This Is The Twilight Zone

Well.

That was... disappointing.

That was pathetic.

That was like nails on a chalk board.

That was like Larry Murphy sitting through a period of hockey.. then getting in line for a hot dog... only to find out that they don't cost $1 every night. (Sarah)

"Today we were a disgrace" - Henrik Zetterberg. I should just leave it at that.

I just don't know what to say. I'm baffled. I don't understand how that could happen. How could the entire team just not care? Where was the heart? Where was the passion? Where were the Red Wings?

We're spoiled as Wings fans... we're not supposed to feel the feeling of complete disgrace, humility, embarrassment.

That was rough.



On the upside... maybe we're just getting it all out of the way now ... maybe ??



On the upside... I took one of the Rundown Roomies to their first ever NHL game. We also saw Larry Murphy... a hot dog-less Larry Murphy...(wow, this night was bad on so many levels for the Red Wings.)

However, I do have just one thing to say about Red Wings fans. I'm sorry, but NEVER will I sit at Joe Louis Arena (or any arena for that matter) and boo the Wings. It doesn't matter if they're losing by 1934o342 goals. I will NEVER boo them. Why kick them when they're already down? Most nights the fans are the 6 skater on the ice for the Wings... tonight we turned on our team mates. And I'm disappointed in that. Look, there will always be time when things don't go our way. Tonight was a perfect example of that. We need to suck it up and look ahead to the next game. Move on.

I'm not saying that there was any excuse for tonight's loss because their isn't. It was a slap in that face that's for sure, but we can't just give up on them because of one game. Us Wings fans are very dedicated and very passionate about our team, but there is absolutely no reason why we should boo them.

Now I'm just rambling.

Next up, Nashville. Saturday.

Go Wings.

Warm-Up: St. Louis @ Detroit

Warm-Up:

The Wings host the Blues tonight for the 6th and final match-up this season. The Wings are winning this series 4-1 so far, so hey, why not kick them while they're down? The Wings are coming off of a overtime loss against Chicago on Monday night, while the Blues fell short to the Minnesota Wild yesterday in a shoot out.

Joey Mac will more than likely be in the net tonight too.


Injuries/Scratches:

Jimmy Howard- Shoulder
Pavel Datsyuk- Lower Body Injury

Kris Draper and Ruslan Salei are scratched tonight.

Other Notes:

I'm taking Rundown Roomie #1 to her first Wings game tonight. This should be fun. Either she'll enjoy it or just think hockey fans are completely insane... she probably already thinks that anyway.

Babcock has also scratched Ruslan Salei tonight... apparently Salei and Kindl are battling for the 6th d-man spot for the playoffs. It should be interesting to see how this whole thing plays out.

Also, the new Wings site, twentystraight.com is AWESOME. Check it out, it's all about the Wings and their 20 straight years of making it to the playoffs.



Predictions

Final Score-
Stef- 3-2, Wings
Danielle- 4-1, Wings

Player of the Game-
Stef- Jiri Hudler
Danielle- Drew Miller

The Rundown: Hossa Blows

Well the game made it to overtime... then Marian Hossa had to ruin all the fun, just like he usually does.

Yep, that's all I got.

Warm-Up: Chicago @ Detroit

Warm-Up:

It's more Original 6 action tonight as the Wings host the Blackhawks tonight at Joe Louis Arena. This is the 4th match-up between these two teams this season. The Blackhawks are one of the many teams still fighting for a playoff berth as they currently stand in 8th place in the West. While the Wings are still battling injuries and still fighting for that 2nd place spot in the West over San Jose.

Injuries/Scratches:

Jimmy Howard- Upper Body Injury (shoulder)
Pavel Datsyuk- Lower Body Injury

Drew Miller is scratched.

Other Notes:

The Detroit Red Wings announced this morning that they have called up Thomas McCollum from the Toledo Storm to come in tonight and back-up MacDonald. McCollum was up for the Wings one other time this season already. The 21 year old goalie has spent most of his season between Toledo (23 GP 11-9-2) and Grand Rapids (20 GP 6-11-2).


If the Playoffs started today, the Wings would be playing The Ducks in the first round. But as many of us already know, that could all change tonight.


Predictions:

Final Score-
Stef-2-1, Wings
Danielle- 2-1, Wings

Player of the Game-
Stef- Danny Cleary
Danielle- Darren Helm

Saturday Night's All Right for Fighting

Here are some pics from the Abdlekader - Boyce Fight and some pics of fans fighting in the stands!

A couple of fights broke out among fans in the stands, a couple of them fell down the stairs....

Kronwall started to mess it up.

The Rundown: NOT THE JIMMY!

First Period-

• LOL Brett Lebda.

• What an atmosphere. Gotta love the original six match ups. such a loud crowd. octopus thrown before the game even starts.. .you know its going to be a good game.

• "lets go red wings" "go leafs go" "lets go red wings" "go leafs go" GOD! I LOVE match ups like this because of the crowd alone.
  

• GOAL! Hank scored a great goal with helpers from Hudler and Lidstrom. 

