I called last night's win "gritty" but it looks like "gutsy" has been the word of choice for the rest of the writers out there.
Either way, the Red Wings took a game they probably had no right being in, battled it out, and took away two points from it. And did it without anyone getting hurt, it would seem. There's no way to treat any of that as a negative.
Jimmy Howard? Slump over. Between this game and the end of the Calgary game, he's back. Save of the night, possible save of the year, was his stop on Daniel Sedin early on. Fantastic glove stop. Great positioning on some later chances, including in the shootout. Definitely playing with some confidence.
One negative on Howard? Rebound control. Vancouver's goal came when he kicked the puck right to Daniel Sedin. I'm not really sure I want to hold that against him too much but I've been harping on rebound control all season so I think I should at least mention that it's still a bit of an issue.
I'll say it again, Henrik Zetterberg didn't score but he was leading the Wings' offensive efforts. The pass to Franzen on Detroit's lone regulation goal was beautiful (as was Franzen's ability to take it and his shot). Zata played a ridiculous 24:52. Franzen was second among Detroit forwards at 20:16. Zetterberg is being heavily leaned on to carry the load right now.
Another stat I find interesting... Patrick Eaves was third on the Wings with three shots (behind Zetterberg and Franzen) in 16:30 of play (good for fifth among forwards, which makes sense given his second-line role, though 4:06 of it was on the PK).
On the Canucks... No wonder they're leading the NHL. That's a high powered team right there. Roberto Luongo might be a diver but the rest of the team did a good job of keeping the foot on the gas for a full 65 minutes.
After a big win like this, I'm expecting a letdown in Colorado on Monday. We'll see.
This is starting to sound like last season...
Why is this basketball game taking so long? >
I have no game commentary, seeing how I only got to view half of the period because of the basketball game. But I do have to say the April in the D contest commercials have already been p*ssing me off with how annoying they are, and the contest hasn't even started. I should enter...
Franzen just scored to tie it up! And also, what's with all the spam accounts lately? Hahahahahahahahaha.
J.M.F!!!!!
Jimmy!!!!
Damn the spammers!!!
Nick Lidstrom took it away?
Say it isn't so!
Wings really showed up this period.
Shoot outs are the worst for nerves haha. Wings stop the Canucks' win streak. I'm cool with that.
Gritty, gritty win. I think this might be the proudest I've been of this team all season.
Special props to Henrik Zetterberg and Jimmy Howard. Jimmy put the team on his back in the defensive end and Zata did it on offense (even without a goal).
Edit: And don't worry about the spammers. I'll get them taken care of. Think of it this way... Every one that slips through is one that gets reported so it can't slip through somewhere else. We take a hit for a couple hours so someone else doesn't have to.
I like Luongo might be a bigger whiner than Crosby and better diver than Kariya. That game should have been over prior to the shootout however, the refs felt the need to entertain him. Had that happened in Detroit, the outcome might have been a little different.
Don't forget about Kronner, he may not be scoring much although he has really stepped up his game in the offensive zone.
Fantastic effort by the Wings...enough to keep an old woman awake at night!
Jimmy Howard
Credit: Clark Rasmussen
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