The reason Detroit fans are so ignorant...

...is because they never had a chance from the start. It's hard to form a reasonable opinion when you're hand-fed garbage like this on a nightly basis.

Those of us lucky enough to watch tonight's Wings/Coyotes game were blessed with a great graphic late in the third period. It tells a hell of a story. Ready? Here it is:

Detroit in postseason since 2001-02 season when...

Datsyuk scores 1+ goal: 13-6 record
Zetterberg scores 1+ goal: 26-9 record
Datsyuk and Zetterberg both score: 9-1 record

Wow. Thanks for this groundbreaking information.

Check it out! I can do this too!

Pittsburgh in postseason since 2001-02 season when...

Crosby scores 1+ goal: 17-6 record
Malkin scores 1+ goal: 17-4 record
Crosby and Malkin both score: 8-0 record

You want another example? Ok!

Carolina in postseason since 2005-06 season when...

Staal scores 1+ goal: 13-3 record
Brind'Amour scores 1+ goal: 7-3 record
Staal and Brind'Amour both score: 2-0 record

How about one more just for fun!

Anaheim in postseason since 2005-06 season when...

Selanne scores 1+ goal: 13-4 record
Getzlaf scores 1+ goal: 15-1 record
Selanne and Getzlaf both score: 5-0 record

Wow, your little graphic doesn't seem so impressive anymore, does it?

I'm going to fill you in on something here. Hockey is a low scoring sport. The NHL average was 2.84 goals per game this season. We're not referring to a basketball game, where scoring 100 points in a game isn't even a guarantee that your team will win. This graphic is in reference to the NHL, where one goal is already 1/3 of the way to a team's average goal output in a game.

When you take one specific player from a team and figure out their record when he scores a goal, it's likely to be pretty good. This bit of info tells us that the team scored at least one goal in the game. This already eliminates shutout losses as an option and we haven't even considered production from the rest of the team, or even the possibility that this guy scored more than one goal in the game. How do you think a team would do if they had a one goal handicap in every game they played? Using this graphic, the only thing we know about the games that meet this criteria is that the Red Wings scored at least one goal at some point in the game.

The third stat in the graphic is absolutely ridiculous. We're not talking about two random players on a team here. We're talking about two SPECIFIC players. We're talking about Henrik Zetterberg AND Pavel Datsyuk scoring a goal in a game. Not Henrik Zetterberg and Valtteri Filppula, or Henrik Zetterberg and Dan(y)(ny)(iel) Cleary, or Pavel Datsyuk and Todd Bertuzzi. We're specifically talking about when Henrik Zetterberg AND Pavel Datsyuk score a goal in the same game. They'd better win most of the time if both of these specific players score a goal in the same game. This means we're 2 for 2 on specific players scoring a goal, still not including the rest of the team, and still not including the possibility of multi-goal games from either of these players.

I haven't even mentioned the most important part in this whole argument. We're talking about the Detroit Red Wings. We're not talking about the Atlanta Thrashers or the Nashville Predators. This is the Detroit Red Wings. You know, a team that has accomplished a few things in recent history. During this span of years, the Wings have won the stanley cup twice, lost in game 7 of the stanley cup finals once, and lost in the conference finals once. I used Pittsburgh, Carolina, and Anaheim as examples to prove the point that if you take teams that have had a lot of recent playoff success, you're going to have lopsided numbers when looking at wins and losses. That's the crazy thing about the playoffs: you can't be successful if you don't win a lot, because you'll be eliminated.

Here is Detroit's postseason record since the 2001-02 season: 68-43. And a lot of those losses go back to before the lockout when Zetterberg and Datsyuk weren't the main source of offense on the team. Their record when neither of them score? 38-29. Yeah. They're nine games over .500 when neither of their two best players score a goal. I wonder how many other teams can claim that(Hint: look for teams who win a lot of playoff games. I'd look it up myself but I don't feel like going through the trouble). When the two best forwards on their team, the two forwards that are likely eating up the most ice time, are both held without a goal, the team is still well above .500. Perhaps this graphic speaks more to the success of the team as a whole than it does the importance of Datsyuk and Zetterberg scoring goals.