Red Wings 5, Panthers 2

First, let's get the bad stuff over with. The Wings scored all 7 goals of the game. A good thing, you say? Of course not--two of the goals were for the other team! Yes, Lidstrom and Chelios managed to kick the puck into Detroit's net for back-to-back goals for Florida. Absolutely unbelievable--ESPECIALLY from Lidstrom. Nick so rarely makes a wrong move on the ice that it is still surreal when I think about that play. He is one of the (many) Detroit players that makes everything look too easy--so much so, that he doesn't get ALL of the praise from the league as he should. (And I could make the point that some of the other players are in the same position, but I digress.) Both he and Chris had the puck take flukey bounces and lo and behold, the other team had two goals.

The other thing that really gets to me about the Wings is the inconsistent play. If they actually were able to play 60 good minutes of hockey in every game, there isn't a team around that could beat them. They would have the Cup before the playoffs even began! The second period the guys just didn't seem as if they could get it together--well, for the beginning of the period, anyway.

Now, let's get on to the good stuff. With the talk about the flukey bounces, there also was another unusual thing that happened: the Wings got TWO penalty shots awarded to them! And after just having a penalty shot two games ago! Really, really strange. Anyway, Datsyuk didn't score with his penalty shot but--are you ready for this?--Baby Boy got another penalty shot AND another goal! He has now scored two penalty shots and one regular goal and had one assist in the last five games, for four points--he's on a roll.

The Wings play 8 more times before the end of the year, with a five game road trip. They won't be doing a west coast run, but they will be playing as far as Phoenix, so it will be a tiring trip. They will only have one day home before they play their last game of the year. It would be nice if they would win against St. Louis on New Year's Eve--end the year on a good note.