BlueMonk

The Wings really took it to the Sharks. Detroit just matches up really well with them. But hey, you gotta score on your chances. The Wings were missing open nets and hitting posts. The Sharks got a couple scoring chances and capitalized. There are no points for controlling the play. You gotta finish. The team looked a hair off on everything tonight. The coaching staff, too. No excuse for Kronwall on that late first period PK. With 10 seconds left in the period, Lidstrom needs to be on the ice.

Detroit dominating everything on the ice but no justice with the score.

The Wings weren't quite as sharp passing the puck today, but they played hard with and without the puck. Credit to the Wild for taking away the middle of the ice defensively. Both goalies played very well, too. Good win and a nice streak the team is on right now. This father-son trip seems to have been just what the doctor ordered for a lethargic team that was having trouble getting up for games.

OMG.

What a difference a couple games makes. As much as the defensemen have looked bad this season, I agree with Babcock that a huge part of fixing that is getting the forwards to come back and help in the defensive zone. They've done that the last couple games and the difference is night and day. They're protecting the crease and clearing rebounds and the defensemen aren't being hung out to dry. They've also cleaned up the passing game. These games against Boston look like Red Wings hockey again.

Detroit dominating but I'll take an insurance goal, please.

Bertuzzi is playing a fantastic 2-way game.

I can't argue with the effort. The Wings are playing hard, moving the puck well, going to the net and skating circles around Boston. They could easily have 5 or 6 goals if not for Thomas playing great in goal.

I can't believe Draper finished that! Also, Lidstrom won't get an assist on that goal, but his beauty pass made it possible.

It seems like Salei and Kindl haven't left the ice since the first puck drop.

Strange game but a much-needed win. It was nice to have Pavel back. I missed the Filppula injury. Hope it's not long-term.

You're correct. Thus ends the most arbitrary, meaningless streak in the NHL this season.

Man, what a night for Franzen! Not only does he score 5 goals, but the Wings pretty much needed every one of them.

Lids beaten BADLY on that play. Jeez....

I wonder if Babs is waiting out what he knows is an inevitable lull in the course of an 82 game season. Good coaches know when it's time to start busting their players and when to let things slide. Babs was a slave driver in his first season but by all accounts he learned that the coach of a veteran team like this has to let up sometimes. I'm sure he took plenty of notes from Bowman. The Wings are in a pretty good place in the standings so it's not mission critical yet. But if this keeps up, I wouldn't be surprised to see something. Maybe Babs will criticize a player or two through the media. I kind of wonder if the Nabokov thing was as much a strategic move to send a message to Howie as anything. It sure seemed unlikely he'd survive the waiver process so one wonders if there was a secondary agenda.

I don't buy the scheme thing. It's players performing badly. There's no scheme that dictates Rafalski and Kronwall put the puck on the stick of an opposing forward every other time they attempt a first pass out of the defensive zone. The scheme doesn't tell the penalty killers to make limp-wristed clearing attempts that have no chance of getting out of the zone. No scheme is responsible for all the passes that arrive in skates and the Hail Mary attempts that almost never connect and instead almost always result in a giveaway and an odd-man rush the other way. Coaching shares in the responsibility of players not performing to their abilities right now. But I don't think the problems stem from a systemic problem; they're happening because of guys making bad plays.

This is true. The one catch is that this is an older team and when the guys play physical, they tend to get hurt and heal slowly. Blocked shots end up turning into broken bones and such. The age of the roster is a contributing factor to some of that; bones get more brittle as the years go by. If the team's strategy is to save the physical play for do-o-die time in the playoffs, I guess it's an approach that can't be completely discounted.

The collective defense of this team has been awful for most of this season. Nobody on the roster gets a free pass on that point. The defense corps is especially bad, but they've been masking their defensive deficiencies with offensive production. Not a single defenseman on this team, including Lidstrom, is getting it done. And Howard is just not the same goaltender he was last year so the team is not able to keep the puck out of its net.

Take the punishment and the rest that goes along with it. That's a fair trade in my book. I'm much more worried about Zetterberg being as ready for the playoffs as possible than the all star game. If they suspend him a game or two, then that's a few more days rest. Works for me.

Kronwall, you Swedish meatball. My god.

The Red Wings are really going to have to step things up if they want to achieve their apparent ambition of committing the most turnovers ever in an NHL game.

I could see the tying goal coming, but I also had a feeling our guys would pot the winner in OT, so I wasn't even tense when Jackets pulled Mason for the 6th skater. It's scary how often I "know" how the game is going to go. The problem is when I have the sense things are gonna turn out bad, because I have to suffer with that feeling all game long. Great job by Mule!

Man, Wings couldn't get a bounce last night and tonight they're coming in spades. The hockey gods are sure fickle.

Okay, after scoring a goal, here's what's wrong with Ericsson. On the very next possession, he just took a nice pass from his goaltender along the boards with not a defender in sight. Yet, somehow, he fumbled with the puck and the Jackets kept Detroit hemmed in for more than a minute. You just can't fail to make the simple plays like that.