Heroes of Hockeytown

Yeah, I've been giving Franzen a lot of grief (much of it deserved) for his performance so far against Phoenix, but maybe part of that is we're used to seeing him finish plays and Datsyuk set up those plays, and now the roles have been reversed in this series. All of Datsyuk's goals have come from really truly brilliant passes from Franzen.

No worries, it happened after the PK expired.

Wasn't pretty, maybe that's just what the Coyotes can do to the Wings, make them play ugly hockey for a long stretch of time. But just like last game, they pulled it together in the third. Pavel and Jimmy = clutch.

Hank is the master of the empty net.

Except for that one PK where he had about the worst shift ever, Helm has been a beast in this game.

I guess the Wings have decided to wait until the last half of the third period to enter clutch mode this series.

Out of nowhere! Pavel Datsyuk!

What???

Pretty blatant interference on Miller there.

Franzen is just totally worthless tonight.

Losing these board battles when you outnumber the opposition is pretty weak.

Homer must be some strange kind of dog.

Neato, offensive zone penalty. Nick really let Jovo go on that play, don't know why he didn't make some effort to check him.

Make it a little less obvious next time, Pavs.

Lots of dicking around, no shots.

Holy boarding Batman. Sweet Christ, what an egregious penalty.

Patented Draper slapshot from the top of circle, even when there are better options available.

Miller gets the glory, but Abby doing the work crashing the crease. Greasy, hard working playoff goal.

If only you could use your body to check an opposing puck carrier instead of flail wildly with your stick. What a wonderful game that would be...

At least Jimmy is still in the zone.

What if Helm didn't have feet for hands? History will be made.

Best was a monster before he got vaulted 20 feet in the air and landed directly on his spine, I like the pick a lot. Kevin Smith is okay, but Best has real talent to actually make plays. With a running threat from Best, plus receiving from CJ, Burleson, Pettigrew, Scheffler, and hopefully the continued development of Stafford... geez, I'm actually feeling something akin to optimism here. The addition of Suh, to go along with Corey Williams and VandenBro might actually make the defensive line a strength of this team, too. I hate it when the Lions do this to me, because it means the inevitable crash to 3-13 will be worse than ever, but I can't help it. I don't think they're really that good, but goddamn if they aren't head and shoulders above where they were two years ago, and getting better all the time. GO LIONS!!!

No surprise. Keith deserves the honor, although in the playoffs (which obviously don't count, but just for discussion's sake) Doughty has been an absolute beast whereas Keith has been quiet.

Foligno has been all over the place in this overtime.

Coach's Corner pretty much laying it out plainly, there's no rhyme or reason to the results of kicking the puck in the net.