Darren Helm waiting to make a play.

• "Helm can go from zero to 60 in 4.3 seconds" ... Just like a Mercedes Benz, right Mickey?

• Blue 43 has nothing on red 43. anyways, blue 43 Kadri scored, 1-1.

• First Period ends with everyone tied up, 1-1. 

Filppula getting smashed against the boards for going after the puck.

• Turned on CBC during the first intermission. Don Cherry never fails to show us the perfect suit. Then he provided us with this great line... "Fillapov or whatever his name is." Apparently, Don Cherry thinks that Finland is a part of Russia?

• Coaches Corner finished just in time for me to listen to Larry Murphy! yesss! win! HOT DOG JOKE! ....this game just has "win" written all over it.
  

Second Period-

Kronwall's shot from the blue line

• Kronwall made a great shot from the blue line and Holmstrom tapped it in for the goal. It was a pretty goal, but what got me was Homer's reaction to it. Immediately after it went in he checked all around to make sure that the ref wasn't going to call it back. Hilarious... sort of... actually, it kind of sucks that Homer has to do that now... BUT! Wings up 2-1.

• Abdelkader went after Daryl Boyce after Boyce laid a hit on Rafalski. Rafalski left the game to go get medical attention in the locker room. So anyways, Abby saw the hit at center ice then went after Boyce and dropped the gloves. Abby got a few good hits in. I liked it. 

Abdelkader and Miller checking Leaf's into the boards.

• So that was weird. A shot at the glass.. glass cracks... second period ends early. Which means that the third will be 22:01 long.

• Now, the only time I remember something like this happening, where time or something was changed was during the Winter Classic where the Caps and Pens had to change sides halfway through the third because of poor ice conditions.

• Do you guys know of any other time when there is some change like this to the game? Does this happen more often than I think it does?

• By the way... those Red Wing Commercials with Huds and Z playing chess STILL crack me up.

Third Period-

Jimmy Howard ready to make a save.

• Scary incident where Jimmy ended up on the ice, injured. One of the Leafs, Lupul, put the puck in the net to tie everything at 2-2 while lying on top of Jimmy. Jimmy left the game and looked like he was pretty shaken up.

• Joey MacDonald came in immediately. Lets all hope that Jimmy is alright. 

Dog pile on Joey Mac.

• Hudler scored a goal quick to regain momentum. 3-2, Wings.

• Bert scored an empty netter to make the final 4-2, Wings. Because of this win, the Leafs probably ended any hopes of going on to the playoffs.
• JoeyMac brought in a great effort to end the game.
  

Next up for the Wings: The Chicago Blackhawks, Monday night.

Go Wings!

Jiri Hudler wins first star of the night with a goal and an assist.

{Photo Credit belongs to Stefanie Mullins}

Warm-Up: Toronto @ Detroit

Warm-Up:

IT'S HOCKEY NIGHT!

...Only.. we're not in Canada.

The Wings welcome the Toronto Maple Leafs into the Joe tonight for some Original Six hockey. This is the first and only match up between these two teams this season. Which is unfortunate, there needs to be more Original Six match ups through out the regular season...
Anyways, the Wings have lost their last three games while the Leafs have won their last three.

Injuries/Scratches-

Pavel Datsyuk out with a lower body injury.
Johan Franzen out with a sore groin.

Ruslan Salei is a scratch.


Other Notes-

Jan Mursak was sent back down to Grand Rapids.
Chris Osgood and wife welcomed their third child, Max into the world on Thursday. Osgood is supposedly returning to the Wings line-up around April 2nd.

Today also marks the anniversary of the legendary brawl that took place between the Wings and the Avalanche. Thank you Darren McCarty.

Happy 27th Birthday to Jimmy Howard!

Also, Stef will be heading to the game tonight and will hopefully get some great pictures!


Predictions-

Final Score-
Stef- 4-1, Wings
Danielle- 4-2, Wings

Player of the Game-
Stef- Henrik Zetterberg
Danielle- Patrick Eaves

Wings Sign Gustav Nyquist

The Detroit Red Wings announced this morning that they have signed Swedish forward Gustav Nyquist to a two year deal. Nyquist is reporting to Grand Rapids immediately and will begin playing with the Griffins.

Nyquist, a native of Sweden, has played for the University of Maine and is a finalist for this year's Hobey Baker Award, which is awarded to the top college player throughout the nation. This is Nyquist's second time being nominated.

Here are some stats:

In 113 career games with the University of Maine Black Bears, Nyquist has tallied 144 points.
50 goals and 94 assists. He also has raked up 64 penalty minutes.

Nyquist was also a 4th round draft pick by the Red Wings in 2008. If he's anything like the Swedes we have now... Nyquist will become a great addition to this Red Wings organization.

Nick Lidstrom Pass... I mean... NICK LIDSTROM DRIVE!

Nick Lidstrom Drive... How cool would it be to have a road named after you?

This afternoon the city of Novi named a street after long-time Novi resident and Detroit Red Wing Captain, Nicklas Lidstrom. Many showed up to the event to see their beloved captain receive the honor. Lidstrom is only the second Wing to have a road named after him, the first was Steve Yzerman.

