… Overall, not a bad game by the Wings. They got off to a solid start offensively, controlling the play in the early going and did a great job killing off a penalty midway through the first.

…Then they fell apart a bit late in the period with a couple dumb penalties. First, Dan Cleary nearly tackled Dwayne Roloson to put his team down one man. Then Henrik Zetterberg got too aggressive on the shorthanded forecheck and took a tripping penalty. The Wings killed off the 5-on-3, but allowed a goal on the remainder of the Zetterberg penalty.

… They spent the rest of the game playing catch-up. Playing it pretty well, but the killer instinct didn’t kick in until the third period. They dominated play in the second period with 17 shots to Edmonton’s 4, but there was a definite lack of intensity for much of the period.

… The third had more action from the start. The Wings carried play for the most part, but Edmonton stepped it up and showed themselves able to defend their lead well, even if it meant playing shell hockey. Finally, the Wings tied it up in the second half of the period and pulled out to a two-goal lead late. Edmonton made it interesting by making it 3-2 with a minute left, but the closest they came to tying it was the post-icing faceoff that they lost.

… As far as individual performances go, I didn’t think this was Zetterberg’s best. Between the first tripping penalty to set up the 5-on-3 and the second while on the power play, it didn’t seem like his head was in the game. It wasn’t all bad–he drew the penalty that his second penalty obliterated–but definitely not one of his better nights.

… Johan Franzen, on the other hand, was maybe the best player on the ice, in my estimation. There are nights where Franzen looks like the checker he was when he entered the League, and there are nights where he looks like a “Grade A” offensive talent. Last night was the latter. Franzen was always at the center of the Wings’ chances when he was on the ice, whether it be from finding an open space to take a pass or from making his own play by slicing through the defense in Datsyuk-like fashion. His play on the Hossa goal was just one example. He finished without a goal, but had a great night with two assists.

We got a kick out of the time when Ken Daniels described a shot by Franzen as “missed by a country mile,” though.

… So, yeah, my hunch-driven, out-of-the-hat prediction on Ericsson in my 2:43 update yesterday was pretty dumb. Lebda was the scratch, obviously. Ericsson looked great again and notched his second NHL goal on a nicely placed shot in the third.

… The stats show Ty Conklin played a solid game, but Meg and I both thought he looked shaky. He was out of position a lot, and overall looked less steady than is usual for him. Fortunately, the defense was “on” for the most part.

… Does it come any easier than Filppula had it for his goal? Even empty-netters require fighting the opposition defense more often than not. Roloson was ridiculously out of position on that one.

… Homer was all but unnoticeable.

… The Wings’ third period goal burst had me thinking, “This is awesome, but where was this a period or two ago?” You can’t read too much into regular season games for the purpose of projecting playoff performance, but I can’t help but be a little concerned about this matchup. I don’t think the Oilers necessarily are capable of repeating the 2006 debacle, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t make life very difficult and maybe even pull off a different kind of upset. I could have done with a more resounding victory last night.

And don’t point to the shot differential as evidence of that kind of win. That’s part of the problem. The Wings expended a lot of energy and only have a one-goal win to show for it.

Anyway, that’s probably overly pessimistic, or under-optimistic. I should take my own advice about not reading too much into these games.