BlueMonk

Maybe CBC needs a ratings boost or something. He hasn't gone nuts like this in a while.

Exactly.

etroit Re Wings (no "D")

The ice times of the D pairings are explained by the team playing last night. Lids played almost 27 minutes last night. I know it's tough to take a step back when the team is getting pummel led like this, but keeping key players healthy by not playing them too much is more important. All the other D pairings have to do is not suck and the problem goes away. But, alas....

I'm gonna go out on a limb and call game over on this one.

Cripes, not even 10 minutes into the 1st period. Back to backs or not, this is pathetic.

It's not even close so far. The Habs had their way with Le Shark in the first period.

I didn't think of House, but it did occur to me that he bears a resemblance to Bertuzzi.

Laraque crushed Dan Boyle with a hit and Shelley challenged him. Win Laraque.

I don't even know for sure that they'll hand out fighting majors, but the Ducks came back to beat the Stars and as the final horn sounds, Ott cross-checked Niedermayer to the back a few times. Giguere goes after Ott and has him in a headlock when Moen skates in and just starts pummeling Ott. Good times.

The handful of times I've seen Thomas lose in sudden death, he's always bolted off the ice like that, whether in an OT or a shootout, whether the goal he let in was bad or not.

Ozzie looked great. Good on him for getting his game together. Now he just needs to keep it up. Last year, I had a sense of calm watching him play, just a feeling he'd be really solid for 60 minutes and give them a chance to win. This year, even when he's gotten off to a good start in a game, I've rarely felt any kind of calm or confidence. But I did tonight. Credit where credit is due: Kopecky played a hell of a game.

People can argue about whether the hit was clean or not, but regardless of that it sure seemed to get Thornton off his game.

I honestly don't think you can take anything from regular season games, let alone how important home ice is. Teams that look bad in the regular season series against a team routinely go on to beat them in the playoffs. And home ice during the regular season is more about a team's mindset about protecting their turf than anything; you can pull that off when the other team is on a brutal road trip while you're on a home stretch, but in the playoffs when both teams are desperate and on even terms, it's different. Long winded way of saying I wouldn't take much from these games.

At the risk of repeating myself. I mean, come on. There are 3 or 4 sticks and the puck somehow eludes them all.

One ongoing gripe I have with this team is how often all they need to do is just get the puck out of their zone and somehow fail.

Concussions can linger and once a player has one, he's more likely to get another. They can be really serious.

It didn't look like the puck was across the line but I'm shocked they overturned it with the official being so emphatic.

Lemieux doesn't matter anymore. He's a big bag of meat at this point. I find it hard to even dislike the guy now. In hindsight, he was the best thing that ever happened to the Red Wings. I credit the '97 and '98 Cups to him. Without the hit on Draper, the Wings might never galvanize into the team that played with such cohesiveness and sense of purpose. This team doesn't engage with pests anyway, so I can't see him having any effect on the game tonight. He might get booed, though. Although last time he came to Detroit with Phoenix, I don't think anyone at JLA even acknowledged him.

I really like Ovechkin and I don't particularly mind what he does. But generally speaking, I prefer to see excessive celebrations met with a punch in the face. The enhances the entertainment value, because in addition to the unadulterated, cathartic emotion of the celebration, you also might get to see an act of brutal violence. I LOVE THIS GAME.

Dallas misses Zubov, Modano, Richards and Morrow. Trevor Daley trying to QB the PP, ouch.

It's way too early to pull the plug on Jimmy Howard.

Schedule loss.

Bunch a stumbling, bumbling, ditzy f**ks who keep falling down and getting knocked on their asses tonight. That's the Red Wings.