Warm-Up: Detroit @ Carolina

Warm Up:

Well folks, we're one week away from playoff hockey!
Tonight the Wings face off against the Carolina Hurricanes. These two teams haven't faced off against each other since January of last year where the Wings won 3-1. The Hurricanes are currently sitting in 9th place in the East and are looking for a win if they want to continue their season into the playoffs. The Wings on the other hand need the win if they want to fight for 2nd place in the West.

Injuries/Scratches:

Niklas Kronwall- not a shoulder problem...but an upper-body injury... which means he probably has a boo-boo on his knee from falling off a bike...or he has a cut on his chin from shaving... or his tummy hurts. (yes, a bit dramatic here, but what else am I supposed to think if we can't know the truth?)

Chris Osgood- ... yep... I really have nothing to say about this 'injury' of his anymore. And for someone who is and always has been a HUGE Osgood fan... I'm thinking Ozzie is at the end of the road. (I hope you all realize how much it took for me to come to terms with that.)

Drew Miller and Jiri Hudler are the scratches as of yesterday... but we all know these things can change.

Other Notes:

ESPN has a pretty cool thing for the playoffs. It's a sort of fantasy hockey where you pick a line-up for the first round of the playoffs... then each round you can change your team around. I literally spent 2 hours the other night trying to put together what I think is "the perfect team." Check it out, its under the "Fantasy" tab on the ESPN website.

Stay tuned for a post about my feelings on Osgood, the upcoming playoffs, and more...

Predictions:

Final Score-
Stef- 4-1, Wings
Danielle- 5-2, Wings

Player of the Game-
Stef- Darren Helm
Danielle- Pavel Datsyuk

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: 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: 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

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: 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.

Warm-Up: Dallas @ Detroit

The Red Wings welcome the Dallas Stars into the Joe tonight after coming off a loss to the San Jose Sharks. It's also Jason Williams first game in the Joe with a Stars uniform. I wouldn't comment on something like that, but when I was younger I was crazy for Williams. I don't know why I'm even admitting it now, but now its out there. Take it or leave it.

Jimmy is starting in net tonight.

Last time these two teams met, Eaves made the citizens of Hockeytown happy by providing them with free curly fries. Eaves won't be in the line up tonight, his spot will be taken by Jan Mursak.



Predictions-


Player of the Game
Stef- Jiri Hudler
Danielle- Thomas Holmstrom

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


Go Wings!

Tune in after the game for the Rundown.

1st Goal of the Season for Happy Hudler

It only took 15 games for Hudler to put one in the back of the net.

He finally made his first goal in the November 13^th game against the Colorado Avalanche. Hudler's much needed and much anticipated goal was banked in off of the Avalanche goalie from behind the net in the second period.

Hudler's stats on the current season  are 1 goal, 4 assists, and 5 points. He is off to a slow start to the 70 points he is expected to make by Coach Mike Babcock.

The last season Hudler was with the Wings was 2008-2009 where his stats on the season were 23 goals, 34 assists, and 57 points. During his year in the KHL with Dynamo in Russia his stats were about the same, making 19 goals, 35 assists, and 54 points on the season.

Hudler’s first goal was nothing short of amazing, but to his coach, team mates, and fans he still has a lot more to prove.

Happy Hudler Returns Home

It was announced earlier this month that Jiri Hudler would be returning to the Red Wing line up after being released from his contract with Kontinental Hockey League’s Moscow Dynamo.

Hudler left the Wings a year ago to play in Russia for two years for a rumored ten million dollars. A price his fellow Wings claim he’s not even worth. After one year playing for Dynamo the team folded and Hudler was released from the contract.

His locker will be empty no more

Although his return was premature, Hudler is happy to be home here in Detroit. Most fans are also happy to have him back.

Coach Mike Babcock has big plans for Hudler this coming season; he has placed Hudler on the third line with Dan Cleary and Mike Modano, and expects Hudler to bring in 70 points. Judging by his stats he has the potential.

Even though Hudler is no Pavel Datsyuk, its not to say his presence will go unseen. With Hudler back, the Wings will have a strong third scoring line, which they were lacking during his absence. As well he will definitely be a crucial part of shoot outs, an area the Wings suffered with last season.

Good things are expected from the Wings with the addition of Hudler, Modano, and others and the changes on the defensive line up. Babcock has also decided that Jimmy Howard will be starting goalie after his exceptional performance this past year.

Hopefully Hudler’s performance will convince any skeptics that he is home here in Detroit, right where he belongs.