As we await history tonight-Wings can tie NHL record
w/20th straight home win-note that Philly is 1-3-1 in last 5 and their 3-2 win
here a year ago (Jan 2, 2011) was their first win in Det since Nov 4, 1988 (0-14-2).
The record Wings are trying to tie tonight was set by 1929-30
Bruins and 1975-76 Flyers. Both teams were reigning Cup champs. Both made the
Final the year they won 20 straight home games and both went to the Cup Final
and played Montreal. And...both teams were swept in Final by Canadien(s).
In 1929-30 Bruins were 21-1 the year they won 20 straight at
home while the 1975-76 Flyers were 36-2-2 at home the year they won their 20
straight on home ice. Who ended Bruins
20 game home win streak in 1929-30? Nobody. Boston simply ran out of home games
to play that season. (They did lose a playoff game at home though). Who ended Philly's 20-game home ice win streak
in '75-'76? Same answer, nobody. The Flyers
won their final 20 home games that season, too. (And they also lost a home game in the playoffs that season.
This game is taking me back in so many ways. The first Wings game I ever saw in person was against the Flyers. It was the first season there were Flyers in the National League. It wasn't the first time Philadelphia ever played a road game in Detroit, but it was the second!
Also, it's Sunday night. This is the first Sunday night game of the season here in Detroit, but I'll tell you, we used to do this all the time. Sunday was a regular night for a Wings game at Olympia Stadium, and so often it would be the back end of a home-and-home against somebody you really wanted to go and see--a team like Montreal. Or Toronto. Or, well, you get the idea.
Dan Cleary and Mike Commodore are the Detroit scratches tonight along with G Jimmy Howard still out with the broken finger. Cleary got hurt here in that great game Friday night against Anaheim when he was checked near the Detroit bench and the door sprang open and got caught in the door jamb. A freakish sort of an injury which you sometime, but not very often at all, see in this sport. Sergei Bobrovsky is the Philly tender.
The anthem is sung and we are ready to begin....
The Wings are on the power play-the first of the night for either side-when Todd Bertuzzi tips in a shot from the line, center point area, fired by Niklas Kronwall. I didn't think Bertuzzi touched it but it is not my call and Bertuzzi gets his 13th of the season. Moments later, as we write in fact, Nicklas Lidstrom gets the stadning "O" for playing in his 1550th game as a Red Wing, the most ever by one player with the same team. I remember when he was just a baby. And now they change the goal to Kronwall (12) at 7:08. (I told you Bertuzzzi didn't touch it.) Mid-1st: Detroit 1, Philadelphia 0.
With 3:18 left in the period Joey MacDonald, who had been sharp, really sharp, as sharp as I've seen him this year, fanned while trying to clear it from behind the net and turned it over and when that happens, since the goalie is behind the net, there is no goalie standing in front of it and the Flyers Brayden Schenn took a feed and stuffed into the gaping wide-openness. And Joey had been doing so well...Late 1st: Detroit 1, Philadelphia 1.
We're in the first intermission now, shots even at 8 and the score tied at 1 and that's about right. I thought it was a very entertaining period of hockey.
Back when I was a kid I'd occasionally get Wings tickets from a relative. Really good seats. Arena seats about ten rows off the ice between the blue and red lines. I'd be excited about going to the game for days. And when game day came--it often would be a Sunday just like this one--the day would last forever and ever world without end until it was time to go. My mom would take me. I'd always be excited just to see the pink neon lights on the side of Olympia Stadium. You'd see them first when you were maybe 12 or 15 blocks away and it was a rush. And finally you'd be in the building, so close you could hear the skates. So close you could look players in the eye and think maybe they were looking back at you. I remember the first time. Versus Montreal when Montreal meant Jean Beliveau and when Detroit meant Gordie Howe. So I'm old. I got to see Beliveau play against Howe. Man, you just don't forget stuff like that, you know?
And now I'm thinking about how I felt today. I've got a nasty cold and I spent most of the day sleeping and I kind of dragged myself down here. I really didn't want to come. I think about how I approached a game like this when I was a kid and how I felt today and I can't believe it. It used to be the most exciting thing in the world to me and today there are days like today when it feels like a job. Normally though, it doesn't feel like work, but today it does. Poor me, right? I'll do my best to soldier on.
Did I mention I'm picking the Three Stars tonight? I am, as it turns out. That means if the Wings win and tie this all-time record they are going for, the Official Game Scoresheet will have my name on it for all time. Of course, if they lose and don't, the same will be true. It just won't be historic in nature.
The officials return to the ice. The fans boo. The second period begins...
