Coming into the game with only a two-point lead over Central Division rival St Louis Blues, who have six games in hand, the Wings beat the Blues 2-1 with Cujo getting the start against ex-Wing Chris Osgood. Dallas Drake, who has lately proven to be a Wing-killer, scored the first goal of the game on the powerplay for the Blues. And then the Wings, on their heels with another St Louis powerplay, got a brilliant individual performance from Pavel Datsyuk, who took a broken pass out and went on a breakaway. Pavel shot the puck at Ozzie, and in a remarkable situation, saw his own shot go in the net as a spectator from behind the net: the initial shot rode up off of Ozzie’s stick, flew into the air, and came down right behind Ozzie. It was a shorthanded goal, and it was Datsyuk’s first point in three games, after coming up short in two bogged-down, neutral zone games versus the Sharks and Predators. And with five minutes remaining in the game, Datsyuk gave a great forechecking effort on Alexander Khavanov, causing him to turn the puck over to Hull, who got it to Ray Whitney in front of the net for the goal. This play really underscored how Pavel has played hard all game for the Wings this season. With a 2-1 game, the Blues took it hard to Cujo in the remaining minute of the game, the puck trickling by the left post on one shot, but Cujo really stood on his head to secure the victory and ensure that the Blues not get even a point, which could be critical at the end of the season. Datsyuk’s two points put him at tied for second in the league with Kovalchuck with 42 points, as Lang leads with 44.

The Whitney goal also saved Draper from being the “goat of the game,” as he missed a wide open net earlier in the game. But it won’t save him from being ribbed by his friend Chris Osgood, as they have had a sort of on-ice rivalry after Chris was let go by the Wings and later played for the Islanders and now the Blues.

The first period was, again, not the best effort by the Wings. The Blues led in shots 10 to 4, and the Wings’ defensemen made a couple sloppy passes that almost led to goals. The Blues really came out flying, while the Wings finally came to life after the spectacular goal by Datsyuk.

And, again, the powerplay was unsuccessful, as the Wings went 0 of 4 on the night. It’s almost getting to the point where the Wings should ask to decline the powerplay, and just stick with even strength, because, lately, the powerplay has just been a waste of time and frustrating all together. But, I realize that a powerplay could be the difference in a playoff game, so the Wings really need to focus on cutting down the passes and stop trying to make Sportscenter.

Speaking of passes, it appears that Nick Lidstrom has caught the Pavel Datsyuk pass-by-all-means bug, as, on a 3-on-2 rush, he had a perfect chance to one-time a shot from close range, but decided to pass it to a far wing to produce a lower probability scoring chance. I’m telling you, it’s the powerplay problem all over again…

Cujo was really solid for the Wings, making 24 saves on 25 shots, and keeping the Wings in the game during the first period, when the Wings were rather lackluster with their passes and defense.

The Wings will get a three-day break before facing the Wild Friday night at the Joe. The Wings now hold a 4 point lead over the Blues in the Central, and, in fact, are the current NHL point leaders.

Tonight is the fourth of six games between these two Central Division rivals. Both teams are fighting for first place in the Division and Conference and have been neck and neck all season, especially so recently. The season series is split 1-1-1, with the Blues winning 6-5 in the first game, the Wings winning 2-1 in the second and a 4-4 tie in the third.

The Wings are riding a seven game home winning streak and are coming off a shutout loss to the Nashville Predators on Saturday. The Wings are 13-3-0-0 at the Joe this year and have not lost their since the Caps embarrassed them 4-1 on November 24. That loss launched them into a great month of December where they’ve gone 7-2-1-1 and 10-2-1-1 since the 24th. The Wings have dominated the Blues at home over the past 23 games, going 14-5-4-1. Two of the Blues wins came during the last week of the 2001-2002 season and meant absolutely nothing in the standings.

The Blues had a season high six game winning streak ended on Saturday when they tied Phoenix 1-1. They went 6-0-3 after losing to the Wings 2-1 on November 29. They are just two points behind the Wings for the lead in the Central Division and the Western Conference and have played six fewer games than Detroit.

Curtis Joseph should make the start again tonight for the Wings with Dominik Hasek out still with a groin injury and Manny Legace taking up his backup spot again.

No injured Wings are scheduled for comebacks tonight.

