GoWings1905

Babcock. Dude just absolutely neuters everyone offensively. He's perfectly content to try and win games and a series like this, which will fail badly.

This is one of the most deceiving leads you could imagine. The Wings of the past month and a half are here for the playoffs so far.

That's like five games in a row now. Is this something Babs even addresses?

No Abby, Cole or Franzen. As if the Wings weren't already small and easy to play against at forward. I think the Lightning will win in six, but I'm still holding out hope the Wings team of pre-March makes a reappearance. Playoff hockey, though. Let's do this.

The last time the Wings were in Tampa, it seemed like most of the entire lower bowl was in red on TV. You had to figure this was coming based on the potential matchup for awhile now. I think it's stupid, but I bet there will still be plenty of Wings fans present on Thursday.

If Abby is back, I'm moving Helm to center, but that's probably not happening in Babs' world. Z - Pav - Abby Tatar - Sheahan - Jurco Weiss - Helm - Nyquist Miller - Glendening - Ferraro/Andersson No Pulkkinen because I think the Wings need some element of size in Jurco with Cole and Franzen already missing at forward.

I think it will be Howard. I'm a pretty ardent Jimmy supporter and I'm not even convinced that's the right decision.

3-1 Sens late in the third. Wings don't get a point tonight, they will be a wild card.

I would see what Ottawa does tomorrow afternoon and then decide on resting guys from there. I'm not real enthused with the idea of an extra day of rest if that means playing the Rangers in the first round.

This is beyond depressing here. 24 straight years in the playoffs. I'm gonna try to enjoy that by not reading anything else here because 29 other teams would kill to be a fan of that first sentence.

Our other one did against Boston...

Get the extra point. I don't want to play the Rangers.

I really dislike the bottom six of this team.

Good lord. Dump the puck in and actually go get it. They have four guys stacked at the line.

The Euro-Twins are trying to will this team in the past two games.

Good coverage Ericsson. That sequence epitomized the Red Wings though since March.

Remember when Babs called Helm the "best third line center" in hockey and now he suddenly can only play wing?

Home ice in the first round.

Agreed. I'm happy they won too, but I'm not sure that formula really maximizes the Wings chances of winning games against teams that aren't Carolina. Having your 4th line play more minutes than anyone else is really pushing your luck. Realistically, what other coach would do that in a playoff race? They might be fine defensively, though the Red Wings struggle to score goals at even strength, so why should Miller be out there more than Pavel Datsyuk? It might be a slight aberration of nearly 19 minutes, but again the Wings only took one penalty last night and Glendening's line still ended up with that much ice time. They are still fairly consistently around 15 minutes otherwise most games. Just another curious personnel decision by Babcock -- he continuously has these obsessions with certain players.

Glendening TOI: 18:43 Miller TOI: 18:53 Most of any forwards. In a game where the Wings had one penalty. And people wonder why some of us want a new voice.

The division is still up for grabs. Montreal hasn't clinched that yet.

Fair point. I just don't know how the Rangers can possibly match the Senators intensity given what is (or isn't) at stake for both teams.

Worst case scenario really. The Rangers have nothing to play for on Thursday either against Ottawa. This might come down to Saturday.

Worked alright for Nashville and Washington.

3-3 in Ottawa. The one time you root for the Pens. Looks like this is heading to Thursday.