At 5:22, Schenn again for Philly. He banged in the rebound of a shot fired by the Flyers other Braydon, a defenseman by the name of Coburn and Philly leads 2-1. The goal came only a minute or so after Darren Helm missed a wraparound that left you saying, "How'd he possibly miss that?" The net was wide open but Helm, releasing a split-second too soon, slid it right along the line and it stayed out. 13:17 left, 2nd: Detroit 1, Philadelphia 2.
That didn't take long. #13 gets #15. That's Datsyuk with a shot so quick the phrase "quick release" is wholly inadequate. Datsyuk's stick never got more than 2 inches off the ice as he one-time a pass home from the circles to the tender's right. Mercy, it was sick. It's the second PPG for Detroit tonight. And it ties the score at 8:27. Mid-2nd: Detroit 2, Philadelphia 2.
This is gonna be a tough battle here tonight. Maxime Talbot--who we are pretty sure scored the Stanley Cup winning goal for Pittsburgh against Detroit here a couple of years ago--just stuffed one by MacDonald to put the Flyers ahead, again. It was a bad break pretty much, one of the those bounces of the puck that go the wrong way. In this case, the thing caromed over to Talbot who was open and finished from the side of the crease before MacDonald could make a move. And before we finish the graph...Henrik Zetterberg bombs one in from the slot, a drive high into the net to tie the game 3-3. This one is a dandy. The Zetterberg goal (#11) comes at 18:21. Late 2nd: Detroit 3, Philadelphia 3.
The Second Intermission is here (this is a game so exciting multiple intermissions are required that one might catch ones breath) and nasty cold or not, this is a really, really good ballgame we've got going here. And if the Wings can score just one more goal, they will almost certainly win. Why? Detroit is 69-4-4 (.922) in the last 73 games in which they have scored at least four goals. They have three after two here tonight.
Ken Kal is out of the lineup tonight with a busted voice. I don't know why why don't throw me in there when this happens. I'd be great. I've done 500 games pro. Hell, I sit here every night calling the game in my head, (a form of personal torture that just can't be helped when for so long your job was being a play-by-play man) and I'm ready to go. Give me the ball, dammit.
It takes Detroit all of 52-seconds to get that 4th goal. Johan Franzen (22) gets it, tipping in a tip from Lidstrom off a Zetterberg shot from the line. I said that correctly. It was a double tip. Lidstrom re-directed it out in front and Franzen re-directed it home. They Flyers, stunned, call time out. 18:38 left, 3rd: Detroit 4, Philadelphia 3.
8:31 left in the game, still 4-3 Detroit. They always want the Three Stars with about five minutes to go which kills me because so much can happen in those last 5 minutes, especially in a one-goal game like this one. But, for now, here goes: #3 Franzen, #2 Datsyuk, #1 Lidstrom. If they go on to win this game and tie that record, each did so much to make it happen, and Lidstrom has to get the top pick from breaking Delvecchio's record for most games played with a single NHL team. He'd get that #1 Star for that alone, even if he'd played an awful game tonight, but he hasn't. Anything but.
They did it. 20 in a row at home. Gotta head to the room!
FINAL SCORE: DETROIT 4, PHILADELPHIA 3.
Dan Cleary and Mike Commodore are the Detroit scratches tonight along with G Jimmy Howard still out with the broken finger. Cleary got hurt here in that great game Friday night against Anaheim when he was checked near the Detroit bench and the door sprang open and got caught in the door jamb. A freakish sort of an injury which you sometime, but not very often at all, see in this sport. Sergei Bobrovsky is the Philly tender.
The anthem is sung and we are ready to begin....
The Wings are on the power play-the first of the night for either side-when Todd Bertuzzi tips in a shot from the line, center point area, fired by Niklas Kronwall. I didn't think Bertuzzi touched it but it is not my call and Bertuzzi gets his 13th of the season. Moments later, as we write in fact, Nicklas Lidstrom gets the stadning "O" for playing in his 1550th game as a Red Wing, the most ever by one player with the same team. I remember when he was just a baby. And now they change the goal to Kronwall (12) at 7:08. (I told you Bertuzzzi didn't touch it.) Mid-1st: Detroit 1, Philadelphia 0.
With 3:18 left in the period Joey MacDonald, who had been sharp, really sharp, as sharp as I've seen him this year, fanned while trying to clear it from behind the net and turned it over and when that happens, since the goalie is behind the net, there is no goalie standing in front of it and the Flyers Brayden Schenn took a feed and stuffed into the gaping wide-openness. And Joey had been doing so well...Late 1st: Detroit 1, Philadelphia 1.
We're in the first intermission now, shots even at 8 and the score tied at 1 and that's about right. I thought it was a very entertaining period of hockey.
