Wings Up 3-2

Well, the weather sure sucked today, but the hockey was excellent:

DETROIT -- Dominik Hasek slowly skated out of his goal, bent down and inspected the octopus late in Detroit's 4-1 win over San Jose on Saturday.

Red Wings fans have been tossing the eight-legged sea creatures on the ice for decades as a symbol of their team's quest for the Stanley Cup.

If Detroit keeps playing the way it did on Saturday, another title might not be out of the question.

Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg each had a goal and two assists, leading the Red Wings within a victory of reaching the Western Conference finals.

Ahead 3-2, Detroit can end the conference semifinal Monday night in San Jose.

There’s a dark lining inside that silver cloud, however. The Wings lost another defenseman (a total of three on the injured list now) when Mathieu Schneider broke his wrist during the first period of game five. Schneider is out for the remainder of the season…and that hurts. Schneider is an integral part of the Red Wings’ power play and is also the guy that scored the overtime winner in game four to even this series. Big loss, and that’s an understatement.

Still and even, Schneider went out during the first period when Detroit was down 1-0. And it’s obvious his absence didn’t affect the Wings’ game…which included two power play goals. Big Mo is all Detroit right now, and it would be oh-so-sweet to see the Wings close out San Jose, in San Jose.

I’ll go light a candle now.

Oh…wait. One more thing. Mitch Albom:

When the going gets tough, the tough go stealing. Here came Pavel Datsyuk chasing a slow puck as it glided toward goalie Evgeni Nabokov. Usually, a play like this is a nothing, a throwaway, the goalie gets it first, swats it away, and things go the other direction, right?

But critical times, critical moves. The Red Wings and Sharks were locked in yet another wrestling match, body on body, stick on stick, barely a paper sheet’s distance between them. The score was tied. The series was tied. Something needed to snap.

And here it was: Nabokov had to come out beyond the crease, Datsyuk was charging, fans rose to their feet as if sensing a bullfight at the critical surge. The net was vulnerable. Now it was a race. Would Datsyuk get it? Would Nabokov get it? At the last instant — and this is what makes him a unique talent — Datsyuk gave up on the puck and zoomed left, playing the clearing pass instead. Nabokov was a blink slower. He swept the puck to his right before his eyes could tell his brain it was the wrong direction.

Smack! There was Datsyuk, like a net draping a fish. He intercepted the puck, knocked it down and chased it to the net. All Nabokov could do was watch helplessly, like a man who sees an important paper fly out the car window. Gone, baby, gone. Datsyuk flicked in the puck as if finishing a practice drill.

And that goal may have tipped the series.

As it’s said: Read the whole thing. There’s no better sportswriter than Mitch…and he’s been writing about the Wings for about 20 years. Albom knows the Wings like no other writer. And about that goal Datsyuk scored: I almost felt bad for Nabokov. Almost.

Now where’s that candle?

(Photo: Chris Chelios and Joe Thornton have a bit of a disagreement late in the third period. The game did get just a little chippy at the end. Photo credit: Detroit Free Press)

And why, you may ask, was the weather so bad? The wind, Gentle Reader, the wind. And when we have wind, we have lots of dust. And how bad is it? Well…here’s a screen shot taken while composing this post. It could have been worse: the forecast was for steady 30 – 40 mph winds with gusts to 55 mph. I don’t think we had any gusts close to what was forecasted…the trees are still standing.

And so it goes…