This game has a very high level of importance. These two teams do not play again until February 20th and after that, not until April 1st. With six games in hand, the Blues have a good chance of pulling ahead of the Wings, though those games are all on the road. Although St. Louis does not play the same number of games as the Wings until early March, a Detroit win tonight would make it a little more difficult for the Blues to gain the lead. I’m expecting the Blues to hit a mid- to late-season slump anyway and since the Wings seem to have already gotten their seasonal slump out of the way, I’m not too terribly worried about that the Blues will win the Division. St. Louis sees winning the season series with the Wings as a priority required to be met if they want to win the division. That’s probably true but the Blues have not won a season series against the Wings since 97-98. The Wings have obviously gotten inside the Blues head and the Wings have capitalized on it in the past. Hopefully they’ll do the same tonight because they pretty much have to and I’m sure they know it. I expect a good, close game and hopefully one that is not bogged down by clutch-and-grab, the trap and constant penalties.

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Last night’s game was a stinker, to be blunt. The refs decided that the Nashville Predators could interfere all game without being penalized, and the result was a lesser-skilled team bogging down a highly-skilled team and winning the game 1-0 on a shot from the point that CuJo didn’t see very well. And even on the goal, CuJo and many other Wings said that they thought the Predators were offsides on the play. CuJo on the goal: “I hesitated for a second, a split-second, a 100th of a second. If you just hesitate, you don’t quite cover that much. I should’ve had it.” It was the Predators third win against the Wings this season, but the win was much different than their two previous, higher scoring decisions. The most memorable being the game when Nashville scored 4 unanswered to win the game after the Wings held a 3-0 lead coming into the 3rd.

But this game was almost more frustrating, at least in the fan perspective, because the Wings just couldn’t get many quality scoring chances, and Tomas Vokoun didn’t give up any rebounds. The Predators pretty much cheated their way to victory, although the Wings probably should’ve scored on a couple chances where Vokoun robbed them. The Wings led in shots, 21 to 17. That’s not a lot of shots at all. There were only 9 total shots in the final 20 minutes. Not too entertaining a game to watch. I felt bad for the home-crowd that they had to pay for such a crappy game. Even Mickey Redmond, who at one point of what I thought was a boring San Jose game, said it was a “very entertaining game,” said that last night’s game was pretty bad. Of ten powerplays, neither team could convert. The Wings’ six powerplays were especially agonizing, as they either had a hard time establishing themselves in the Preds’ zone or held a passing clinic their for the duration of the advantage (notice I give no mention to the word “shot”). A couple times the Wings just downright wasted their powerplays when guys tried to carry the puck in themselves rather than dump it in. This is where the absence of Sergei Fedorov really has left a gap, as he was a master of taking the puck in on the powerplay.

Overall, it was a painfully boring game because the refs don’t know the rules of the game anymore, and have decided to allow weaker teams to obstruct the upper echelon of the NHL, artificially creating Gary Bettman’s beloved communistic system whereby any team, no matter how bad they are, is able to win. He doesn’t want powerhouses like the Wings and Avs to survive, and is really moving to destroy the formation of dynasties in the league.

Tonight is the third of six games between these two Central Division teams. The Predators won the first two games 5-3 and 4-3.

The Wings are coming off a 3-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks and are riding a four-game winning streak. They have won four games in a row twice this season and will be looking to extend their streak to a season-high five games with a win tonight.

The Predators have earned a point in three consecutive games (0-0-1-2) but not a win. They are coming off a 5-4 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadians on Thursday. They are winless in five, after going on a franchise-record six-game winning streak.

Dave Lewis is not sure which goalie will start tonight but the Free Press has Joseph listed as questionable so I’m guessing it will be Manny Legace again. That is, unless his knee is bothering him too much.

No other injured Wings will make their comeback tonight.

Mark Mowers will have his first chance to play his old team tonight. He played 85 games over three seasons with the Predators before being left unsigned by them and then signing with the Wings last year as a free agent. He played for the Griffins all of last season and started there before coming up to the Wings to cover for injuries.

This is another good opportunity for the Wings to get a win and it’s another situation where they pretty much have to. The Blues play the Coyotes tonight in St. Louis and have done a good job of keeping within three points of the Wings for first place in the Division and Conference. The Wings play the Blues on Monday and need this win to stay ahead no matter what happens then. The Predators have embarrassed Detroit the last two games they’ve played and hopefully the Wings will be looking for some kind of revenge. It’s an important game and hopefully they won’t slack off.