"In Sweden, you have to be dead to receive such an honor, so... I guess that this is extra special." Lidstrom joked.

Lidstrom was presented with an official letter from the City of Novi signed by members of city council that declared the drive outside of the Novi Ice Arena to be named after the captain.

Lidstrom's family, the mayor of Novi, and Trevor Thompson where all there for the occasion.



On a personal note, I was SO thrilled to see this in person. Lidstrom has been such a huge influence in my time of being a Wings fan. He has accomplished so much on and off the ice, it's just... unbelievable. He truly deserves to be called "the perfect human being." The man just glows with perfection.


{Photo credit belongs to Danielle Floyd}

The Rundown on Hockeytown

This week is jam-packed full of Red Wing events, here is the rundown on Hockeytown:

Eaves Signing

Last month Patrick Eaves was supposed to show for a signing at Meijer, but as we know Eaves was unable to appear. The signing has been rescheduled for this Thursday, March 24^th at the Westland Meijer.

This is the last of the Red Wings Day at Meijer but the event will host games, contests, photos with Red Wing cut-outs and of course Patrick Eaves.

Eaves will be signing autographs from 6-7 pm.  Autographs will only be available for the first 150 people.

Meijer
37201 Warren Rd.
Westland Mi 48185

Nick Lidstrom Drive
The City of Novi will be honoring Nick Lidstrom, who is a resident of Oakland County during the hockey season, by naming a road in his name that leads up to the Novi Ice Arena on Thursday, March 24^th. The road, known as Arena Drive, is off of Novi Road south of 10 Mile and will be renamed Lidstrom Drive.
Check out the video: Lidstrom Drive

Playoff Tickets
The time has come. Playoff tickets for Round 1, Home games 1, 2, and 3 go on sale this Saturday, March 26^th at noon!

To purchase tickets:
Call (313) 396.7575 or visit the website: detroitredwings.com

The Rundown: Don't Call It A Comeback

Well, the Penguins prevailed, but the game was awesome. Tonight's game got me way too excited for the play-offs, especially with the comeback that the Wings almost successfully pulled off. I was also told to leave Joe Louis Arena via text message so that the Wings wouldn't lose. But just so everyone knows... I wasn't at the game anyway. So you can't blame me.

The Rundown:

• The first period saw two Penguin goals by Pascal Dupuis and Chris Kunitz. Every time I heard the name Kunitz, it reminded me of a friend of mine with the last name Kubitz... thinking out loud now...

• During the first it seemed like Modano was the only one attempting to shoot the puck, yet nothing got behind Brent Johnson.

• The second period wasn't looking too bright for the Wings... or for Jimmy Howard. Jimmy let in 2 more goals in the second. Another goal by Dupius and then one by Tyler Kennedy. After that, Jimmy was out. JOEY MAC in.

• Zetterberg took the opportunity to rally his troops and get them motivated. Z scored a goal late in the 2nd which was just the beginning of a comeback.

• The third period started and Detroit came out hitting and playing a lot better. Wings scored 3 goals. Filppula, Cleary, and Modano. Fil and Mikey Mo were feeding off of each other all night, if these two stay together in the line-up only good things can happen.

• After the Wings tied things up at 4, over time came... then the shoot out. Joey Mac looked pretty solid until he had to face some random guy off the street named James Neal. I have no idea who this guy is, but he was the only one to score in the shoot out. Pens win 5-4.

• Side Note: I just googled Neal... apparently he was traded not too long ago to Pittsburgh from Dallas. hmph.

• This was a pretty good game for both sides. I was excited for this match up all day today, and both teams definitely delivered.

• Mike Modano tied Guy Lafleur for career goals tonight... which made him start trending on twitter. haha. Way to go, Mikey Mo!

• Tomas Holmstrom also recorded his 500th career point with an assist tonight.

• Up next, the Vancouver Canucks, Wednesday night.

Go Wings.

Warm-Up: Pittsburgh @ Detroit

The Warm-Up:

Well kids, it's good versus evil tonight as the Red Wings welcome the Pittsburgh Penguins into Joe Louis Arena. These two teams have quite a history (as of the past few years) building up and I'm sure tonight's game will have a play-off feel to it. The Pens and Wings faced off once already this season and Pittsburgh won as a Crosby-less team 4-1.

Penguin Matt Cooke also took a hit on New York Ranger, Ryan McDonagh. Cooke has a hearing today to see how bad of a suspension he'll get for the hit. Which is a good thing... hopefully he won't be out on the ice tonight to take out any of our guys.


Injuries/Scratches:

Tonights match up should be interesting as both teams have some of their superstars injured. The Pens have Sidney Crosby out with a concussion. Crosby has missed a large part of the season and has been practicing lately, however no one quite knows when the Penguins will see him return to the line-up. Evgeni Malkin is also out for the rest of the season with a pretty brutal knee injury. Brooks Orpik- a guy who's known for roughing up some of the Wings is out with a broken finger.

