Columbus Blue Jackets 3 (at) Detroit Red Wings 0: The Live-Blog

Pre-Game Skate:  I can't believe that this is the first time I've been with you since Januray 15, but it is.  I've been to a grand total of one (1) Wings game since--that 4-1 loss to the Blackhawks on January 22 which, truth be told, wasn't much to blog about anyway--and so we find ourselves once again watching the Wings host the Columbus Blue Jackets.

There had been some talk that Pavel Datsyuk would be back in uniform for Detroit tonight but he's not.  Datsyuk, pound-for-pound the best player in the National League in my book, broke his hand in a game here a couple of nights before Christmas (Dec. 22) and has not been seen since.  He was one in a long, long line of Detroit injuries (in that loss to Chicago, for example, the Wings played without 6 injured skaters and both their first and second-string goalies) but the Wings have played over and/or through those injuries amazingly well.  This is the 17th game missed by Datsyuk and the Wings have gone 10-5-2 (.647) without him.  When he got hurt, Detroit was 21-8-4 (.697) so you can see that while his loss has hurt Detroit, it hasn't hurt them all that much.

Heading into the game tonight, their 53rd of the season, Detroit leads their division by 7 points and trails conference-leading Vancouver by the same margin (although the Wings have two games in hand on the Canucks).

7:58pm:  The Blue Jackets get the first goal.  Antoine Vermette came off the Columbus bench at the far blue line unnoticed and skated to the high slot between the circles and, with the help of a perfect blind backhand pass from Matt Calvert along the far left wing boards, fired a long one past Jimmy Howard.  The pass made the play.  It was right on the tape and Vermette fired it by in one motion.  He really stepped into it.  The mistake was not Howard's but instead the Detroit defense's for failing to notice Vermette coming late.  12:29 OF THE FIRST: DETROIT 0, COLUMBUS 1.

8:03pm:  A break and a big one for the Wings.  A Columbus goal is waved off at 13:21 when it is ruled that the Blue Jackets Derick Brassard was in the crease and interfered with Howard just before the puck went into the net.  Replays showed it was not Brassard but rather Howard's teammate Henrik Zetterberg who was tangled up with the Wings goalie and, as such, it was (or should have been) a good goal.  Instead, it's a goalie interference call on Brassard and a Detroit power play.  Most importantly, it's still only a 1-0 Columbus lead.

8:05pm:  And the period ends.  The Wings are down a goal but it could have--should have--been worse.  Columbus outshoots Detroit 9-8 in the period.  END OF THE FIRST PERIOD: DETROIT 0, COLUMBUS 1.


8:26pm:  I'm glad to be here tonight as the plan when the week began was to have me missing this one at home while I recuperated from a heart procedure.  The procedure, a radio frequency ablation designed to correct an annoying abnormal heartbeat, was pushed back a couple of weeks and so here we are.  I'll be out of action for 2-3 weeks once they do to procedure.  Unless they kill me while doing it, in which case I'll be out of action a few games longer.

8:30pm  The second period begins.  During the bread I read the blog I wrote the last time Columbus was here and that night the Jackets led early 2-0 before Detroit came back to win in overtime 6-5.  Johan Franzen--he of the 5-goal game in Ottawa the night before last in a 7-5 Wings win--got that gamer in that one.  So buck up, you Detroit fans out there.

8:34pm:  Franzen, looking for his 6th goal in his last 5 periods of play, just hit the post.  A real clanger, too.  We could hear it up here in the press box and we are not exactly what you would call close to the Columbus net way off to our right.  Poor Johan.  Can't buy a break, nothings going in for him, etc...

8:51pm:  Andrew Murray outworks Detroit's Ruslan Salei off to the side of the Wings net and slips a pass out in front to Jared Boll who is all alone below the hash marks and who makes no mistake getting off a quick shot on goal, beating the helpless Howard high.  The goal came just a few moments after Jonathan Ericsson missed a wide open Columbus net.  So, instead of a 1-1 tie the Wings are--just as they were the last time the Blue Jackets were here--down 2-0.  The goal at 13:11 OF THE SECOND PERIOD.  DETROIT 0, COLUMBUS 0.


9:07pm:  The period ends as Detroit misfires repeatedly during a 5-on-3 power play.  They really could have used one at that point but Steve Mason--the Columbus goalie--went post-to-post to stop a Nicklas Lidstrom drive from between the rings.  Other than that, Detroit did not threaten with the two-man.  Columbus just missed finishing off a 2-on-1 breakaway when R.J. Umberger shot wide a split second before the horn.  Detroit outshot the Jackets 14-7 in the period and have outshot them 22-16 in the game so far, but have nothing, no thing, to show for it.  AFTER 2 PERIODS: DETROIT 0, COLUMBUS 2.


9:20pm:  This is the 5th of 6 regular-season meetings between these teams and while Detroit has points in each of the previous four (3-0-1) they've all been close.  Two have gone to overtime/shootout and three have been decided by one goal.  The margin in the other was 2.

9:36pm:  We are better than halfway through the third period and the Wings continue to trail by a pair.  Detroit has outshot 'em 30-19 (8-3 in the period) and still have not been able to solve Mason.  Franzen--after hitting the post in the second period--had another great chance a couple of minutes ago, alone off to the side of an open Columbus net, but he couldn't handle the pass.  What are you gonna do?  Franzen has 9 goals in his last 9 games.  It's hard to complain about a guy who has that going for him.  MID-THIRD: DETROIT 0, COLUMBUS 2.


954pm:  Andrew Murray, the guy who made the play on Columbus' second goal tonight back in the second period, has just fired one into an empty Detroit net at 18:48 and that is going to do it.  You just knew it was a bad sign when you looked down there and saw the Wings net empty, Howard apparently having quit tonight's game.  They count it down to zero on the scoreboard and for the first time this season, the Wings fail to get a point in a game against the Blue Jackets.  It's the second time this season (0-5 v. Los Angeles on Dec. 13) that the Wings have been shut out this season.  FINAL SCORE: DETROIT 0, COLUMBUS 3.