The Wings put forth a good effort tonight, beating the Blackhawks 3-2 on goals by Whitney, Shanahan, and Lidstrom. Manny Legace got the start for the Wings, with CuJo having the flu. But then again, if his flu was so bad that he couldn’t play, I wonder why Lewis would have him on the bench, breathing his sickness onto the team. I’d have put him in the locker room, and if desperately needed, call him out. We just don’t need the flu being passed around the team…

Nick’s goal came shorthanded on a neat shot from the point on a pass from Zetterberg; a classic goal of his that we need to see more of, as it was his first in 14 games. Shanny’s goal came on a neat pass from Zetterberg and Yzerman, and he knifed it in from right in front of the net. The Whitney goal was very encouraging with his coming off an extended groin injury. Jiri Fischer got the assist on the play. It was a scary moment when Draper left the game after taking a stick to the face and bleeding profusely, but it was luckily away from his eyes and he got stitched up and returned to the game later on.

It was a scary first period for Wings fans, though, as the Hawks outshot the Wings 17-3; at mid-period the Wings only had one shot. But the Wings stormed back with two solid periods of play, producing 11 to 5 and 12 to 8 shot deficits. Bootland and Larry Henry got into a brawl mid second period. It was a draw, but if I had to choose a winner, it’d probably be Henry. Bootland got some early shots in on Henry, but hung on tired after that. It really seems as though Bootland is a subdued form of his latter self, almost as if the coaching staff has talked to him and asked him to be more careful about taking penalties. The past couple games he has drawn a few penalties as guys have tried to pull him into fighting. It’s good that he is trying to draw more penalties than he is taking, but it’s also good for the atmosphere of the arena to have a fight or two ensue.

Midway through the game, Manny jumped to try to catch a high puck going overhead, and tweaked his knee. After the play, he immediately started flexing his knee, in some sort of discomfort. Hopefully, it won’t be anything serious, but he continued flexing it as the game progressed…

Overall, I was pretty impressed with how the Wings played, especially since the Hawks are an Original Six rival that always plays well against us. It was a refreshing game after the San Jose Sleeper that pretty much dozed me off …zzz… until we got the break off the San Jose penalty and Datsyuk put the biscuit in the basket (I’ll try to hold myself back from too many Mickeyisms for those of you who listen to Fox Sports’ Mickey Redmond). Next stop, Nashville, where the Wings need to continue there hot streak and Datsyuk and Hullie need to get back in the points race. Pavel got a few chances tonight, while Hullie had an off night, making a couple lazy passes and missing some coverage.

The Wings will their fourth of six games this season against Chicago tonight downtown at the Joe. The Wings won the first two games 3-0 and 4-3 but lost the last one 4-3 in overtime last Thursday.

The Blackhawks have had a terrible season so far and have only won one game in their last 18 (1-11-3-3). They are coming off a 6-1 loss to the Sens and are playing without their three best players: Alexei Zhamnov, Jocelyn Thibault and Eric Daze.

The Wings are on a 9-1-1-1 streak and are 14-3-2-1 in their past 20 games. They also have several key injuries but have found ways to win regardless. The stellar play of guys like Pavel Datsyuk, who has 11 goals and 11 assists over the past 11 games, and Brett Hull who is on a 12 game point streak. The play of Curtis Joseph has been of high quality over the past five games and has contributed as well. The Wings got Henrik Zetterberg back from a broken leg for their game against the Sharks on Wednesday and he contributed three points in a 3-2 overtime win. He will help the Wings’ offense be even better.

Curtis Joseph will start again tonight but Dave Lewis said “Manny will go Saturday.” Hasek is not due for a while now and Lewis said “It would be a guess and I don’t want to guess” in response to questions about a possible return date. Not good.

Steve Yzerman and Ray Whitney are scheduled to return to the ice tonight. The Captain has missed six games because of a groin tear and Whitney has missed 15 of 16 games because of another groin injury. Lewis said “Steve and Ray are both ready to go.” Yzerman and Whitney were supposed to come back after the three-day holiday break next week but their returns were pushed up because they’d been skating well and without pain in practice, not because the Wings are in any real need of their services.

Tomas Holmstrom will not return before the Christmas break but may return before the New Year.

This is a good opportunity for the Wings to get another home win to add to their seven game win streak at home and four game overall streak. The Hawks won’t go down without a fight, though, and I expect a good game from both teams. This is an Original Six game after all.

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The Wings got away with one last night, getting a win in overtime over the Sharks in a game where they were pretty much shut down all night. The Sharks kept the Wings relatively under control the whole game and were very good at keeping it boring. Things got more exciting near the end when the Wings decided a win wouldn’t come easily and they put forth enough effort to overcome the stifling San Jose defense.

