11/3/10 Detroit 2 - Calgary 1

I finally managed to pack my 'rents off to my brother's house for the southern half of their west coast sojourn, so I actually have a chance to recap a game. I watched the last 2 (secretly, furtively) and can sum those up even after the passage of time with one word each:

Phoenix = Abyssmal 

(even my father, who doesn't watch hockey, noted our lack of defense), and 

Nashville = Better.

Tonight's game against Calgary was better still. I think we got nearly a full 60 minutes out of our guys, which is a nice thing to see. Hopefully it's a sign that we had a slow start but we're now planning to take hockey seriously for another 72 games.

So, things I noted:

• Jimmy was fantastic. And it was good to have him back. While Ozzie was better than he could have been, I still feel more confident when Jimmy's between the pipes. Not only does he play better in net than Ozzie, but the team seems to play better in front of him.
• Danny Cleary was on fire. He worked like a demon, created chances, had an awesome chance at a shorty, and basically made himself a top pick for player of the game. Unfortunately, he couldn't get no love from Miikka Kipprusoff and was repeatedly robbed at the net. Still, nice work, Danny. Keep it up.
• Abby seemed to bring the 3rd line alive tonight. He played like the grinder he is, assisting on Mike Modano's first goal since the first game of the season and even (turns out Abby didn't get credited for this, but I could have sworn he was in the mix there) scoring one himself. Not to mention he did his damned job over and over, every shift, creating chances, blocking shots, pissing off Flames and generally reminding me of how much I like having him on the team. Jiri Who?
• The officiating sucked. There were like 97 penalties called in the 1st period and the 2nd ended with an unsportsmanlike conduct call on Brad Stuart for... I don't know. I literally have no idea. I rewound and watched the damned thing like 4 times, and I still don't know what the call was for. But whatever. We killed the penalty, and that was what counted.
• Our PK was a bigger scoring threat than the PP. We might want to ponder that for a minute or two and maybe try and fix that, kay? Thanks.
• Alex Tanguay went to the box for the last minute of play on an absolutely dirty hit with his knee that was called as tripping. Odds against the league reviewing at are currently running 7942 to 1.

I'll take the win and the day off before back to backs in Edmonton and Vancouver. Let's Go Red Wings!!!