Coaching fervor for grit turns into yet another loss, Red Wings fall to Panthers in overtime 2-1

It seems just like yesterday the “D-Bozz” video hit the hockey world and went viral. I wonder who helped that video see the light of day. Hm, they sound cool.

Anyways, the Red Wings drew a very annoying Florida Panthers Monday night. I say that because I always feel annoyed when the Wings play them. Something about them annoys me... Are they good? No. Are they bad? Nah. They’re just annoying to play.

The first period was mostly uneventful. The Red Wings successfully killed a penalty, then shortly after successfully failed on the power-play. Luke Witkowski got into a fight, which was about as exciting as reading “Luke Witkowski got into a fight.” It’s a good thing Tyler Bertuzzi was there to watch... From the press box. Normal.

Henrik Zetterberg managed to score his first goal in 23 games on a really nice individual effort. That’s five goals on the season for the captain. That would be all for scoring through 20 minutes. 12 shots for the Panthers, 11 shots for the Wings. Not a very interesting period up until Hank put one past James Reimer.

The second period started just as the first did, somewhat uneventful — Darren Helm had a real nice chance to break in for a scoring chance using his speed, but he decided to stop and do the opposite of break in for a chance.

About seven minutes in, Luke Witkowski got into another fight, and the four-or-five-thousand fans in the stands roared as two players hugged and grabbed at one another. Very good. Fast-forward a few minutes, and Luke Glendening is fighting Aaron Ekblad. The last time I saw a guy named Luke fight this many guys, milk was blue and the only place you could buy an electronic device was a big rusty tank driven by small, cloaked aliens.

Anyways, The Red Wings got another chance on the power-play, but were ineffective yet again. They seem to be content with just feeding the puck to the point for inaccurate point-shots instead of creating room by cross-ice movement.

40 minutes gone, and we’ve still got a 1-0 game.

Let me present to you, a story in two tweets:

Of course, Fox Sports Detroit’s favorite non-Red Wing, Vincent Trocheck got the goal.

Not much to talk about for the rest of regulation. This game heads to overtime. Remember when I said the Panthers were annoying?

It wouldn’t take long for the Panthers to seal the two points.

Michael Matheson scored his first goal of the season after a very strong shift by both Andreas Athanasiou and Anthony Mantha. Howard made a great save on a Panthers rush, but couldn’t recover in time much like his defense who were chasing following a couple of good scoring chances in the other end.

You want my opinion on this game? It’s on the coach.

Jeff Blashill is absolutely on the hot-seat. He scratched one of the organization’s better young players for a player who did nothing but sit his rear-end in the penalty box for ten minutes. The power-play, yet again, not prepared. The team, yet again, reliant on good goaltending.

Wings lose in overtime, 2-1.

In the last ten games, you have one win.