A Royal Disaster (Kings 5, Wings 3)

It's because I pointed out that the Red Wings, before the game yesterday, had only 8 less points than double the Kings' point total, isn't it? Karma is a bitch.

How many times did we see this last night?

While the Wings led the Kings after two on a quick goal from Tomas Kopecky, and two from Henrik Zetterberg, the Kings managed to score 4 unanswered goals (man, Kyle Calder really stuck it to us) in the third to wind them up on top, ending an 8 year losing streak at the Joe.

I had class last night, so I only saw the last ten minutes of meltdown, but CKim kept me updated with texts, and has a great game post up at A Queen Among Kings (Thanks Connie - I'm willing to resume our friendship now that the shock has passed, but that scarf had just better not come with anything purple attached!)

Dave at Gorilla Crouch also brought up an interesting point about how this game solidified Detroit's need for another top 4 defenseman (especially with Nicklas Kronwall incapacitated until likely the end of the month) - also a good read, and a very good point. The name Rob Blake keeps coming up - will it go anywhere? (And Connie, will you become a Wings fan if it does?)

Saturday evening the Wings take on the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are sitting just barely above the Kings in the standings. These two teams are one of my favorite matchups and I love Toronto...but here's to hoping they get squashed.

I'll Take It! (Wings 3, Coyotes 2)

I admit, this might be the least confident I've ever been going into a Wings/Coyotes game. Especially since the arrival of Ilya Bryzgalov, the Coyotes have been a much more intimidating team - but then again, it's tough to shake the confidence of any Wings fan given their current performances.

Henrik Zetterberg (who going into this game had an average of 2.7 goals per night against Phoenix) was back tonight - and he made his presence known, scoring about four minutes into the game from a ridiculous angle, nearly past the goal line, as for the second night in a row, Bryzgalov lets in a goal off of the first shot of the game. The big line of Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, and Tomas Holmstrom was reunited at the start of the game and made their presence known, following this goal up with several other good scoring chances.

Chris Osgood had a great night once again, making a slew of timely saves (including one brilliant reach-around effort to keep a puck that got behind him out of the net) to keep the Wings in the game through the first two periods in which the Coyotes excelled at getting pucks to the net. Both he and Bryzgalov fended off a bit of jostling in front of the net - Osgood was knocked over by Fredrik Sjostrom and even lost his helmet, and Bryz took offense to a bit of roughing at the hands of Dan Cleary, whom he then took a couple jabs at with his blocker, which was hilarious, I promise.

Martin Hanzal tied it up late in the first on a giveaway by Nicklas Kronwall, and Ed Jovanavski had the other goal for Phoenix shortly into the second - a one-timer that Osgood never saw - but then the tides seemed to turn.

Through the first period and the start of the second, the Wings weren't in control of the puck nearly enough, but that turned around toward the end of the second. Zetterberg at one point had about a million chances to score, and even though he didn't cash in, it seemed to instill a new sense of confidence in the Wings, but that particular rush seemed to make a serious difference in the game.

Tomas Holmstrom scored the evener in the third period, deflecting in a Nick Lidstrom shot that, in a show of just how great a player Lidstrom is, was timed perfectly for exactly that. He scored again with 7:28 left in the period to put the Wings up 3-2, which would be the final score - his first goal on home ice this season. The last few minutes of play were littered with chances from both teams, including a great stop by Osgood on a Shane Doan breakaway with 30 seconds left in the game. In the last minute of play, Chris Chelios got some time on the pp - Ken and Mickey speculated it was Babcock's way to get him off his back. Maybe a late birthday present?

Nicklas Kronwall unfortunately left the game in the third with a shoulder injury and didn't return - word is that he hurt his clavicle and may have separated his shoulder. He'll miss at least one week, and with Brett Lebda out as well, the Wings will call up a Griffins defenseman for the coming games.

The next Wings game is February 1st against the Avalanche, and with luck the team can extend their winning streak to six.

Random stat:

Of the top 9 players in the league in +/-, 6 are Red Wings. Lidstrom leads the league as a +43 and Datsyuk is second, while Zetterberg, Cleary, Filppula, and Kronwall also make the list.

Um. Awesome.