It Could Be Worse: You Could Be A Red Wings Fan?

by George Marshall (photos by Matty Go Sens)

Well not really. Being a Wings fan looks pretty great. Like the Senators but with less tragedy. They've had great (occasionally Swedish) leaders that have stayed with the team their entire career (ahem) and even with all the injuries last season they kept their playoff streak alive. A streak that started back in the 1990-1991 NHL season.

Kanata Ontario, 1990

But there was a game last week where being a Wings fan wasn’t too fun and Senators fans are all too familiar with it.

Their Opponent: The Montreal Canadiens

When: Tuesday October 21^st

Where: Hell (aka: The Bell Center)

Man, I knew the roads were bad in Quebec, but this is outrageous!

The first 2 periods were forgettable (didn't watch them) and Detroit led 1-0 heading into the third. That's where everything changed.

Pavel Datsyuk cut in and roofed a beauty backhand that stunned the Montreal defense and made Carey Price grab the closest player and hold him tight.

The only time Abdelkader scored that night! Hey-O! *Booed off stage*

Unfortunately, the goal was disallowed because of incidental contact with the goalie, which apparently gets called when a goalie deliberately runs into you. 

Despite that we missed out on an early goal of the year candidate, the worst part of that series of events is the fact that people went on to call that a "smart play" or intelligent move" from Price. Even if it is "technically" allowed, it's quite clearly a form of diving and it also begs the question: why didn't he try and save it instead of cop a feel on Abdelkader?

Regardless, It kept the game at 1-0 until Alex Galchenyuk tied it up with less than 5 minutes remaining. At this point, it was pretty clear things weren't going Detroit's way. Montreal won it in overtime, prompting a new approach from Jimmy Howard.

"The Howard" doesn't really have the same ring to it

And here I am, thinking that losing to the Canadiens because of questionable goalie interference calls was our thing. First Alfie, now this Detroit? Is anything sacred!?

Speaking of Alfie, Detroit made a nice comeback from down 3-1 to beat the good team from Pennsylvania the next day (despite Alfie's dire predictions), but then lost to the bad team from Pennsylvania two days later.

To add insult to injury, while I was writing this post last night, this happened in Detroit's game against Washington.

Good on Holtby to study the game film and compare notes with Price to try to gain a competitive edge on his opponents. And he executed to perfection. Fortunately for Wings fans (and fans of stupid calls not affecting the outcome of hockey games), the Caps didn't score on the powerplay and Detroit went on to win 4-2.

An up and down past couple of weeks makes any prediction for this team about as accurate as my predictions over at Ultimate Hockey Network (nice plug). Just remember guys, at least when we lose, we don't need any help from the officials. It could be worse.