Let's Watch the Wings and the Wild!

Wings and Wild are on the ice with faceoff here moments away and here is your stat 'o the night: Minnesota's starting goalie, Josh Harding, has a 1.30 goals-against average and .965 save percentage in going 2-0-1 against the Red Wings this season.

This is the fourth and final meeting of these teams this season, but it is the first time they have played since Nov. 1!

It has taken the Wings (30-802, .775 when scoring first) only :35 to take the lead.  Valtteri Filppula (20) grabbed the rebound of a Henrik Zettterberg shot from the left wing half-wall and spun to beat Harding with a backhand.  17:10 to go, First Period: Detroit 1, Wild 0.


The Wings moved up two spots in the Western Conference standings last night without firing a shot in anger.  Detroit was 4th in the West when the night began, and second in their Central Division to St. Louis, even though both teams had 87 points.  The Blues owned the second tie-breaker, which is total wins minus shootout wins.  The Blues have 36, Detroit 35.  However, when St. Louis lost in Vancouver 2-0 last night, it meant that they had played one more game than Detroit, meaning Detroit had a higher winning percentage.  Winning percentage is the first tiebreaker, so the Wings moved back ahead of the Blues, back into first place in the division and back into second place in the conference.  With the win, the Canucks improved to 90 points on the season.  I think it essential that Detroit win the division.  If they don't, they likely will play Nashville in the first round of the playoffs, and I'm here to tell you, Nashville was a very good team to begin and no club, in my view, helped themselves more at the trade deadline than did the Predators.  Much better to have St. Louis and Nashville knock each other out for 7 games in the first round if you ask me.  If the Wings do win the division, they would be seeded no worse than #2 in the postseason which means they would play (and here's where it gets complicated) San Jose or Chicago or Dallas or Los Angeles or Colorado or Calgary in round one.  The difference between 7th place and 11th place in the West is four points right now.  If the playoffs began right now, just for the record, Detroit would have home-ice advantage in a series against the Sharks.  9:00 to go, First Period: Detroit 1, Wild 0.


Brendan Smith, just called up from minor league Grand Rapids has just scored his first career NHL goal from Dan Cleary and Todd Bertuzzi (they may change the scoring as it looked to me like Justin Abdelkader got a stick on it in the goalmouth scramble which preceded the goal).  The goal comes at 16:04.  2:00 left, First Period: Detroit 2, Wild 0.


Let's meet Brendan Smith, who matched Gordie Howe by scoring his first NHL goal in his first NHL game here in the first period tonight.  He's a 6-2, 155 pound, 22-year-old second-year pro from Ontario, drafted in the first round, #27 overall, by the Wings in 2007.  And that's about all we can tell you for now.

The Wings outshot Minnesota 13-5 in the first period.  FIRST INTERMISSION: DETROIT 2, WILD 0.


3-0, Detroit.  At 7:05, Darren Helm's pass was blocked by the Wild's Nick Johnson.  The puck came right back to Helm who fired home his 8th goal of the season.  Assists to Johan Franzen and Niklas Kronwall, although if you ask me, it could just as easily been an unassisted goal.  The did, by the way, change the scoring on the goal in the first period by Smith.  Take away the assist to Bertuzzi and give it to Abdelkader, and you will have it right.  Second Period: Detroit 3, Wild 0.


Did you know...Since starting the season 20-7-3 (.717) in their first 30 games--good for first place in the Western Confernece,  the Wild have gone 8-19-7 (.338) in 34 games since.  They have fallen to 12th in the West, 5 points out of a playoff spot.

This just in at 8:54pm: The Toronto Maple Leafs, 1-9-1 in their last 11 games, have fired coach Ron Wilson, the nephew of the late Red Wings great Johnny Wilson.  Ron Wilson had to listen to the fans in Toronto chant for his ouster earlier this week during a  lackluster home loss to Florida, and tonight he's gone.  It was only a couple months ago, in December, that Wilson signed a contract extension.  Turns out it was a severance package.  It's like the sign in Sparky Anderson's office used to say: Every 24 hours the world turns over on whoever was on top of it..."

I'm picking the Three Stars tonight and I can tell you right now that Filppula is going to be one of them.  He just scored his second of the night and the 21st of the season to make it 4-0 at 16:35.  Then, 1:07 later at 17:42, Ian White got his 7th to make it 5-0.  Zetterberg and Kronwall assisted on the FIlppula goal--a one-timer from the high slot, while the goal by White--a blueline slapper, was unassisted.  As the period ends, we note that Detroit held Minnesota to 5 shots on goal, and lead in shots 24-10 after 40 minutes.  SECOND INTERMISSION: DETROIT 5, WILD 0.


We've 4 minutes into the third, which means I have to turn the Three Stars in about ten minutes from now.  I'm thinking about giving the 3rd star to Smith because he did score in his first NHL game and because he'd remember it for the rest of his life so why not?  Zetterberg has 3 assists, Howard's not been dented yet, and Filppula has those two goals. If I give a star to Smith, one of those three isn't going to get one.  I suspect they won't mind.

Zedtterberg just got his 15th at 5:30.  The Wings passing was such that Harding got caught way out of position and Zetterberg fired into an empty net.  Third Period: Detroit 6, Wild 0.  


The Stars have been picked : #1 Filppula, #2 Zetterberg and #3 Smith and it is 6-0 and I am heading downstairs for postgame.  See you Sunday when Chicago will be in town!