For Ales Hemsky, those rumors that he might be headed to Detroit can't come to fruition fast enough after this play. Of course, he might not remember much of anything.

Kronwall's hit was one of the very few bright spots in a first period that left the Wings down 3-1 early. The Wings were able to take a 4-3 lead in the third period, but couldn't hold their lead and ended up losing 5-4 in a shootout. Still, the shootout point was enough to keep them ahead of Vancouver for the best record in the Western Conference.

The Wings currently have the most points in the league, but the New York Rangers sit just one point behind with three games in hand.

File this under, "bizarre things I've never seen before at a hockey game," hashtag #sticktail.

During Detroit's 3-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night, Red Wings' left wing Jan Mursak added an appendage after fighting for a puck in the corner. What happened was a Flames player's stick got caught in Mursak's jersey and Mursak wound up skating almost two full lengths of the ice with an Easton tail.

You don't just wanna see this, you gotta: 



Technically, this could've cost Mursak and the Red Wings two minutes (and Mursak a couple hundy) per the NHL rules: 

A player who participates in the play, who checks or who intentionally prevents the movement of an opponent, or who intentionally plays the puck while carrying two sticks (including while taking a replacement stick to his goalkeeper) shall incur a minor penalty under this rule but the automatic fine of two hundred dollars ($200) shall not be imposed. If his participation causes a foul resulting in a penalty, the Referee shall report the incident to the Commissioner for disciplinary action.

Unintentionally acquiring another's hockey stick in your sweater is not covered in the rules.

Hockey tail? Wuddya mean, like a story?

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NBC Sports featured Detroit Red Wings defenseman and captain Nicklas Lidstrom on "NHL 36" tonight before the Red Wings laid down to the Montreal Canadiens. It was every bit of awesome as Red Wings fans anticipated, following Lidstrom and the Wings around for 36 hours during one of their latest back-to-backs. 



The invasive cameras from two weeks ago must have passed the flu bug to Lidstrom because he had to miss tonight's game after "NHL 36" aired, ending his 213-game streak. The last time Lidstrom missed a game was the 2008-2009 season finale to rest up for the playoffs. I don't think it's any coincidence that the Red Wings gave up seven goals to the Habs tonight, which should make one thing pretty clear: Nicklas Lidstrom can never retire. Someone put him in a bubble between games until his children are old enough to lace them up for the Wings.

Green hat or not, the Red Wings are streaking in a great way right now. The Wings beat the St. Louis Blues 3-1 to stay in first place in the Central Division, Western Conference, and entire NHL (yes, all in one night). The win was their 7th straight overall and 17th straight at home, the latter of which is a franchise record.

The Wings started off sluggish, but Brad Stuart sent Alex Pietrangelo through the quad and into the gymnasium with a big hit towards the end of the first period (which Chris Stewart didn't seem to appreciate).

The end result of this scrap was a Red Wings powerplay goal in the early 2nd period, and the Wings never looked back.

Standings? Standings.

A first round series with Colorado, followed by the winner of Chicago-St. Louis? I think the Wings would take that any day of the week.

And the OT wins just keep on piling up. Like the title suggests, Todd Bertuzzi scored two goals (including the game winner) in the Red Wings' 3-2 overtime win against the Chicago Blackhawks. However, Bertuzzi owes one hell of a thank you to both Pavel Datsyuk and Valtteri Filppula, who both made great plays leading up to Bertuzzi's goals.

On Bertuzzi's first goal, Pavel Datsyuk makes a ridiculous backhanded pass up the ice that gets through a tip from Chicago's Brent Seabrook. For the uninformed, this is the type of pass that only comes from two places: (1) Datsyuk, who does it routinely, and (2) video games. Nowhere else. Bertuzzi's finish, for what it's worth, was pretty dirty as well. Call it what you want, but the Unabomber's got some soft hands.

Bertuzzi's second goal, as illustrated by color announcer Eddie Olczyk, was a product of him positioning himself correctly for a rebound. What Olczyk fails to point out is the nifty stickwork that Filppula does before taking the puck behind the net, leading up to the shot, rebound, goal, and celebratory babymaking that follows such joyous occassions.

All of a sudden, the Wings seem like they might not be so bad at this shootout thing. Henrik Zetterberg was the 4th shooter of the night, but he buried his opportunity with an ode to fellow countryman Peter Forsberg with this move.

And here's proof that I know what I'm talking about (complete with crazy Swedish announcer guys).

The Wings are currently 3rd in the Central Division, but have the fourth-best record in the Western Conference and have games in hand on both Chicago and Vancouver (so realistically, they're tied for 2nd in the West). This is all in spite of the fact that they have played five more games on the road than at home. Take home point: the Wings are doing just fine. Their next game is against the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday at 12:30, right after all the good cartoons get over.

While a future contract may be another story, Livonia native Ryan Kesler (TM Ken Daniels) got no hometown discount from Niklas Kronwall on this hit.

Yeah, he left his feet, but that's not important. Unfortunately, the Wings were unable to take care of the important part, as they lost 4-2.

It took me a few days to track down a decent copy of this that would actually embed, but here is the video and ovation for Steve Yzerman's return to Detroit on Wednesday.

Much like Chauncey Billups' return to the Palace of Auburn Hills in 2009, this video brings out mad goosebumps. I would have liked to see Budd Lynch give a proper introduction after the video was over, but it's not like Yzerman needs one in Detroit.

[SB Nation Detroit]

So I originally had the idea for this post while the Red Wings were leading 3-0 tonight, but Jason Pominville had to go and screw it up by scoring a goal.

Anyway, tonight's win was nice, but it's just another notch in the belt of one James Russell "Tiberius" Howard. Howard has been arguably the best goaltender in the entire NHL this season, yet wasn't even added to the NHL's All-Star ballot. Only Bobby Ryan knows how robbed Jimmy must feel.

While I'm far from the first person to jump on this bandwagon, I'm... well, I'm one of them.

Winging It In Motown got everything started with this awesome campaign picture, and Jimmy has only helped his cause by continuing to dominate the opposition.

If there's one thing Jimmy is doing wrong this year, it's that picture. Guy need a haircut just as bad as he needs All-Star votes. Since running with scissors is dangerous (hi Mom!), we advise the latter.

Since today was the first time that the Red Wings have been in a shootout all season, Wings fans have been highly deprived of the unadulterated nastiness that Pavel Datsyuk brings to opposing goaltenders. Today's move was fairly tame, but he got the job done.

And since you can't have one without the other, here's Bertuzzi's game winner (which is sweeter than Datsyuk's anyway).

It was nice to see the Wings finally step up and beat one of the better teams in the NHL in their own building, even if they still can't beat San Jose.