Warm-Up: Round 2, Game 4 San Jose @ Detroit

The Warm Up:

They say history repeats itself. Tonight- it better not.

It's do or die time.
It's now or never.
Tonight Hockeytown, we need to believe.
Believe that our boys can come flying out onto the ice tonight. Believe that even though we're down by three, we're not out. Believe that this team has what it takes to win game 4 just so that our season can see a few more days (hopefully weeks). It's not going to be easy, but if any team has enough heart to do this, it's the Red Wings.
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The Wings host the San Jose Sharks tonight at 7. All the pieces need to come together for the Wings tonight, otherwise they'll spend tomorrow reserving tee-times.


Injuries/Scratches:

Mike Modano, Drew Miller, Jakub Kindl are the healthy scratches tonight.

Other Notes:

There's a lot of talk around town about the end of careers for some of the guys on the team. Modano, Osgood, maybe Lidstrom, maybe Draper. We all know that these guys are towards the end of their careers but for god's sake, can we PLEASE save the retirement talks for after the playoffs? Our guys have more important things to worry about right now.


Let's do this boys.

Go Wings!

Warm-Up: Round 2, Game 3 San Jose @ Detroit

Warm-Up:

The Wings host the Sharks tonight for game 3 of the Western Conference Semi-Final. Our boys are down by 2 in the series, making tonight a must win... otherwise I'll turn on the panic button... and that won't be pretty. Babs is switching up the line up tonight, he's sitting Drew Miller and putting in Kris Draper. Also, Babs is splitting up Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, putting them on the first and second line respectively.

On a personal note... I think that Kindl should be out on the ice instead of Ericsson or Salei... just my opinion though.

Lines for tonight should look something like this then-

Franzen, Datsyuk, Holmstrom
Bertuzzi, Zetterberg, Cleary
Abdelkader, Filppula, Hudler
Draper, Helm, Eaves



Injuries/Scratches:

Mike Modano, Drew Miller, and Jakub Kindl are the healthy scratches tonight

Other Notes:

What/Who To Look For:

Douglas Murray- This guys is definitely letting his presence be known out on the ice.

Those guys in stripes on the ice playing for San Jose. They're real good this time of year.

Also, lets hope Jimmy is wearing his mittens and scarf tonight, there's sure to be some snow showers coming his way.

Predictions:

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

Player of the Game-
Stef- Johan Franzen
Danielle- Tomas Holmstrom

Go Wings!

Warm-Up: Round 2, Game 2 Detroit @ San Jose

The Warm-Up:

Let's not hit the panic button yet. After a tough over-time loss on Friday night, the Wings are looking to come back to Detroit with the series tied 1-1. Though game one wasn't their best game, the Wings aren't a team to let one game get them down. I'm looking forward to seeing the Wings come out strong and willing to do whatever it takes (minus the penalties) to win this one.

We'll also be forced to listen to NBC announce the game this afternoon.

Injuries/Scratches:

Kris Draper, Mike Modano, and Jakub Kindl are the healthy scratches today.


Other Notes:

Happy Birthday to Patrick Eaves!

AND! A big congrats to Hockeytown Rundown-er, Stef for graduating today!!!


What to Look For:

The Wings need to stay out of the penalty box today. In game one, the Wings had 6 penalties called against them, while San Jose only had 2. We'll also need to see some spark coming from guys like Franzen and Helm.

Predictions:

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

Player of the Game-
Stef- Brian Rafalski
Danielle- Valtteri Filppula


Go Wings!

Warm-Up: Round 2, Game 1 Detroit @ San Jose

The Warm-Up:

After what seemed like months without Red Wings hockey, our boys in red and white will hit the ice and take on the San Jose Sharks tonight. As we all know, the Sharks were responsible for knocking the Wings out of the playoffs last season and the Wings will be sure to fight as hard as they can to make sure history doesn't repeat itself this time around.

The Sharks won 3 of the 4 regular season match-ups between these two teams. It will be interesting to see how they match up tonight, both teams have strong lines, lots of goal scorers. Special teams will also be important through out the series.


Injuries/Scratches:

Kris Draper, Mike Modano, and Jakub Kindl should be the healthy scratches this evening.

What To Look For:


Justin Abdelkader and Darren Helm. These two guys made themselves known in the first round, I can only see them getting better from here.


Other Notes:

Happy Birthday to the one and only, Mike Babcock!

Predictions-

Series Prediction:
Stef- Wings in 5
Danielle - Wings in 6

Player of the Series:
Stef- Pavel Datsyuk
Danielle- Darren Helm

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

Player of the Game:
Stef- Pavel Datsyuk
Danielle- Danny Cleary


Go 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.

Warm-Up: San Jose @ Detroit

The Red Wings and the Sharks face-off tonight at the Joe. The Wings are on a nice 5 game win streak and tonight might be a bit of a challenge since the Sharks have won 8 of their last 10 games. (Wings have won 7 of their last 10) These two teams are pretty evenly matched so it should be a good game from start to finish. Also, the last 2 times these teams met, the winning team scored 5 goals... so maybe we have another high scoring game ahead of us tonight

Here's the Predictions...


Player of the Game-
Stef- Danny Cleary
Danielle- Pavel Datsyuk

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