Liveblogging a Hockey Game (Calgary @ Detroit)

6:45pm I'm not going to lie to you.  (This is not to say that I wouldn't ever lie to you, I merely elect not to in this case.)  
We've decided to live-blog tonight's game between the Wings and Flames here at the Joe Louis Arena.  Here's my dirty, little secret:  In all the excitement, they sort of started the hockey season without me.  Sure I have my excuses, the Spartans are undefeated and we've been covering them, the baseball playoffs are going on (haven't they been great?), the Ryder Cup, broadcasting high school football etc., but at the end of the day (or the start of this night), this is the first time I've seen the local hockeyists play this season. 

The last time I was in this building it was last May and the Red Wings were blowing a third-period lead in what turned out to be a crushing loss to the San Jose Sharks in the playoffs.  I really think if Detroit had won that game--they led 3-1 with 15 minutes to go or something but wound up losing in overtime--the Wings would have won that second-round series and would have advanced to meet Chicago, the eventual Cup winners, in the Conference Final and I think Detroit could have beaten them.  But they lost that night to San Jose and their margin  for error was gone.  Instead of being tied 2-2 heading to the Shark Tank for Game 5, they were down 3-1 and they lost that game and their season was over.  So long ago, no?

Here's how well prepared for this I am.  I thought the game started at 7.  It's 7:30, thank you.

Anyway, I picked up a set of stats and because I did that, I can tell you Detroit is 3-1-1 which means they gotten points in 5 of the 6 games they played which is pretty good so its a bit of a surprise that they are 3rd in their division and 6th in the conference. 

I think I can get caught up. 5 games is only 6% of the 82-game schedule, after all.

I've been selected to choose the 3 Stars tonight which means I'm going to have to try hard to pay attention tonight.  I know it's not that big a deal, but I have some pride and I don't want to look foolish.  So, I'm going to watch warm-ups now.  We'll be back with the Opening Face-off as soon as they get around to it...

7:15pm  I spent my time researching our friends from Calgary, which for some reason I insist on pronouncing CAL-gary.  Can it really have been so long ago, 2004, that the Flames stunned Detroit in the first round of the playoffs--holding Detroit without a goal in the last 2 games of the series?  Their Media Guide says "yes", and Media Guides, unlike the Internet, NEVER lie.  The Flames made the Cup Final that year where they inexplicably lost to the Tampa Bay Lightening of all people.  CAL-gary have (as Canadians say) not made it out of the first round of the playoffs since, and didn't make them at all last year.

7:32  They just announced the starters which is the least important announcement in sports.  The starters, except for the goalies, will be off the ice before the game is a minute old.  Mikka Kiprusoff is starting in goal for the Flames.  He's the guy who stoned Detroit back in the series I still can't believe happened over 6 years ago.  It was his first season with the Flames.  They traded their second-round draft pick to San Jose to get him.  The pick turned out to be Marc-Edouard Vlasic.  Ever hear of him?  Me neither.

7:38  We begin...

7:39  I was wrong.  The starters lasted fort 0:27 before the first line change. 

7:41  Things happen too fast in hockey to write as you go along, but what are you going to o?  I think Mike Modano plays on Detroit's 4th line.  Man, that's deep.  Not as in a deep thought, but deep as in, "Hey there, that's quite a lineup you got there."  You can say what you want about the Red Wings but they have depth up front.  I'm guessing it's all going to come down to how good the Detroit defense is.  The Wings just took a penalty so I guess we'll find out.

7:56  I should mention the score: there isn't one.  We've played 12-and-a-half minutes.  Both teams have had good chances, Detroit more maybe, but the Flames came oh-so-close scoring on that penalty which was handed out to Jakab (pronounced; YAH-coo) Kindle (pronounced like the newfangled electric book-reading thingy).  I don't know what the penalty was for, but whatever it was Kindle did, it was w-r-o-n-g.  (I saw a Sony Kindle on-line today at Circuit City because I bought a cable from them once and so now they send me e-mails hourly, and it was, like $250!  My library card is, like, free so I think I'm going to be staying with that for a while.

