Icesurfer

With Chicago beating the Avs tonight they are no longer a possible opponent in the first round. Wings nixed that possibility by beating Columbus. If Nashville loses their last game they are automatic 7th seed. If Nashville wins their last game and Detroit beats Chicago or gets a point, Nashville ends up as 7th seed. If Nashville wins their last game and Detroit loses their last game, Detroit ends up as 7th seed, but Chicago ends up as first seed. Chicago plays Avs.

7th seed is still alive for the Wings as the Preds won the shootout to beat St. Louis.

Pittsburgh can finish no higher than FOURTH seed. If the Wings win tomorrow they would have HOME ICE advantage in a Stanley Cup rematch as the Wings would finish with more points.

Howie performs better the more he plays anyway. Too much time off is not good for Howie.

Howie will probably be in goal tomorrow! Wings need to win tomorrow!

Because LA lost today against the Oilers (OTL included)....Yeh....if the Wings win tomorrow they automatically have fifth seed and play Phoenix.. and probably start Thursday and play Saturday so Buttman can ramp it up for Saturday TV. If the Wings lose tomorrow they still can end up in either 5th (vs Phoenix), 6th (vs Vancouver) or 7th (vs San Jose). Against Vancouver the Wings will probably start Wednesday and play Friday at General Motors Place because the Globetrotters are there on Saturday.... someone said "ay" one too many times when scheduling the Globetrotters...LOL! The thing about playing Phoenix is you know Buttman will instruct his cronies (Screw-You-LaRue, Way-To-Go-Leggo, Me-An-Ian, Blunder-Land-Sutherland, and Sad-Brad-Watson) to make sure that the series goes 7 games and that they call enough bad penalties to give the Coyotes a chance. He is trying to save the franchise and what better way than to take advantage of the huge Red Wings following. But the good thing is that Jobing.com Arena should be packed with Wings fans... another fund booster for the Yotes.

Arizona does not follow Daylight Savings Time. Changed last month... 3 hours difference. Vancouver, LA & Phoenix are all now on same time. Arizona does not observe Daylight Saving Time (March through November). We do not "spring Forward" in Phoenix -- we always stay on Mountain Standard Time. During Daylight Saving Time (DST) most of Arizona is at the same time as California (Pacific Daylight Time or PDT).

Yeh.... post was edited here after I realized Arizona does not follow DST.

It looks like if the Wings play Vancouver the dates will be WED & FRIDAY & Vancouver should have their defensive core back (Ehrhoff, Edler, Salo, Bieska, Rome & O'Brien.) Mitchell has been out since January with a concussion. "Vigneault said the absences of O'Brien, Rome and Salo are day-to-day, and all three blueliners should be ready to start the playoffs next week. “I'm feeling better today,” O'Brien said. “I just had a little bit of a stinger there. I got hit a little awkwardly and they held me out the rest of the game. I got some ice on it today and some treatment and it felt better, so hopefully it's nothing too serious. The main goal is to get ready for playoffs.” PLAYOFF DATES: The Canucks, suitably embarrassed that someone in the organization rented out their arena on the opening Saturday of the NHL playoffs, have approached the Harlem Globetrotters about rescheduling their game. Television networks are unhappy about not having a Saturday date for the Canucks' second playoff game. “All I can tell you is we have an event scheduled for GM Place that night and we're operating on the assumption the building will be unavailable to us,” Gilman said. Barring any schedule change, the Canucks will likely play Games 1 and 2 at home on Wednesday and Friday."

Now I am beginning to think that Detroit may also really try to win that last game against Chicago. Several reasons: 1) If LA loses one of their last two games Wings can take fifth seed. 2) It is possible that all four bottom seeds beat the top four seeds giving the Wings home ice advantage for at least the next two rounds and possibly the Stanley Cup Finals if you can believe that....if the Wings win and take the fifth seed. If New Jersey wins their division and Pittsburgh loses one of their last two games in regulation Wings will have home ice advantage against a Pittsburgh rematch.... who would have thought? 3) Chicago will end up playing Nashville (if San Jose gets more points in their last game than Chicago does) instead of Colorado. Nashville, IMHO, will beat Chicago. 4) Phoenix is one less time zone to deal with for Detroit.....OOPS .... Scratch that ..... Arizona does not follow DST.... so they are still 3 hours difference.. 5) Buttman would love a Phoenix-Detroit "franchise saving" matchup. GO OILERS!!! LA-Oiler matchup tomorrow. GO OZZIE.... pretend you are in the playoffs.

So do you really think they are injured OR are they just resting some players and pretending to be the injured dog? Poker on ice is a great game! Besides, we know the Wings can beat Vancouver..... we just hope it is in FOUR games so there is only ONE west coast trip.

The best scenario to eliminate Chicago is for Detroit to beat them the last game and have Nashville face Chicago in the first round. Nashville will be very tough for Chicago to beat and I believe Nashville can beat them. If LA loses one game Detroit has a chance for fifth seed and Phoenix with one less time zone to deal with. I watched a lot of San Jose games also this year and Nabby is definitely beatable. San Jose's top line has not been good this last month. Erhoff is expected back soon. It is the possible 3 trips to the west coast in the first round that will kill the Wings.

