Well, this should definitely shut some critics up. What an amazing tour de force by the Red Wings. They rolled four lines all night, and spent two periods without a 6th defenseman when Jonathan Ericsson began suffering back spasms in the first period. But they got offense from all three lines, and absolutely dominated the first and third periods.
Red Wings win 4-0 to start their season 1-0-0.
Pavel Datsyuk recorded his first ever Gordie Howe Hat Trick.
The Ducks showed some life in the second, and played the majority of the game trying to be physical instead of trying to counter the Red Wings puck possession offense.
Jimmy Howard was magnificent, especially in the end of the second period by stonewalling Bobby Ryan twice on two bad giveaways by Brad Stuart and Ruslan Salei. He earned a shutout for his effort, the first of his career.
This first line of Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Holmstrom, Lidstrom and Rafalski just never ceases to amaze. They are incredible at knowing how to do their jobs.
And the Ducks began their goonery in the third period, with “Captain” Ryan Getzlaf took a blindside run at Henrik Zetterberg on a delayed penalty in the third. When the Wings collapsed to defend their future captain, Corey Perry started grappling with Datsyuk, and Pav turned and threw his gloves down. He and Getzlaf went at it, Pavel getting the most of him on actual punches, while Perry tried to defend himself and throw left jabs while grabbing Pav’s jersey, the fight lasted about 25 seconds, before Datsyuk threw Perry to the ice when they were both taking a breather. The crowd erupted as Datsyuk and Zetterberg marched to the penalty box, side by side, the EuroTwins reunited once again.
The first goal of the night came by Johan Franzen at 5:11 in the first period, firing a hard wrister past Jonas Hiller for his first goal of the season. Valtteri Filppula and Todd Bertuzzi both got assists.
24 seconds later, Hometown boy Mike Modano scored his first goal while not being a Dallas Star, in his first homegame at Joe Louis since he was in the Little Ceasar league. Brad Stuart fired it in to keep the play alive, it ricocheted to Dan Cleary in the slot, dropped to his stick and deflected to Mike Modano who wristed a seeing eye shot past Hiller.
Pavel Datsyuk scored 5:29 into the second by deflecting a Henrik Zetterberg shot, making it 3-0. Brian Rafalski also had an assist.
Dan Cleary made it 4-0 with just over 3 minutes remaining in the second period by crashing the net hard, Datsyuk threw a pass at him and it deflected off Cleary and into the goal as he took Hiller and the net with him. The play was reviewed and declared a goal.
Ruslan Salei had a strong game minus a few defensive errors, but he stood up for Henrik Zetterberg when Andy Sutton, who had about 4 inches and 60 lbs on Salei, decided to try and start roughing up our star players. Salei came in and put Sutton out of the game.
And the Ducks just continued to try and instigate the Wings when they knew the game was out of control, and some of the Wings players were more than happy to oblige. Brad Stuart, Ruslan Salei, Dan Cleary, Tomas Holmstrom.
Even more enjoyable, while Stuart was fighting Brookbank, Jimmy Howard got ran by Corey Perry, and Todd Bertuzzi jumped in like he was about to Steve Moore a bitch, coming to his goaltenders aid and tying up the headstrong forward. Jimmy Howard would have none of it though, and he began face washing Perry with his blocker, while also chirping away.
Overall, this is exactly how you want to see the Wings.
Hungry, excited, powerful, quick, precise, feisty. And a little lucky. If you just see this half the time for this year, this level of passion and pride, you’re looking at a Presidents Trophy and Stanley Cup in Detroit.
Just incredible goaltending, offensive prowess, resiliency and determination, if I had to pick one reason for critique, the defense looked a little weak in our own end in the second period. You can’t let outlet passes be just wrapped and gifted to star forwards.
But this team is a force to be reckoned with.
Your AP three stars:
1: Daniel Cleary (1G, 1A)
2: Jimmy Howard (0 GA)
3: Pavel Datsyuk (1 G, 1 A, 1 Fighting major)
It’s hard to pick three, simply because the entire team shined. Mike Modano was impressive, as was Filppula, Franzen, Holmstrom, Zetterberg, Lidstrom… Everyone pulled their weight and played incredibly.
It’s going to be an incredible season. Stay tuned.

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