The Red Wings needed a bounce-back game tonight against a very beatable Ottawa Senators.

They didn't, and I'm not sure what you want me to say about it. They letup a late goal in the third period that cost them this game. The overtime sequence was a mess due to poor deployment. It's disappointing. This team is disappointing. Watching Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist be completely useless at times is seriously painful.

I don't know. I'm being totally emo right now. Enjoy my half-hearted recap as I cry into my beer:

First Period:

There was a lot of energy to open up the game, but i was quickly lost. The Wings fell out of sync, and couldn't make anything happen. Bad passes in the neutral zone kept them from getting anything setup for a shot, let alone a scoring chance. Petr Mrazek took slapshot right to the bucket, and I was 100% certain he was concussed. He stayed in the game, which is only somewhat concerning.

I really have very few notes from the first period. Both teams played extremely boring hockey. Detroit killed a penalty. Jeff Blashill is wearing a nice jacket. I dunno, man. OH! The "third" line of Jurco-Athanasiou-Pulkkinen looked ok, but like the rest of the team, had their legs moving faster than their minds or eyes. The puck looked like they rubbed it with soap before the game started.

Another note is that the Red Wings continue to be buried by the forecheck. I don't know if these teams are actually good at forechecking, or if the Wings are just so molasses-like in their own zone teams just have ease crushing them and forcing mistakes.

Score is 0-0 after the first. Shots in favor of Detroit (9-6), as well as 5v5 shot attempts (12-10).

Second Period:

Detroit drew their first penalty of the game. Unfortunately, and completely predictably, they were unable to score largely due because they just couldn't get setup and get a good look. They managed to get a somewhat decent scoring chance near the end of the PP, but due to a bad angle, they couldn't make much of it as Craig Anderson absorbed it.

Remember when I talked about the third line looking pretty decent? Well they did a real good thing. Strong forechecking buried Erik Karlsson and forced him to make a very silly play which went right into Andreas Athanasiou's possession to rip home:

Hey, we scored! Oh wait, nevermind. The Senators tied it back up almost instantly when Brendan Smith broke his stick trying to make a pass. This gave the puck to another Smith guy, and he scored on Mrazek no problem. I mean, I guess it makes sense that happens to Smith after we spend so much time pumping his tires on this website. Blame it on us, not on Smith.

I was fully expecting Ottawa to take over the game after their equalizer by Zack Smith. The Red Wings got themselves a bit of luck. Actually, I'm not sure if you can call this luck because the play Erik Karlsson made with his stick was a bit questionable given the way the puck was going. Brad Richards scored a redirect goal off of Karlsson's stick. Richards was initially trying to pass the puck, but Karlsson did the deed to make it 2-1 in favor of Detroit:

That would do it in terms of my notes for the rest of the period. Athanasiou and Richards combine to get this game in favor of Detroit 2-1. Shots knotted up (16-16), as well as 5v5 shot attempts (19-19).

Third Period:

This period was a chippy one. Chris Neil seemed to be looking for a fight the entire time, even trying to pick one with Pavel Datsyuk. Once Justin Abdelkader stepped up on him to answer for Datsyuk, Neil backed down like the knuckle-dragging hero he is.

The combo of Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar was really disappointing tonight. Seems like they just couldn't create anything, despite given some really decent chances in Ottawa's zone. Brad Richards was the one driving the line for most of the night, which is funny because if you were to tell me that he would be better than both of Tatar and Nyquist I would have probably threw-up in my mouth a little bit. Thankfully, Richards did a fine job as the crafty veteran on that line.

If you thought this one was over at 2-1, you'd have been absolutely wrong. Dion Phaneuf, of course, tied the game up on his first as a Senator because of course. Most would say that Mrazek had no way of seeing it, but re-watching the replay tells me he was way off his angle which gave him no chance to make a save.

That would do it. We're headed to overtime tied at two. Shots tied (24-24), and so are 5v5 shot attempts (31-31).

Overtime:

The Eurotwins had an extremely good look out of the gate. Henrik Zetterberg had a tight-shot backhand that just nearly snuck past Anderson, but it looked to have glanced off the crossbar and give the Sens a favorable bounce.

Tomas Tatar made another cutesy boneheaded play which lead to a clear Senators breakaway, and Mrazek bailed Tatar out completely with this huge save:

No scoring in overtime. I'm not sure what Blashill was thinking with the 3-on-3 lines. He overused Datsyuk and Zetterberg. They looked completely gassed after some shifts that were just far too long. Guess a shootout will do it.

The Wings were unable to do it in the skills competition. Mark this as their third-straight loss against a team they should have beat. I don't know what to tell you. I don't really care. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, folks.