Postgame: Blue Jackets @ Red Wings – 1/21

Short and sweet: It should not have taken the shootout for the Red Wings to beat the Blue Jackets tonight. Detroit is the best team in the league (or among them, depending on the time of day) and Columbus is the worst. Needing the gimmick to get the win is disappointing.

That said… Valtteri Filppula’s shootout goal was fantastic and Jimmy Howard was a beast once again. Howard has now only allowed two goals on 14 shootout attempts against this season. Unreal.

Ridiculous stat time… The Red Wings now have three consecutive 3-2 shootout wins. Six of their last eight games have been 3-2 OT/SO wins. Every OT/SO win this season has been 3-2. The only time Detroit has lost outside of regulation is also their only non 3-2 OT game, a 2-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild (which means the opposition has scored exactly two goals in every Wings overtime game this season).

Only thing left to mention is Henrik Zetterberg’s upcoming suspension. I don’t know if he’ll get one or not. I fear he will because the NHL is trying to protect players going into the boards but I think that was a pretty innocent play. Ugly, but innocent. We’ll see.