We sent our Winging It in Motown sources out to Joe Louis Arena tonight, and they have confirmed for us that a hockey game was indeed being played tonight between the Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche. I wouldn't blame you if you thought there weren't based on the total lack of anything happening until the third period, but they did play a full 60 minutes of hockey tonight. Plus overtime. Plus the shootout.

The Game

Detroit and Colorado basically exchanged periods of extended offensive zone time, until Detroit basically took over the second half of the period. That possession was punctuated by a four-minute power play which got the Red Wings a whole lot of nothing.

This is the summary of the game, screenshot right as the third period started:

Look at those big NONEs right there in the scoring and penalty summaries. It's basically mocking you if you watched the second period of this game.

Third period is where the fun and the misery started. On the power play — I repeat, on the power play — a wide shot rebounded off the boards, and a battle for the loose puck ended with the biscuit on the stick of Henrik Zetterberg. Z fed Riley Sheahan in the corner, who turned around and found Pavel Datsyuk in the slot with a gorgeous pass. Catching the pass and sizing up the shot, Datsyuk put it under the blocker and over the pad for a 1-0 Red Wings lead.

Then the Avalanche tied the game on the power play with around four minutes to go.

Then overtime.

Then the shootout.

Oh, you wanted to know who won the shootout? Silly reader, you know the answer to that question. It wasn't the Red Wings, I can tell you that much.

The Bullets

• From the NHL Official Rules:

  If a team declines to participate in the shootout procedure, the game will be declared as a shootout loss for that Team. If a team declines to take a shot it will be declared as "no goal."
  
  --Rule 84.4 Shootout

  Might as well save ourselves the misery and the time.
• We didn't score at even strength. The FSD broadcast at various points threw out the following statistics: one goal in the last eight periods; one goal in the last 10 periods; and after Datsyuk finally scored, 2 goals in the last 11 periods. I have no interest in vetting this particular fact, but it's not a distortion of the truth to say that the Red Wings have been struggling to score goals lately.
• I can't get over how just plain boring certain parts of this game were. I fought off a nap at several points of the second period, and I'll probably take a snooze as soon as I hit publish on this.
• FSD, I love you for bringing us Ken and Mick and Red Wings hockey. Can you please save the offensive zone corner camera angle for replays only?
• Petr Mrazek made some pretty great saves, including in the shootout. He also didn't handle a few rebounds as well as I'd like, but he's the "third-stringer" currently thrust into a starting role, and he's handling himself very well. Only one goal against and numerous shootout saves are very much the definition of "giving your team a chance to win."
• At this rate, however, we might need a goalie to steal us two points.
• Detroit scored a power play goal, but we could very easily have done ourselves a favor if we scored on the four-minute power play late in the first (or early in the second).
• If this is how Daniel Cleary plays when he gets awarded $1 million, other teams are going to be lining up to give him some fat checks every time he's in the lineup, CBA be damned.
• Can we get Xavier Ouellet back, please?
• Kudos to the Kid Line, and more specifically to Sheahan tonight.

Buffalo on Tuesday. At least we got a point tonight, amirite?