N-B-C-S-N / N-B-C-S-N / N-B-C-S-N / They Still Employ Milbury

Detroit faces off against Boston, looking to get back to playing winning hockey. With the snow outside, it’ll be interesting to see how empty the arena looks tonight.

Kronwall drew the short straw and has to talk to Pierre before the game starts.

Period 1

Rask makes the game’s first save on a shot by Helm, who set himself up with a nifty little move in the offensive zone to buy himself some time.

Detroit takes a penalty for too many men on the ice. They actually sent an extra player over the boards, as opposed to the type of play where one player took too long getting off the ice.

Detroit kills the penalty without allowing a goal.

“He can play both forward and defenseman” - DRINK!

Dylan Larkin sets up Anthony Mantha for a chance in close. The next shift, Abdelkader sets up Zetterberg for a shot. Neither finds the back of the net.

I’m really hoping that Pierre mentioned drafting Chara to Milbury to purposefully troll him. (If you didn’t watch the game, Pierre actually said the first part. Milbury did not actually say the second part.)

They then spent the next 3-4 minutes talking about Chara. I’m not exaggerating. Don’t ever let someone tell you that you can’t do something because Mike Milbury still gets paid to talk about hockey.

Boston is doing a good job of clogging up the neutral zone, which is contributing to a fairly boring game so far. Neither team can get sustained offensive zone pressure, and chances are few and far between.

Boston takes a penalty and Detroit held the puck for about 30 seconds with Howard on the bench due to the delayed call. The problem is that they held it in their own zone and gave it up quickly once they finally headed up ice.

Detroit couldn’t get anything going on the power play, and even iced the puck during the man advantage. 0-0 after one and I need to inject caffeine straight into my veins to make it through the rest of this game.

Second Period

One of the teams has started to get sustained zone pressure in the beginning of the period, and it’s not the team wearing red. At the same time, it was Boston’s best line, so Detroit should get a little bit of a break for the next few shifts.

Abdelkader set up Detroit’s best chance of the game so far three minutes into the period. Nyquist snuck in behind Boston’s defense and Abdelkader found him for a deflection in the slot, but he put it over the net.

One of the things that’s struck me tonight has been how few tape-to-tape passes Detroit has made tonight. Darren Helm takes an offensive zone penalty, which is fun.

Fortunately, Detroit survives the power play, which spent nearly the whole advantage in Detroit’s zone.

Boston takes a penalty shortly after Athanasiou nearly scores after pulling the puck back through his legs.

Tatar SCORES!

Tatar rips a wrist shot from the faceoff circle. Abdelkader screened Rask, who never saw it. 1-0 Detroit.

Boston nearly scored the tying goal shortly after, as Pastrnak broke in alone on Howard after beating Trevor Daley who was coming off the bench. Howard looked before him, but he kept it out.

Krug takes a penalty, and Detroit goes back to the man advantage. Detroit doesn’t score, but they spent a lot of time in Boston’s zone. The “second” PP unit is so much better than the first, as Prashanth showed on Twitter today. Larkin, Mantha, and Frk took turns setting each other up for good chances.

Mantha beats Chara to the outside and drives the net, throwing a backhand on net. Chara was able to harass Mantha a little, but he still got a good shot off.

The period ends 1-0 Detroit. After a fairly boring first, both teams had better chances in the second. Detroit is playing well overall. They will likely need to stave off a big Bruins push to start off the third.

Third Period

Detroit starts off the second period with two strong scoring chances. While this was happening, the announcing crew was continuing to tell stories about coach press conferences.

Boston ties the game as Detroit allowed the Bruins to take about four rebound shots on Howard in close. Noel Acciari scores his second of the season. 1-1.

Krug is allowed to skate into the zone right up the middle and rip one on Howard. Ericsson decided to shade to the left to make sure Krug couldn’t pass to the outside player, but in doing so allowed Krug to shoot from a dangerous position.

Later that shift, Mike Green hauls down David Pastrnak, and Boston goes to the power play with 10 minutes left.

Boston looked very dangerous through the first minutes of the man advantage. But then Helm got to a loose puck and sprung Dylan Larkin for a breakway and a goal!

Larkin made it look easy, beating Rask on the backhand deke. 2-1 with 8 minutes left.

Boston pulls its goalie with just over two minutes left. Krug to Marchand to a wide open Pastrnak. Howard has no chance. 2-2.

I know it’s shocking, but Detroit has blown a third period lead. Boston calls a timeout with 45 seconds left.

We go to overtime.

Overtime

Nyquist falls in the offensive zone and Krug starts a two-on-one with Brad Marchand. Zetterberg is caught way too high in the zone and can’t help at all defensively. Green catches up to Marchand but doesn’t do anything to disrupt the play and Marchand waits out Howard and flips it into the net for the win.

Because of course.