commentary...

Red Wings have been a very streaky team,and has played very good defense,in those winning streaks,but without enough firepower from Pavel Datsyuk,who has two goals,and Henrik Zetterberg,who finally got his first assist(point)from power play,last night,after seventeen games,they are not going anywhere,but i expect them to warm up offensively sooner than later... teams(opponents)are smothering both of them on offensive end of rink,and have had very little room to shoot puck,and both are much too talented to both have bad years,but until they improve on offense,their overall defense will keep them in games... however their defense starts their offensive rushes up the ice,so if they play much better defense,their offense will pick up,and that will give them more chances on their power play,which has been anemic,at best,and awful,at the worst... however having both goals last night,on power play does help,but the defense around their net stunk up the joint,the last two games,which allowed St. Louis,and San Jose,to swarm and play pond hockey,and basically score at well... since the 2005 lockout,92% of teams,in top eight,at Thanksgiving,have made the playoffs,so Red Wings have short window to get a streak going... however,one team in the 8%,who were not in top eight,at Thanksgiving,you may know,the 2010 San Jose Sharks,who were in 12th place in Western Conference,after losing to Red Wings,5-3,last November 30th,and Red Wings are still a very good team,but offensively,they are not clicking on too many cylinders,right now... the Red Wings have too much talent,and simple team pride to not be in playoffs,this year... this game against the San Jose Sharks was not Jimmy Howard's best game,by any stretch,but without him,and the way that he has played all year,the Red Wings would simply be in deep trouble,period,because offensively,the Red Wings have really been very inconsistent,and last night,defense around their net was very sloppy,the last half of the game,against the Sharks,and they simply made the same mistakes that they made against them,in the first three games,of their epic playoff series,last season... they lost the first three games,in that series,to the Sharks,before losing that series,in seven games,last year... however,Chicago,and Nashville are winning right now,so Detroit will be in big hole,if they do not start winning consistently and do it very very soon... the Red Wings have enough talent to get to the playoffs,so they better get their thumbs out of their noses,and start winning games...