Hung In A Bad Place: Blues 6 - Red Wings 0

It's a sad state of affairs when taking my 6-month old daughter to have blood drawn is the highlight of my day.

I think we all understood that the Red Wings were going to take at least a small step back this season. The loss of the greatest defenseman of this generation combined with another of the top-4 was going to be hard to overcome. Last year, we saw the Wings unexpectedly lose Lidstrom for a game and they put up a stinker against Montreal. Tonight may have been worse.

Remember a couple of years ago when the Blues were terrible and blew out the Wings 10-3? That game was more enjoyable to watch than this, if only for the comedic value. If this is to be what the 2012-13 Red Wings are, then it's going to be a long season. Thankfully, this was only the first game of the season and there are 47 more for them to make up for this debacle.

It was one of those nights where nothing went right. They were out-shot, out-skated, out-hit, out-positioned, and just plain out-played. The Blues are a very good team, and they made the Wings look extremely bad.

So, whatever. On to the bullets so we can get the hell out of here.

• There aren't going to be many easier shutouts for Jaroslav Halak. If we had someone counting quality scoring chances, I'm sure they would have had a very easy night.
• So that second line? Meh. I still don't understand why Henrik Zetterberg isn't playing with Valtteri Filppula, but Flip, Johan Franzen and Mikael Samuelsson were completely uninspiring.
• Of course, so was every other line for the most part. 14 shots, even against a dominant defensive team, is totally unacceptable. Filppula and Damien Brunner led the way with 3 each, or nearly half of the team's output.
• I think when the Wings practice, they should have the forwards where bells so that the defense remembers to look behind them. 3 goals on breakaways, all of them because a defenseman forgot about positioning.
• You really have to wonder what's going to happen when Jonathan Ericsson is your best defenseman on the night. E was positionally sound and didn't make any major mistakes. Not a single other defenseman had even a remotely good night. Kyle Quincey made a couple of gigantic errors that cost the Wings dearly.
• After a strong performance on his own in the first, Jimmy Howard didn't wow me with his play either. I certainly don't pin this loss on him, but he's got to save one of those breakaways and keep the team in it. I wrote earlier this week that Howard was going to have a big year; tonight was not a good start.
• I thought about looking at the Corsi numbers, but there's not enough booze in the house. I think it's pretty obvious that every single Red Wing would be negative, and by a lot.
• Let the Goose Loose!
• At least no one important got seriously hurt.