Earlier in the period, Canucks defenseman Willie Mitchell came out of the penalty box and found himself in a position to catch Blackhawks forward Jonathan Toews with his head down, and used that opportunity to deliver a crushing (and what appears to be a clean) open-ice hit.
It might be the hit of the year so far. Video after the jump.
Roberto Luongo doesn't bristle when he's asked about the last game of the Canucks' 2008-2009 season. He gave up seven goals in Game 6 of Vancouver's conference semifinals loss to Chicago in May. That was decidedly unlike Luongo. He knows it, everyone knows it. And he's using the worst big-game performance of his career as fuel as a new campaign gets underway.
"It's tough to figure out," Luongo told FanHouse. "Obviously, I didn't have my best game, and there were a lot of factors that came together. But I'm trying to use it as motivation for this season. I'm not happy it happened, but I learned from it."
The USA Olympic orientation camp made for some strange bedfellows. Vancouver forward Ryan Kesler found himself rooming with T.J. Oshie of the Blues, who'd sent some cheap shots Kesler's way in the past, according to Kesler.
"I wasn't a fan," Kesler told FanHouse by phone this week. "And Paul Stastny once got me with a stick on a faceoff and chipped a couple of my teeth. But we sat down and talked and they're good guys. Stastny apologized for high-sticking me in the face."
Could it be that some of the other USA hopefuls felt equally ambivalent about Kesler going into the camp?
While it's true they lost some talent and production, and haven't added anything of consequence in the early stages of the offseason, it still shouldn't put much of a dent in the Red Wings' Stanley Cup chances for 2009-10.
Let's take a look at what Detroit is really losing, and what it has coming up through the Grand Rapids pipeline.
It's been a rough month or so for the Detroit Red Wings.
They lost the last two games of the Stanley Cup Finals, eventually falling to Pittsburgh in an epic seventh game. When free agency started, the Red Wings started losing players. Marian Hossa (Chicago), Tomas Kopecky (Chicago), and Mikael Samuelsson (Vancouver) signed with Western Conference rivals. Now, the Wings have lost a good young player to the Kontinental Hockey League.
It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We'll be running our division-by-division preview of the offseason beginning later in the week, but we wanted to give the two top dogs their own space. Today: the summer outlook for the Red Wings. Tomorrow, the Stanley Cup champion Penguins.
The Red Wings came within one game of repeating as Stanley Cup champions. A goal or two here or there, and their mission – and Marian Hossa's – is accomplished.
Instead, Detroit's first question mark going into the summer months is Hossa. It's widely expected he'll re-sign with the Wings for five years or so, but that will push Detroit essentially to the limit when it comes to the cap, which is projected to be about $57 million again.
Without actually facing elimination, the Pittsburgh Penguins couldn't have faced a bigger must-win than they did Tuesday night. While Detroit hasn't truly dominated the Penguins in the opening two games of the Stanley Cup finals, they have played well enough to win both. Since there isn't much in hockey that's more dangerous than a hot Detroit team, the Penguins had to find a way to cool them off before things got out of hand.
Penguins 4, Red Wings 2: Recap | Box Score Red Wings lead series 2-1
A lot of the talk following last night's Game 2 in Detroit centered around Chicago's Brian Campbell and his turnover, which led to Mikael Samuelsson's game-winning goal, giving the Wings a 3-2 win in overtime and a 2-0 series lead. But it wasn't nearly the first time that Campbell has made a mistake that has cost his team a victory in a playoff overtime. This is actually the third time in this past three years that a misplay by Campbell has led to an overtime defeat for his team.
It's not a death blow by any means, but the Chicago Blackhawks are firmly behind the eight-ball, and they have all the pressure on them.
Tuesday night, a huge mistake by Chicago defenseman Brian Campbell set Detroit up for a game-winning goal. The overtime marker by Mikael Samuelsson put Detroit up 2-0 in the best-of-seven Western Conference finals.
Red Wings 3, Blackhawks 2, OT: Recap | Box Score Red Wings lead series 2-0
A series billed as youth versus experience got its start Sunday, with the experience controlling most of the 60 minutes. Detroit's mix of amazing skill and unending will was more than enough to hold off Chicago at Joe Louis Arena. The opening game of the Western Conference Finals wasn't a blowout, but there was not much of a feeling Chicago could break through in this one.
Red Wings 5, Blackhawks 2: Recap | Box Score Red Wings lead series 1-0
Roberto Luongo doesn't bristle when he's asked about the last game of the 
The USA Olympic orientation camp made for some strange bedfellows. Vancouver forward 
It's been a one-way street out of Detroit this offseason, as the Red Wings have watched 
It's been a rough month or so for the Detroit Red Wings.
The 
It's not a death blow by any means, but the Chicago Blackhawks are firmly behind the eight-ball, and they have all the pressure on them.
