Hossa's Pair Powers Wings Past Sabres

Dear Rest of NHL,
Look out.

Marian Hossa might be getting back on track and getting hot just in time for the playoffs. Hossa tallied goal 39 and 40 tonight in a 4-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

Brad Stuart started the scoring for the Wings, ripping a shot past Ryan Miller with Holmstrom screening out front on the powerplay late in the 2nd period. Marian Hossa opened the third period with his 39th goal, a backhand on a rebound from a Lidstrom shot. Midway through the 3rd, Hossa added another on a great pass from Pavel Datsyuk, firing short side past Ryan Miller.

Paul Gaustad got a goal back for the Sabres less than a minute later on a scramble in front of Ozzie's net, a relatively easy goal but a goal none-the-less. Ozzie played well again, stopping 32 of 33 for his 26th W of the year. Lidstrom added an empty netter for his 15th score of the season and secured the 51st win of the year.

I didn't get to watch the game because like many people I don't get Versus, but the highlights on NHL.com showed some incredible saves from Ozzie and some great passing from the Wings. Also, I saw that Ericsson got in a fight but haven't seen the fight yet. Good for him though, use that big body youngin'. You're a big part of the Wings future.

Player of the game: Marian Hossa. No doubt #1 star of the night- 2 G, 1 A, +2. Zetterberg, Holmstrom and Lidstrom are honorable mentions with 2 points each (Z and Holmstrom with 2 A each, Lidstrom with G, A)

Next game is in Detroit on Thursday against the Preds.

Hossa's Late Goal Lifts Wings

Marian Hossa once again proved his worth as he scored with 55 seconds left in a tied game to put the Red Wings up 3-2. The goal sealed the deal for the 50th win of the season and a much needed win following three straight L's.

Jiri Hudler opened the scoring for the Wings at 11:21 of the 1st with a one time shot past Backstrom on a pass from Zetterberg. Hudler showed his great sense of rink awareness by positioning himself in the low slot and waiting for Zetterberg to make a play to him. It was his 23rd of the season.

Pavel Datsyuk added another goal for the Wings, his 32nd, on an excellent play. Pavs outwaited Backstrom while skating across the front of the goalmouth and backhanded one top-shelf at the last moment, putting the Wings up 2-0. The Wings would not escape the first unscathed though as a failed clearing attempt by Chris Osgood landed right on the stick of enforcer Cal Clutterbuck. Clutterbuck, who leads the league in hits, showed his quick thinking and fired the puck on net while Osgood was still in motion back to the crease, 2-1 Wings after 1.

Marian Gaborik tied the game late in the second period on a scramble in front of Ozzie's crease. Bodies were everywhere but Gaborik somehow squeaked the puck through the mess and made it 2-2 going into the final period.

Enter Marian Hossa. Hossa had 5 shots on goal during the game and added an assist on Pavel's goal. That wasn't enough for him though and he showed why he's the $7M man. Datsyuk passed to Holmstrom who brought it into the offensive zone and dropped it off to Hossa. Marian wasted no time snapping a shot past Backstrom for his 38th of the year and the late Detroit lead.

The Wings outshot the Wild 44-23 and Osgood stopped 21 for his 25th win of the year. Osgood made some great saves and maybe it came by way of extra confidence after Babcock named him the starter for the playoffs.Both teams stayed out of the box, only 8 total minutes during the game.

Player of the game: I'll have to give this to Datysuk and Hossa. Both had incredible goals and an assist each. Hossa with the slight edge for his +2. Other candidates are Hudler and Zetterberg, who registered 9 shots on goal and an assist.

Other notes: It was good to see Chris Chelios (or as I affectionately call him-Methuselah) playing and skating so well before the playoffs. He will be needed big time in the run to the Cup with Lilja being injured and Rafalski having some problems.

Flames Down Wings 5-3

The Flames got the best of the Red Wings again, posting 5 goals on 27 shots. The Red Wings put 3 on the board on 33 shots but Miika Kiprusoff was too much.

Dion Phaneuf opened the scoring for the Flames by firing a drop-pass from Daymond Langkow off the tip of Ozzie's glove to give the Flames a 1-0 lead midway through the 1st. Ozzie let in a pretty weak goal to Jamie Lundmark and Langkow got his second assist of the game early in the 2nd period. The Flames got another goal a few minutes later as Mike Camalleri scored a powerplay goal and ended Ozzie's night, bringing in Conklin.

Pavel Datsyuk got the Wings back within 2 with his 30th of the season on a shot from a tough angle, following a rebound given up by Kiprusoff. This is when I kind of fell asleep. Glencross scored for the Flames, making it 4-1, and then Johan Franzen scored (31st) to make it 4-2. Jiri Hudler scored less than two minutes later to make it 4-3. But it wouldn't be enough, the Flames added another goal and another victory, leaving the Red Wings with a bitter taste in their mouth heading into Edmonton.

