That’s more like it, eh?
Osgood: I thought he acquitted himself well with a solid 20-save performance. All of the frantic goaltending talk this past week was pointless—assuming he’s still got plenty of games like that left in the tank. And I think he does.
Zetterberg: No points, but I thought he had a very strong game. His line may have been the Wings’ best and his hustle was second to none. They need more than hustle out of him, but the points’ll come if he continues to play like that.
That said, it made me sad to see the Flames’ goal go in off him.
Helm: Being scratched obviously made an impression him. He was impressive last night, especially when he drew a penalty with an insane burst of speed-induced breakaway while shorthanded. His line was maybe the Wings’ second best throughout the game.
Eaves: I think scoring the other night shot his confidence through the roof. He looked markedly better in this one. I hope he can make something of it.
Williams: His big contribution to the game was nearly costing Brad May an eye during a fight for the puck along the boards. May was an unsuspecting bystander minding his own business on the bench when Williams’ stick caught him in the face. Fortunately, May’ll be okay, but it was an unfortunate incident, for sure.
First minutes: A disturbing trend that started during the trip was the Wings’ startlingly weak play in the first minute of games. The Flames were nearly yet another team that leaped out to an early lead with a major chance in the first 30 seconds last night. Fortunately, Osgood was awake this time or else we could have been in for another fun ride. That kind of play early has to stop.
Meech: Derek was for the sick Jonathan Ericsson and really the only positive development of his being in the lineup was Babcock’s decision to mix the pairings up more than he had been. Lebda and Meech were both out with Lidstrom at least once each.
That’s the way: … to respond to an opposition goal. 35 seconds after the Flames got on the board, the Wings did, too. That’s exactly what they need to do if they give up the first goal: come right back. They’ve been too guilty of retreating into a shell lately. Even better: scoring a second goal less than a minute after that.
Holmstrom: What a season he’s having. Keep it up, Tomas.
6 of 10: That was the team’s baseline goal for points on the trip. They accomplished it. Yay. Moving on to (hopefully) better and loftier goals.
Another start: They need to follow it up with another strong game, and then another, and then another, and so on. They’ve played isolated strong games before this season. It’s time to stretch the strength across a string of games.
Next up: Boston, on Tuesday. A Versus game. Should be fun.