Postgame: Blues @ Red Wings – 12/27

This game started out like the other two the Red Wings and Blues have played this season. St. Louis controlling the boards, Detroit unable to gain the zone, no offensive flow for the Wings.

The Red Wings ground it out as the game went on, though. They kept pushing into the Blues’ zone and started winning some battles, which led to getting some pucks on net. Nicklas Lidstrom got the Wings on the board with one such chance and from them on it was pretty much all Detroit.

Overall, it was a pretty entertaining game. As a Wings fan I’d like to have seen them do a lot of things better but some of that isn’t a sign of what Detroit wasn’t doing but a sign of what the Blues were doing. Brian Elliot had a very good game in the St. Louis net and the team is committed to controlling the puck in a way they haven’t been before.

On the Detroit side of things, Jimmy Howard kept his team in it. He made several key stops, including a Hasek-like flopping save off the side of his mask. Then Pavel Datsyuk put the team on his back.

The Red Wings needed that win and they might have needed to win it like that. It’s one thing to blow a team out, 8-2. It’s another to grind out a comeback win. Detroit hasn’t done the latter much this season and doing so tonight shows that they can.

I should mention Joakim Andersson, making his first-ever NHL appearance. I think I remember hearing his name twice. That means he didn’t screw anything up, which is good, but it also means he didn’t do much.