Player of the game: Pavel Datsyuk

Wings Blast Thrashers 6-3

The Red Wings got big time production out of its star players as they scored three goals in the third to put the game too far out of the reach of the Thrashers.

Brian Rafalski got the scoring started towards the end of the first as he put a pass from Johan Franzen past Kari Lehtonen for his 10th goal of the year. Datsyuk scored the second goal of the game and his 29th of the year from the top of the faceoff circle on odd man rush with Franzen with 8 minutes left in the 2nd period. Jiri Hudler got the Wings on the board for the second time in the period, just two minutes later on a breakway spawned from Brett Lebda's great length of the ice pass, putting the Wings up 3-0 heading into the final period.

The third period saw both teams trading goals three times. Franzen scored his 30th of the year and a powerplay tally on a backhand shot off of a rebound. The Thrashers would get a powerplay goal of their own as Bryan Little put the Thrashers on the board. Hossa would then score his 36th of the year on a pass from Zetterberg as they stretched the defense horizontally and threw off Lehtonen's positioning. Slava Kozlov scored the next goal for the Thrashers on a slapshot over former teammate Chris Osgood's shoulder for a second Thrashers powerplay goal. Hossa had another breakaway and nearly scored but ended up drawing too many Thrashers players to the boards, allowing a pass to a wide open Dan Cleary in the slot for the 6th Wings goal. The final goal of the game was scored by Colin Stuart but it was too little too late for the Thrashers as the Red Wings put up their 48th win of the season and earned its 105 point.

Ozzie had some outstanding saves and is starting to make me believe that he's just really gearing up for the playoffs. He did let in 3 goals but in my opinion, only one was uncontrollable. And when you get 6 goals a game you can afford to let 3 in I suppose. I really like to see the continuing success that Rafalski has had in Detroit. He's one of the least talked about defensemen in the league for his skill set. He can play as a good of a defensive game as anyone and can also score like a forward on the other end of the ice.

Player of the game: Henrik Zetterberg (4 A), responsible for setting up 4 of the 6 goals, and Johan Franzen (1 G, 2 A)

Other notes: Second straight game the Thrashers have allowed 6 goals. The Red Wings now have 7 players at 50 points or more; Kronwall is 6 away from joining.

Wings Use 3 Straight to Edge Flyers

Apologies for not writing a follow up from the Flyers game until now. Getting back into the swing of things for school after a week off has been tougher than expected.

Anywho, that game was particularly satisfying if you're a Wings fan. It was one of those "character" games. We could have very easily packed it in but we stuck with and fought back and ultimately got the game tied and then in our favor. Franzen, Zetters, and Datsyuk all scored typical goals for themselves. Datsyuk tricked Biron into thinking he was gonna pass it then fired it over Biron's shoulder. Franzen used his body to position himself perfectly for a Datsyuk pass and top-shelfed it to tie the game. Then Zetterberg showed patience in receiving a pass, waiting for Biron to get in position and then read the weak spot. Ozzie let in two goals but settled down and played well the rest of the game, allowing the offense to get going.

The win put us 3 points ahead of San Jose and 4 ahead of Boston. It was also our third consecutive win and shows be returning to top form following all of the injuries this season. Hopefully I'm right. but only time will tell. We could use this as a big momentum swing heading into Atlanta on Friday.

Blue Jackets blanked by Osgood

How do you play a team that previously beat you 8-2? Well, how about 4-0.

Marian Hossa scored the first goal of the game when he followed up his own shot and somehow put the puck past Columbus goalie Chris Mason. Hossa's goal was his 35th of the year and his first since returning from injury. Niklas Kronwall made it 2-0 with a powerplay goal midway through the 1st period, tallying his 4th goal and 43rd point of the year.

Mikael Samuelsson scored his 18th of the year on a two-on-one breakout during the 2nd period, snapping a shot over Mason's shoulder to give the Wings a 3-0 lead. Johan Franzen scored his 28th of the year, and put the game out of reach in the process, on a great individual effort deking out Mason.

The best part of the game was the way Osgood played in net. He stopped all 23 Columbus shots and had a few spectacular saves. This was big for him following his last outing against Columbus in which he surrended 7 of the 8 goals, on 23 shots as well. Hopefully he's getting in shape for the playoffs.

Player of the game: Well I'm tempted to go with Franzen and Kronwall who had a goal and an assist each but am gonna have to give it to Ozzie.

Next game is Tuesday against the Flyers at 7:30 PM ET on Versus.

