The Red Bird is greater than The Eagles: Blame the NHL if we woke you up, San Jose

Man...are you kiddin' me? I really shouldn't have expected anything better coming into Round 2 today. I'm already livid that the Red Wings are being forced to start their series early because of a stupid Eagles concert (hating on the concert, not The Eagles), but on top of that I find out now that Detroit is facing a fine...A FINE...for having to bolt directly from Game 7 in Phoenix to the airport in San Jose, and not getting there UNDER CURFEW!?

I've held my tongue over a lot of things, even just from the early stages of these playoffs...but I'm going to be candid here: ARE YOU FUCKING SHITTING ME? (Excuse my manners). According to the report, the Red Wings charter plane arrived 49 minutes past this dreaded curfew and as such subjects Detroit owner Mike Illitch to a fearsome $2500.00 fine. Yes, San Jose, we'll have those bills for you in a moment once Mr. Illitch is done wiping his ass with them.

If anything, I feel Mike should send the bill to Mr. Bettman's office for being asinine enough to schedule ahead of the concert instead of playing both games after the shows by going back to back or something. I wouldn't be totally shocked if Gary the Rat saw the opportunity to shaft Detroit once the concert was brought to his attention and was foaming at the mouth with excitement. We already kept his name off the Cup this year by beating the team he OWNS, and it's not like he hasn't tilted things against the Winged Wheel before. I get tired of this waste of humanity we're forced to call a commissioner quickly, so I'm going to move on now.

In summary, it all really boils down to two options: Either Mike Illitch pays the fine or the organization tries to fight it, which would probably cost more time, effort and money than just throwing the cheddar at them straight up.

Now that I got that out of my system, I'm gonna go look up some stats and put together my Round 2 preview. Look for it later tonight, Wingnuts!!

Red Wings Revived, Phoenix Down in Game 7

Is this what you were expecting when the Wings crapped out in Game 6? My head says no but my heart says yes. Phoenix managed to awaken the sleeping giant, and the Big Red Machine came out to play. Detroit owned every single aspect of the 7th game of this WCQF matchup with Phoenix and buried the Desert Dogs beneath the sand.

Look back to my past blogs: I said that the one thing Detroit lacked that made other squads great was the consistency. The Wings were the embodiment of consistency tonight, absolutely manhandling Phoenix and showing everyone in Jobing.com arena what it REALLY means to face the Detroit Red Wings in the Playoffs!!

I'll sum up The Geek's Winning Formula as such: Detroit rewrote the laws of science in this one, nearly playing Phoenix into a standstill, save one flourish of favor with the Fiddler goal. The wings met every expectation I had of them tonight, be they written in these previews and reports or not. They did all the big things rights, the little things, the unconscious things. Detroit made everything click for them tonight, and now have a model game to look back and remember how they should be playing the rest of this post-season.

Yes, I know it's early, but if the Red Wings are willing and able to play like this through the rest of the Playoffs, Hockey Gods help any/every poor souls that gets in Detroit's way of their 12th Stanley Cup. First on that list? The San Jose Sharks, who earlier were calling for the Wings to win, apparently saying they "wanted a crack at them [Detroit]". Were you watching tonight, San Jose? Still looking forward to our meeting?

I didn't think so. Be careful what you wish for.

Till Game 1, Wingnuts!! Let's Go Red Wings!!!

P.S.: Much thanks to my awesome Wingnut GF Kate for the report title!!

Game 7 Preview: Wings @ Coyotes

Wow iPods suck to blog on, never doing this again...

Well Wingnuts, it's now or never. If the Wings are going to show us what they can really do, now is the time. Tonight is the last game of the series between Detroit and Phoenix an the loser is going home early. The wings were embarrassed in front of the home crowd last game, and I'm hoping to see that energize the Wings and bring about veneage like we've yet to see from the Winged Wheel.

Here is a quick version of The Geek's Winning Formula, as I'm running late and the more I type on this iPod the closer I get to snapping it over my knee.

1.) Capitalize!! - Too many missed opportunities by Detroit. If we can't convert it'll be Game 6 all over again, and we don't want that.

2.) Special Teams - Wings need to remember it's them who're supposed to score on their PP's and not Phoenix. Also need to stop breaking down out of nowhere on the PK.

3.) Remember Why You're Here - Detroit fought hard to make Playoffs, this is not the time to lay down and die!! Whatever you have left in the tank, boys, I suggest you use it tonight!!

I'll make this more "geeky" when I get home, after that you can blame any typoes and mistakes on the beer.

Get ready for a wild finish, Wingnuts!! Let's Go Red Wings!!!

Bad Habits Bite Detroit, Coyotes Force Game 7

"They won the special teams battle. That sucked the life out of our team." - Coach Mike Babcock

Unfortunately Mike, Phoenix won more than the special teams battles. Phoenix came into Detroit knowing they faced elimination and did what they needed to do to survive: outplay the Red Wings. Of course, the Wings didn't necessarily make that a difficult task. Detroit amassed 33 shots on goal in yesterday's 5-2 loss, and a lot of those shots were pretty good ones, quality scoring chances. Here's the problem: you need to SCORE on scoring chances for them to count for something. The Red Wings, in what is becoming a frighteningly typical fashion, blew a lot of opportunities given up by Phoenix that would have allowed Detroit to blow this game wide open. Greatest of these has to be the almost half-a-period powerplay Detroit was awarded early in the 1st period. Phoenix garnered 6 minutes of penalty time within the first 4:42 of the game, the later stages of which was a 5 on 3. What did Detroit get out of it? A 1-0 deficit by giving up a short-handed goal!!

It was from this point on I knew it was going to be a rough game. If the Wings couldn't even tie the game after the shortie went in and before the man-advantage was over, we were basically relying on lucky bounces to get pucks past Ilya Bryzgalov. Lucky bounces didn't cut it. Even when we scored to make it 5-2, the play was reviewed and ruled initially as no goal. As I stated before, the Hockey Gods do not bandwagon one team all the time, and they surely swapped jerseys from Detroit to Phoenix for the game yesterday afternoon. This is just more proof that Detroit is not giving its all in these games and that is a big BIG concern, because tomorrow is the big one, either the Red Wings win and advance, or they're done, a first round exit for the first time in years after going to the Cup Finals two years in a row.

I don't want that to happen, obviously, but the Wings have to share that sentiment and act on it!! They can't just wish their way into Round 2, damnit!! Detroit needs to bury those chances instead of shooting wide and hitting posts!! Stop wasting time cycling the damn puck for 80% of a powerplay and get guys to the net for rebounds!! Stop peeling off at the blueline and take that puck deep into the offensive zone, make guys chase you and pull them out of position!!!

You may have noticed I'm avoiding the Winning Formula in this report. The reason for this is simple: You can have the greatest, most unbeatable strategy in the world. But at the end of the day, if you can't put the puck in the net when the chance shows itself, you are not going to win hockey games. The Formula for yesterday was made irrelevant because Detroit just could not cash in when given the chance. Phoenix did, and Phoenix won. There's a simple formula if I ever saw one.

Well Wingnuts, brace yourselves for Game 7. Back in Arizona, Jobing.com Arena will be the loudest it's ever been, Shane Doan will likely be back in the lineup, and the Wings are going to get more battered than they've ever been in this series. If they don't come to play for reals, there's gonna be a desert funeral with Detroit's name on it.

Keep the faith Wingnuts, one more game to decide it all for this Round!! Let's Go Red Wings!!!