BlueMonk

Great points here.

Well, after 7 years or so of waiting for the rematch, the top two heavyweights fought tonight. Brashear and Laraque in as disappointing a fight as you might expect from two fighters with their styles. Brashear landed one solid punch to start the fight, then Laraque got in two before going for the takedown.

Well, I don't know about everywhere. I bet it's better in Edmonton right now.

The ice at Gaylord, or whatever the f**k they call it now, is pretty bad. You can see Edmonton skaters making a move but the puck doesn't move with them. Nashville knows how to use their ice to their advantage. Yes, that and our goalie looked like he was going to poop his pants every time he realized he was in the NHL playoffs.

Vokoun's let in a couple bad goals, otherwise the Predators should be winning this game. The Oilers look like they've been killing a penalty since the opening face-off.

I'm still not clear on what Hordichuk did wrong. He appeared to be tied down, but it sounds like they were saying he wasn't tied down properly. Not sure exactly what the deal is. Very awkward interview of Ray Ferraro by Terry Crisp. For all the time Ferraro has spent in front of a TV camera, you'd never have known by watching that clip.

I can't believe Frost isn't in jail. What a f**ked up nutjob

I give Moen the win in the fight, but the important thing is the Wings didn't take any sh** in this game, and even seemed to be the aggressor. I'm with Lou, I'm not sure it would be enough in a best of 7 series against Anaheim, but it was pretty damn good for one night. Schneider and Samuelsson were really getting into the scrum, and that was Anaheim's captain (Niedermayer) who was getting the worst of it. After the fight, the Ducks seemed to stop trying to push the Wings around. It's incredible what a little bit of sticking up for yourselves can do for a change. Maybe Babcock gave 'em the "Piss on Eddie Shore!" speech tonight. They came out ready to mix it up and play 60 minutes.

Great win. The Wings played that kind of defense back early in the season, but they've fallen away from it recently. Hasek was outstanding.

Giguere is obviously still a great goalie, but it's strange to see him giving up a lot of big rebounds in this game. In 2003, you could count on one hand the number of bad rebounds he gave up for the entire playoffs.

I'm still recovering from the idea that Lilja dropped the gloves with Travis Moen! Gotta give the big guy credit, Moen is a tough customer. Lilja looked like he was hanging on for his life at the end and just missed taking a KO punch to the head, but he had a decent start and landed at least one early in the fight. Not bad at all.

I was (trying) to make a joke about "24" on the Red Wings, Chris Chelios. You know, #24.

He's 45 years old, cut him some slack.

I'm relieved to hear this. I've gotten CBC since forever and HNIC is a staple of my Saturday nights. I'd really have been bummed if they moved to TSN and I couldn't get it. The whole CBC experience just has something special for me. Glad to hear they're sticking around.

Moore knew exactly what he was getting into. He had Bertuzzi literally pulling on his jersey trying to get him to fight. Moore turned his back on him and skated away, which was not the smartest thing to do under the circumstances. BTW, Nichol's sucker punch on Spacek deserves every bit as much condemnation as Bertuzzi's.

Amazing that the Spartans were able to derail Brown and Notre Dame. Anything is possible now, eh?

I think I mentioned this in the GDT, but that kid is from Michigan, as is Doug Weight. Notice that the elite goaltending and GW SO goal came from these players. The Wings were on the receiving end of the Hometown Special.

Bachshihshishsuhcchihua looks pretty average so far in the Blue Jackets game.

Wow, Tootoo is a -12. Nobody on the Preds is especially close. 32 players have played for the Predators this season, according to Yahoo, and only 5 of them are minus for the season.

They need to make an effort to sign him, if there's any way they can fit him in under the cap. We can complain about what he doesn't do, but what he does do is have a shot and contribute to the scoring from the blueline. Besides Lidstrom, they have nobody else who can do that.

Why would you even visit LGB? Did you get bored with self-mutilation?

Jason Bacashihua played his ass off against the Wings for the second time. He's a Michigan boy, prolly had a lot of family and friends at the game. Weight scored the GW SO goal. He's local, too. One advantage of being a team in a city like Nashville or Carolina is, you don't have to worry about some guy on the other team coming into your arena and playing out of his mind for his family and friends in his hometown.

I think part of it is Ken and Mickey tend to build up Osgood a little bit more. It seems like they want to make sure he gets props for the big saves he makes. Which is fine, but it probably makes it seem like Osgood has to be slightly more heroic in net when he plays.

Whether that's true or not, nothing in this game supports that theory. They outshot St. Louis 42-19. And they were excellent scoring chances against Jason Bacashihua, lots of them were at close range. Hey, Andy Pred, I was just messing around. I know you're a Wings fan.

For a Preds fan, you sure are smart, AndyPred. I agree with this. Having not a single call, bounce, post or crossbar go your way for 2 weeks couldn't happen at a better time.