Franzen lifts Wings over Coyotes in OT

Johan Franzen scored his 27th goal of the season in overtime on Tuesday night to end the game with a 3-2 Detroit win. Conklin got the win in goal for the Wings stopping 23 of 25 shots for his 24th win of the year

Valterri Filppula scored his 9th goal of the year and continues to return to his normal offensive production for the Wings. Franzen and Kronwall assisted on the Filppula goal that gave the Wings the early 1-0 lead. Martin Hanzal tied the game late in the 1st period on a scramble in front of Conklin.

The second period saw no goals but several close calls for each team. In the third, the Red Wings capitalized on their only power play opportunity of the game when Brian Rafalski put the puck past Bryzgalov. Shane Doan tied the game with about 9 minutes to play with a shot from the high slot with the help of a screen by Peter Mueller in front of Conklin while the Coyotes were on the powerplay.

Franzen's goal came with under 2 minutes to play in the supplemental period following a faceoff win by Filppula. Filppula got the puck back to Brad Stuart who left it for Franzen. Franzen skated through the middle of the ice and gave himself a more favorable shot and put the puck past Bryzgalov.

It's good to see Franzen and Filppula back to their normal selves after both going through slow periods. Another good thing was to see Tomas Holmstrom back in the line-up after missing 18 games from his hernia injury. Players of the game: Franzen, Filppula. Both had a goal and an assist.

Wings Avalanche Summary

Alright, I'll be honest. I didn't exactly watch all of tonight's game, but I did catch a good portion of it.

John Michael Liles got the scoring going in the 1st period as he put the Avs on the board for an early 1 goal lead. Filppula scored his 2nd goal in as many games to tie the game up. Johan Franzen scored his 26th goal of the year in the 2nd period to put the Wings up. Draper beat Raycroft for his 7th goal of the year, giving the Wings a 3-1 lead heading into the 3rd.

The Avs would come back and play better hockey in the 3rd and had 2 consecutive almost goals. One came on a puck that beat Conklin but Franzen prevented from crossing the goalline. The second chance came soon after that on a shot off the post. The Avs put a goal on the board late in the 3rd as Milan Hejduk beat Conklin with Raycroft pulled for the extra man. Fortunately the Avs were unable to put another one in and the Wings earned their first, and only, win of the regular season against Colorado.

Once again, the Detroit puck control limited the chances that the Avalanche got. Both teams played well disciplined hockey (only 6 total penalty minutes) but still had physical play. The Wings outshot the Avalanche 30-27 and put the pressure on the Leopold-less Avalanche defense. Game MVP: Filppula for getting his 2nd goal in 2 games, getting him going could mean trouble for the opposition.

The next game for Detroit is a home game Saturday against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The win also put the Wings in first place in the league (for now).

Wings Blues Summary

Big rebound game tonight as Detroit blanked St. Louis 5-0 in a game completely controlled by the Wings. The game was a physical battle from the drop of the puck but the Wings didn't back down and dished out a lot of the punishment as well.

The game got off to an ominous start with Hossa losing his balance following a shot and a small push from a Roman Polak. I don't really think a penalty should have been called on Polak but I could also see how one was called. Hossa was on the ice for way too long and I dont like how he grabbed his neck immediately, especially coming off of a neck injury. Good knews is he was moving his arms and legs and hopefully it's nothing too serious. More updates on his status as they become available.

Then Aaron Downey showed why he was called up, and I take back all the...well they weren't bad things at all really...so I guess what I'm saying is yay for Aaron Downey.

I don't think there's a clear winner hear but both had awesome punches. Also of note, Youtube users are ridiculously fast. This was like 40 minutes after it happened. I also forgot that Downey was the guy that did this.

Kopecky put the Wings on the board in the 1st period when he picked up a rebound and deked Chris Mason to the side and put the puck on the empty side. The Wings killed off a 4 minute powerplay which was huge for the game momentum and oh yeah, Kopecky's goal came during it. Not only did we kill off all of the penalties tonight, we got the shorthanded goal. Despite the much criticized play of the PK units, you gotta admit it has certainly gotten better recently.

Zetterberg put another goal on the board in the 2nd on guess what? you got it! the powerplay! On a big mess in front of the goal, he slammed it in between Mason and the post.

Kopecky got another point on a backhand shot that Draper deflected past Mason in the 3rd. Kronwall blasted a puck off the glove of Mason and into the net for a second powerplay goal of the night. Mason had a beat on the puck but somehow it hit off the top of his glove and slowly flipped behind him into the net.

The Wings took advantage of a 5-on-3 and controlled the puck for 2 full minutes. Filppula scored his first goal in 19 games on a pass in front of the crease. Fil's goal wasn't technically a powerplay goal, coming 1 second after the two penalties expired, but the two Blues players were too far away to do anything about it.

Kopecky finished the game with 1 G & 2 A. Osgood got a shut out, stopping all 22 shots; which is big following the 8-0 drubbing at the hands of the Predators (although he only allowed 4 of those).

