The Rundown: Two Down!

Well, that was a wild one! The Wings started early (what?!) today and ended up beating the Dogs 4-3 this afternoon at the Joe. Onto the Rundown!

• A dangle over here, a dangle over there, a deke on this side, a shot through the legs on that side. This was Pavel's game. Datsyuk was all over the ice today skating circles around the Coyotes. He ended the game with a playoff career high of 4 points with 1 goal and 3 assists.
  
• Johan Franzen. WHAT. A. BEAST. Franzen had a nasty visit with the boards in the first period after being hit by Doan. Mule ended up with a bloody nose and a few...and by a few I mean 21 stitches. But, being the beast that he is, Franzen came back in the second ready to go. Probably the most entertaining part of the game was Babcock asking Mule why he wasn't wearing a visor after he had returned to the bench. Franzen's face clearly read "hell no, I am not wearing one of those."
• A note on the NBC announcers: Phoenix has a 5-3. They didn't score until there was 2 seconds left on the 5-3. NBC announcers praise Phoenix coach Dave Tippet for his brilliance on calling the play that took almost 2 whole minutes for Phoenix to properly carry out. ..Now.. I don't quite understand this... Phoenix almost didn't score on a 5-3 and NBC is giving all the praise in the world for Tippet? Yep, coach of the year material right there. I'm pretty sure by that point in the power play for Phoenix, they were just kind of trying to get a shot in however they could.
  
• Since when is choking allowed in the NHL? After Helm "boarded" Ed Jovanovski, Jovanovski went after Helm in what seemed to look like an attempt to choke Helm. I mean, what's the point? First of all Helm obviously isn't going to fight back. Jovanovski is twice his size, he's wearing a cage, and Helm just isn't much of a fighter. Just grow a pair Jovanovski and deal with it. You're going to get hit. It's the playoffs.
• The Wings also sent down 5 of the Black Aces after the game today... which means my hopes and dreams of seeing two Filppula's on the ice this season are over.
  
• Off to the desert we go. Game 3 Monday. Go Wings.