Update (4:00 PM): Steph at No Pun Intended has her game reaction posted. - Matt

Unfortunately, I don’t have much of any free time today so this is going to be briefer than usual.

…. The game did not look promising in the first period. It was one of the most boring periods of hockey I’ve watched in a long time. The Wings looked like they were sleepwalking and the Sharks, for all the hype, are not that exciting. Given that I was already tired, I was less than excited at the prospect of staying up until 1:00 to watch that particular brand of hockey.

… It was a frustrating period for the fact that the officials called a couple stinker penalties on the Wings, but missed some obvious calls on the Sharks. The worst penalty was probably Kronwall’s second hooking, which was effectively a penalty for playing defense.

… The worst non-call was a nasty play by Kyle McLaren. With Dallas Drake chasing the puck down in the Sharks’ end, McLaren initiated contact just before the goalline. That was interference. McLaren then rode Drake into the endboards, laying on a heavy hit that left Drake woozy. Drake’s head bounced off a stanchion and as soon as he got up, he skated straight to the bench. At the next stoppage in play, he was taken to the dressing room and he did not return. He said after the game that he had a headache. He’ll be tested to determine the extent of the injury today, according to the Free Press.

… Chris Osgood had zero chance on the Sharks’ first goal. A V-bounce off the backboards on an intentional shot wide left him miles out of position and Mike Grier had an easy slam dunk goal. Osgood looked great for the majority of the night. He made some huge saves at key points and kept the Wings in it when they weren’t on top of their game.

… It feels weird to say it, but Andreas Lilja had a good game. Perhaps he got psyched up to play hard at the news that Nick Lidstrom might not be able to. In any case, he made a couple defensive plays that narrowly averted disaster. The one that stood out the most was the perfectly-timed shot block in the first period when the net was momentarily vacated.

… Henrik Zetterberg continued his statistical dominance, scoring a goal on a great shot in the second to tie the game at two and setting up Pavel Datsyuk on the Wings’ fourth goal. He leads the league in points at the moment with 15.

… Aaron Downey is on his way to being a fan favorite after he came to Drake’s defense with a fight in the third period. He only got 2:42 in ice time, but he made the most of it with a pretty decisive win over Kyle McLaren, who has 20 pounds on him. You can see the fight over at HockeyFights.com. Unfortunately, it’s the San Jose feed and doesn’t pick up the whole thing.

… Matt Ellis scored his first NHL goal on a bit of a surprise play. He skated in down the left wing, pulled up and wheeled, throwing the puck at the net off the backhand. It deflected slightly off the skate of Marc-Edouard Vlasic and somehow beat Nabokov. Jiri Hudler retrieved the puck for Ellis, who was busy being congratulated by his teammates.

… Brian Rafalski did not play after the 5:48 mark due to some kind of injury. Babcock evidently wouldn’t talk about it after the game, but the speculation is that he hurt either his knee or his groin.

… It was good to see the Wings further validate their playoff series win over the Sharks with a pretty decisive showing. San Jose spent the summer in denial about what really happened in the Semifinals so maybe now they’ll start to understand. I’m not going to hold my breath, however. I’m sure last night will be counted by their players and fans as another game the Sharks lost rather than one the Wings won.

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