I caught the second and third periods of the game last night but was so tired and distracted that I only have a few comments on it.

The Wings as a whole seemed out of it for much of the time that I was watching, but Dominik Hasek was especially off. I’ve been gaining confidence in the goaltending lately but Dom’s performance last night was not encouraging. He was not at fault on the first goal, based on the replay I saw, but, though he made a great save just before the second goal, it was a save that took him well out of position and the rebound made it easy for the Blues to score. On the third goal, he looked awful as Drake sniped the top right corner from the Wing. But it wasn’t just the goals, it was the plays around the net that concerned me. Sometimes it seemed as though he was almost completely unaware of his surroundings. Now, I can’t expect him to play perfectly game and I don’t. I’m just pointing out some oddities and I hope they’re gone Saturday.

Back to the third goal: Dave of Gorilla Crouch calls it the result of a, “bonehead play by Mathieu Schneider,” a response I knew was coming when I saw it live. The thing is, if the puck hadn’t ended up on Drake’s stick, Wings fans would be praising Schneider for keeping the puck in the zone. Well, maybe they wouldn’t be, since most of them seem to hate the team’s #1b defenseman for some reason. Blame Holmstrom for the bad pass that made Schneider have to dive. Watch for yourself.

Robert Lang’s assist on the Jason Williams goal has to be one of the prettiest I’ve ever seen. If you can’t quite see it on the replay, he put it through the first defenseman’s legs and then used his body on the second before making a perfect pass to Williams at the side of the net. That is why we have Lang on the team. Too bad he doesn’t do it more often.

I didn’t see Derek Meech much but he did what he was brought up to do: fill in the gap.

The Wings are upset about Drake’s first period hit on Brett Lebda. I only saw the replay once so I can’t say much more other than that it was nasty. Definitely another example of players take runs at the Wings. And, of course, Drake got away with it, rewarded even, with the Zetterberg penalty seconds later that resulted in a Blues goal.

It was good to see Pavel shoot the puck on the game winner. I had just been criticizing him for holding on to it in bad situations when he should be passing it. He made me eat my words by keeping it on that 2-on-1, that’s for sure. If you’re going to get a shot off, keep it as long as you want, but if you’re going to lose it, dish it off beforehand.

One last comment: The officiating was pretty awful last night. Making ghost calls while blowing it on the big things. I don’t know that I expect any different any more, though.

Anyway, not the greatest win but a win nonetheless. Next up is Toronto on Saturday.