Just kidding. But seriously, how negligent am I? My friend Jeff was not happy with me. You can credit this post to my fear of him and his dominating handshake.

But since I've last written, the Wings have tied up the series with Phoenix. Sadly I don't have too much time today, so I'll just narrow down Game 1 to the three things that I think everyone learned.

• Phoenix is really fast.
• Shane Doan is really annoying.
• Detroit still needs pressure to win.

And that last one is sadly the truth. Phoenix played an outstanding game, but Detroit's best players were pretty invisible. Tough to come up with a lot of positives other than the fact that nobody was truly awful.

Game 2... was a little bit different. Definitely an inconsistent performance, but an overall way more entertaining game. Except for that whole second period flurry where like six straight shots went in. I thought my organs might fail.

General comments on all this:

• Henrik Zetterberg is the man of the hour. He was not his usual dominant self for most of the regular season, but I don't think anybody doubted he wasn't capable of performances like these. It's nice to see playoff Zetterberg is back.
• For that matter, his linemates were equally sensational. To me, how good Valtteri Filppula is directly relates to how confident he is. That breakaway goal is one he misses 49 times of 50 in the regular season. Don't doubt for a second that his first goal led to the confidence for him to take the shot on his second goal -- I don't think I've ever seen him shoot from there.
• Lastly, Todd Bertuzzi quietly had a very good game. Whether or not he meant to do it, his lob pass on Filppula's first goal was exactly where only Filppula could get it. He picked up an assist on Zetterberg's second, and easily deserved one for setting the screen and creating havoc on Filppula's second. He didn't have any glorious scoring chances or patented Bertuzzi spinning set ups, but I think even the biggest Bert-bashers out there can be happy with this one.
• The goals that Jimmy Howard looked the worst on also happened to be Detroit's messiest. Phoenix is relentless on the forecheck, but Detroit's defense can do better than that in terms of looking after the puck.
• Brian Rafalski made a terrible pinch on the Shane Doan goal that made it 4-4. Just making a note of it because I didn't notice him very much other than that... which also could be a good thing.
• Ilya Bryzgalov is definitely solid but he's looked shakey on more than a few rebounds, even some dump-ins. The Holmstrom goal from Game 1 is the only one that's hurt Phoenix, but for now he doesn't look unbeatable. I think shooting more is imperative.
• Overall the defense needs to be much better. Most pairings have been guilty of some sloppy play. To add to that, there's no way we're going anywhere if the PK continues to be that bad.
• Justin Abdelkader is going to be a playoff beast for a long time. His goal was all hustle, with an honorable mention to the nice pair of hands that he needs to showcase more often.
• See you all tomorrow.