Now THAT is what we’ve been expecting out of the Wings. They played a full 60 minutes and they hounded Edmonton the entire time. Khabibulin was back to his normal “stop everything I can see and more” self, so the Wings made sure he couldn’t see much (including a blistering slap shot from Kronner).
I like seeing the Wings put pressure on teams like this. They established a forecheck early, and their backcheck was even better. They didn’t give those young whippersnappers from Edmonton any time to get set up, and I’m pretty sure at one point, Jimmy was motioning for the Beer Man.
If they can play like this more often than not, we’ll have a playoff spot wrapped up in early March.
Follow me after the jump for your X Reasons….
I – Let me start off by saying THANK YOU to all the veterans out there. Your sacrifice does not go unappreciated.
II – Niklas Kronwall’s shot is the only reason I would like some form of Fox Traxx brought back. Just so I can see how hard that shot really was.
III – If Z is going to make passes like that, I hope he has a chronic “middle body injury”.
IV – At least the refs caught the second too many men on the Wings. Both of them were completely blatant, so someone on the Wings bench needs to make sure they don’t have 6 fingers on their right hand.
V – Speaking of which, I thought Murph was supposed to be the drunk one? Mickey sounded way too happy last night that he was able to count to 6.
VI – How long before Gary decides to hold a hockey game on an aircraft carrier?
VII – Apparently, getting cross-checked and the slew-footed now earns you a two-minute minor for interference.
VIII – Nice job by the Gator to answer the bell after getting jumped.
IX – Perfect application of the instigator rule as well. Throw these around more liberally after clean checks and we may see this “Fight because my guy got lit up” crap go away.
X – I will be gone this week, so no more X Ways until next weekend at the earliest. Time to go spend some time in the woods with my grandfather.
Up Next – Dallas. Tonight, 7pm. Not a lot of turn around between games, so let’s hope we’ve got our legs and can put on a similar performance tonight.
