BlueMonk

And there it is! Win Boogaard on first viewing.

Komisarek just manhandled Hartnell.

F**k both of these teams.

This was a good win. Wings battled hard at the end of a tie game. This team can skate and it can hit, something noticeably lacking in other trips to Edmonton, which is always a fast and hard hitting team. Osgood solid in net again.

It is very impressive, at least with this particular team. They're going to the net, taking quality shots. The Red Wings teams that struggled to score in the playoffs were putting up a ton of shots, but they were the kind that came from the perimeter and in situations where the goalie wasn't being screened. The stat can be misleading in situations like that.

Laraque-Boogaard part 4 (I think) would be great. Let's hope it happens.

I really don't think I'd change anything on this list, Lou.

I was at the game, but I walked to the concessions and heard about it when I got back. From what I heard, it was a bloody one, with people leaving the arena with towels on their heads. The entire section was standing up while they cleaned up the mess. "Oh, the good ol' hockey game, is the best game you can name, and the...." We had a blast last night. The crowd really was loud and into it. Highlights for me: -Datsyuk's feed to Zetterberg. I mean, wow. Our entire section was going nuts, even when they'd show the replays on the big screen. -The Downey fight. This was not only fun for the fans, but it was both smart and shrewd on Downey's part. One guy on hockeyfights.com made a couple of great points about this, which I'll plagiarize. For one thing, Downey waited until he drew the extra 2 minutes from Davison (which I thought should have been an instigator, but they called it roughing), so it resulted in a power play for the Wings. For another, knowing that fighters have to walk on eggshells with the Wings front office, he has to pick his battles and not just fight for the sake of fighting, which can interrupt the rolling of 4 lines, etc. Just really smart on Downey's part. The loudest the crowd got all night was for the fight, of course. Osgood looked very, very solid. Shame about the bogus penalty on Homer, or I think this game would have resulted in a SO for Ozzie. The crowd showed their appreciation, which I thought was a nice touch. Why exactly is the league cracking down on Homer, anyway? They want to increase scoring, but they pick on one of the guys who does the extremely difficult things that a team needs to do to score goals in the modern NHL? I don't get it. Oh, and one other thing: The Wings look like a great team, even without all their pieces healthy. If they stay healthy, this could be a very good year. Even accounting for the Sharks having to deal with the west coast-east coast travel (which is no small thing), this was a dominating performance by Detroit.

Hehehe.

Chara's a beast. I wish he fought more, but he's pretty valuable to be spending 5 minutes at a time in the box. He usually destroys the other guy. Credit to Koci for going with Chara after his beak got opened up by Belak last weekend. Here you go.

Awesome!

Hey, regardless, it's all good. I'm just giddy over the fighting in the league so far. I hoped there might be a bit of a copycat effect from the Ducks, but I figured it was wishful thinking. Whatever the reason is, I'm just glad to see all the scraps. Yeah, that was shocking. Nolan should not still be able to hang with a young stud like Stortini, let alone take it to him like that!

I agree with what you're saying, but in this particular case, Laraque did get back up, but the refs ended the fight. When Brashear went down earlier in the fight (it looked like he went down twice) that didn't happen. I thought Brashear landed the best punch of the fight, though. No question about that. Great stuff in the Ducks-Blues game tonight. There were like 4 fights and the physical play was way up.

Shots on goal is an unreliable indicator of which team is really controlling a game. They tell a story, but sometimes it's a misleading story. When the Ducks swept Detroit a few years ago, the Wings had mammoth advantages in shots on goal for the series. But those shots were from areas that are difficult to score from. Hockey rewards the team that works harder. Going to the difficult areas of the ice is required. The Wings did a better job of that last year and they had more success in the playoffs because of it.

It's a very tough call. Laraque controlled the fight, but when he had a chance to finish Brashear off, he let up and then he paid for it. I wouldn't call it a TKO by Brash, but it was definitely a KD. Either way, Laraque's advantage early had more to do with ragdolling Brashear than it did with punches landing. Good fight, regardless. Fighting numbers are up so far this year. Good times.

Brashear and Laraque went! And the shocker is, it wasn't a hug-fest. Laraque was controlling the fight and feeding lefts to Brashear, but after they went down (and credit to the refs for letting them get back up and continue), Brashear recovered and appeared to land a KD punch. Damn good scrap between two guys not know for opening up.

Most people here underestimate them. They get blasted for trades that don't get made at the deadline, etc. To maintain a team as successful as the Wings takes a very, very good team of upper level management. The scouting staff is second to none. I wouldn't trade scouting staffs with any team in the league. That being said, I think they were lacking before Babcock became coach. Ken Holland's one weakness seems to me to be a tendency towards building an excessively one dimensional roster. As successful as the Red Wings' puck possession system is - and make no mistake, it's not only wildly successful, but also a beautiful thing to watch - teams need a bit more diversity in their personnel to make a deep playoff run. I felt that last season, Babcock's input made a big impact on how the team was built. As a result, I saw a team that had a little more balance and looked well equipped to make a playoff run. Turns out, they did just that. I believe it's no coincidence, but others may find their mileage varies. Anyway, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better front office in NHL hockey, but that doesn't mean there aren't weaknesses. I feel this is the best management team they've had since Bowman was coaching the team.

This was a good win. 4 points in 3 games so far on the west coast road trip is very good. Downey sticking up for his teammates is very good. Zetterberg and Datsyuk are crazy good. Wow.

My powers to jinx, both good and bad, are obviously still intact.

What I love about Kronwall is how, for a few fleeting moments in every game, he looks like an NHL caliber defenseman.

I thought the Ducks were the better team last year, at least better built for the playoffs, but it was pretty close. Regardless, I do believe that luck is a huge factor in the outcome of games. Especially the outcome of a (relatively) short playoff series.

This game was decided when the Wings failed to score on the 5 on 3. No team has ever won a game after failing to convert a 5 on 3.

Now it's time to take some REAL penalties. Boarding Pronger face first into the glass, stuff like that. Total meltdown sh**, like the Ducks would.

Lilja, Kronwall and Filppula clearly put SoCal nightlife ahead of hockey last night.