On the Red Wings Front...

Listed as "questionable" for tonight's game-
-Jiri Hudler - flu and upper body injury.
-Johan Franzen - groin injury.
-Pavel Datsyuk- lower body injury.

Then...
-Chris Osgood - hernia related stuff... STILL.

Other Notes:

If Osgood was available to play, we would be able to have 4 complete lines out tonight and 8 d-men. But because of cap reasons, the Wings will be dressing 11 forwards and 7 d-men. UGH. It should be interesting to see how things work out tonight.

Predictions:

Final Score-
Stef- 4-2, Wings
Danielle- 3-1, Wings

Player of the Game-
Stef- Tomas Holmstrom
Danielle- Mike Modano

Warm-Up: Detroit @ Nashville

Warm Up:

The Wings are in Nashville tonight for the 5th meeting of the season. The Wings are coming off of a win against the Blue Jackets on Thursday night where Joey MacDonald was AMAZING in net. They have also won their last 4 games. The Predators will be fighting hard for a win tonight seeing as they are one of the MANY teams in a fight for a play-off spot.

Injuries/Scratches:

Jiri Hudler is out with the flu.

Pavel Datsyuk is out with the classic "lower body injury"... which means that pretty much ANYTHING could be wrong with him. For all we know, he had a paper cut on his pinky finger and can't play. Just kidding, Pav left the ice during the game the other night and never returned.

Johan Franzen is out after getting "bumped" the other night against Columbus.

Ruslan Salei is out... still with his family.

Other Notes:

Rundown Roomie #1, just admit you're a Wings fan.

Predictions:

Final Score:
Stef- 3-0, Wings
Danielle- 3-1, Predators

Player of the Game:
Stef- Valtteri Filppula
Danielle- Darren Helm

The Rundown: Old MacDonald

Let's pretend that it isn't St. Patricks Day and I miraculously spell every word in this post correctly.

First Period-

Drew Miller!!!! Drew decided to show Babcock that he DESERVES to play every game. Miller had a nice goal only 33 seconds into the game. This has just got to be the sign of the beginning of a good night. Its St. Patricks Day, Miller scores, time for a Miller Lite.

Miller had another great shot on goal, however, Mason saved. But then, soon after, Miller decided to make the period all his and get into a fight. Someone is going for the Gordie Howe Hat Trick... why not?

Filppula scored his second goal in two nights as well. Keep it up, Fil.

And Joey MacDonald, I talked sh-- about you in the Warm-Up. YOU OWNED THE ICE during the first period. I can only hope that you will play like this the ENTIRE game.


First Intermish-
Mickey York said that Larry Murphy was "a little lucky charm" then Murph laughed uncontrollably. Then I laughed uncontrollably. The York said Murph would do an Irish Jig during the Second Intermission. I'll let you know if that really happened.


Second Period-

Too many men on the ice penalty. DUMB. DUMB. DUMB. Let's get these outrageous penalties out of our systems now though...

Pretty boring second period though.

Second Intermish-
Murphy did not do an Irish jig. Total disappointment.

Third Period-

SHIT! Datsyuk went into the locker room with the trainer. BAD NEWS BEARS. While we're at it, Rafalski went down again too...

Johnathan Ericsson-- you're not the brightest, buddy.

P.S. Modano's face after the ref brought the octopus off the ice... PRICELESS.





Time to pretend to be Irish... In Mickey Redmond's words, Time for a few ginger ales! Happy St. Patricks Day!

Warm-Up: Detroit @ Columbus

Warm Up:

The Red Wings will hopefully be feeling the luck o' the Irish tonight when they face off against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Wings are coming off a nice win from last night when they took down Ovi and the Capitals. The Wings won playing some good ol' fashioned Red Wings hockey... which was nice to see again. Hopefully the Wings aren't too tired from last night and will be able to get another W.

The Blue Jackets and Wings have met 5 times already this season. Tonight will be their last match up for the season. The Wings have the upper hand on the series, 3-2.

Injuries/Scratches:

Ruslan Salei will be out tonight, his wife just had the couples 3rd child.

Don't know yet what's going on as far as the "Miller/Draper/Eaves/Hudler/ whoever else shouldn't be scratched but probably will be" rotation.

Other Notes-

Osgood isn't starting in net tonight, like he probably should have been because he's still "sore." So that means that we'll be watching a presumably drunk Irish goalie tonight in Joey MacDonald.

Predictions-

Final Score-
Stef: 4-1, Wings
Danielle: 4-2, Wings

Player of the Game-
Stef: Drew Miller
Danielle: Danny Cleary

Go Wings!


P.S. I can't promise a Rundown tonight...

The Rundown: In your face, goalie!

Well the Wings beat Ovi and the Caps in what was a pretty good game.

Before we start, I just want to say how much I really enjoy the Washington Capitals. Ever since the HBO 24/7 special, I've gained a ton of respect and a new perspective of this team... yeah.. they're becoming one of my new favorite non-wings team (yeah, those exist.)

1st Period-

Heard most of the 1st period in the car.

