By H. Jose Bosch
As the saying goes, the third fourth time’s a charm!
Last night the Wings broke their four-game road losing streak by going to Vancouver and completing a thrilling 5-4 win. And by thrilling I mean the Canucks did everything possible to give Detroit the game.
OK, that wasn’t very fair. Despite the Wings’ scoring woes to begin the season (a mediocre 2.78 goals per game heading into the evening) they managed to not only drop a 5-spot against a average goaltender but they did it after falling behind 2-0 seven minutes into the game.
For a team struggling to score (or win) on the road, Detroit should at least be given credit for balling up and taking it to an inferior opponent. The question now becomes: is this a sign that the Wings will turn things around or will Detroit be mediocre most of the year and finish in the bottom half of the conference standings?
Plenty of outlets have shared their opinion on the matter so I won’t go into what this team may or may not be.
What I do know is that ten games into the young season and it’s clear the 2009-2010 Detroit Red Wings isn’t the same team from last season.
Or the last 20 seasons, for that matter.
But last night’s game was somewhat encouraging:
Two of Detroit’s five goals were scored by Pavel Datsyuk, his first two of the season.
The Wings went 2-for-4 on the power play (they had been 1-for-13 in the previous two road games).
Jimmy Howard, after replacing Chris Osgood in the first period, stopped 20 of the 22 shots he faced and gave Detroit a chance to comeback and win.
And, oh yeah, despite falling behind once and losing the lead in the third period, the Wings still won.
Granted, this game doesn’t mean Detroit is back. This could be a fleeting moment of clarity. But now that the Wings have gotten their first road win out of the way, maybe they’ll start to loosen up, play a little better the rest of the road trip and begin to slowly turn things around.
Or the season devolves into something resembling this …
It’s still too early to tell.