It only took one game for that to be true

) Another night, another blown lead for the Red Wings.Tomas Holmstrom and Brett Lebda scored to give Detroit a 2-1 lead, and then the wheels slowly fell off late.Controversial or not, Phoenix tied the game with less than three minutes remaining because the Coyotes crowded the net and Chris Osgood had no idea where the puck was.Not Osgood’s fault, just great rushing to the net and confusion generation by Phoenix.The game winner Much more on Osgood’s shoulders. So often, teams will carry the puck and do a lot of fancy passing to fake out the goalie.In this case, like countless others, just throwing the puck willy-nilly at the net was all it took for Aucoin to send the fans home happy. Throw the puck at the net, good things happen.Blown leads are becoming Detroit’s signature this season. I wrote after Saturday’s loss to Colorado that I would be expecting plenty of blown leads in the future. It only took one game for that to be true.In good news for Detroit, Pavel Datsyuk was back in the lineup and played very well for the first time all season.He picked up two assists in the game and now has four on the season. The Phoenix game was the first of five straight road games in the Wings’ longest road trip of the season. Detroit is now 0-3-1 away from Joe Louis Arena this year and has been outscored 18-10 in those games.

Shoot the puck! Usually a rarity in seasons past, the Coyotes outshot the Red Wings 33-27 in the game. Detroit is averaging 30.2 shots per game this year (16th in the league) against 29.8 for their opponents. For comparison, the Red Wings’ numbers from last year were 36.2 (first in the NHL) against 27.7 (second), and their 2007 numbers were 34.4 (1st) against 23.5 (first) Laying low. He assisted on the Coyotes’ first goal and score the game-winner in overtime Simple enough.Best of the Wings: Datsyuk. First assists on both Red Wings goals, and that pass to Lebda for his goal was beautiful.Word of the game: Motif. As in, blown leads will be the motif of Detroit’s season. They’re the recurring theme, the story arc, the unifying piece to the early part of the year.Up next: Saturday, at Colorado, 9 PM.

) What a week last week. Reviewing my top three picks (if I must), the Steelers came through fine.The Jaguars were behind the entire game until the fourth quarter, only to soon after taking the lead give the lead right back on an interception returned for a TD.Then they got it back. I hope you did pick the Jaguars and made it through, just for the satisfaction you know that you never have to pick them again.And for the third pick, my first loser in weeks, the Jets lost in overtime to the Bills. Un-Bill-ievable.You know, I actually did a last-second edit of the column last week. It went something like, "the only way the Bills win this game is if QB Trent Edwards gets knocked out of the game, Jets' QB Mark Sanchez throws five INTs, the Jets take 14 penalties, incredibly key defensive star Kris Jenkins gets hurt, and they botch the snap on the game-winning FG in overtime." Damn, if only I had kept that in.The small silver lining was not putting the Eagles in the top three last week, responsible for many a survivor pool exit, but that was more pure luck than anything.I didn't know what to expect from the depleted Lions against the Packers Amazingly, the Pack still gave up five sacks in a 26-0 win. Aaron Rodgers may not last the season, which could doom one of my fantasy teams.All I can say about the most lopsided win of the week is that I just whiffed on the Patriots game.