What the hell was that?  How are you going to blow a 5-2 lead like that?  I was seriously thinking until about halfway through the third period:

“They’re not playing too bad, this is more like what I’m expecting out of this team”

Let’s talk about the first 80% of the game.  Detroit didn’t look too bad.  They had a little bit of secondary scoring out of McCarty.  Franzen netted one from Hudler and Samuelsson.  Osgood looked alright

And then, the shit.

Datsyuk falls apart, forgets that there’s 12 minutes of hockey left - whoops, make that 17.  Even lidstrom looked shaky during the end there.  Penalties, traffic in front of the net.  Horrible.  Simply horrible.

Alright, so I’m not sure how to solve these defensive problems we’ve been having, but they’ve been across the board.  You wouldn’t know it from the record but this is ugly.

A few immediate concerns:

1. I gave Dan Cleary a hard time but he did have blurry vision in one eye a litle while back and it clearly hasn’t gotten better since he’s scratched with an “eye infection.” In order for the team to do well, they need reasonable production out of guys like Cleary, Filpulla, Samuellson, and Hudler.  it’s just not happening consistently enough.
2. Zetterburg’s talent is being wasted.  He needs some time rotated onto the first line.  He need some time with either Datsyuk or Hossa.  Franzen is fine if you want to keep him next to Henrik, but rotate Datsyuk or Hossa into the spot occupied by Cleary/Filuplla/Hudler/Samuellson once in a while.  Just try it.  Jeez.  Switch up Homer and Franzen.  Juggle up that first line, do something, Henrik is getting the shaft