I really wanted the Wings to play Chicago in the first round. IMHO, Chicago wants Colorado in the first round. Chicago will try to win the last game. Which would mean Detroit could end up in 7th seed and play San Jose in the first round. I believe that Detroit could sweep San Jose. But if that series goes 7 games a tired Detroit team with a lot of travel miles could face a healthy Chicago team (Campbell returning and maybe confidence for Niemi) for the second round. All of sudden Chicago doesn't look like an easy opponent with a tired Wings team and a healthy rested Blackhawks team. Avs really have gone downhill fast. Just looking ahead at possibilities. At any rate I suspect Detroit will play San Jose or Vancouver now in the first round.

It doesn't matter what the Kings do.... DETROIT WILL NOT PLAY CHICAGO IN THE FIRST ROUND!!!!! The options left are San Jose, Vancouver or Phoenix.

There is no substitute for playoff wisdom someone can bring to the team.

It will all depend on Howie performs in the playoffs. And if Ozzie doesn't play and he knows he won't get much playing time next year he just may retire. Holland and Ozzie are close so who knows what will happen.

Chicago..... they are hurting on defense and goaltending. Campbell will be out for first round only. My first thoughts are always TRAVEL! Because Wings don't have home ice advantage it is possible to fly THREE times to West coast if the first round goes 7 games..... that would kill the Wings for later rounds!

I am hoping for 7th seed and a first round matchup with the Hawks. It is easy travel, Hawks are hurting in goal and on defence, and Quenneville has a horrible playoff record.... especially against the Wings!!!! Wings in four games against the Hawks and make it a turkey shoot for Hossa!

The stats have been updated through games of Sunday, April 4th. First star of the week is John Tavares. He accumulated one goal and four assists for five points and improved his plus/minus from -16 to -10. He should be a good bet for hockey pools for next year. Second star of the week is Rask. If he wasn't injured this year and played more games he most likely would have won the Calder Cup. He lowered his league leading GAA from 2.11 to an incredible 1.96 and raised his SV% to .931 and got 2 more wins with another shutout. He will be winner also next year and another good hockey pool bet. Third star of the week is Jimmy Howard. He was awarded NHL SECOND STAR OF THE MONTH for his brilliant performances over the month playing in 25 straight games and surpassing Steve Mason, last year's Calder Cup winner, in wins with 34. The playoffs will be the best test for Howie and his confidence is unbelievable.

If Wings could lose the Stanley Cup on ONE faux pas on defence in game 7, then YES Tyler Myers could lose the Calder Cup on one blown game especially if it was against his primary competitor. One game or one event has been known to make it or break for any athlete. And that is my humble opinion! If it was Lebda or Rafalski that tossed that puck over the glass in overtime and led to a loss the Wings fans would have ripped them a new butt hole and road them out of town! LOL!

How is reporting stats making Howard fans look bad???? That makes absolutely no sense. I listed ALL the stats. And just because you were ignorant about productive ice time does not mean it is not an important or utilizable stat. I looked at all the rankings, obviously, that's why I wrote about it. I am a BIG Howie fan and I think you are a Myers Mole.... LOL.

YEP... I was right ....he played 22:41 in the Detroit game and ZERO was productive ice time!!!!!! Matter of fact he was in a stretch of NINE straight games where he got a grand total of about 5 minutes of productive ice time in the 9 straight games. That is why he is 234th. He is not a consistently good player like Howie. You could count on Howie night after night. I think Howie had a grand total of about only 4 or 5 bad games ALL year and most of those where in the beginning of the year when his confidence wasn't there yet.

Oopps! I'm sorry. I forgot. Myers wasn't invisible in the Wings-Buffalo game! Myers was so good he tossed the puck in the crowd from his defensive end allowing the Wings to win the game on the ensuing power play. Silly me.... how could I have forgotten that??? I wonder if he got any productive ice time in THAT game? LOL.

With Hudler returning next year's roster seems to be pretty well set: Johan Franzen $3,954,545 Pavel Datsyuk $6,700,000 * Tomas Holmstrom $1,750,000 * Hudler $2,875,000 Henrik Zetterberg $6,083,333 Valtteri Filppula $3,000,000 Daniel Cleary $2,800,000 * Justin Abdelkader $1,000,000 * Drew Miller $875,000 Kris Draper $1,583,333 * Darren Helm $925,000 * Patrick Eaves $925,000 * Kirk Maltby $500,000 Brian Rafalski $6,000,000 * Nicklas Lidstrom $5,000,000 Brad Stuart $3,750,000 Niklas Kronwall $3,000,000 * Andreas Lilja $1,250,000 Jonathan Ericsson $900,000 Jakub Kindl $883,333 Chris Osgood $1,416,666 Jimmy Howard $716,666 TOTAL $55,887,876.00 about $1 mil under the cap.

Yeh..... Myers was invisible when Howie out-dueled Miller..... even at 6'8" ......LOL! Myers plays in a cr@p conference too! There is no doubt that the Western Conference is far superior to the East overall.... and that makes Howie's stats even more amazing. 234th in PRODUCTIVE ICE TIME out of 300 defencemen sounds pretty convincing to me. That is not my stat ...... courtesy of ESPN stats. People notice him because of his height.... THAT'S IT! And that's all they talk about. Lidstrom is not as noticeable on the ice because he quietly does his job..... and is only about 6'....LOL