It took the Red Wings a couple months to put this together, but the organization recognized Chris Osgood's 400th win with a video and on-ice presentation before today's game.

I don't understand why the New Jersey Devils are featured so heavily, but it's nice to see the respect Ozzie has earned from other greats around the league. The on-ice tribute video is even better.

While I've never understood why these things take so long to materialize (though they're not doing too badly compared to the Pistons), the Wings' staff did a great job in putting on a well-deserved tribute.

[Abel to Yzerman]

Going into tonight's game against the New York Rangers, the Red Wings had not scored since Johan Franzen went nuts last Wednesday. After consecutive shutout losses, the Wings started slow again before letting loose in the 3rd period.

Hudler, Pavel Datsyuk and Drew Miller gave the Wings enough goals to put away the Rangers, 3-2.

In other (read: more important) news, our friends4lyfe at The Production Line are taking pledges for donations to the Children's Hospital of Michigan leading up to H2H2 in March. For more information, check out this promotional video from The Triple Deke.

Donate y'all.

No doubt you've already seen the game (and the post-game eye candy), but now we've got a handy video of Johan Franzen's 5 goal game for bandwagon ass cats who couldn't watch reminiscing on a great night of hockey.

Incredibly, this was the first regular season hat trick of Franzen's career (he's got 3 in the playoffs). Hopefully he'll be able to build on his team-leading 26 goals tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Jimmy Howard has been a pleasant surprise for Red Wings fans in his 1 1/2 seasons as the team's netminder. Despite putting the team on his back last year, this might be the best save I've seen of his while wearing the Winged Wheel.


Howard was also stellar in the shootout, allowing the injury-riddled Wings to escape Vancouver with a 2-1 victory. The red-hot Canucks are still 1st in the Western Conference with the Wings now just a point back in the standings. (Click to enlarge)


[SB Nation Detroit]

But this is considered him smiling, so I guess I don't blame the guy for not wanting to smile or really move his face at all. [SB Nation Detroit]

Finally. It took what seemed like forever (he sat on 396 for almost an entire year), but Chris Osgood won the 400th game of his career tonight thanks to Niklas Kronwall's game-winning goal in overtime.


Oft-maligned as the product of great teams in front of him, Osgood had to earn every bit of his latest win. He posted a career high 46 saves, including several difficult stops in a 2nd period where he faced 23 Colorado shots. The large contingent of Red Wings fans in the crowd started several "Ozzie" chants throughout the game.


While the Wings were largely outplayed for most of the game, their power play was on fire. All four goals (on 6 PP chances) came with the man advantage. Nick Lidstrom had 4 points (one goal, three assists) while Jiri Hudler had a goal and an assist.

The things Datsyuk does on the ice are indescribable and inimitable.

OBSERVE:

Wings dominated the Sharks, 5-3, thanks in large part to Datsyuk's nifty play and Henrik Zetterberg's four points. The Wings are tied for an NHL best 34 points, but have played less games than most other teams, leaving them with the league's best winning percentage. 

It's good to have the Detroit squad back on top of the NHL world.

Great news St. Louis fans: the Cardinals might have found a new cleanup hitter. Blues goalie Jaroslav Halak got some good wood on a floating puck earlier this evening; unfortunately for him (and great for us), the puck went into his own net to give the Red Wings a 1-0 lead.

It's currently 1-1 early in the second period. We'll update as more awesomeness occurs.

UPDATE: Halak might want to look into this whole baseball thing after all. He gave up 4 goals in the 3rd period, leading to a 7-3 win for the Wings. 

[Winging It In Motown]

Some might say that attempting to impersonate Todd Bertuzzi would be dangerous. Specifically, if you're one of the douchetards that believes that Bertuzzi is a manical psychopath after his Steve Moore incident, you might cringe at the thought of Darren Helm dressing like Bertuzzi for Halloween. Thankfully, 'Tuzz is actually a normal human being and loved it. Check out Helm's awesome work and his teammates' reactions below.

While we can't offer the same tattoo artistry that Mr. Helm received for this particular outfit (something about Brady and a restraining order, we're not exactly sure), our buddies at The Production Line are selling the next best thing at their brand new online t-shirt store.

[SB Nation Detroit]

If Teemu Selanne doesn't remember much of his game last night against the Red Wings, I don't blame him.

The Wings beat the Anaheim Ducks 5-4 last night thanks to a Pavel Datsyuk goal with just 11.4 seconds left. Yeah, you better watch this.

Like usual, there are people who aren't happy with the Wings' effort. Whether it's concerns about the defensive pairings, or the lack of production from certain lines, some fans aren't happy with anything but total domination. The Wings are 5-1-1, tied for the best record in the league, and have won 3 straight games. Life is good.

As always, watch the full highlights here.