Zetterberg had a nice one-timer to get the Wings up on the board first. 1-0 Wings.

But what would you know, the Caps come back seconds later and tie it up. 1-1.

Brian Rafalski pass to Filppula who was in front of the net, seemed like a lot of chaos was going on at the time. However, Filppula shot the puck (what?!) and scored. Before the game started I told my dad that Filppula would score a goal. Yeah, I was right. No big deal. Fil was just representing us Finns on St. Urho's Day. 2-1, Wings.


Second Period-

It was only a matter of time before Ovi scored. 2-2. Mike Knuble had a nice chance for the caps to go up, but Jimmy Howard was like "Hell no, bitch." Denied. I also want to add that I told my dad Ovechkin would score a goal tonight. I wish I was making this stuff up, but this game is going pretty much as I predicted. All I need now is a Helm goal and a Datsyuk goal oh and a Mike Knuble goal... then I'll go play the lottery.

Did anyone else get chills when Mickey started talking about Konstantinov??


Third Period-

So Zetterberg got hit, there should have been a penalty. But you know what... its all good that the ref's suck at their job because Z got the puck and scored... off of the face of Capitals goalie, Michal Neuvirth. 3-2 Wings.

Jimmy gave us a bit of a scare with SECONDS left in the game. The Caps fired a shot and got the goal post. I thought for sure we were going for another OT and another shootout. Thank god THAT didn't happen.




Anyways... The Red Wings Win the Good Ol' Hockey Game! We ended the Capitals win streak and now we're carrying on a nice streak of our own.
Also, my pre-game prediction didn't completely come true. Oh well...

Broadcaster Quote of the Game-
"That ain't wood down there"- Ken Daniels

Up Next, The Bluejackets, tomorrow.


Go Wings!

Warm-Up: Washington @ Detroit

Warm-Up:

Detroit welcomes Mr. Ovechkin and the Capitols tonight at the Joe. The Caps have been on fire lately winning their past nine games. The Wings have won the past two. I for one, am very excited about tonight's game. Well I was.. until about 5 minutes ago when I got word that the Wings were calling up JoeyMac...again... Where does that put Ozzie? Needless to say.. I just had a major freak-out moment. (yes I know Ozzie wasn't going to play tonight anyway, but still.)

On a happier note- it should be fun to see Ovi play against Pavel. Plus there seems to be a lot of fuss about the last time Jimmy Howard faced Ovechkin and how Howard is looking for "revenge." I'm pretty sure Jimmy isn't looking for any revenge, he's probably just looking for a win.


Injuries/Scratches-

Eaves is scratched tonight. He's good to go though whenever he comes back though.
Salei is also out, hes with his wife who's ready to have their third child any time now.

Miller is also a scratch.

Osgood is out tonight too. He reported that he is not ready to play yet after coming off of sports hernia surgery.

Other Notes-
If Ovechkin gets an Ovechtrick I might have to look into getting his jersey...

Predictions-

Final Score:
Stef: 3-2, Wings
Danielle: 4-3, Wings

Player of the Game-
Stef: Nicklas Lidstrom
Danielle: Valterri Filppula (its a Finnish holiday, let's have the Finn have some fun)

Ozzie is Back!

The Detroit Red Wings have announced today that goaltender Chris Osgood has been activated onto the roster. Osgood has spent most of the new year on the Injured Reserves list after having sports hernia surgery.

Ozzie has been practicing and will be ready to go this week if needed.

YES!!!!!

Joey MacDonald has been sent back down to Grand Rapids.

Warm-Up: Detroit @ St. Louis

Warm-Up:

Blues, Blues, Blues. Bring on the Blues.

Detroit made their way to St. Louis where they will play the Blues tonight. After a late game win last night, the Wings will look to build off of their momentum and hopefully send St. Louis off singing the Blues... see what I did there?

Injuries/Scratches:
Eaves- Groin
Rafalski- Back

Miller is scratched.


Other Notes:
Just realized I have been wearing Blues colors all day. That can't be a good thing.


Predictions-

Final Score-
Stef: 3-2, Wings
Danielle: 3-1, Wings

Player of the Game-
Stef: Johan Franzen
Danielle: Henrik Zetterberg

The Rundown: Someone buy the refs new whistles please...

Thank you, Nicklas Lidstrom for keeping us alive!!

The Rundown-

Need I say more? I'm pretty sure this explains most of the game:

• There were wayyy to many instances tonight where the refs should have blown the whistles but didn't. I don't know what was going on, but it was just ridiculous.
  

• Wings were down by one for pretty much the entire game. Jimmy made some AMAZING SAVES. The guy was on top of his game all night long. I was surprised he wasn't one of the top 3 stars of the night.

• Tonight was also another night to add to the list of games where the Wings can't score on a 5 on 3. Someone needs to put an end to this soon. The power play needs to get their act together. I'm not expecting a goal on every power play, but there is no reason why a team like the Detroit Red Wings shouldn't score on every 5 on 3 opportunity they get.

• I'm not going to even touch that disallowed goal by Lidstrom that went off Bertuzzi's hand...

