Without Even Playing, Detroit Moves Into The Playoffs

With an off-night on Monday, the Wings still managed to move into 8th place in the Western Conference thanks to a St. Louis Blues victory over the slumping Calgary Flames. In losing their 6th straight game the Flames now have played more games than the Wings with the same number of points, thus bumping them down to 9th in the West.


Aside from San Jose and Chicago, the West is still pretty tight. If the Wings can put together a decent winning streak similar to what the Canucks and Avalanche have done, they'll be right back near the top of the conference where they belong. With players like Kronwall, Lilja, Williams, and maybe even Franzen set to return shortly, this group will have the players needed to make a strong push in the second half of the season.

It's never a great strategy, but in addition to winning some games of our own, we need to rely on some unlikely allies to help us out. For example, tonight, I will be a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs. (that just felt wrong typing it) The Leafs are playing the Kings, and a Leafs win in regulation combined with a Wings victory over the Coyotes will provide some breathing room in 8th over Calgary, as well as pull us closer to two of the teams we are chasing. It's a big night, and I hope the boys know it.

Back-to-Back Shootout games

So after the controversy surrounding Detroit's Shootout loss yesterday against Dallas, the boys had to put that all behind them and face a red hot Chicago Blackhawk team today at Joe Louis Arena.

Again, this one needed extra time to settle the deadlock, and the Wings eventually lost in the 4th round of the skills competition. Fortunately this shootout didn't have any blown calls, but it did have 2 beautiful goals scored by Pavel Datsyuk and Todd Bertuzzi. (If only one of them had scored yesterday we could have avoided the drama in the 6th round)

Watch Pavel's patience and Todd's spin-a-rama below.

You have GOT to be kidding me...

Plain and simple... the NHL and Toronto War room have screwed the Red Wings YET AGAIN.

I honestly believe that when an NHL game is broadcast, they should play the conversation between the war room and the on ice officials. Maybe then we'd actually know why a call was overturned. I'm sure Rob Martel tried to explain it to me, but conveniently his mic cut out during his announcement.

In this particular scenario, Detroit and Dallas are in the 6th round of the shootout and we are still tied. Auld and Howard have been spectacular. Dallas selected Steve Ott, who tried to slide a backhand between Howard's legs, only to have Howard's backward momentum carry the puck towards the goal line, but never across.

As rare as it seems, The NHL official was in the perfect position and make the proper call on the ice at the time of the play. In the picture you can see Martel on the left side in perfect position to make that call. His call on the ice was 'no goal' (thanks to Paul at A2Y for the image)

Because it was so close, they opted to call the war room in Toronto to review this play. From the footage we were shown, there wasn't any concrete evidence to show the puck had crossed the line.

In a review situation like this, the rules are simple:

1. The entire puck must cross the goal line, not just a portion of it, the entire puck.
   
2. There must be concrete visual evidence to overturn the call made on the ice at the time of the play.)
   

After a lengthy review provided us enough time to watch 5 different angles of the play in slow motion it seemed inevitable that the call on the ice was accurate. After the commentators became bored reviewing the play because they couldn't make a case for a good goal, Rob Martel's conversation with Toronto concluded and they deemed the call to be overturned and a goal awarded. Thus resulting in a Shootout win for Dallas, and more importantly, a lost point for Detroit in the heated race for 8th spot in the West.


I'm sure all you non-Wings fans will comment about 'conspiracy theories' and the fact that Gary Bettman and his crew don't have a hidden agenda when it comes to the Red Wings, but the proof in in the videos below, and this is getting pathetic. Someone, somewhere explain to me HOW this was overturned!?

In addition to this example of NHL brilliance during Wings games... check out some others from recent memory.

May SCORES... or did he?

Kronwall's hit deemed illegal

Quick whistle costs Wings