… I thought this was a step in the right direction, though they aren’t there yet. As obvious as their commitment to being better was, they were still too loose and allowed the Coyotes too much leash.

… You get the feeling that the team objective was to make a point of scoring in the first few minutes. They had a nice, hard-charging start.

… The rest if the period, and much of the game, was too wide open for my taste. Not enough offensive zone dominance and not enough defensive zone possession on the Wings’ part. Although they limited the Coyotes’ shots on net, they allowed too many near-scoring chances and Phoenix rushes. The Coyotes just had the puck too much.

… It seemed as though offense was the focus last night rather than defense, though they were improved in the latter category. Was it just me or did it still seem like the philosophy was “keep ahead of them” rather than “don’t let them chase”? That would explain the high number of low-percentage shots and number of just-barely diffused Coyote opportunities.

If that’s true, than the lessons of the two big losses are still being worked out. The issue with those games wasn’t about not having scored 9 goals against Nashville and Columbus, guys.

… Phoenix was all over the Wings in the final minutes of the period. In one disturbing cycle, Rafalski and Lidstrom were pinned with the third line and couldn’t clear it. It got a little tense.

… The first Phoenix goal was a good example of the Wings’ in-zone troubles this season. Trouble clearing, trouble getting the puck back, and positioning.

… I appreciate the officials’ not making the game a penalty fest, but how does it take two and a half periods for a Detroit power play? Surely Phoenix did something penalty-worthy in each period.

… Speaking of penalties, Dan Cleary’s was idiotic on his part. You just don’t touch a player on an icing call. Not smart at all. He may have bought himself a spot on the third line for that one.

… And his replacement on the top unit would be Tomas Holmstrom. I didn’t think Homer was overly noticeable, but that’s only because he does not belong with Kopecky and Samuelsson. Easing him into the lineup was a nice gesture, and maybe a necessary one, but it had the effect of a dud artillery round. Those two are not the kind of offensive talents that mesh well with Homer’s bulldog style. I hope we don’t see that again.

… Of the players he should have been with, Datsyuk had the best night. He was as slick as ever and the most dangerous player out there. His counterpart, Zetterberg, was less so,  but didn’t have an awful night. A couple too many pointless backhanders that’ll pad Bryzgalov’s stats, but he had a couple great chances that were only barely thrwarted by Phoenix defensemen.

… It was good to see Johan Franzen return to “I shoot, I score” form with his OT winner. Despite scoring last week as well, it’s like he’s been snakebit lately, and was still working out the venom in the three regulation periods. He had a few chances that Hot Stick Franzen would have buried. I guess it took what my wife’s unofficial count had as an “eight man” screen.

… Jonathan Ericsson had a heck of  a game, I thought. His stick was everywhere, poking pucks off on the rush, and saving goals. In the third period, one puck got behind Conklin and the kid calmly flipped it out of the crease. My wife is torn because the Griffins desperately need him for their playoff run, but she knows he’s earned a spot with the Wings.

… Back to Franzen: anyone else catch his verbal gaffe in the post-game interview? He swore in describing the Wings’ start (we’ll go with “heckuva”), but quickly caught himself and corrected to “had a good start” or something.

My swearing policy is “rarely, and only when well and truly pissed, or it loses all shock value.” Still, I couldn’t help but find it humorous that he had to do that, apparently in order to preserve the illusion propagated by FS Detroit that hockey players drink ginger ale when they go out and salt their speech with phrases like “gosh darn” and “gee.” Is there an intern standing behind the camera ready to waive off any real-world language that may come out of these guys’ mouths? Maybe. I generally appreciate that, but a little color occassionally isn’t a bad thing.

… Anyway, like I said, this was a step forward, but they’ve still got work to do. They seem like they’ve been jostled out of their sleep. Now it’s time to wake up completely.