Back when I was a kid I'd occasionally get Wings tickets from a relative. Really good seats. Arena seats about ten rows off the ice between the blue and red lines. I'd be excited about going to the game for days. And when game day came--it often would be a Sunday just like this one--the day would last forever and ever world without end until it was time to go. My mom would take me. I'd always be excited just to see the pink neon lights on the side of Olympia Stadium. You'd see them first when you were maybe 12 or 15 blocks away and it was a rush. And finally you'd be in the building, so close you could hear the skates. So close you could look players in the eye and think maybe they were looking back at you. I remember the first time. Versus Montreal when Montreal meant Jean Beliveau and when Detroit meant Gordie Howe. So I'm old. I got to see Beliveau play against Howe. Man, you just don't forget stuff like that, you know?
And now I'm thinking about how I felt today. I've got a nasty cold and I spent most of the day sleeping and I kind of dragged myself down here. I really didn't want to come. I think about how I approached a game like this when I was a kid and how I felt today and I can't believe it. It used to be the most exciting thing in the world to me and today there are days like today when it feels like a job. Normally though, it doesn't feel like work, but today it does. Poor me, right? I'll do my best to soldier on.
Did I mention I'm picking the Three Stars tonight? I am, as it turns out. That means if the Wings win and tie this all-time record they are going for, the Official Game Scoresheet will have my name on it for all time. Of course, if they lose and don't, the same will be true. It just won't be historic in nature.
The officials return to the ice. The fans boo. The second period begins...
At 5:22, Schenn again for Philly. He banged in the rebound of a shot fired by the Flyers other Braydon, a defenseman by the name of Coburn and Philly leads 2-1. The goal came only a minute or so after Darren Helm missed a wraparound that left you saying, "How'd he possibly miss that?" The net was wide open but Helm, releasing a split-second too soon, slid it right along the line and it stayed out. 13:17 left, 2nd: Detroit 1, Philadelphia 2.
That didn't take long. #13 gets #15. That's Datsyuk with a shot so quick the phrase "quick release" is wholly inadequate. Datsyuk's stick never got more than 2 inches off the ice as he one-time a pass home from the circles to the tender's right. Mercy, it was sick. It's the second PPG for Detroit tonight. And it ties the score at 8:27. Mid-2nd: Detroit 2, Philadelphia 2.
This is gonna be a tough battle here tonight. Maxime Talbot--who we are pretty sure scored the Stanley Cup winning goal for Pittsburgh against Detroit here a couple of years ago--just stuffed one by MacDonald to put the Flyers ahead, again. It was a bad break pretty much, one of the those bounces of the puck that go the wrong way. In this case, the thing caromed over to Talbot who was open and finished from the side of the crease before MacDonald could make a move. And before we finish the graph...Henrik Zetterberg bombs one in from the slot, a drive high into the net to tie the game 3-3. This one is a dandy. The Zetterberg goal (#11) comes at 18:21. Late 2nd: Detroit 3, Philadelphia 3.
The Second Intermission is here (this is a game so exciting multiple intermissions are required that one might catch ones breath) and nasty cold or not, this is a really, really good ballgame we've got going here. And if the Wings can score just one more goal, they will almost certainly win. Why? Detroit is 69-4-4 (.922) in the last 73 games in which they have scored at least four goals. They have three after two here tonight.
Ken Kal is out of the lineup tonight with a busted voice. I don't know why why don't throw me in there when this happens. I'd be great. I've done 500 games pro. Hell, I sit here every night calling the game in my head, (a form of personal torture that just can't be helped when for so long your job was being a play-by-play man) and I'm ready to go. Give me the ball, dammit.
It takes Detroit all of 52-seconds to get that 4th goal. Johan Franzen (22) gets it, tipping in a tip from Lidstrom off a Zetterberg shot from the line. I said that correctly. It was a double tip. Lidstrom re-directed it out in front and Franzen re-directed it home. They Flyers, stunned, call time out. 18:38 left, 3rd: Detroit 4, Philadelphia 3.
8:31 left in the game, still 4-3 Detroit. They always want the Three Stars with about five minutes to go which kills me because so much can happen in those last 5 minutes, especially in a one-goal game like this one. But, for now, here goes: #3 Franzen, #2 Datsyuk, #1 Lidstrom. If they go on to win this game and tie that record, each did so much to make it happen, and Lidstrom has to get the top pick from breaking Delvecchio's record for most games played with a single NHL team. He'd get that #1 Star for that alone, even if he'd played an awful game tonight, but he hasn't. Anything but.
They did it. 20 in a row at home. Gotta head to the room!
FINAL SCORE: DETROIT 4, PHILADELPHIA 3.
.JPG)
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