Red Wings Extend Home Winning Streak To One!!!

One.

The talk about the Detroit Red Wings over the last couple of months has been centered around numbers.  20.  21.  23.  The NHL record home winning streak the Wings put on was talked about almost entirely via numerical values.  Could they get to 20?  Check.  Could they beat the record and hit 21?  Check.  How far is this thing going to go?

The record did finally end at 23, and before anybody knew what was going on the Detroit losing streak hit two, something this team hadn’t seen since the first week of November.

I heard a “experts” speculating on whether or not the Wings may fall off in the standings after the home streak ended.  I could only think about which poor suckers were coming to the Joe next.  Turns out, those poor suckers were the Minnesota Wild.

Valtteri Filppula found the back of the net 35 seconds in, Darren Helm went just wide on a breakaway 25 seconds later, and the boat race was on.  Detroit ended up with six goals on Friday night, sending starting Wild goaltender Josh Harding to the showers early in the third period.  Jimmy Howard was equal to all 19 shots the Wild threw at him and the Red Wings went on to win 6-0.

This game also featured the first NHL for Red Wings defenseman Brendan Smith, who put home a lose puck to make it 2-0 Detroit.

I believe it is safe to say Detroit is back on form at Joe Louis Arena.  When Detroit beat Anaheim 5-0 on November 5, nobody knew that it would be the first of 23 consecutive.  All streaks have to start somewhere.

One?  Check.