“Good” in the L’Eastern Conference does not equal “Actual Good”

PLEDGE UPDATE
$539.64 earned tonight
$2,491.45 earned to-date.

FINAL SCORE (Hi Dad!)
4-2 Red Wings.

SUMMARY
:: The Wings didn’t start as quickly as they did on Friday night… or maybe it was that the Bruins started faster than they did on Friday night. Whatever the case, our boys found themselves down 1-0 fewer than 90 seconds (TM Emrick) into the game. It may have looked sloppy but Blake Wheeler and/or Tyler Seguin weren’t going to be denied. That possession was straight will (and an inability of certain Red Wings to knock players over), and the goal was a bit of a “how do ya do” to Coach Julien from the second overall draft pick that had spent the last few games in the Lounge.

:: What a game from Todd Bertuzzi. It started in the first period, when he had a mean puck protect from behind the net to the circle with a pair of Bruins hanging off his jock. Ultimately he tossed the puck toward the net, Thomas made the save, and Johan Franzen jammed the loose puck into the net, but the whistle had clearly blown as the refs believe Thomas had the puck under him. One of those unfortunate situations, but you can’t really fault the referees for blowing it dead.

:: It wouldn’t take long for Bertuzzi to get some redemption, as he put the dumbest cross-ice pass this side of Jonathan Ericsson into the back of the Bruins net after showing some excellent patience with the puck on his blade. In the middle frame, Bertuzzi would go down after taking a Nick Lidstrom shot off the knee or thigh, but didn’t miss many (if any) shifts. He’d prove he felt good by converting a Johan Franzen two-on-one pass for his second goal of the afternoon. It was his second two-goal game in a row. Booyah.

:: Not only did Bertuzzi limp off the ice, but Henrik Zetterberg skidded into the boards kind of awkwardly. Luckily, he also made it back onto the ice, no worse for wear. It could have been ugly as he scissored the boards.

:: The two non-Bertuzzi Red Wings goals were both lovely. Datsyuk converts the rebound off of a Rafalski bomb to tie it at two, and the game-winner belongs to Kris Draper who got some space (like old school Draper) and dropped the knee for a wicked (yeah, Boston, we even took “wicked” from you this weekend) snap over the shoulder of Tim Thomas.

:: While we’re on the topic of goaltenders, a hearty well-deserved standing ovation for Jimmy Howard, who played very well for the second game in a row, making saves that an elite tender makes when he has to do something to keep his team in the game. It could have been ugly, but strong goaltending (from both goalies, really) was a legit storyline.

Photo Credit: Carlos Osorio, AP