Can Wings Maintain Consistency Against Flames?

The Wings have finally snapped what amounted to a 4-game winless streak by handing a 2-1 defeat to the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night.  They did so by finally getting back to playing their system: strong, relentless pressure to seize and control the puck throughout the game, limiting chances against and maximizing chances for.  Now that they've done so, the question is whether or not they will maintain that style of play this evening as the Red Wings invade Calgary for a date with the Flames.

Detroit's match against Calgary is another instance where the result should be clear. On paper, it is: Calgary is hovering near the bottom of their division, while a win tonight would put the Wings just 2 points back of East-leading Toronto (Excuse me a moment, I need to recover from having just wrote that).  Without that requisite work ethic and signature style of play running at full speed though, the task will be made all the more difficult.  Calgary also now has 2 players who know the Red Wings' system very well in goalie Joey MacDonald and forward Jiri Hudler.  I've always noticed a trend of teams having our number somewhat after acquiring our old faces (San Jose over the last few years, anyone...?)

As long as Detroit sticks to the plan Mike Babcock has laid out for this team and commit 100% for a full 60 minutes, the chances of victory are high, and that's good because the Wings cannot afford to slip too far from the top early in a very new and unfamiliar setting in the Eastern Conference.

Enjoy the game, Wingnuts!