Update (7:15 PM): In response to my wife’s quip about Sammy’s shot chart last night, Ryan posted a great comment using hard facts to dispute the claim that Samuelsson sends more shots wide than on net. He also points out a couple more interesting statistical trends. Check it out. – Matt

Okay, I admit it: while I stayed up through the end of the game, I didn’t watch it all that closely. So this’ll be pretty general.

… How cool is it that a game after the fourth line was chastized by Babcock, Maltby, Draper, and Kopecky have maybe their best game of the season? I cheered particularly for Maltby, who opened the scoring with just the kind of grunge goal he should be tallying. Babcock was right to bench Malts, but Kirk was right to come back pissed and motivated.

… Draper scored his first goal of the season involving a goaltender. Somehow that made Puck Daddy’s “Dishonorable mention” section in today’s Three Stars post. If Draper were known as a goalscorer, maybe he’d qualify, but the guy’s job isn’t to score goals. Is it worth a laugh? Yes. Is it worth a jab? No.

… My wife said after the game that the starter’s job is Conklin’s to lose. After watching the guy notch his 5th shutout of the season, I can’t really disagree. Ty’ll have to put some distance between himself and Osgood if he wants to start in the playoffs, though.

… A lot of this is a combination of the Kings just not being that good and them playing a bad game even for them, but it was like men playing against kids last night.

The Wings were fortunate to follow up the Ducks game with such a powder-puff match with LA. However, had the schedule dictated the second game of the back-to-back be against San Jose, they probably would have been in good shape had the been as sharp as they were last night.

… Johan Franzen’s goal was too easy. I hope he realizes he won’t necessarily get freebies from his linemates like that on another team.

… Speaking of Johan’s linemates, I thought Hank had a strong game from what I saw.

… When you talk about the most underrated players in the League, I think Jiri Hudler has to be part of the conversation. The little Czech is really having a great season. It’s quite unfortunate that he’s an RFA this summer.

… They showed a graphic of Sammy’s shots at one point during the broadcast and I was shocked at the number of them that registered as on-net. Only a couple were displayed as misses. Megan suggested some of his higher and wider attempts went down as passes off the glass.

…. Pavel was held pointless for just the third time in 16 games. He was still dangerous, though.

… Earlier this week, I wrote about how the Wings had a chance to pullinto first place in the West by four tomorrow night if they went 3-0 going in and San Jose went 0-2-0. Well, as it turns out, Detroit went 2-0-1, while  the Sharks went 1-1-0. So, the Wings now stand a chance of passing San Jose by just one point with a regulation win tomorrow. The Sharks will retain a game in hand.

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