Back to Back Heartbreakers

On By mpetrella

For the second day in a row, the Red Wings lost in an extra-innings shootout, this time to the Goddamn Blackhawks. It’ll be quick because I’m full of hate.

However, if I’m an outsider, a casual hockey fan, that was one of the best regular seasons game in recent memory. An absolute beauty of a game, and if the newcomer NBC viewer can’t fall in love with hockey after Sunday afternoon, there’s no hope for them at all.

TPL’S TAKE
1. After an unfortunate 2-on-1 featuring Justin Abdelkader and (wait for it) Brad May, the Hawks turned and went 180 feet for a goal. Like the day before, a failed opportunity turned into a goal for the opposition. We’re going to have to start finishing on these opportunities – and when we do, a lot more wins will come. In the new NHL, its rare to get random chances from your fourth line guys, and the Wings can’t do much worse converting on them.

2. The Wings found themselves down 2-0, but then a beautiful Zetterberg-to-Lidstrom play snatched the game back, at least momentarily, as momentum started to swing Detroit’s direction. The Wings outplayed the Hawks for much of the game, and the crowd was certainly awake…

3. How ’bout Patrick Eaves? He was tired of Brad May not doing a goddamn thing to stand up for his teammates so Eaves took care of it himself, dropping the gloves with Kris Versteeg. Great to see the emotion, and he ended up with a gash under his eye, but he came up smiling and the wind was 100% behind the Wings.

4. Just like that… Bertuzzi sucked the air out of the building with an ill-timed dumbass penalty 130 feet from Howard. It’s been questioned that Keith skated INTO Bertuzzi, and I haven’t seen another replay, but frankly – if we all know he’s under a microscope and any little thing Todd does is going to get penalized, he has to know that, too, and needs to adjust his game accordingly. Thankfully, the PK looked pretty good, and the team split the Hawks power play up over the two periods. More on Bertuzzi later who, like he does, redeemed himself randomly.

5. EuroTwins Powers Activate! Datsyuk to Zetterberg, tie game. Awesome. All is right in the world.

6. Sharp’s goal was a thing of beauty…if you ignore the fact that Brett Lebda was all up in Brad Stuart’s business, ignoring his own man and Brad May was standing around waving at the crowd…

7. NBC FAIL ALERT! As Patrick Eaves was busy scoring on the set faceoff play, the entire audience was staring at replays from earlier in the day, listening the Douche Canoe go on and on about God knows what. We heard the crowd reacted to Eaves’ tying goal before we saw it. Thanks, NBC! Shouldn’t you get back to screwing Conan now?

8. By all accounts, the overtime was fantastic. I wouldn’t know because (CABLEVISION FAIL ALERT!) my internet and cable dropped out for no real reason. I hate you. I hate you so much, Cablevision. I hope you and UPS somehow get into fiery trainwreck with one another. Everything got back up right as the overtime was coming to an end, allowing me to see the shootout.

9. What a pair of goals by Pavel Datsyuk and Todd Bertuzzi. I was very impressed with Pav’s lob over Niemi (who played a strong game). Bertuzzi’s spin-o-rama was nice, as well. Who needs on-ice vision, hand-eye coordination, skating ability, hockey sense, or impulse control when you can score for 7 inches from the goal line, am I right?!

10. Hate to see Howard get frustrated like that and slam his stick over the crossbar. He’s clearly upset about how the weekend went down. And he should be. We all are, Tiberius.

REVISITING THE PRE-GAME QUICK THOUGHTS
1. The Wings didn’t crush the Blackhawks, but dare I say they controlled the tempo for most of the game? They looked FANTASTIC right from the jump, and took it to the Hawks – it was great to see. Finish was an issue (not Flip, the kind where goals are scored), and one bounce a different way, we had two points…
2. Nick, Z, and Pav needed to have a great game, and a great game they had. All three of them. It was needed.
3. Jimmy Howard played really well. Frankly, he stole both points the Wings got this weekend. Without that effort in net, the Wings lose both games in regulation. Period.

What’s next?
Washington Capitals on Tuesday. Grand.