After this long hard week, the final hurdle was a brief Q&A with church leadership after NextWorship regarding the events of this week. Everyone was, thankfully, on the same page about what had happened and satisfied with how we'd handled things and were going to be proceeding.
I got home just in time for the start of Game Two of the first round of the playoffs. It was exactly what I needed after the week--a great release (I scared Aryssa half to death when I shouted at the goals!). Of course, I was on fumes when it was over and bailed on the first Waterford on Wheels ride (sorry Sandie Domagalski and all of the other cyclists--see you in two weeks for sure!).
The Red Wings manhandled the Calgary Flames. It was, for much of the game, almost embarassingly painful. A 3-1 victory puts us at 2-0 in very physical games--and all of this without big man Todd Bertuzzi. We outshot them in game one 46-20. In game two, it was 51-15. That adds up to 97-35 over two games for a 7-2 goal differential. If their goalie, Mikka Kiprusoff, hadn't at least shown up to play, it would have been much worse.
Best of all, every part of our game was good. Five Calgary penalties in the first 8:13 of the first period gave our hot power play the opportunity to post two goals. Dominik Hasek was solid in goal when called-on. Emerging star Pavel Datsyuk, criticized for lack of post-season production previously, scored his second goal in as many games (after signing a 7 year $47 million contract with the Wings). Stalwarts like defenseman Lidstrom scored despite playing approximately 30 minutes matched-up against forward Jarome Iginla. And, new unproven players like Valterri Filppula have come up big scoring his second goal in as many games.
I'm excited. This looks like the charmed Wings teams of the last decade. There's absolutely no sign of a collapse or anything other than an appearance in the finals. I'm motivated enough to stay up late and watch game 3 in Calgary at the Saddledome (10 pm Tuesday). Go Wings!
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