This was a good game following such a horrible one in Nashville. It showed that we're not afraid of taking the body and that we're still able to be productive offensively while doing so. We alos held true to our MO of puck control and it proved to be the main reason we won the game. We put a lot of pressure on their players and were able to force bad passes all night long. In short, we got back to playing Red Wings hockey

Next game is tomorrow at 9 PM ET against the Avalanche.

League scores and notes

Marty Brodeur continues to improve upon his return from injury as the Devils shut-out the Flyers 3-0. Brodeur had an incredible save and earned his 100th career shut-out, putting him just three behind the legendary Terry Sawchuck.

The Panthers roughed up the Caps 6-2, Ovechkin got his 46th goal in the losing effort. Pittsburgh beat Dallas 4-1, Malkin getting 3 more points to put himself 10 points ahead of Ovie. And apparently noone played goalie for either team in the Flames/Lightning game, as the Lightning outscored the Flames in a 8-6 win, jeeze.

Other news: Steve Ott gets suspended without pay for this. Yeah, I know he was checking Niedemayer from behind at the ened of the game, probably could have done with out that. But the number of Ducks, including Giguere's testicularly aimed slash, didn't land a single one of them a suspension. If you look at the video, Pronger has his gloves off, which means he should be charged with fighting but won't be. And Moen already had Ott within his grasp so I don't know how Ott is the only one to get suspended with all the other players. Don't get me wrong, I hate both of these teams with a passion but what the crap?

Edit: Apparently Ott tried to gouge Moen's eye, so yeah he deserved it. My bad.

...what happened?

8-0.
What the you know what?!

How do you outshoot the opposition 30-23 and have 0 goals to show for your own effort and 8 to show for theirs? I'm not exactly ready to completely pin this one on Osgood/Conklin (both played last night) but some of it was their fault. Conklin had trouble controlling rebounds and that lead to a few of the Nashville goals. Osgood replaced Conklin in the first period and didn't do all that much better. The Predators also benefited from some odd bounces and just good luck on some bad turnovers by the Wings.

The thing that's so bad about this loss is that it was completely dominated by the Predators. They out hustled the Wings all night long and seemingly did everything at will. My pregame prediction came true, no not that we'd win. That if we controlled the puck we'd win, and we didn't control it and clearly lost. Hopefully this was just "one of those nights" for the Wings where they were just off and not any type of indication of things on the way down.

To make things even worse, Andreas Lilja got his ass beat by Shea Weber. It was just not the Wings night. Next game is on Tuesday against the Blues

Kings Wings Recap and Preds Preview

Kirk Maltby got a win in his 1000th game in the NHL. Both goalies played pretty well. Quick had some impressive saves. At times Ozzie looked out of position but that's kind of expected after any time out of action. He did make some good saves though. Derek Meech scored the first goal of the game on a rebound/flurry of rebounds in front of the net. Leino got an assist which made me happy since he's becoming one of my favorite players to watch. Meech is looking like he's going to be a big part of the future of the Wings too. Another guy that will be pretty big in the future plans also scored, Tomas Kopecky. He's a bigger guy than most of the other Wings but has a lot of raw talent that could make him one of the better players in the league in a few years.

Tonight's game is a big one...not that any game is insignificant...its just that this comes against a division rival. The Predators come into tonight's game with 3 straight wins. I think if we can control the puck we can win. Nashville has a tendency to get a little aggressive (in a bad way) when they are not controlling the puck. They take bad penalties which leads to powerplays for the Wings...which can be devastating. Earlier in the year the Preds surrendered 5 powerplay goals against us. However, they are a good PK team despite that last number so a Wings powerplay won't necessarily bury them.
I think the key to today's game is the goalies. I know thats pretty easy to say for any game but if Osgood/Conklin has a bad game, the Preds can win. Rinne has the better record of the two Nashville goalies and I think its not by chance but rather his skill. He's a quick mover and has a good glovehand. I say Wings 3 Preds 2

Last Night's Games Wrap-up

Brodeur got a shut-out in his return to the Devils, which is good for him. I've always liked the way he's played so I was glad to see he was able to come back strong. Parise got 3 points (1 G, 2 A) in the Devils 4-0 win over the Avs.

Somebody tell the Bruins to stop, please. They whooped up on the Ducks 6-0. Now, clearly Jiggy isn't what he used to be for the Ducks but he's still an elite goaltender. Wonder how long it is though before they either trade Jonas Hiller or Giguere, both could bring in someone of high value. Maybe the Ducks are suffering from the trade of Chris Kunitz to the Penguins for Ryan Whitney, who knows, but the Bruins look in top form heading down the stretch.

The Caps benefited from 3 powerplay goals in their 4-3 win over the Thrashers. Nashville beat Phoenix 4-1 to put itself within one point of the playoffs. In the Western Conference playoff race, 5 teams are separated by 1 point. Should make for an interesting finish to the season.