But there he was in Game 2, on the scoreboard, and the fans thundered the rafters as his goal was announced: “First of the playoffs, No. 25, Darren McCarty ...”

I’ll admit, I joined them. Not when it actually happened. I was at a bowling alley without worry that I’d walk by a tv showing the game. Believe me, the chances of a hockey game showing up on a screen in a Virginia bowling alley on a Saturday afternoon are non-existent.

But when I watched the game later? Yeah, I screamed like a little girl. Huge goal. Great story. But, not the most important aspect of Game 2.

Nope. 96 and 39. Probably the two craziest bastards to wear red and white. Those were the stories. Homer was a menace yesterday, a sinister, mischievous, hand grenade of a pain in Bubba’s behind. Bubba doesn’t like Homer. At least he shouldn’t, not if he can get past the “paid off refs”, the “conspiracies”, the social injustice they’re feeling today. Once Bubba realizes it wasn’t the refs who beat them yesterday, he may come around to the way Holmstrom hit everything in sight, screened the mortal Dan Ellis on Lidstrom’s goal, then scored one of his own in his typical net-crashing fashion.

That may take a while though. They’re pretty angry down Nashville way. Ssssshhhh. I’ve got a secret. They kinda should be. That’s a link to a conversation over at TSN. Duthie and Panger and McKenzie all dissecting the goal that wasn’t. Yep. Agreed. Should have counted.

But it didn’t and that goal, just like McCarty’s, didn’t decide this thing.

No. The determining factor was an imbalanced man, an insane goaltender. I told you yesterday and nothing that happened in Game 2 did anything to change my mind: Hasek’s in a groove. Bubba was buzzing in the first. Hasek kept the Wings in it. Flopping, poking, innocently leaving his stick hanging in the air as Bubba ran his throat into it. The first goal? Fluke of all flukes. I blame the end boards, like you do. Hasek? He blames himself and I dig that.

“I made an inexcusable mistake,” Hasek said. “Completely wrong decision.”

Inexcusable mistake? Nah. Hasek’s made a few of those during his turbulent tenures in Detroit, but that wasn’t one. Now…the play that happened eleven seconds later? Lilja gagging up the puck to Tootoo? Umm. Yeah, that would have been considered inexcusable, kinda like the last inexcusable postseason mistake he made, had the Wings lost.

But, and I know this because I watched the game when I got home from the bowling alley yesterday, the Wings didn’t lose.

Now, there are a few people who wished they had. And, to my knowledge, they’re not even Nashville residents. In fact, I believe they’re Canadien(an). And I’m pretty damn sure they work for NBC.

Honestly, it doesn’t make much of a difference to Wing fans whether the Douche Canoe and his pal Mikey want Bubba to win this series. They obviously do, and that’s fine. Every other sentence, when Hasek was standing on his head in the first, or when Homer was plowing every Predator he saw into the boards, was devoted to the talent and energy of Bubba. The NBC execs? Oh, they’re more than happy with Bubba’s demise. Nashville guarantees worse ratings then they already have. But the Douche Canoe doesn’t care about ratings, really. He just wants the Wings to lose, or to find weaknesses that foretell a loss in the next round. Whatever. That’s like four sentences too many devoted to those idiots.

Bubba wanted to get 30 shots on Hasek. Close, 27. But, woops, only twelve over the last two periods. Bubba felt that if they could ramp up the shots, Hasek was sure to crack. Didn’t happen, and it’s not gonna. Best find another option.

Uncle Mike’s looking pretty smart, eh? Timeout in the second, just prior to Draper’s goal? Yep. Good move, even though we all know it had to happen. Bubba was dangerous. The pipes were ringing around Dom. According to the Canoe, the Wings “weren’t communicating on the bench and Nashville was.” Good god. Better call a TO. Anyway, great move and everyone agrees with that.

The Detroit Red Wings coach watched his team squander a two-goal lead and then see two Nashville shots bounce off the post. Babcock called timeout midway through the second period of Game 2 of this Western Conference quarterfinal series, Saturday afternoon.

Fourteen seconds after play resumed, the Red Wings scored the goal that put them ahead for good in a 4-2 victory and up 2-0 in the series.

“Sometimes it gets like that,” said Detroit defenseman Andreas Lilja of the Nashville rally. “Everything goes the wrong way. It was a great call by him (Babcock) to take a timeout and settle everything down.”

Yeah, buddy. Sometimes, Andreas, it gets like that.

Now it’s gonna get like that in hostile territory. Game 3 on Monday in front of a bunch of people who don’t like us very much. Many of them related. A must win for Bubba and isn’t a sweep looking nice right about now. There’s a perfect storm forming on the horizon. The poultry are all but dead. The Dive are caught in a death match that will see few healthy survivors, and San Jose/Calgary looks to go at least six. Lots of tired bastards, no matter who we play in round 2.

Good goal for Mac. Nice feel-good deal and all that. But the play of Hasek and the energy of Holmstrom—who appears to be painfree? Those are the keys.