Curtis Joseph played for the fifth straight game and looked very good. He had no chance on either of the Sharks’ goals and both were preceded by some great saves by him. The first was no one’s fault since it was on a 5-on-3 which the Wings’ skaters defended well. The second was a result of a minor defensive miscue where the two Wings defensemen collided, leaving Scott Thornton wide open for a slam dunk goal. Joseph has been very steady since coming back to the team and it just goes to show what he can do when well worked. I think Dominik Hasek would have played just as well, however, had he not been hampered by this groin injury. The fact is, both of them need to play consistently to play well. They cannot both get that here so the Wings have got to find a way to get Joseph to another team. He deserves it and the Wings owe it to him.

Henrik Zetterberg made his return last night rather than on Friday as expected and was amazing. He scored the Wings’ first goal and then went on to assist on their next two, including a brilliant assist on the game winner in overtime. He looked strong on his skates and did not seem to have missed a beat, even though he missed 21 games with a broken leg. It was great to see him out there again and even though the Wings’ offense has been good without him, he reminded us all how much we missed him. He played 27 shifts over 19 minutes, 21 seconds, getting time in even-strength, power-play and penalty-killing situations and looked good doing it. The best news is he played the whole game and did not have to leave because of his leg bothering him. That should mean he’s fully healed and that the Wings will have his services for the rest of the season, barring other injuries. Dave Lewis did not waste any time putting him back on a line with Datsyuk and Hull since they were together on the first power play unit, though not at even-strength for the most part.

Pavel Datsyuk was relatively quiet all night until he scored the game tying goal with 19 seconds left. The Sharks defense was obviously keying on him and did not give him much room to do anything all night. That’s something Pavel’s going to have to deal with from now on but I think he’s good enough that it shouldn’t be a problem. He actually played a fairly physical game last night, knocking at least one player down and taking a beating from the Sharks. He is now tied for the NHL scoring lead with Robert Lang with 40 points.

Brendan Shanahan scored the Wings’ game winner off a pass from Zetterberg. He is having a quietly strong season lately after starting out slowly. He drew the penalty that lead to the Wings’ game tying goal near the end of the third period and had a good game overall.

Niklas Kronwell continues to impress me with his physical play and decent offensive ability. He earned his second NHL point on Henrik Zetterberg’s goal and played a strong game. He does not look like a rookie at all. He’s supposedly “Nick the Second” and, though that may be a bit of a stretch, he’s looking like he may be a top NHL defenseman in a few years.

The Wings earned their third win in a row, improving to 9-1-1 in their last 12 games and 14-3-2-1 in their past 20. They still have nine regulars out because of various injuries yet the breakout play of players such as Datsyuk, Hull, Schneider and Woolley has kept them on a winning pace. They are now tied for first place overall and lead the St. Louis Blues by three points (44 to 41). The Blues still have six games in hand on Detroit, however, and will not have played the same number of games as the Wings until some time in March. The Wings are now 20-10-3-1.

Next up: vs. Chicago, tomorrow, 7:30 EST

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Lines-
Dandenault-Williams-Maltby
Draper-Datsyuk-Hull
Zetterberg-Mowers-Shanahan
Devereaux-Datsyuk-Hull
Dandenault-Draper-Maltby
Devereaux-Hudler-Bootland
Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Hull

Fischer-Schneider
Lidstrom-Woolley
Kronwall-Rivers
Fischer-Rivers
Kronwall-Lidstrom
Schneider-Woolley

4 on 4-
Shanahan-Zetteberg
Datsyuk-Hull

Fischer-Schneider
Lidstrom-Woolley
Kronwall-Rivers

PP-
Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Hull
Shanahan-Mowers-Draper
Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Draper
Shanahan-Datsyuk-Hull

Lidstrom-Woolley
Kronwall-Schneider
Lidstrom-Schneider

PK-
Draper-Maltby
Shanahan-Zetterberg
Datsyuk-Hull

Lidstrom-Schneider
Fischer-Rivers
Schneider-Dandenault

5 on 3PK-
Maltby-Draper

Lidstrom

6 on 5 Cujo Pulled-
Zetterberg-Shanahan-Dastyuk-Hull

Lidstrom-Schneider

6 on 4 PP-
Zetterberg-Shanahan-Dastyuk-Hull

Lidstrom-Schneider

OT-
Datsyuk-Hull
Shanahan-Zetterberg
Draper-Maltby
Williams-Dandenault

Lidstrom-Woolley
Fischer-Schneider
Kronwall-Lidstrom

Net-
Curtis Joseph