Heroes of Hockeytown

Didn't look like that was going anywhere. Nice one, Helmer!

Gotta do better than that Stuie. And Conks...

The Jackets' next seven games are pretty much a murderer's row of hot teams right now: Chicago x2, Detroit, Buffalo, Philly, Toronto, Anaheim. All this for the goofballs that blew a lead to Ottawa in 30 seconds. I wonder what the record is for most games without a win to start the season?

Oh, Pavs That is an important quality to consider in friends, I suppose.

Lest we forget the 12000-1 beatdowns the Wings have suffered at the hands of the BJs and Preds over the last few seasons.

And the extra point is good.

Ericsson's man?

Red Wings and Lions sittin' in a tree... F I V E and O N E...

I will have to join the "get your s*** together, Cleary" chorus. Too many giveaways and falling down, not enough anything useful. And that goes for more than tonight.

Murph is low on tact tonight.

Usually I think the back to back excuse is perfectly legitimate, but with five days off beforehand I don't know how much of a factor it is. Perhaps it still is pretty rough though; I've never had the pleasure of being a professional hockey player. They've played an okay game, but sometimes it goes in your net and not in theirs. Conklin has not turned in a good performance either, though.

Got to say I am a bit curious about that decision. Maybe he just wanted to get Jimmy into a game as quickly as possible, but surely another day off wouldn't have hurt too much?

That's a killer.

The ol' Nick-Nik divebomb play. Nice!

Yeah, but the Wings never block shots in the regular season. Which seems like a decent policy since they always make the playoffs anyways.

He's had a poor game. Although to be honest if I didn't know beforehand I wouldn't even know Bruno was in tonight. Has he played in the second period yet?

Might not be in the cards tonight, fellas. Their PP is killing it.

Lidstrom with a penalty in back to back games! No Byng for you, mister.

Cleary must lead the league in falling down. But only because Homer is sitting out back to backs.

Vokoun bringing his A-game. Wings' bottom six bringing their dummy game.

Thanks fer nuthin' Bert.

Ovechkin and friends are buzzing. Lucky he didn't go after Abby on that last rush.

Lots of skill on display tonight. Fun game so far.

I don't know about that, I think Kronwall still has more of a tendency to shoot high and wide. But also, he is less of a fan of shooting from the point and likes to jump into the slot way more often than Nick -- although his goal so far this season says otherwise.

I think like anything it's too early too tell. Obviously anything that isn't working should be getting looked after, but there are certainly plenty of times during any season where a team with a successful power play will go 3-4 games without getting a PPG. Zetterberg is another good example. One goal in four games doesn't look good, but go back to the middle of any season where he's doing great and you'll see examples of similar stretches. Being at the beginning of the season magnifies it, but it's really nothing out of the ordinary, at least not yet. Everything will eventually progress or regress towards the mean (unless it doesn't!).