Warm-Up: Detroit @ Chicago

The Warm-Up:

It's here. The last game of the regular season. I can only pray that we will be able to see our boys win 16 more games after tonight. Every game and win the Wings get after tonight is a blessing. (yes, I realize I'm making hockey sound like a religion right now.) The Blackhawks need this win to keep their playoff run alive. With everything locked up in the Eastern Conference, the battle between the Hawks and the Dallas Stars is still alive in the West. Along with the battle for 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th place...

Today's match-up between the Hawks and Wings is the last of 6 meetings between these two teams. The Hawks have dominated this series winning 4 of the 5 games already played and it's no secret that they will be coming out and ready to battle for the win tonight. The Wings on the other hand haven't been playing to their potential as of late. In their last ten games, the Wings have gone 3-5-2. Not exactly a record to be proud of.

Injuries/Scratches:

Henrick Zetterberg- Lower Body Injury
Niklas Kronwall- Upper Body Injury

Drew Miller should be the healthy scratch today.


Predictions-

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

Player of the Game-
Stef- Johan Franzen
Danielle- Todd Bertuzzi

Go Wings!

Warm-Up: Chicago @ Detroit

Warm Up:

The Wings will play their last regular season home game tonight against Chicago. It's going to be a tough game tonight for both teams as they look to secure their spots in the play-offs. The Wings, who already have a play-off spot locked, are still looking to finish in 2nd place in the Western Conference. Meanwhile, Chicago is going to do whatever it takes to keep 8th place.

Maybe we should ask Marty Turco what the outcome will be tonight... I'm sure he's taking bets.


Injuries/Scratches:

Henrik Zetterberg - Lower Body Injury. Out for the weekend, day to day once the play-offs begin.
Niklas Kronwall- Upper Body Injury. Out for the weekend, will be ready to start for the play-offs.

Chris Osgood- ...

Draper should be the healthy scratch tonight

Other Notes-

Congratulations to the Farmington Hills Firefighters for winning their division in the Metro Detroit Fire/Police Ice Hockey Championships! The team went 3-1 and brought back, my friend and Hockeytown Rundown Reader, Michael Haase out of his hockey retirement. It's Haase's 4th championship. He says he would like to thank Kevin Hodson and Dominic Hasek for the old school tutoring.


Predictions:

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

Player of the Game-
Stef- Pavel Datsyuk
Danielle- Brian Rafalski


Go Wings!

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: Minnesota @ Detroit

The Warm Up:

The rumor is... Detroit will have some Dangle Dangle back in the line-up tonight when they face off against the Minnesota Wild. This is the 4th game between these two teams this season, the Wings have won 2 of the 3 previous games... both in Minnesota. It's no secret that the Wings haven't had the greatest record at home so let's hope they bring the same momentum and force that they had against Nashville last night.


Injuries/Scratches:

Niklas Kronwall - shoulder
Chris Osgood - ...
(maybe) Pavel Datsyuk - Lower Body Injury

Kris Draper should be the healthy scratch tonight.
Mike Modano is also a healthy scratch.

Other Notes:

Don't mess with the Tuzzi.

Predictions:

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

Player of the Game-
Stef- Valterri Filppula
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.

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 @ Buffalo.

It's Miller Time! Modano's Back!

The Wings are in Buffalo tonight to take on Sabres. It's a battle of the Millers tonight as Drew and Ryan will compete against each other. It would be pretty neat to see Drew get a puck past big brother. Ryan Miller has been a hot goalie lately, not allowing more than 2 goals in his last 5 starts.

The Wings are coming off of a 2 game losing streak and should come out fighting and wanting to win. The Wings also have 2 players coming back into the line up. Mike Modano will be making his return to the ice for the first time since November. I am SO EXCITED to see Modano come back, as I am sure many of you are too. Filppula is also back tonight after suffering a sprained knee.

Also, Rafalski is out tonight due to back-spasms. Franzen may or may not be playing since his wife is supposed to give birth to their first child. If she does, Franzen would be making a quick flight back to Detroit.

Now the predictions-

Player of the Game-
Stef- Nicklas Lidstrom
Danielle- Niklas Kronwall

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

Blindside Hits: Are they legal or are they illegal?

It would be the first time in NHL history if the ref’s didn’t call penalties one sided. But the truth is that often penalties will be called against one team but later in the game the same penalty wont be called against the other team.

In many cases the ref just didn’t see it the second time around or perhaps he did see it but for some reason the penalty didn’t meet the same criteria as the first one did. Whatever the case may be this happens in the NHL all the time.

Recently a penalty more commonly known as a blindside hit has started to surface early on this season. Known to the NHL as an illegal check to the head is defined in the NHL rulebook as a lateral or blind side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or the principle point of contact is not permitted.(http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=27011)

A blindside hit is a serious penalty because it can cause a player to be seriously injured especially because many times they do not see the hit coming. This penalty also has some serious consequences ranging from a two minute minor and a four minute major to a ten minute game misconduct and even fines and suspension. The NHL is in the process of completely eliminating blindside hits and could go a step further by eliminating any hits to the head.

Niklas Kronwall a Red Wing defenseman is known for his big hits. A couple weeks ago in the October 23^rd game against the Anaheim Ducks, Kronwall made a hit to the head of Teemu Selanne that has caused some controversy. Kronwall was not penalized for his hit. The hit can be seen here in this video:

According to a Detroit Free Press article, even Coach Mike Babcock was pleased with Kronwall’s hit claiming that he always plays within the rules and yet is still a dangerous guy. Kronwall’s hit was ruled a clean hit but if the NHL was to instate a rule where it allows no hits to the head, that would be a different story. (http://www.freep.com/article/20101025/SPORTS05/101025024/1053/Babcock-likes-that-Kronwall-is-dangerous)

Compare this to a hit much like Kronwall’s but was actually ruled a blindside hit. In the game between Minnesota Wild and the Los Angeles Kings that took place on October 25, just two days after the Kronwall hit, Dustin Brown makes a blindside hit on Antti Miettien. The video can be seen here:

Instating a no hits to the head rule would be a smart thing for the NHL to do. It would prevent serious injuries and it wouldn't take away from the physical action in the game. It may take a serious head injury for the NHL to come to this conclusion, but perhaps they need Kronwall or Brown to knock some sense into them.