Final Score: 4-2 Wings (Hi, Mr. Petrella!)

Breakdown:

• The first thing of note is Abdelkader did his Abdelkader thing and gets in a fight with Ryan “The Flow” Jones, for payback on what looks like a clean hit. Abby gets an extra 2 minutes for cross-checking Jones before the fight.
• Franzen scores a goal on the power play (I know, right?!) after tipping in a shot-pass from Ian White. Datsyuk has the 2nd assist.
• After Emmerton is sent to the box for holding at 15:27 in the first, Stuart joins him approximately 45 seconds later for boarding Eberle. No big deal, though, because the Wings kill the 5-on-3 and the remainder of the Stuart’s penalty.
• Two minutes into the second, Emmerton chips in the puck, after Abdelkader does most of the work. Abby wins the puck against the boards and tries to jam it in on Khabibulin, and Emmerton cleans up after him.
• Nine minutes later, Gagner scores. I didn’t happen to see this goal because of my feed crashing, but from the sounds of it, it occurred because of a sloppy line change. Ben Eager slams into Cleary as everyone is trying to change. Ericsson was making a move to get off, but instead moved to fight with Eager. White was just getting on the ice. The puck got to Gagner, and he managed to have a breakaway. Since I didn’t see it, I’m not passing judgement on any of it. However, I think this is accurate:
• Holmstrom gets called for goalie interference, when he was blatantly shoved into Khabibulin by Whitney. Nice reputation call there.
• After the Wings kill that penalty, they get called again for too many men on the ice. That penalty bleeds into the third period, but they manage to kill that one as well.
• Abdelkader, starting to get a bit rougher in the 3rd, trips Hemsky and is sent to the box. While he stews in there, Gagner scores another goal. At this point, we’re all tied up with twos.
• A little more than two minutes after that, the tie is broken by Miller. Abdelkader again does most of the work. His initial shot is blocked, but the puck trickles out from between Khabibulin’s legs, and both Helm and Miller started swinging at it. Drew Miller pots it, continuing his excellent record against the Oilers.
• Four minutes after that, Zetterberg scoops up a lose puck in front of the net and then very patiently pulls it to the left side of the net, and sinks it.

Lesser things of note:

• The Press Box King was again caught tweeting during the game. It admittedly was in excitement of his Twitter chum Emmerton’s goal, but still, social media during the game is not allowed. I still wonder what the punishment is for breaking those rules. Apparently it’s not enough to keep him from doing it.
• Joey Mac had a decent game, mostly because the Wings suppressed shots. He only faced 17 shots, where Khabibulin faced 30. He still seems to bobble rebounds (which led to Gagner’s second goal), but his second start in a row probably indicates that the Wings have possibly lost faith in Conklin?

Bonus drawings:

Stop distracting, Babcock, I watch Cleary score goal in second.

FINAL SCORE (Hi Mr. P!)

4-1 Wings

THE RUNDOWN
I was watching the game while working, so my observations are sporadic, but the Wings looked good tonight. Real good. They finally potted a win on the road, against a team who notoriously gives us trouble. Cleary, in his post game interview, attributed at least partially to the absence of Weber. Whatever it was, the Wings looked strong from what I saw.

Your goal scorers were Filppula (twice), Datsyuk, and Cleary. Filppula’s first came from Zetterberg capitalizing on a turnover, and gives a great pass up to Filppula all alone in the slot. Datsyuk’s was a wraparound that he called before the referees did, and that had to be reviewed in Toronto. Cleary’s technically came 13 seconds after the Datsyuk goal. That goal I think was a bit of a backbreaker, and Filppula’s goal was icing on the cake. He was presented with a completely open net after some dirty work around the goal by Abdelkader and Emmerton.

The only Nashville goal came late in the 3rd. Blum flung a wobbly puck in, that Jimmy just didn’t see in time. Otherwise, Howard had an excellent game, as usual, and the Wings prevented Nashville from scoring on the power play, who entered the game with the league’s second best power play.

In other small notes, Darren Helm played with some gnarly stitches after taking a puck to the face in the pregame skate, and Holmstrom left the bench in the third, which has now been evaluated as a lower body injury. Hopefully its nothing serious and we’ll get our net crasher back soon.

HORSECOP OF THE GAME
Jimmy Howard. Monster saves. Twenty-one wins. Aw yeah.

RIGGY SHITBOX OF THE GAME
Hard to decide, but I’m giving it to Ericsson. It’s practically tradition.

WHAT’S NEXT

The Wings play St. Louis tomorrow at 7:30 EST, at the Joe. I think one of the gents have pregame tomorrow, so rejoice! You shall be free of me and back in the capable hands of Petrella, Discher, and Hollis soon.