonetheless.

Dom freaking scares the fecal matter out of me.  That grahpic entry really should make a footer banner or something around here…

Posted by Hoser from Downer Peninsula, Michigan on 10/08/07 at 10:32 PM ET

It’s been in the upper 80’s for the last week in Metro Detroit, Bill.  It hit 90 on Monday, and as of game time, Weather Underground said it was 80.5 degrees on Belle Isle with no wind, so it was humid as all hell get out and really, really warm at the Joe.  The ice was absolutely horrible, but when you build your barn a hundred feet inland, sometimes you have to deal with that.

Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 10/09/07 at 12:54 AM ET

Dom freaking scares the fecal matter out of me.  That grahpic entry really should make a footer banner or something around here…

I’ll second that.  The results are amazing, but watching that man play is a work out for everything that’s able to clench.

Posted by ColBerdan from San Jose on 10/09/07 at 01:11 AM ET

The interference call on Holmstrom was awful?  If we’re talking about the same call, I see you’ve got Mickey Redmond glasses on:

- Holmstrom gives Souray a shave with his stick, and then proceeds to loiter in the crease behind Roloson.  Roli backs up, boom, he falls down after bumping into Holmstrom.  The Detroit booth couldn’t figure out who would get the call…  Even after the replay, Redmond was going on about Roloson initiating the contact, and that Detroit would be so upset with the penalty.  Apparently Holmstrom is entitled to camp out in the crease, and Roloson was supposed to have eyes in the back of his head.  Whatever, that call was deserved.  Rather that whine about that, be glad they missed Holmstrom’s high stick.  He easily could have gotten 2 minutes for that as well.  Redmond missed that of course.

- second example of Redmond glasses was the Kronwall hit on “Hemsky”.  No question it was a good, open-ice hit.  Even after replay of the big hit, Redmond was chortling about Hemsky having a night as bad as the linesman that kept hitting the ice.  Seems matching the first digit is all that’s required to properly ID a player.  For those interested in what actually happened, it was #89.  Kronwall drilled Sam Gagner.  Not that Redmond would notice though.

- final example was actually the first one to occur.  Cogliano passed the puck across ice to Nilsson late in the 2nd.  Nilsson carries across the blue line, and drops to Pitkanen.  Pitkanen takes it to the corner, and spots the trailer—Cogliano—and he scores.  Redmond can’t figure out where he came from.  Surmises he must have come from the bench, and was therefore not as tired as everyone else.  Um, no, he’s fast.  As in FAST.  Replay shows:
—Cogliano making the pass
—someone else came off the Oiler bench
—Cogliano skated into the Detroit zone as the trailer
Redmond continues to assert Cogliano had speed because he came off the bench.

Wow.  I’m used to analysts getting a play wrong.  Happens all the time.  No big deal, it’s a fast game and all that.  Usually replay helps them out though.  Not Redmond.  Maybe it’s early in the season and he’s just rusty.

Posted by Rod on 10/09/07 at 01:47 AM ET

Rod; thanks for that step by step breakdown of Mickey’s incompetence but…picking on announcers? Color commentators no less? I’ve seen worse on HNIC with Bob and Harry, but expect no less from HOME announcers.

As far as the call on Holmstrom, I haven’t seen it so I cannot comment; however, all penalty calls are subject to review and complaint by a rabid fan base who take it upon themselves to set up blogs.

I.e. thanks for noticing the homer announcers and homer blog comment; that was quite perceptive.

Posted by srt on 10/09/07 at 02:10 AM ET

Five of the many thoughts that have gone through my pointed head this a.m.:

1.)  Samuelsson must have heard that I called him out as a leading candidate for 2007-08 Scapegoat® yesterday, and picked up his game as a result.

2.)  I’m really glad that they did not blow a 2-goal lead again.

