A little exciting news to start off this post. The first ever Red Wings blogger podcast, The Obstructed View, is up and available for your downloading, streaming, or iTunes-ing pleasure. I'm excited for this because I've been asked to be involved. I won't be on for two weeks, but don't let that stop you. There are great bloggers on every week. Michael from TPL, Kris from SSDD, and Casey from WIM are involved in the debut, along with the wonderful host Chris from MW, as well as Brian the wonderful producer. Check it out for sure, and be sure to bookmark that link because there will be a new show every week.

Sure, the game was yesterday. But I still wanted to write a bit about the Detroit/Nashville game since I have some time tonight. I wouldn't expect a game preview or review tomorrow as Tuesday is my biggest day for finals, but after that it's actually pretty smooth sailing.

First off, welcome back to productive hockey, Todd Bertuzzi? What an effort by him last night, I thought he played extremely inspired even before the goals. He looks about two gears quicker when he's off the puck, his blind passes were connecting, he just had that dangerous feeling with the puck when he was around the net -- and a different kind of dangerous from the beginning of the season when you wondered which post he would hit this time. He even threw a hit or two.

I can't help but get ahead of myself, it's two games, and you could probably label three of his four goals as half-flukes, but I just sense that he's turning a corner. That overtime winner was just vintage Bertuzzi. After beating Kevin Klein to the puck he held him off with one arm and made the beautiful move to beat Pekka Rinne. Relive it:

Even the Predators' play-by-play couldn't believe it... because he called him Henrik Zetterberg for about thirty seconds after the goal. I guess he's just used to seeing the first digit of #40 and #44 speeding in all alone on the Nashville goaltender.

And I just now noticed that they did the same thing on the Anaheim broadcast two nights ago, but we already established in my last post from the Perry fight how top notch they are. They corrected themselves a little more quickly, but it's still funny just because it's Bert and no one believed that he pulled that off two nights in a row.

That one is also understandable, as it was in Tomas Holmstrom's office. But judging from the way he stickhandles, I'm not sure Holmstrom's wrists rotate enough to elevate the puck that quickly in close.

So where do you go from here? Even the best of players generally have a hard time topping back-to-back two goal OT winner games. Is this the best we'll see out of Bertuzzi? Who knows?

I happen to believe we're going to see a better Bertuzzi. I'm not going to get carried away with that Nashville goal being "vintage Bertuzzi" in that I don't expect we've got star Bertuzzi back. But his hunger's back, he's got the confidence, and as I pointed out after the Anaheim game, he seems to be having fun again. Not too many Wings look like they're having a blast out there, but it's good to see Bert soak in the love from his teammates after such a rocky start. I don't find it unreasonable to believe that he won't be a complete joke anymore. I think he can still score 20-25 and give Detroit that element he adds with his size and strength, accomplishing things few can. Hopefully he keeps his head on straight, at least until the Wings get a few forwards back.

The second biggest news is that, for right now at least, Detroit is rolling along with two competent goalies. Jimmy Howard has been nothing but great lately (minus the Dan Sexton goal), but Chris Osgood finally had a decent game as he captured career win #396. He was playoff Ozzie once again. He looked super confident, despite not having a whole lot to be confident about of late. He made some big stops, and it was refreshing to see a Wings' goalie corral rebounds for a change. All due respect to Jimmy because he's been able to get past it, but it was a reminder to everyone suggesting that there's a controversy that Osgood will be the guy here come crunch time. Howard does start tomorrow, though.

Quietly, Drew Miller had his best game as a Wing. His goal was pretty remarkable, but the best thing about that play was he was on the ice with Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk. I don't believe it was by accident either. He didn't stay there long-term, but Miller had a small increase in his minutes and he made the most of them. Look no further than Patrick Eaves, from healthy scratch to second powerplay unit, to see where making the most of your minutes gets you in the Babcock regime. The podcast tonight talked about the likes of Eaves, Miller, and Justin Abdelkader and where they fit in the lineup assuming the Wings' gain back three forwards in the next few weeks here. The consensus was that Miller would be waived, but I really have to disagree with that. Not when he's playing like this. He could be a big part of this team's future, and I think right now he's earning a spot among Detroit's best 13 forwards, injured included. It's early yet to talk about who will be on the outs when everyone's healthy, but I just don't think they would lose Miller for nothing after his play of late.

Also, since I've apparently been too hard on Jonathan Ericsson recently, I just wanted to follow up by saying he was great the past two games. Defensemen are a tough animal because to me, it's much easier to talk about the forwards because a great game for a defenseman usually entails quietly going about your business (which is why Brad Stuart grows on me with each game). Ericsson has done that lately. The turnover and subsequent hook on Ryan Callahan against the Rangers last week was a big boneheaded play, but can you think of anything else he's done in the past three or four weeks? He's working his way up the depth chart and doing a great job eating up the excess minutes left by Niklas Kronwall.

Lastly, as my mind is still focused on the Wings' podcast, I wanted to follow up something Casey brought up in terms of who's in the doghouse. In his doghouse: Henrik Zetterberg. I couldn't agree more. Sure, you want to see those fringe guys like Brett Lebda and Brad May start acting like they care about sticking in the lineup from day-to-day, but based on what this team needs right now, you have to look at Zetterberg as a guy who absolutely has to step up right now.

He only played 19 minutes, compared to 21 for Bertuzzi and Datsyuk. Twenty is his average, but with a team with the depth that Detroit has right now, you'd really probably like to see Zetterberg around 21-23 if the game is in question, because we sorely need offense right now. You've got Ville Leino, who hasn't scored in a decade, Kris Draper, Miller, and Eaves all logging 13-15 minutes which is much higher than any would get if anyone was healthy. It just felt like Datsyuk and Bertuzzi were just getting thrown out there with everyone, and Zetterberg wasn't really involved in the line shuffling as much until the third period. Maybe it's just me, but Ken/Mick pointed out that they felt like he had missed some shifts in the second. He didn't, but I think that was because he just wasn't making his minutes count out there. Any thoughts?

Phoenix tomorrow, Jimmy starts. Let's keep this streak going. And Bert, if you wanna score another two, well, I'd like that very much.