You Are the LIVING End!

FINAL SCORE (Hi Dad!)
4-1 Red Wings

THE RUNDOWN
I watched the game after I got home from a game of my own, so everyone’s already read all the good news. Malkin and Staal DID suit up, which is great news because playing a team without their top three centers isn’t satisfying. When you beat a team, you want to beat the team, not whatever’s left of it. Still, no Crosby — and that’s bad news — but the Wings controlled this game and one man wouldn’t have made a difference in the end… even when that one man is Sidney Crosby.

At the high school game I was coaching, the game was on in the lobby. We didn’t allow the team to watch the game — instead asking them get prepared in the locker room. One of the guys walked by me as I glanced at the screen and said “how come you get to watch the Penguins game?” and my answer for him was “first of all, it’s the Red Wings game, they just happen to be playing the Penguins. Go get dressed.”

QUICK BULLETS

• Congratulations to Nick Barnowski (@nickbarnowski), who won yesterday’s TP:60 First Goal contest. We’ve made contact and we hope to have him on the next episode of the show (which is scheduled to drop on Friday). You can check out his blog and get acquainted right here.
• About halfway through the first period, Jason Williams carried the puck into the Wings’ zone and was met by Jonathan Ericsson. The two of them jousted momentarily, and I could have sworn time ceased to exist and my TV screen looked like Atari had frozen. If ever there was a zero-sum moment in our great game, that was it. The play ended when the puck got bored and went for a walk.
• The Penguins got on the board first — and with 4.5 seconds left in the first period. That’s one of those goals that shouldn’t be scored and that the Red Wings have a tendency to allow… they take their foot off the gas and feel they can coast into the locker room. What a shitty attitude to have, and it cost them. Brad Stuart couldn’t have played it any differently and no one on the planet stops that nasty, filthy, disgusting shot from Geno.
• Someone said something in the room in between the first and second, because the Wings were in this mode for the rest of the game:

• Pavel Datsyuk got the goal scoring underway for the good guys, converting off of a Todd Bertuzzi pass. That backhand shot was absolutely gross. What a shot.
• The second Red Wings goal occurred while Pittsburgh sports channel Root was on commercial break somehow. Way to go, clowns!
• Former Penguins Chris Conner led the rush on the third Wings’ goal, passing right through the slot to Dan Cleary. I tell you what… Conner’s making a damn good case for himself to stick in this lineup. When Mursak and Eaves are healthy, it’s going to be interesting, because Conner has to have usurped Emmerton’s spot by now, and he may very well have played well enough to secure a third line spot — not just a fourth line spot. Stay tuned…

HORSECOP OF THE GAME
Jimmy Howard. The man is a goddamn beast. He’s allowed only 19 goals in his last 11 games. LOLWUT

RIGGY SHITBOX OF THE GAME
Jiri Hudler managed to go -1 in a 4-1 win. He also took two penalties. Have a seat, you midget perv you.