3.)  I am still irritated with Andrew Cogliano for leaving U of M early (then again, I’m still angry at Mike Knuble, Mike Comrie, Al Montoya, Jeff Tambellini, Jack Johnson, and several others for doing the same).

4.)  YYYYYYYYankees lose! Yankees lose!

5.)  “Rod” is “Thomas’” new code name.

YzermanZetterberg®

®Scapegoat and YzermanZetterberg are registered trademarks of YzermanZetterberg

Posted by YzermanZetterberg from Saginaw, MI on 10/09/07 at 07:40 AM ET

Lilja still looked terrible to me. He’s the only reason that game went down to the wire.

Watching that game I was thinking that Babcock was overplaying Datsyuk and Zetterberg, but if you actually look at the TOI, it was clearly just an illusion. Certainly they played a lot, but to me it felt like they were out there half of the game.

Posted by Nathan on 10/09/07 at 07:57 AM ET

I missed most of last nights game (my 15 y/o prognisticator/son has Freshman Football on Mon Night) so, I checked the out-of-town papers for a report (gee do ya think that might be a reflection on the diggers—MacLeod not included).  Heres some scathing analysis of last nights game by Robert Tychkowski at the Edmonton Sun:
“In a nice gesture, the Red Wings asked their fans to bring smoke detectors last night to be donated to the less fortunate in Detroit.

They might want to put a couple of them in the Oilers dressing room - the poor sots get lit up almost every time they come here.

Just check the burn marks on Dwayne Roloson, who had a fantastic performance ruined by 19 teammates who didn’t get around to providing him with any support until it was too late.”

Thats gonna leave a mark!!!
Any comments on Ellis’ play?

Posted by Jeff OKWingnut from Quest for 12 on 10/09/07 at 08:29 AM ET

Just perused Bruce MacLeod, and he had this Babblecock quote from last nights postgame:

“Pretty evident is we’re not scoring the way we’re going to,” said Babcock. “We had lots of opportunities ... numerous, numerous opportunities ... and didn’t finish. We just got to keep working and finding a way to win. ... We need some 5-on-5 scoring.”

I know Babs has a psych major or something like that, but does anyone care to opine on just what that sentence means, in English??

Posted by Jeff OKWingnut from Quest for 12 on 10/09/07 at 09:13 AM ET

I think… and now I"m not an English Major but

”Pretty evident is we’re not scoring the way we’re going to,” said Babcock.

Predicting the future of how he’s going to keep working on the boys crashing the net and getting goals any which way they can, Garbage, pretty, give and go, just shoot the puck damn it! and Give to Chelli!

Glad of the W in regulation. Don’t care WHO got the empty net, just so long as we finished the job in regulation.

Posted by Drapesfan from Winder GA on 10/09/07 at 09:30 AM ET

When the Oilers scored with a few seconds left in the 2nd, Lilja had gone into the offensive zone to make a hit.  He had fallen down, and was no where near his propper postition to help Lebda and Draper defend the goal.  He came skating in after the play.

Posted by w2j2 on 10/09/07 at 09:38 AM ET

The travesty was the tripping call on Maltby in the first - he just happened to be in the same zipcode as an Oiler who lost an edge and went down well behind the play.  Cheap, cheap, cheap.

The ice was indeed the worst I’ve ever seen at JLA.  They were scooping massive amounts of snow off at each stoppage, the ice was even cloudy from the high heat/humidity.

Of course, it was 90F and 75% RH at gametime so it’s no wonder the ice was a mess.  That’s worse than it typically is in the playoffs and they bring in external refridgeration units to supplement the building systems during the playoffs - none of which were in place last night.

Posted by Hoser from Downer Peninsula, Michigan on 10/09/07 at 09:48 AM ET

Lilja still looked terrible to me. He’s the only reason that game went down to the wire.

If you read the quotes from Babcock from Bruce MacLeod from in between the 2nd and 3rd periods Babcock was furious with Lilja and his poor play.  I defended Lilja during this off season due to his stellar post season play, but he’s on his last legs here, he won’t get renewed after this year and Derek Meech is looking over his shoulder 3 games in.

