Edmonton Oilers at Detroit Red Wings, Game 54 Breakdown

Edmonton Oilers
@ Detroit Red Wings

Wednesday, Feb 8, 2012, 5:30 PM MST
Joe Louis Arena

Winging It In Motown

Home Sweet Joe - Winging It In Motown
It's been a run of historic proportions. The Wings have already broken their previous home win streak of 14 games. The old record was set during the 1964-65 season by the likes of Gordie Howe, Alex Delvecchio, Norm Ullman and Ted Lindsay. This season the streak has been led by the usual names of Pavel Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom and guys who have taken the next step this season like Jimmy Howard and Valtteri Filppula.

STOP WITH THE WHINING ABOUT MULE! - Winging It In Motown
Since I'm usually the eternal optimist around these parts, this may be a bit jarring for some. Let me lay it out for you what's been bugging me. It's like a broken record. No complaining is going to change any situation or player. Let's face it, you know who I'm talking about. He's our Mule. He can be a goal scorer and contributes on the top lines more often than not. There are times when he disappears, only to reappear and take over a period. That's just how it goes.

Red Wings Face Goalie Conundrum - The Hockey Writers
Conklin was on a short leash, and while Detroit is often patient with its players to a fault, they expected more from Conklin this season, and they’re not happy with what they’ve gotten. That short leash is what allowed Joey MacDonald to leap frog his way into the net so easily, but how short of a leash is Joey on, and do the Red Wings have confidence in him in the first place?

Red Wings road woes continue - The Hockey Writers
It’s hard to pin point what exactly makes the Wings so inconsistent away from the Joe but here’s what they did on their recent road trip.

2013 Winter Classic To Be Officially Announced Thursday - The Hockey Writers
For the few that may not have heard all the speculation, next year’s Winter Classic will be contested between the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Detroit will be the home team and the game will be played at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor dubbed "The Big House."

Magnus Paajarvi - Shawn Horcoff - Ales Hemsky
Taylor Hall - Sam Gagner - Jordan Eberle
Ryan Smyth - Eric Belanger - Ryan Jones
Ben Eager - Anton Lander - Lennart Petrell

Ladislav Smid - Tom Gilbert
Ryan Whitney -Jeff Petry
Cam Barker - Corey Potter

G54 Oilers at Red Wings - Lowetide
I look forward to watching this team, mostly because Eberle and Hall do things other Oiler phenoms couldn’t do over the years. Sam Gagner has either turned a corner or peaked, and these are the last days of the Hemsky era and when it ends it’ll be forever. I know he’s the first off the ice at practice, but for me the actual games are what counts and since his arrival the Pardubice Prince has entertained and amazed.

Ken Holland's Draft Success - The Copper & Blue
Even though he's competing against a portion of himself, Holland torched the league overall. He was better than the league average in each section, including 7x better in the 51-100 slots and 2x or more better than the league average in the 101-200 and 201+ slots.

Today's Frustrated Edmonton Fan: elQuain

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