• I love though, that Lidstrom was the one to score the goal late in the third to keep the Wings in the game. He is perfection. Everything he does, he does well.

• OT- DATSYUKIAN GOAAAAAAL! WOOT!

Up next- Wings @ Blues, Tomorrow.

Go Wings!

Warm-Up: Edmonton @ Detroit

Warm-Up:

So first things first, the first 2500 kids at the Joe tonight get a Red Wings lunch box. The things I would do to be able to carry that lunch box to work everyday... sigh....

Edmonton Oilers are coming into the Joe tonight to face off the Wings in their 4th and final match up of the season. The Wings have won all three previous games against the Oilers and are looking for the series sweep tonight. Which I'm praying will happen. The Wings need a win... bad.

Injuries/Scratches:

Brad Stuart thought it would be funny to pretend that he had a sprained ankle... JUST KIDDING! Stuart is back in the line up tonight and Doug Janik is going back to Grand Rapids.

Eaves is still out with his groin injury, Rafaski still out with a sore back. It was reported today though that Rafalski should be back next week.

Other Notes:
I've got nothing. I just want a Red Wings lunch box. I got my silly bands, now I need the lunch box.


Predictions:

Player of the Game-
Stef- 5-2, Wings
Danielle- 5-2, Wings

Final Score-
Stef- Danny Cleary
Danielle- Todd Bertuzzi

The Rundown: Snake Bite

So King Cobra, Johnathan Quick made some great saves and held the Wings to 1 goal all night. Also, the refs made some greeeeeaaaaaaat calls.


NOT.

The Rundown-

So, I missed the entire first period driving home from work and making some delicious dinner for the rundown roomies. (Yes, my room mates will now be referred to as the Rundown Roomies. They provide me with lots of inspiration for my blog and make the games very enjoyable.)

Anyways, On my drive home, Helm scored. I may or may not have screamed with excitement. I also may or may not have gotten home from work and put on my Darren Helm shirt. Nerd Alert.

The second period, the Kings scored twice. Great. The Kings have only lost 1 game.... ONE GAME... when they've been in the lead going into the third. Right then and there, I felt like we were screwed.

Also, since when does high sticking not count as a penalty. I mean, that high stick that Lidstrom got to the face... COME ON REFS! ... Even the perfect human being himself was pissed... I'm pretty sure I read his lips too and Lidstrom was saying some pretty un-Lidstrom like words.

Then the third period... BORING. Nothing happened. No goals, no penalties, no fights.

The Wings need to pull off a win here sooner rather than later. Judging on how close everyone is in the West, it should be wins from here on out just so that we can get home ice in the play-offs.

Up next... The Edmonton Oilers, Friday Night.

Award Winning Hudler

Jiri Hudler

When you think of hard working Red Wings, many players come to mind: Lidstrom, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen…  Jiri Hudler may have been one of the last to come to mind considering how badly the season started out for him.

Lately, Hudler has been racking up the points sometimes scoring several goals a game (especially since his locker room buddy Pavel Datsyuk has returned from his injury). During the month of February, Hudler managed a six game point streak and scored a shootout goal that won the game against Buffalo.

 For his hard work this past month he will be receiving the Carhartt’s Hardest Working Player of the Month award. He will be honored tonight before the Wings host the LA Kings.

It was 15 games into the season before Hudler scored his first goal and overall in his first 30 games he only made six points and recorded a minus 8 rating. Hudler started turning his luck around by the end of December, and in his next 30 games he put up 26 points and recorded a plus 7 rating.

This is definitely the Jiri Hudler we are used to.

Warm-Up: Los Angeles @ Detroit

Warm-Up:

The Wings are coming off a painful loss to the Dogs over Phoenix and a not so stellar road trip.

Just like the last few games, tonight is the last match up between two teams. The Kings of Los Angeles will take on our beloved Wings at Joe Louis. The Wings haven't been hot lately, and their record at home is nothing to really brag about.

We've seen it before, and we're seeing it again. The Wings aren't playing their best hockey, but that just makes me think they're taking things a little easy and resting up for the play-offs.

I will say I am quite excited to watch this game tonight, especially since my room mates are all about poking fun at the Kings and "King Cobra" himself, Johnathan Quick.

And lets not forget, the last time these two teams met, the Wings dominated until the last few minutes of the third when they decided they were done playing. The Wings won the game 7-4.


Injuries/Scratches:

Brian Rafalski still out with back problems, Eaves still out with a groin injury. Both have been skating at practice though.

Christopher J. Osgood should be back on the bench or in between the pipes next week. (hopefully)

Drew Miller is scratched for tonight's game.

Other Notes:
There was a video posted on the Wings website yesterday of Justin Abdelkader reading "The Little Engine That Could" to a bunch of fourth graders. It was... AWKWARD.


Game Predictions-

Player of the Game-
Stef- Henrik Zetterberg
Danielle- Nicklas Lidstrom

Final Score-
Stef- 3-2, Wings
Danielle- 3-1, Wings

Remember This?!