Posted by Heaton on 10/09/07 at 10:56 AM ET

”Pretty evident is we’re not scoring the way we’re going to,”...

Yoda syntax. 

“Offensive talent kick in, it will.  Required is time, yes, time and practice.  Need practice they do, and score they will.”

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 10/09/07 at 11:00 AM ET

Baroque:

Funny, very funny, and likely “spot-on”.  Yoda syntax—I got a good laugh out of that.

Posted by Jeff OKWingnut from Quest for 12 on 10/09/07 at 11:35 AM ET

Baroque - I spit my coffee out on that one.  Perfect!

I was unable to watch much of the game last night as I teach on Monday nights so I won’t comment much.  Just glad they didn’t blow the lead this time.

Posted by hockeychic from Denver, CO on 10/09/07 at 11:55 AM ET

”Pretty evident is we’re not scoring the way we’re going to,” said Babcock. “We had lots of opportunities ... numerous, numerous opportunities ... and didn’t finish. We just got to keep working and finding a way to win. ... We need some 5-on-5 scoring.”

I believe that is Babblese for:
“We need to take way more low percentage shots”

I find it pretty interesting that their most successful PP last year was a broken one.  Abandoning the set-up for puck possession, all 3 forward crossed the blueline at full speed and headed right to the net.  The goalie not only gave them one, but spent the intermission changing his underwear.

Posted by HockeyTownTodd on 10/09/07 at 01:23 PM ET

Baroque:  Superb!!!  The laugh of my day… 

I record almost all the games and end up watching the latter half of most of them after the fact, and I just replayed Holmstrom’s call.  Roloson is outside the crease and on the ice after a save… as Holmstrom is skating out of the crease Roloson backs in, contacting Holmstrom’s left skate with his right one.  Both skates appear to be on the line at the top of the crease.  Roloson does initiate the contact, but he’s prevented from getting back in his crease, so it looks to me like a call that could go either way.

As for Redmond being a homer, yeah, he is…  Daniels, too.  For cryin’ out loud, like all local broadcasters they’re supposed to be.  But by and large I think they are among the better ones at being fair.  There are many much worse — anyone remember when Dale Tallon was doing the Chi broadcasts???  My gosh, there were times I was sure he was watching a different game.

Posted by BobTheZee on 10/09/07 at 01:34 PM ET

Glad I could give a few chuckles. 

My sister and I came up with that while trying to decipher the convoluted memos of one of her coworkers (who at least had the excuse of having English as his third language) and one of my supervisors at the time (who only had the excuse of having a brain the size of a pea’s brain—not the size of a pea, the size of the brain of a pea).  What are the odds that two human beings existed who could write like that?

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 10/09/07 at 03:12 PM ET

Would someone please explain to me what does Maltby gives to the Wings!                                                              Great blog site by the way.

Posted by BHinde from Toldeo,Ohio on 10/09/07 at 06:18 PM ET

Would someone please explain to me what does Maltby gives to the Wings!  Great blog site by the way.

Words cannot describe that little pest that draws penalties, hits, plays a good two way game and pisses off the opposition. 

And yes, it IS a great blog site.

Posted by cementslinger from Midland MI on 10/09/07 at 07:04 PM ET

srt said:

I.e. thanks for noticing the homer announcers and homer blog comment; that was quite perceptive.

No worse than you.  I wasn’t jabbing about homers.  Didn’t even use the word.  If I was talking about homers, the WhiteSox crew on WGN would invariably have been part of the discussion.

No, I was jabbing at the accuracy of Redmond replays.  Redmond was flat out inventing stuff (Cogliano off the bench on a change, or the Hemsky hit).  Perhaps he needs new glasses.

Quite perceptive of you srt to totally miss the point.

Posted by Rod on 10/10/07 at 02:17 AM ET