See what I did there?

It's so much easier to start writing a post like this, opposed to the Toronto game. That game just drained me, I had nothing to say because everything went wrong. This game went a little differently, in that almost nothing went wrong tonight. Seriously, this game was nearly perfect. Let's recap:

• Nine goals scored by seven different players.
• A road game, and a game coming off an embarrassing loss.
• Cleary, Bertuzzi, Leino, Draper, and Abdelkader all scored. If Eaves had scored (he hit a crossbar), that would literally be every candidate that people have called out to step up in the absence of Williams.
• Balanced scoring -- every Red Wing was either +1 or +2.
• Only goal against was questionable, but Nick Lidstrom knocks that into the corner 99 out of 100 times.
• Slumping powerplay was 2-for-4.
• Lebda and Ericsson were almost invisible. This could only mean this was their best game together.
• Penalty kill was perfect.
• Rick Nash broke his streak of physically, mentally, emotionally, and psychologically dominating Brian Rafalski.
• Jimmy Howard isn't making anyone stab their eyes out.
• The Wings got out to an early lead and actually continued trying for the rest of the game (!!!). What a freaking concept.
  

And so on and so forth. Satisfying. Hockey would be boring if Detroit won every game 9-1 (I'm not saying I wouldn't enjoy it this season, but over a few years, that'd wear), but it's just so nice to have a few of these games where there is literally no stress. Detroit's found a way to make just about every game interesting, in good and bad ways. But a game like this every two weeks? I'll take it.

There's a special satisfaction in beating Columbus. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's bitterness over the 8-2 loss, but I felt like it was before that. They're most like Detroit's little brother, and like little brothers everywhere know, it's just really fun for the older brother to whip on the younger brother once in a while. Also, I don't like Ken Hitchcock. I couldn't be happier that this was his 1,000th game. I don't find him to be a terrible coach, I just don't like his demeanor. And I don't like that stupid quote about "making Detroit bleed." Talk about bulletin board material. Yep, good job Ken, Jared Boll made Brad May bleed, and Dan Cleary looked like he had a few stitches in the chin. Meanwhile, Detroit scored nine goals, eight on your team's second best player.

I can think of only one downside to this game -- Detroit now has no excuses. I knew that no matter how depleted the forward crop got, this team could still score goals. Mickey Redmond's pre-game words of how "Detroit will need to learn to win a 2-1 game" just taste extra sweet right now. This team can score, and it's still elite -- it just needed to prove that to itself. But should they fall apart again, it's going to to be even more aggravating knowing that this team can thoroughly dominate.

On the note of thorough domination, it's important to take in why things ended up the way they did. Detroit got a few turnovers absolutely gift-wrapped by Jackets defensemen. But why did this happen? Because Detroit was relentless on the puck and they forced the Jacket defenders to make the play quicker. This is exactly what other teams have been doing to Detroit's defensemen all season long. Eaves especially made a great kamikazee dive towards Jan Hejda, who lost it up the boards on a weak clear to Lebda.

What else? Jimmy Howard is an interesting topic. Perfect? No, actually quite terrifying that he still didn't look confident until the Wings were up by five. But I think this is the type of game we should be able to expect from Howard. Wasn't particularly good on the goals, wasn't making any particularly monsterous saves, but he made a few big ones, and didn't hurt the team. More than that, it was nice that he actually got a really good effort from the defense in front of him. They did a great job corraling the rebounds that Howard let go astray, a clear sign that the team is getting more comfortable with the goalie.

Anyway, before I started writing this I watched the end of Colorado and Chicago, Chicago took it in a shootout. This leaves Detroit three back of the division with a game in hand. Not too shabby. Let's hope they can carry some momentum back to the Joe, against a Canuck team coming off a 6-1 loss to St. Louis.

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