BlueMonk

Whoa, whoa, whoa... you mean they didn't even give them fighting majors for the second scrap? WTF?!

Great news. The Marinelli comment was off-the-charts inappropriate, but he deserved to be fired because he's a terrible sportswriter and media personality. In short, he sucks. I'm glad he got fired. He was an embarrassment to Detroit sports journalism. Now if we can just get rid of Drew Sharp and Jeff Riger, we'll be all set!

I had a feeling, so I checked: Nabokov's career numbers (according to Yahoo) versus Detroit are Quenneville-esque: 6-14 record, 3.60 GAA and .882 save percentage.

I'm not sure I agree that Malkin is underrated, although next to Crosby nobody else seems to get any press at all. But whenever anyone talks about the Penguins, all I hear about is how they have 2 of the 3 best players in the game. Sid and Ovechkin are the two biggest stars, sure. But I don't think the 3rd guy they're talking about is Ryan Whitney.

That was a great all-around effort by the Wings. They were never outhustled by the Jackets even though it seemed like the kind of team they might have a let-down against. Excellent team defense, something they've shown for a while now. I have to eat some crow, I didn't think the Wings could just crank up the defense after looking so bad for the first 25 games or so. Well, they're looking a lot like the team from last season now without the puck. The forwards are dropping back into the defensive zone to support the puck and they're backchecking furiously. How rare is it to see an odd man rush against the Wings lately? Pretty rare. It was happening 5 times a game for a while there. Anyone ripping Babcock for not being hard enough on this team for its often lethargic performances may want to consider now the way the team is coming together. Babs coached teams that had playoff success and then came back and flopped the next year. He talked to lots of coaches, including guys like Scotty Bowman, about how to prepare for the inevitable letdown after a long playoff run. Maybe the conclusion is you don't beat the guys up, you just let 'em find their way on their own, at their own pace. Whatever the answer is, the Wings seem to have found it. Conklin and Datsyuk were the stars of this one. Datsyuk is easily my favorite Red Wing. I've always thought he deserved more recognition than he gets, but it's obvious now that he's a tremendous hockey player on both ends of the ice. And 3/4 of the magic he does on the ice doesn't even involve scoring. It's the crazy move he makes to skate away from two defenders with the puck or make what looks like an impossible mistake turn out to be a smart clearing pass. The guy's unique; I can't think of a player like him, going back as far as I can remember.

Sweden's power play = epic fail.

Canada is playing north-south hockey, Sweden is playing east-west. I'll put my money on north-south every time.

Very entertaining read. Very cool that he's so candid. It's not often you get that much insight from an active player. Most of these guys write stuff like that years after they hang 'em up.

Scratching Kopecky is always a good idea, regardless of the reason.

Both players bring a physical element the Wings need, and Kronwall is a good offensive defenseman who can be dangerous on the PP. But defensively, especially as a pairing, they've consistently underperformed. Hopefully, they can turn it around. Look at how Lebda has improved his game. He was a -9 and now he's a +2 and rarely committing the kind of idiot turnovers he was guilty of almost nightly the first few weeks of the season. I think Kronwall is the real problem, Stuart's just being dragged down with him.

They just showed this on HNIC and I nearly pissed my pants! If I had food in my mouth, I would have spit it out laughing! 5 year old schoolgirls fight like that!

I posted about this earlier. I think they're capturing off-camera audio on a rogue microphone somewhere. Yeah, Ozzie! What a goal by Datsyuk!

Clusterf**k.

Ok, last replay was sketchier. They may not give it to him.

That's a goal. Anyone else watching the FSDetroit feed noticing that there's off-camera conversation with Ken and Mickey that some microphone is picking up? Surprised they haven't fixed it yet.

Kronwall is playing his way off the team. I've never seen a defenseman have a worse night. All that's missing is shooting the puck in his own net. And the game's not over....

Wings look out of gas. They haven't had any jump since the first period.

It was a weak call. The Wild are crazy disciplined. They execute Lemaire's system flawlessly. I've always enjoyed watching them despite their watching-paint-dry offense. Just because watching pro athletes demonstrate such total buy-in is refreshing.

Jesus, Kronwall is having a bad dream and he can't wake up. Brutal night.

After an inspired first period, the Wings have gone back to sleep. It was only a matter of time before the Kronner-Stuart pairing would yield a goal like that the way they were playing.

Whoa, is this really the GDT? Empty! Stuart and Kronwall patrolling the blueline like a couple of drunken cab drivers this period.

Just watched the clip of Crosby. It's easy to forget that Crosby is still just a kid. Right now, he's forcing things, like trying to be tough or fight. But he doesn't know how or when to go about it, so he ends up doing stupid stuff like this or the taint-punching incident. The expectations on him are unrealistic. He may become a great leader and figure all this stuff out a few years from now, but he hasn't done it yet. It's a lot to ask of him to be all things to everyone at such a young age. But this is what the league gets when its marketing machine shoves a guy down the public's throat, 24/7/365; there's some resentment and a backlash against the hype. Crosby is a great player, but he's not exponentially better than everyone else, yet the media saturation suggests he is. Overall, I think he's handled the overexposure pretty well, but moments like this are a reminder that he has a ways to go still.

It's actually even worse than that. I brought this up during the Tuesday night game on the GDT and Norrisnick did some fine research. NN adjusted for partial seasons where Q either left or took over in the middle of a season. Check it out: http://www.letsgowings.com/forums/index.ph...t&p=1509426

One of the unsung great subplots in this game was the Hawks fans embarrassing themselves on national television. They had the perfect opportunity to show the support of their team's newfound success with a hearty, "Let's go Hawks!" chant during the game. But no. There would be no such motivational moment for the team. Instead, the lowbrows collectively fall off the wagon. Overwhelmed and frightened by the thought of embracing the light, they fail to confront the challenge. They fall back into old, dark habits and scurry for the comfort of, "Detroit sucks!" And the Hawks blow their 2 goal lead and collapse. I almost feel bad for the Blackhawks players. But most of all, I feel for the wives and girlfriends of those fans tonight. The black eyes and bruises may heal, but the scars won't fade.

Boys, meet the men.