Heroes of Hockeytown

I'm feeling like a nap, but I'm willing to power through it here in hopes of a comeback. Not looking too good, and I say that because even Datsyuk seems to be making one extra move too many tonight.

This game is dumb and should feel bad.

This is what I get for saying nice things about Ozzie.

Menacing blood art gallery spot has also made its presence felt. Our night is now complete.

Ridiculous that they didn't call that trip on Pavel. He had a shot at the wraparound.

Had to be Maltby, huh?

I think there's been one good scoring chance for the better part of a period now, and it wasn't even the goal.

Doesn't look like it was screened. A swing and a miss.

Not a whole lot going on here, for either team. Somebody do something!

Quick whistles are cool.

Nice rush by Sammy(!).

Children in Sweden learn English in school, so they're all pretty fluent in it. As for the game... It's surprising that I feel pretty confident that Ozzie is starting tonight, given how things have gone this year, but there it is. Go get 'em, Oz.

The Wings rarely move roster players, as a tribute to their success and, until now, their ability to avoid the salary cap crunch. Times change, and Kenny will do what's best for the team. I guarantee that if Holland needs to move Stuart, it will get done. Moving Brad won't expend all that goodwill garnered during the last decade of success.

The Oil is an old nemesis, from Gretzky to Pisani.

He's been building to a big season for the last two, getting thirty goals and sixty points in each. Seems like he's got more of a chance at being a consistently elite player in the league than, say, teammate and flash in the pan Brian Gionta.

More to the point, Hank will still be bringing in a $6M cap hit when he's getting older and past his prime. That's basically the only downside to the otherwise tremendous deal the two sides worked out. Well worth it and, cap considerations aside (that s*** hurts my head) the same would apply to Hossa.

He was probably tops on the team in the games against LA and St. Louis (least among skaters, Oz was also good in those games). Six-eight is pushing it, methinks.

The question isn't "Who's the highest scoring defesemen on the Wings," but "Who's the best player on the Wings?" Yeah, Rafalski is outscoring Nick (by a tremendous four point margin) but he's not been half as good defensively. I don't know aim to speak for the whole team, but among Dmen it's not even close. Nick is far and away the best. Guy has one bad month and people can't seem to get it out of their heads.

As hilariously noted in MLive: Whatever you say, Mikey.

Played a good game, Hank and Pavel were strong as usual. That was just truly an awful display by Sammy though. If you're gonna go then go, otherwise stay out of the rough stuff ya knob.

That save on Peverley from 6 feet away was completely and totally awesome. Oz had a magnificent game.

Probably not completely. Hockey's a rough sport, brah. Could do worse than a 20 goal guy getting fed by one of the league's top five playmakers.

Valedictorian of Awesome School, some might say.

I'm pretty iffy on Gomez. I'd probably stick him in there ahead of Drury or, heaven help us, Modano, but I'm not very high on any of Team USA's options at center. Except for Kessel, he's an excellent goal scorer, but I don't know enough about his two-way game. That said, Parise and Kane are a pretty dynamite pair of wingers.

I think it's also worth pointing out that your reverse correlation between blocked shots and winning isn't really a cogent argument against blocking shots on the PK. The large majority of shots occur at ES; worse teams will have the puck less and be forced to try and block more shots, but ultimately will still not be as successful. Better teams will also be awarded more power plays and compound this. To that end, blocking shots does not necessarily lead to a less successful team, but a less successful team leads to more shot blocking. We can agree that if you can make a play and not need to block a shot, that's better, but it's also hard to do, especially on the PK. Nick is the best Dman in the league and he's still got 57 blocked shots, and the rest of the PKing D (Nik, Stuart) have nearly as many (or would have if not for missed games) blocked shots as Lilja.