Here we are… David vs. Goliath (again.) The best team in the league versus the not best team in the league. The Boston hockey Bruins versus our Detroit Red Wings. Boston hasn’t lost a road game since January.. So yeah, they’re pretty good. Detroit, a team ravaged from injuries who is fighting for their lives to stay in the bubble.
1st Period:
The first was pretty much ruled by Boston. They outshoot Detroit 11-4 and had two goals with one waved off, which probably shouldn’t have been.. But hey, I’ll take one goal instead of two. The goal that counted was a rocket from the point by Johnny Boychuk. Jimmy Howard was screened and couldn’t track the puck and it beat him blocker side. Detroit had a good scoring chance when Todd Bertuzzi had a break, but couldn’t get much of a shot, so the puck ended up hitting Tuukka Rask right in the pillows. My favorite part of that period was Mike Babcock’s interview with Pierre McGuire. He had the troll face on the entire time. It was amazing.. Anyways, did you see Mitch Callahan’s face? You should go look at it. It’s amazingly gross. He looks like a god damn gummy bear. Yikes.
2nd Period:
The second period was pretty much a similar story as the first. Boston dominates possession throughout the entire period.. Shots are 25-11 at the end of 20 minutes. Detroit was able to stay alive thanks to strong penalty killing and an absolutely brilliant goal by Tomas Tatar. The zone entry was executed thanks to being on the power play, even though the penalty had expired the second prior, Danny DeKeyser was able to feed Tomino the puck which the little guy then sniped past Rask while Riley Sheahan was playing a great role at screening. God damn, I love these guys. He was easily the best player the entire period. Unfortunately, Darren Helm took a silly penalty with about 3 seconds left in the period.. So Boston will start the 3rd with a man advantage. I’m pretty surprised Detroit has managed to stay in it especially with the shots and scoring chances that Boston is having. Jimmy Howard has played a very strong game in net thus far. Surprising stat: Detroit is 61% in the face-off dot thru 40 minutes.
3rd Period:
This was the best period of hockey I have seen them play in a LONG time. Take away the power-play goal by Carl Soderberg early on.. Tomas Jurco had the equalizer on a mind-boggling feed from Tomas Tatar. Tatar had no helmet and no stick, so what is he to do? He kicks the puck over and Jurco buries the biscuit. How good is that? WELL WAIT. THERE’S MORE!!! Gustav Nyquist:
Did you see that goal?
I mean… Did you watch it? That defender he burned there is the guy who is the front-runner for the Norris Trophy this year.. That’s right, Gustav Nyquist skated around Zdeno Chara like he was wearing cinder blocks on his feet. Every game this guy shows me new levels of skill and I become more and more amazed at his skill and knowledge. He is truly the hottest player in the world right now. 12 goals in his last 10 games. Just ridiculous. Oh and that goal? It was the game-winner.
That’s right.. The game we all thought we wouldn’t be able to win was won in REGULATION!
With this win, Detroit creates a bigger gap between them and Columbus for the 7th seed. Detroit was outshot 35-20 in this game and wildly dominated in possession.. Every goal scored was from a player under the age of 25.. You wanted a youth movement, well here you go. It’s yours. Embrace it… Live it.. LOVE it. Jimmy Howard is my unsung hero for the game, as he kept Detroit in it while they were getting murdered by Boston’s elite abilities to possess the puck. Jimmy was the 1st star of the game posting a .943 SV% with 33 saves on 35 shots. Way to go, Jimmy! Way to go team!
So now I gotta ask the question…
Why not us?
