LiveBlogging: Oilers @ Wings.

Thanks to Shaw Digital Cable finally offering a Center Ice package, I will be liveblogging a number of games from MattM's place this season. Tonights game should be a real test for the kids; no longer will MacT be able to shelter them from the Thornton's and Briere's of the league. As a side comment, I have been really impressed with Matt Greene so far this season. He looked utterly terrible in the preseason, but from what I saw in the season opener and heard about from the Philly game, he seems to have turned a corner. We'll see how he and the kids do tonight.

- TSN puts sportsnet west to shame in terms of production value, this broadcast is low budget all the way.

- Stoll messes up a clearing attempt and Pitkanen takes a hooking penalty, not a good start.

- Grebeshkov gets stripped behind his own net on the PK, not a pretty play at all. I'm surprised he drew in for Tarnstrom, possible injury?

- Pretty weak call on Staios, didn't look like tripping to me.

- Stoll makes a really soft play and fails to clear the zone, Roloson misplays a wrap around and it's 1-0 Wings. Taking two early penalties on the road in Detroit is a surefire method to get down a goal.

- Lazy stick by Maltby leads to the first Oiler powerplay. What the hell? Didn't Cleary touch that puck before Penner hit him. How is that interference? Either way, the oiler powerplay is negated. Also, it's good to see DP getting physically involved in the game, Hemsky needs someone on his line to put a scare into guys that take runs at him.

- 2-0 Wings. Grebeshkov looks like absolute suck as Chelios walks by him and gets 2 shots before potting the 3rd. So far this kid has NOT impressed.

- 2-1 Wings. The top line with some nice passing and Horc with the finish. Holmstrom takes a quick penalty and the Oilers go back on the powerplay.

- Powerplay ends with no real pressure, Kids have been invisible so far this game.

END OF THE FIRST:
Positives:
- Only down by 1 goal after being thoroughly outplayed.
- Brodziak made a couple really heady plays.
- Hemsky is flying
Negatives:
- The 'skilled' kids were invisibile
- Grebeshkov looked pretty bad.
- Ice looks really bad out there. The puck is bouncing all over the place.

SECOND PERIOD

- Ridiculous give away leads to a Staios penalty. 3-1 Detroit, this is getting ugly.

- Cogliano with a nice rush and shot playing between 14 amd 12. Looks like Stoll is either a victim of the blender or MacT has decided to give him a seat on the bench. Certainly has not been Stoll's best game thus far.

- Raffi gets his stick up and the Oil are down a man yet again. Greene wins a nice puck battle on the boards early on the PK. Horc makes a real nice play taking Holmstrom out in front of the net and negating a solid scoring chance created by Lidstrom.

- Hemsky loses the puck off of an Oiler offensive zone face off win, but has the sense to make a real nice play on the back check and pickup a man. This kid has come a long way.

- Puck is bouncing everywhere, Oilers get another post off of a tipped Chelios knuckle ball.

- Datsyuk makes the Greene - Souray pairing look absolutely silly. That's a matchup I'm sure that MacT wants to stay away from.

- 3-2 Oil WOW WHAT A PASS! Pitkanen threads the puck through 3 wings right onto Cogliano's stick and he makes no mistake and pots it into the open net. A nice reward to 5 minutes of Oiler pressure late in the period.

END OF THE SECOND
Positives:
- Matt Greene is having a solid game.
- The Oiler defense has looked reliable at 5v5.
- The skilled kids came alive late in the period, capped by Cogliano's goal.
Negatives:
- Our PK has to do a better job clearing the puck and killing time. Detroit has had too many opportunities to setup and make plays in our zone.

THIRD PERIOD

- Holmstrom mauls Roli and takes a penalty. Ridiculous Wing pressure just before the call. Second unit powerplay needs some tweaking, perhaps Torres needs to plant his ass on the bench.

- 8-19-51 have looked sloppy on the cycle tonight. I'm seeing a lot of blind passes that aren't connecting.

- Even Nick Lidstrom can't get away with that kind of bear hug. We need to get Souray involved on the powerplay.

- Ugly, Ugly, Ugly. You can tell Souray wants to unleash the bomb, but the team isn't getting him the puck. What a terrible powerplay, second unit looks REALLY bad.

- Pouliot makes an awfully pretty play stepping through a few wings to setup Gagner for a nice scoring chance.

- The refs are really letting the 'boys play' here, couple hilarious non-calls for both the Oilers and the Wings.

- Cogliano really opens up the ice, with speed like that, it's hard for the Wings to keep him from gaining the zone.

- 4-2 Wings. Draper puts it into the net from just across the red line. A fairly predictable outcome.

Final note: The Oilers played pretty well all things considered; we're going to score a lot of goals this year, if we can find a way to limit the opposition from putting the puck into our net, we might be able to squeak into the post season.