Let's Watch the Wings and the Avalanche!

We talked the other night about the impact upon the Wings of not having Pavel Datsyuk in the lineup.  And here is that impact in black and white: Detroit (41-18-5, .685) is 12-12-5 over the past two season when Datsyuk doesn't play, including 0-2-1 this season.

The Wings, of course, look to start a new home-ice win streak here tonight, having had their NHL-record 23-gamer ended here the night before last when Vancouver scored the game-tying goal with 15.4 seconds left and their net empty for the extra attacker.  Vancouver went on to win in a shootout, 4-3. Still, Detroit is 23-0-1, .979 in their last 24 games here, and that, as Jack Nicholson said in Mars Attacks, is not too bad.

Colorado is, barely, on the outside looking in, playoff-wise--currently only two points out of 8th, the last playoff spot in the West.  Four teams are within two points of 8th place entering play tonight.  The Avalanche are coming off a 5-0 win last night in Columbus, and have points in 6 of their last 8 (5-2-1).

It's National Anthem time, the face-off is moments away...

That didn't take long.  Less than 3 minutes in, Colorado has taken a 2-0 lead!  At 1:35, Gabriel Landeskog scored with a quick release in the slot off a perfect behind-the-net feed from Steve Downey.  The goal, his 17th, gives Landeskog the NHL lead in roookie goal-scoring.  1:07 later, at 2:42, David Jones stole a Kyle Quincy pass near the line and walked in to beat Jimmy Howard high for a shorthanded goal.  It's the first shorty the Wings have allowed in this building all year long.  
14:00 left, First Period: Detroit 0, Colorado 2.


The first period ends and while I am not normally given to criticize a team which has done so much in this building this year, that was as bad a period as I can remember Detroit playing since late October or so.  Let us let it suffice to say that they were not very good. They outshot the Avs 7-6, but that was about it.  Scoring chances were down for Detroit and there is the matter of the score, often an important factor in the outcome of a hockey game.  END FIRST PERIOD: DETROIT 0, COLORADO 2.


Want to know what the buzz in the 'box is tonight?  It's all about Kyle Quincy who was quoted by some Yahoo Sports guy the other day as saying he was happy, in the words of Bob Seger, to get out of Denver baby go, after he'd been told he'd been traded to Detroit.  Said his bags had been packed and he was ready to leave even before he knew he'd been dealt.  When controversy ensued, Quincy said what he meant was that all NHL players are sitting on pins and needles with their bags packed, mentally at least, as the NHL trade deadline approaches. (It's the day after tomorrow, if you don't know.)  Me, I don't care one way or the other.  If he wanted to be traded, fine.  If he was misquoted or misunderstood, fine.  I'm  just sort of watching the game tonight, not really thinking too much about Kyle Quincy.  It looked though, just as long as we are talking about him, that he was guilty of a gruesome turnover on that shorthanded goal by Jones, but it sure looked to me like he'd been fouled on the play, tripped as he was getting rid of the puck, and it could just as easily have been a penalty on the Avs as opposed to a goal by the Avs on that play.  But, it was the former and the Wings are still down two as the second begins here.

Fun Fact(s): Colorado goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere once played for a team called the Hamburg Freezer.  He also played for Cincinnati in the American Hockey League where his coach was some guy named Mike Babcock.  It's a fact...

That rookie, Gabriel Landeskog, just scored his second of the night and his NHL rookie-leading 18th of the season to make it 3-0 Avs at 13:35 of the second.  It looked a lot like his first goal of the evening as he took a feed from behind the net a drove a shot past Howard from in close.  The difference on this play was how open he was, which was wide.  A murmur of discontentedness (not a word) sweeps through the crowd...
5:15 left, 2nd Period: DETROIT 0, COLORADO 3.


The Wings, as we mentioned, weren't very good in the first period and they weren't very good in the second either.  Detroit is down 3 after 2, and it isn't very often at all that a team can erase a 3-goal deficit with 20 minutes to play.  The fellows appear to be having an off night against a team which is fighting for its playoff life and it shows.  Each team had ten second period shots, but the Wings didn't get very many scoring chances at all from their ten.  END 2ND PERIOD: DETROIT 0, COLORADO 3.


Then again....
Valterri Filppula has set up Juri Hudler for his 19th goal of the season just :44 into the 3rd.  This brings us to cliche time and right early.  You know the one, "whoever scores the next goal in this hockey game...
EARLY 3RD: DETROIT 1, COLORADO 3. 


Oh, well.  They just left Steve Downey all alone off to Howard's right and he slammed it into a wide-open net and it's 4-1 and it's over.  The thing is, and this is what makes hockey the best game, the place was going nuts as Detroit had chance after chance after they got that goal in the first minute of the period and it looked like the Wings would get back to within one and we'd have thrilling finish one way or another.  But now we won't.  The time of the goal was 9:13.  Mid-3rd: DETROIT 1, COLORADO 4.