@ The Red Wings-Calgary Game

Come tonight the Calgary Flames, and who ever thought we'd be writing this tonight: the Flames are one of only 3 Western Conference teams (St. Louis and Columbus) with a worse record than Detroit.  The Wings are winless in 5 (0-4-1) and the reason why is no mystery. In the five games, the Wings have managed to score 5 goals.  Tough to win when to do so you have to hold the opponent to zero.  Of course, the Wings came within one minute of doing just that here two nights ago in what wound up being a 2-1 loss in overtime to the Minnesota Wild.  The Wings led 1-0 when the Wild scored with a minute showing on the clock before they beat the Wings on that overtime goal by Devon Setoguchi.  The Wings were shorthanded 9 times in the game Tuesday.  The killed off the first 8, but you know...

I turned out to be prescient here on the blog the night beofre last, saying in the third period that I was worried as soon as I looked through the binoculars and saw Setoguchi down there.  That guy killed Detroit in the series last spring against San Jose.  I had to look up the numbers, but he had a hat trick in Game 3--including the gamer in OT--and he opened the scoring in Game 7, a 3-2 Sharks win.  All told, Setoguchi scored 5 times in that series against Detroit, almost a third of the goals San Jose scored in the series.

Underway here in Detroit,  0-0 in the first.

Mikka Kiprusoff is in goal for the Flames tonight.  He's 10-12-4, 2.86 lifetime against the Wings, which surprises me a bit as I would have thought his GAA vs Deroit would be zero-point-something.  Detroit has had some nights when they can't get a thing past this guy.  Remember the playoffs in 2004?  He eliminated the Red Wings all by himself in that series and Calgary went all the way to the Final.  (They lost, though).  Fun Fact: Calgary has not won a playoff series since they went to the Cup Final in '04.

The Wings are hooted off by some here as they trail the Flames 1-0.  Lee Stempniak scored at 15:53.  Jimmy Howard looked bad on it--Stempniak was along the goal line to his right and slid it in with a shot that Howard should have had with ease.  And I think he would have had not Detroit defenseman Brad Stuart not gotten the blade of his stick on it, changing its direction.  So, it wasn't, at least in my judgement, Howard's fault but you can't bet the number of people in this arena right now who know that numbers fewer than 100.  There are, of course, nearly 20,000 here tonight.  Shots in the period would up 8-5, Detroit.  And there you have it, yet another goal-less period for the Red Wings.

Might be six in a row without a win.  Iginla just scored again--the same shot he used to score his other goal tonight, a one-timer from low in the circle--but it never would have happened were it not for an awful play by Kronwall who had plenty of ice as he looked to lug it out of the defensive zone but he overskated it, turned it over, and Iginla, behind the play, all of a sudden was all alone.  We're under ten to go here, and the Wings are down two and it is not looking good.  At all.

While I had a moment, I refreshed my memory on that Flames-Wings playoff series in '04.  Calgary won the series by winning the last two games by identical 1-0 scores.  In fact, in the four Calgary wins, Kiprusoff allowed a grand total of four goals.  Since two of the games went to overtime, his goals-against against Detroit in those games was less than 1.  Which is pretty good.  Back with more after the intermission...

I was worried when the Red Wings season began.  I mean, yes, the Wings might well have won the Cup last year had they beaten San Jose and I think they would have beaten San Jose without all the injuries.  Remember Franzen couldn't play and then Bertuzzi and (who was it?) Helm or Cleary both got hurt during Game 7?  Plus, I'm pretty sure Datsyuk was playing with a broken wrist.  But, without all of that I think Detroit would have won Game 7 and could well have beaten Vancouver and would have beaten Boston for the Cup.  So, it sounds strange to say all that and in the same breath say you have concerns about a team.  But to me, it's like what Gretzky said to his dad in explaining his retirement; "Every year I get a year older and they all get a year younger".  That was my concern with the Wings.  But when they started 5-0, when they were so dominant, I thought, "Silly me, I'm wrong again."  Now, winless in 5, I'm worried again.  And all the more because Jerome Iginla just scored (open in the left circle for a one-timer high into the net on the power play) and so now it's 2-0 Calgary here.

A rebound just went in off Danny Cleary's shoulder so the Wings are on the board, trailing 2-1 as we approach the mid-point of the period and the game.  It's the first of year for Cleary, which goes a long way toward explaining Detroit's difficulty in scoring goals here of late.  Cleary doesn't score until game #11.  But, at least now he finally has.

Niklas Kronwall went off on an iffy hook with about ten seconds left in the period but the refs missed a high stick to the face of Darren Helm seconds left which left Detroit coach Mike Babcock screaming at the officials as they went off for the second intermission.  You could lip-read the word "joke" on the closeup they showed of Babcock.  You could also lip read the word he said which preceded it, but this is a family blog.  Flames on the PP for almost a full two when the third begins...2-1 Calgary here.

We seem to have lost a paragraph or two.  Oh, well.  It's 3-1 Calgary and the scouts are leaving the press box as it is apparently not important for them to scout how the players perform at crunch time.  Kronwall overskated the puck when he had an easy clear and Iginla, who was way behind the play at the time, was all of a sudden all alone in the circle with the puck following the turnover and he buried his second of the night and now it looks like it's going to be six in a row without a win for Detroit and if any of you have any good questions for Babcock or the boys, the "comments" section is wide open. Only two Wings came into to meet reporters the night before last after the loss to the Wild.  I wonder how many we'll get tonight.

Calgary score into the empty net on the power play and with 1:18 to go and it being 4-1 Flames, that is going to do it.  You are never as bad as you look when you lose, goes the saying, but Detroit did not look good in this one at either end.  Off to the room...