NHL 2010-11 Rewind: Franzen's Five

The next in a series of blogs reviewing some of my favourite moments from the just-completed 2010-11 National Hockey League season:

It's no secret that the Detroit Red Wings - known by some as the Swedish National Army, thanks to the preponderance of great and skillful Swedes on their roster - are annually among the most talented teams in the league, always in contention for a playoff berth out of the Western Conference and frequently skating all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. 

The numbers do not lie. Since 1997, the Wings have won four Stanley Cup titles - 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008. They appeared in the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals, losing in seven games to the Pittsburgh Penguins. That's four Cups in 15 calendar years and five appearances in the Finals. Particularly impressive when you consider that there was no play in 2004-05 due to the lockout.

As good as they've been for years and years, with a roster featuring the likes of Brett Hull, Steve Yzerman, Nicklas Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterburg, there have been few individual efforts more scintillating than the one Sweden's Johann Franzen AKA the Mule put together in Ottawa against the home-town Senators on February 2nd 2011.

It was a one-man demolition job at Scotiabank Place, and on a team featuring superstars Zetterburg, Lidstrom, Datsyuk and Rafalski, it was Franzen's night to steal the show. The lumbering Swede accounted for FIVE goals in a 7-5 Detroit win. On his own, Franzen tied the game with the Senators, who were the unfortunate one on the receiving end of perhaps the best individual performance the National Hockey League saw in Season 2010-11.

Franzen scored the opening goal for Detroit, his 22nd of the season - his first and second goals came 48 seconds apart - and after a nice setup from his Swedish compatriot Henrik Zetterburg for the game-icing empty net goal, the Mule had his 26th, scoring three even strength five-on-five goals, a power play goal in the third, and the previously-mentioned empty-netter, as selfless a play as you'll see, and a wonderful illustration of why the Red Wings are so good every year: because they work for each other and play as a team. 

The second goal from a sweet feed from Zetterburg was a thing of beauty. Henrik's pass was a smooth backhander, which found Franzen in the slot. He delayed, fired, and lit the lamp. The hat-trick goal, a bullet from the dot, stick side and high, gave Detroit a 5-4 lead. Nice to see some hats hit the ice. The Wings supporters always travel well. They were well-rewarded on this night.

Franzen is a big man, and when he sets up in the crease, screening goalies and moving lesser defenders out of the way with his size, he's tough to stop. On this night, he was almost impossible to stop. Think of it in these terms: Ottawa scored the same amount spread amongst their entire time. Alone, the Mule could've tied them and sent the game to OT.

Strangely, for all that Franzen has done, it was his first hat-trick in the regular season. last season, he scored four goals in a playoff game vs. San Jose - he is a proven playoff performer, the sort of guy who trundles along during the regular season and explodes when the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin - but had never replicated that effort between October and early April. 

That all changed on February 2nd. Below, vision of all five goals from FOX Sports Detroit:

The funniest moment of the night? A cheeky Kris Draper asked TSN's Inside the Glass report Pierre McGuire to led play-by-play man Gord Miller know that "Johann Franzen is a good player!" 

Miller replied, "Thanks for the update!"

No kidding!!