Now me being the huge Chris Osgood fan that I am... I find it extremely appropriate that we celebrate this day. 15 years ago, the Red Wings played the Hartford Whalers and one Christopher J. Osgood helped his team win by scoring a goal. Yes it was an empty netter, but a goal's a goal, right?





Osgood was the second goalie to ever do this in the history of the NHL.

The Rundown: Dogs. Woof Woof.

Well the Wings came out to play, but then couldn't finish. Sigh... Yet, Coyotes goalie, Ilya Bryzgalov got off to a pretty slow start, which the Wings took full advantage of. Also, hockey shouldn't be played in the desert. So the Rundown is a bit different tonight, I blogged as I watched the game unfold. So everything you read, I typed as it happened...

The Rundown....

First Period-

Oh Hey Ilya Bryzgalov... there's a hockey game you should be playing... you know, you're supposed to stop pucks before they go into the net, right?

Bryzgalov didn't show up on time tonight which ended in me drinking a Miller Lite. Thank you Drew Miller... I think I explained it before but for those of you who missed out, every time Miller scores I have to crack open a Miller Lite. Milllller Tiiiiiiiime. 1-0

Johan Franzen!!! Power play goal!! Finally... after 15 games!!!! Franzen hadn't scored a goal since the night he scored 5 goals in one game. Maybe he should leave the goal streaks to one or two a game instead of 5....? Maybe? 2-0

Goaltender interference? Yep. 2-1.

Second Period-

Jimmy Saves! Jimmy made some WONDERFUL saves through out the entire second period.

So Johnathan Ericsson made a really nice play (yes, you read that correctly) at center ice a little more than half way into the second. Ericsson lost the puck and saw a Coyote behind him who was going for the puck too. So what does Ericsson do? He shows the Coyote whats up and pretty much pulls a Nik Kronwall. Well played, Ericsson, well played.

Valterri Filppula with a nice goal. His first goal since coming back from his knee injury. Fil shot the puck and it bounced of Bryzgolov's pads and into the net. 3-1.

Darren Helm with an AMAZING short handed goal. That was a one big F-YOU to Phoenix. Beautiful goal by a beautiful man. 4-1.

Larry Murphy even tried to give us his take on the whole Charlie Sheen situation. If anyone should talk about Charlie Sheen, it's Larry Murphy.

On another Larry Murphy note, Murph ended his second intermission commentary by taking a bite of a hot dog. Murph Loves Hot Dogs.


Third Period-

Is that? Could it be? No... that's not Hasek in the net for us again? 4-2.

Okay, so the Wings are on a power play and then all of a sudden the refs blow the whistle. Why? Because one of the straps on Bryzgalov's helmet came off. Its not like the entire helmet came off. Come on, grow a pair. You play in the NHL.

JIMMY, JIMMY, JIMMY!!!!!!!!! (happy now?) Jimmy has been making some GREAT saves tonight.

Ugh. Apparently I spoke too soon... Jimmy let in 2 more goals, 4-4 tie with 90 seconds left in regulation.

Fil tried to end things in regulation. But the game only ended with The Tuzzi threatening Shane Doan's life.

Onto OT-

Wings with so many great chances so far in OT. None of them getting past Bryzgalov. Seems like he finally woke up.

Shoot Out-

Not even worth talking about. Goal Posts. Damn It.


Next up- King Cobra and the LA Kings at Detroit on Wednesday.

Go Wings!

Warm-Up: Detroit @ Phoenix

Warm-Up
Tonight's game is the last of a west coast road trip for our Wings. So far, they've gone 1-2 this trip and are looking to make things 2-2 before getting on Red Bird II and flying back to Hockeytown.

The Wings will be taking on the Coyotes tonight. It's the last meeting of these two teams for the regular season and both teams are coming off losses. Detroit has the upper hand in this series being 2-1 against the Coyotes. Personally, I'm liking the Wings chances for tonights game. I'm also happy to report that Phoenix defenseman, Ed Jovanovski is out of the line up tonight. Thank god... I don't like that guy.



Game Predictions-

Player of the Game-
Stef- Johan Franzen
Danielle- Niklas Kronwall

I feel like Stef and I are just going back and forth picking Franzen since he's overdue for a goal...

Final Score-
Stef- 5-2, Wings
Danielle- 4-3, Wings

The Rundown: Shark Attack

First of all, I apologize for the untimely updates. After this week, they'll be on time. Promise.

Anyways, the Sharks beat the Wings last night 3-1, much as I predicted. The Sharks dominated pretty much the entire game. Joey MacDonald didn't have the best game either...


Onto The Rundown....

• The Sharks scored early in the game. I wasn't too surprised by this. In fact, I kind of expected it. I felt that if the Wings didn't come out strong, it would just all go downhill. With the loss the night before, the Wings needed to start the game off with making a statement... like scoring first... so much for that.

• The Wings went on a power play and Nik Kronwall scored. Oh wait, no he didn't. The refs called the goal back. I thought it was a bit ridiculous, it seemed like Franzen was pushed into Niemi.

