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Game Re-Cap: Wings Beat Sabres 6-3

Well that was quite a wild ride. After an absolutely garbage start to the game, the Wings lost two men, stuck in the game, and then suddenly remembered how to score goals for a 4 goal 3rd period that led to a 6-3 win. WOO! The losing streak is over and the Wings matched their previous 6 game’s offense in a single game. Let’s get straight to the drama.

First Period

Welcome to the hockey game tonight! We have the Wings and Sabres facing off. The WIngs get Stephen Weiss back in the lineup and I’m really excited to see if he can help us get out of this funk and… aww fuck. Are you kidding me? Two and a half minutes into the game the puck freakishly bounces off the upper body area of Nicolas Deslauriers and somehow squeaks behind Mrazek. What a bizarre and discouraging way to start the game. So we had the WTF freak goal, then several minutes of nothing much, then icings for everyone on what seemed like a million straight plays. Then Zemgus Girgensons gave the Wings a power play and AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA THE WINGS ACTUALLY SCORE A GOAL! AND ON THE POWER PLAY! Jakub Kindl of all people with a point shot and Stephen Weiss tips it in to tie the game. Alas, the lead was short lived when the Sabres took a 2-1 lead with just over 14 minutes into the period. It was a nice play by Buffalo and they had a 2 on 1 with Smith back and Kindl unable to catch up. Just to make sure we were good and puckered, the Sabres put on the pressure late in the period and were mere inches from taking a 2 goal lead. Things were so poor defensively that Babcock actually benched Kindl at the end of the 1st and we got to see Kronwall and Smith for a shift or two.

1st Period Highlights:

  • Weiss is back!

  • Hey a Wings goal!

  • Kindl did a good thing, hahahahahahahaha just kidding he’s back.

  • Rasmus Ristolainen tried to hit Zetterberg and Z counter by hitting him back and almost knocking Rasmus Ristolainen down

  • Franzen yelling What? Huh? What? Huh? What? Huh? to someone on the Sabres bench who was jawing at him.

2nd period:

The 2nd started better than the 1st and the Wings had a couple good scoring chances early on. Kindl remained benched, Daysuk did Datsyuk things, the Wings PK did it’s thing, Drew Miller wiped out Zemgus Girgensons with a huge hit and things were starting to look up. Then, while killing off a rare Datsyuk penalty, Kronwall got sandwiched in the corner and went to the dressing room with an upper body injury and wouldn’t return so Kindl had to play again. Then the Wings get a power play and there’s hope… and then Jakub Kind happened.. again. He skated in, took a shot, it was blocked and Kindl has never looked so slow skating. The Sabres had a 2 on 0 shorhanded breakaway and scored. The Buffalo Sabres scored a shorthanded goal against the Wings. Every vein in my head was popping as I screamed at my TV how much I hate Jakub Kindl. Then, with 2 minutes left in the period the Wings benefitted from some great USA and Slovak collaboration. Danny DeKeyser made it a 3-2 game with a great assist from Tomas Jurco on a forced turnover by the Sabres. Hope was kept alive!

2nd Period Highlights:

  • Datsyuk did Datsyukian things

  • DeKeyser + Jurco = GOAL

  • No other Wings were injured (Sorry, I jinxed it)

Third Period

Detroit outshot the Sabres 26-10 but trailed them 3-2 after 2 periods, and despite the the shitty play in the 1st, they improved in the last halfish of the 2nd period and it still felt like the Wings could win thing thing. Lines were shuffled and Jurco moved down to play on the 4th line, Weiss moved up to the 2nd. In a game like this you need your big players to come up big, and sure enough, less than 5 minutes into the period Zetterberg, Datsyuk, and Abdelkader combined for magic and Captain Hanky Panky TIES THE GAME!!! All I could do was scream, like an excited little girl, and I’m not the least bit ashamed. Abby did some great puck protecting work and i was just wondering out loud to myself if he’s been taking lessons from Hank and BOOM it pays dividends and the give and go from Pav and Hank was classic Euro Twins magic and I love those men so much. Sadly, just 8 minutes into the 3rd period, Nikita Zadorov hit Stephen Weiss hard with what looked like an elbow to the head/jaw area and Weiss was helped off the ice and to the dressing room. Half way through the period Buffalo took the worse penalty in the NHL, automatic delay of game for puck over the glass. It really couldn’t happen to a better team. Wait, what’s that I hear? It’s the kid power play song and it sounds like GGGOOOOOOAAAALLLLLLLL!!!!!!! With a power play of Danny DeKeyser, Tomas Tatar, Gustav Nyquist, Riley Sheahan, and Darren Helm (How’s that for a kid line?) put the Wings up 4-3 and give them their first lead of the game. Suddenly everything was happening and it was good for the Wings. The goal floodgates were bursting at the seams and ready to glood over the Sabres. Just ___ minutes later Birthday Boy Johan Franzen gets robbed by Neuvirth, gets the puck back, hits the post, then makes the 3rd time the charm and gives the Wings a 5-3 lead and the garbage of the 1st and beginning of the 2nd were all but forgotten. But wait, THERE’S MORE! Andrej Meszaros takes a penalty, Brendan Smith finally gets PP time, and the Wings score their 6th of the night. That’s right, in this game they scored as mang goals as they had in their previous 6 games combined.

3rd period highlights
  • GOALS!/

Thoughts:

  • Stephen Weiss immediately made a difference in his first game back when he tipped in the Wings 1st goal. The Wings are 9-1-2 this season with Weiss in the lineup and 9-7-7 without him. Maybe his 12 points in 12 games have something to do with that? It looked like a head injury that took Weiss out early in the 3rd period and I really hope he was just out for precautionary reasons. He makes this team better, he seems to make his linemates better, and he makes a positive difference for the Wings. I hope he’s ok, the poor guy just can’t seem to catch a break. /

  • Justin Abdelkader has become an integral part of this team, and his first couple games back after his shoulder injury he looked a little rusty, but tonight he was on. He was strong on the puck, strong on his feet, throwing big hits, getting the puck, protecting the puck, and made a significant impact.

  • Datsyuk & Zetterberg are magic and watching them do their thing is an honor.
  • Kindl needs to not be on this team, and I mean yesterday. Put him on waivers and send him to Grand Rapids. Just do it now, Kenny. We all know Ouellet should be playing and Kindl shouldn’t. The only reason he played after the 1st period is because Kronwall got hurt. This isn’t the first time Kindl’s been benched mid-game THIS SEASON! When you have a defenseman who’s so bad you bench him more than once mid game and would rather go with 5 D, why is he on your team? WHY????!?!?!?!? We’ll have to wait and see how bad Kronwall’s injury is and see what moves we need to or can make. There was actually a point during this game where I said I’d rather have Glendening play D instead of Kindl.
  • Twelve different Wings got at least 1 point tonight, Nyquist had 3 assists, DeKeyser, Tatar, and Zetterberg had 2 points each, and Kindl (somehow) managed 2 assists.
  • Throughout the 6 game losing streak, the Wings (for the most part) were playing well enough to win. If the team is playing like poo and losing, that’s one thing, but when a team is losing games they “should” win, if they can stick with their game and not get discouraged or too stressed, they’ll start winning again. After the shoot out loss against Avs, Zetterberg, Babcock, and several other players stressed how important it was for them to keep having run, relax, and not get down on themselves. That mindset paid off tonight and they just kept going.
  • The Wings scored 4 power play goals tonight. FOUR!
  • In his post game interview, Johan Franzen said getting pissed off helped the team come back and win., then Mike Babcock said essentially the same thing. I like this team when it’s pissed off.
  • I like scoring goals, and I like winning./

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

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