The elusive number 5-0

I think my sister summed it up best when she text me "phew" at the end of the game. Yeah I couldn't agree more. The Wings finally snagged their 50th win, but it certainly wasn't without a little stress and the need for a new manicure. 3, 2 Wings with less than a minute left in the game.

For the first time in awhile Detroit came out flying. They scored their first two goals in the first period and their forechecking left Minnesota simply trying to react and play catch up. I will say the defense looked much better. A bit tighter, maybe not as tight as a new prisoners ass cheeks, but tighter non the less. The turnovers were certainly minimized

Lets see, Homer was a beast again. Great to see him back and playing strong right before the playoffs. His hard work in the corners and hussle to keep the puck in the Wild's end was a huge difference in the game.

Speaking of Homer, the NBC announcers don't normally bother me as much as the brilliant pair on versus, but some of their mistakes today were quite glaring. Apparently Homer changed his name from Tomas to Nicklas. I don't know if he did this in honor of Lidstrom....or just because he figured it would be easier to have 3 Swedes named Nick on the team? I don't know....maybe he can explain that later. I also learned that apparently Hudler and Samulesson are the same person. Their names were interchangeable at least.

Aside from the Win, the other great news of the day was Zetterberg stepped out of the haze and had an AMAZING game. He was responsible for the nice pass to Hudler on the first goal, but really all day he was backchecking and really working hard in the neutral zone to spread out Minnesota's trap and also hold the puck in their zone. Great to see him in Conn Smyth form again. I guess the players only meeting worked for him!

Hossa also came to play. Not only did he score the game winner, but he was responsible for Datsyuk's second goal. He made a great play along the boards, held onto the puck sent a great pass to dangle dangle, who patiently waited and had a nice backhand into the goal.....beautiful.

I was also pretty impressed with Kopecky today. I wasn't expecting him to play but he worked hard when he was out there. I would like to know who is responsible for letting him know he's big and can HIT! Come on, take credit.

Hmmmmmm what else, what else....I hate to do this, because I don't like to complain about the officiating unless it was a glaring mistake. (which I guess this was) Overall I like to believe it will even itself out....but how the hell did they not call the cross check to Samulesson's neck??? Quite brutal.

Ok. Sigh. While there was all of that positive, there was also some negative. And even more than I hate to complain about the officiating on here.....I also hate to bring up the Wings goaltending issues again. Yes it is exasperating.

Today I learned what it means for a goalie to try to win it for a team, and for a goalie to almost lose it for his team. Backstrom had 44 shots on goal and Ozzie had 21. the score was 3-2. In this instance the numbers speak for themselves. Backstrom was the only reason the Wild were even in this game. I think he personally had Zetterberg's number because I don't know how many times he stopped him.

Osgood on the other hand. Sigh again. I guess I can say he had his first assist of the season? No it wasn't for the Wings. It was a result of the nice pass to Clutterbuck for the first goal. A miss play on his part also eventually led to the second goal. It was frustrating to watch because you could tell the team wanted to win this game more than a high school boy wants to score on prom night. Luckily Ozzie did come up big on a Koivu attempt and Hossa was able to get the game winner. But it was a close game when it certainly shouldn't have been.

I can't remember who said it, but one of the announcers said Osgood always puts up and has never really had to shut up. Ummmmm ok ignoring the fact that he completely butchered that statement and turned it into some sort of conundrum, I will take it back and say I wish Ozzie would put up and shut up. He's keeps talking about how he is in perfect form, and I can't wait to see it. And really I do like Ozzie, I've always been a fan....just waiting for him to come around, and waiting and waiting....

Alright overall, it was nice to see the hustle from the team. I'm not sure what did it for them and I am now just hoping they can keep it up. Great effort and great to watch. Let's just end this by saying, I am cautiously optimistic.

Update: Paul Kuklas has the below quote from Gaborik. Yeah, my thoughts exactly. But thanks Marian for pointing it out...ouch.

“Too bad we didn’t finish,” Gaborik said. “[Chris] Osgood was shaky out there. We could have scored a couple more goals on him.”