• But no worries, the Wings responded right away. Modano had a nice shot to the net and Holmstrom tipped in the puck. Wings tied it up 1-1.

• Unfortunately, that would be the first and only Wings goal of the night.

• The first ended with the Wings and Sharks in a bit of a scruff. Kronwall slashed Thorton and Thorton retaliated. This got me thinking... how cool would it be to see Kronwall just fight someone. I mean, we all know Kronwall can hit... very well... but he's not much of a fighter. I would just once like to see him in a fight. Either he'll just dominate and completely pound someone into the ice, or he'll just get his ass kicked. hmm...

• The Sharks scored 2 more times during the game. The third goal made me think that JoeyMac has ADD or something... The guy can save the puck... then he just kinda wanders away from the net or looks up into space and stops paying attention to whats going on in front of him. He's let in quite a few soft goals this season, making me way to nervous every time he's between the pipes.

• Next up, the Wings go to Phoenix to take on the Coyotes.

Go Wings.

Warm-Up: Detroit @ San Jose

The Warm Up-

So let's just pretend that last night night didn't happen.

The Wings continue their trip on the West Coast tonight against the Sharks. Tonight is the last time these two teams will meet in the regular season. And after last night, I'm sure the Wings will come out strong and looking for the win. These two teams are pretty tight in the standings and in the last 10 games, their records are nearly identical. The Wings are 7-2-1 while the Sharks are 8-2-0.

Injuries/Scratches-

Eaves is still out with a groin injury.

Other Notes-

JoeyMac should be starting in net tonight against Antti Niemi.


Predictions-

Player of the Game-
Stef- Jiri Hudler
Danielle- Johan Franzen

Final Score-
Stef- 3-2, Wings
Danielle- 3-1, Sharks


Go Wings.

The Rundown: Well. That Sucked.

Losing Blows. Especially after your co-worker tells you the Wings will lose and he has no good reasons why they should.

Total Rundown hopefully by noon.

Warm-Up: Detroit @ Anaheim

The Warm-Up-

The Wings are off to play a game of Duck Hunt tonight as they face off against Anaheim. With a win tonight, the Wings would go 4-0 against the Ducks, sweeping them for the season. The win would also increase the Wings awesome road game win streak. (I hope to god I did not just jinx them.)

New daddy, Johan Franzen returns tonight. Let's hope he can get back into the groove of things... it's been awhile since he's scored.

Injuries/Scratches-
Rafalski is still out due to back spasms. Eaves is out too with a groin injury.
Draper is the healthy scratch.

Other Notes-
It's also Jonathan Ericsson's birthday today so lets hope the hockey gods are on his side tonight and he doesn't do anything stupid.... like get 324982 penalties called on him.

Jimmy is getting the start in goal tonight against new Duck, Dan Ellis.
The Predictions- Player of the Game-
Stef- Tomas Holmstrom
Danielle- Jimmy Howard


Final Score-
Stef-4-2, Ducks
Danielle- 4-0, Wings

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The Rundown: Hollywood Nights

Well the Wings and Johnathan Quick proved me wrong, I had absolutely nothing to worry about all night as the Wings just dominated this entire game...well until the end of the third where they decided that they played enough hockey and they could just skate around. 6 Wings scored 7 goals in a 7-4 victory over the Kings.

Onto the Rundown...

First Period-

So lets be honest. This game started out with a bit of a scare. Jimmy had a few lucky saves then let in a soft goal. I didn't hit the panic button yet, but things weren't looking good.

Drew Miller scored his first goal of the night on "King Cobra" a name that a roommate of mine gave Quick. I opened my first Miller Lite of the night. See, I kind of made it an unwritten law for myself that I would drink a Miller Lite every time Miller scores a goal. 30 seconds later, Cleary tipped in a nice shot from Hudler.

Lidstrom then got a power play goal, his 50th point of the season. It was a nice play by Holmstrom, doing what Holmstrom does best, sticking his ass in the goalies face.

Period ends, 3-1 Wings

Second Period-

Datsyuk dangled his way down the ice with the puck then shot it in the net, nothing new really. Just another day at the office for Pavel.

Third Period-

Darren Helm and that speed. His hands caught up with his legs finally! A nice short handed goal by Mr. Sock Toss himself. (I'll save the sock toss story for another day) Typically when I see Helm use his speed to skate by everyone I think to myself "oh jeez, here we go again." But, the kid surprised me.

Drew Miller scored his second goal of the night. Another beer please.

Happy Hudler scored himself a goal. 2nd goal in 2 games. I would love to see him carry on with this scoring. After a not-so-great start to the season, his game has improved a lot... and quite frankly, I think he deserves all the good things coming his way. (No, Stef did not pay me to say this.)

Crap. All hell is about to break loose.

Okay, I get it, we have 7 goals. Its late in the third. We could probably ease up on the Kings a little bit. But really, was it completely necessary to have them score 3 goals?

Eh, it's another win and another 2 points.


Broadcaster Quote of the Night:
"That's what you get when you bench Nick Lidstrom." -Ken Daniels


Go Wings!