8:05  Calgary scores.  Mikael Backlund off a bad Wings giveaway in the defensive zone (like there's such a thing as a good giveaway in the defensive zone, right?)

8:08 The Wings tie it.  Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg got isolated 2-1 down low and Zetterberg finished for his 1st goal of the year.  The time 17:30.

8:08-and-a-half  Calgary goes up 2-1. The time 18:10.  It's Backlund again, his second of the season.  The game was tied for 0:40.

8:11  Period over, but not before Detroit just misses tying it up a couple of times.  Some good saves by Kipper, but Detroit's been out-shot 16-11 which you don't like to see at home.  The score after one: Calgary 2, Detroit 1.

8:25.  This is bad.  This is really bad.  I've picked up NLCS Game 5 on the computer, which means it will compete for my attention the rest of the night--and as I mentioned earlier, I'm supposed to pick the 3 Stars tonight.  The scoresheet is at variance with the announced time of the first Calgary goal which means the world as we know it is over.  They announced 15:30.  It turns out it was 15:29.  Why even run a clock during these things, know what I mean?

8:36  For, like the millionth time in his career, Nicklas Lidstrom blasts one home from the blue line and the game is tied 2-2 at 3:51 of the second as Detroit cashes in on the power play.  (I was making it up about the "one-millionth thing.  It's actually the 238th goal of Lidstrom's career.  But it does feel like we've seen it a million times, and that's a good thing.)

8:45  Still 2-2.  I told you this wouldn't be good.  I'm watching the wrong game.  I just saw Aubry Huff boot a grounder a hundred feet--perhaps a record for a major league carom resulting from an error--and the Phillies scored two and lead Game 5 2-1.  3-1 now, they got another one as the Wings fail to generate on the power play here.

9:02  A minute to go in what has been a rather nondescript second period--nondescript perhaps because I spent too much time watching the baseball game.  But I haven't exactly ignored the hockey, it's just not quite filling my senses the way it usually does.  It's 2-2 after 2 and if I had to pick the 3 Stars right now it would be Backlund (2 goals), along with Lidstrom and Zetterberg because each scored their first goal of the season tonight.  The Wings had 8 shots in the second period, the Flames 9.  As I say, nondescript.

9:28  Three minutes into the third and no change.  Still 2-2, but this is hockey and it can all change in a heartbeat.  Both teams have had good chances, both goalies have been quite good and, even better for them, a little lucky.  We've talked about Kiprusoff in goal for the Flames, we should take this opportunity to inform you, with 15:30 left in the game, that it's Jimmy Howard in goal for Detroit.  I sort of assumed you knew.

9:36  Possible Detroit go-ahead goal.  Under review. A really strange goal and I think its going to count.  The puck wound up on Kiprusoff's back and Kiprusoff's back crossed the goal line with the puck hung up in his shoulder pad.  It took the referee a good thirty seconds to point to the goal--signalling a good goal--and the goal light never came on.  Now they announce the goal.  3-2, Detroit at 7:55 of the third.  We'll have to wait for the announcement. Who knows who scored it?  It's Franzen, his 4th.

9:44  At 11:12, the Wings find themselves 2 men short but for only 0:10 and they kill it off.  The Flames remain on the power play, it was Ruslan Salei who knocked the net off on purpose when it looked like Calgary might tie the score off a giveaway of his from behind his own net.  The Wings kill the penalty, and now they will go on the power play with 6:41 left in the game, still leading 3-2.

9:50  A scoreboard trivia question contest during a commercial break gets the biggest boo of the night, by far, when the final question is about Honda.  Must be a lot of laid-off autoworkers in the audience this evening.

9:53  4:34 left in the game and they just came for my 3 Star picks.  Here you go:  #1 Lidstrom, #2 Zetterberg (they each scored their first goal of the season tonight) and #3 Backlund of Calgary (he has both their goals).

9:55  Todd Bertuzzi scores on a 2-on-1 with a nice high shot over Kipper's left shoulder unassisted at 16:43 and that should do it, Detroit leads 4-2.  This will give the Wings points in five of their six games to date.

9:59  Game over, Red Wings win 4-2.  Live-blogging hockey is hard.