WQF GAME 1 GDT: Red Wings 3, Predators 1

[puckloo39 5,686]

Sure seemed more than 20 shots against tonight. Pretty entertaining game. I love the people that are like, "Well, it WAS tipped.............BUT IT'S STILL A WEAK GOAL!" Having played goaltender the tipped shot, particularly when a. you can't see the shot, and b. you can't see the person tipping the shot, is THE hardest save a goalkeeper can attempt. In that situation the Dom can only hope the puck hits him, and it didn't. The way he fell back reminded me of the '97 playoffs Game 3 against Ottawa, I was thinking we might have a knee sprain on our hands. Time to go root for the Stars/Flames.

Hasek got run over at least twice, maybe three times tonight. Got back up. He stopped the puck and gave the Wings a chance when they were "almosting" and "oh, so close-ing" most of the evening on the other end. So, whatever, Dom was OK, good enough.

We won't win very many games with 1 or 2 goals... they HAVE to do better than that.

40 SOG is not 'outplaying' the other team if their goalie sees 75% of the shots from the perimeter and only 1 goes in, JMO. Dom probably wishes he could get a bunch of shots on him that he could actually see and stop easily. The ones that get through to him are usually a challenge and more than likely a scoring chance.

Offense (lack thereof) scares me a lot more than goaltending. Dom set a shut out record on '02. Maybe he can do it again. He might have to. The "two-goal per game" rule simply has to go, now.

[umredwing11 2]

My random notes and observations from game 1:

- Good to see us selling out our games again and the crowd was pretty wild, this defintely makes me happy.

- Zata is CLUTCH!

- Hasek looks pretty darn solid though he wasn't really tested, Ellis looked good too, not great, I feel most of our chances that went by the wayside were either post shots, or just instances of failed execution by us being 2% off on the play. I also think our garbage shot total was at worse equal with Nashville's so that's a good trend to see us stray from partially.

- I don't care what anyone says, Sammy was pretty good tonight and Hudler even had his moments though he needs to shoot the damn puck. I swear he and Sammy are polar opposites of each other, if only we could combine the best assets of both we'd have one hell of a player.

- In retrospect I liked the Kronnic hit. Dirty? Yes. Untimely? yes. But it sent an alright message by a team of "softies." No one was hurt (Kronwall either, thank god) and maybe Nashville won't be taking things so lightly now on us aforementioned "softies." Hope that plays with their heads some.

- Redmond is the best local sports color commentator anywhere. loved what he had to say when Tootoo charged one of our guys.

- Michigan is playing TERRIBLE against Notre Dame, kind of dampens my mood =/

Same here...3-0. Ahh well, at least the Wings came away with the W

[WingsWingsWings 3]

Good Game!!

Now I must sleep...

[eva unit zero 271]

Really?!?!?! I thought he was great. Especially in the 1st and 2nd. Drapes was great too. Know who wasn't great?? Rafalski. Which I think is fine because you know he's gonna get his game back. Lidstrom had to bail his ass out a couple of time.

I thought Hudler was the best player on the team for the first 40. He wasn't out much, but he was ALWAYS creating offense, and even mixed it up when the Preds took a run at Draper.

I especially liked the Franzen/Hudler/Cleary line that produced the first goal.

[Bannedforlife 403]

Good game. I have a feeling my beard will get much longer than it did last year...

[Cruiser008 37]

- In retrospect I liked the Kronnic hit. Dirty? Yes. Untimely? yes. But it sent an alright message by a team of "softies." No one was hurt (Kronwall either, thank god) and maybe Nashville won't be taking things so lightly now on us aforementioned "softies." Hope that plays with their heads some.

Loved the Kronnic hit..... it was dirty, but it was also dirrrrty! Besides, Nashville did NOTHING on that, or any of their PPs.

[Matt 1,049]

Overall not a bad way to start the playoffs. There were two or three goals left there on the ice but I think they'll start finishing better after this game. Bullets:

- Hasek was solid. Can't blame him one iota for the Tootoo goal. Deflected halfway there, no chance.

- Franzen looked great. He's a beast on the puck and can just bull players off it when he's got that mindset.

- Filppula was *really* fighting the puck.

- I really hope Cleary doesn't have to keep playing with the facemask.

- The top line really seemed to come on after the first period.

- Power play needs to get going. That's critical.

[detroitdan 0]

I say put Downey or Abdelkader in for game 2 instead of Mac...he looked lost out there

[tazzer82 0]

What was this hit Kronner had? I didn't see much of the game, looked like the Wings were playing physical for awhile, always good to see.

[Matt 1,049]

I say put Downey or Abdelkader in for game 2 instead of Mac...he looked lost out there

I'd be shocked if there were any lineup adjustments for Game. McCarty looked fine in the time that he actually did play.

[Guest EZBAKETHAGANGSTA]

I thought Hudler was the best player on the team for the first 40. He wasn't out much, but he was ALWAYS creating offense, and even mixed it up when the Preds took a run at Draper.

I especially liked the Franzen/Hudler/Cleary line that produced the first goal.

Hudler had a very STRONG game

[RedWingsFanatic 4]

Yeah, I thought McCarty looked fine. If anything, I'd sub in Downey for Hartigan, but I don't really see that happening.

I'm not motivated to post my entire game thoughs right now, but here are a few:

- The game being a sell-out is fantastic. I did not think that was going to happen. And the crowd was energized to boot. Very nice stuff.

- I thought Datsyuk was pretty phenomenal out there. He made a couple of plays that were awe-inspiring.

- After looking a bit shaky to start, Hasek really settled in. He played with confidence throughout the second and third periods.

- The power play will need to better, for sure.

Okay, that's about it. A nice win, though not the best this team can do. We'll probably need to be better in Nashville if we want to win. Blah blah blah. Wings up 1-0. I'm happy.

[Lidstromrules16 7]

-huds played great

-Franzenstein played great

-Zatta was clutch

quick question, was Dats really playing with the flu?

[edicius 3,269]

I disagree about Franzen. When he was out there, he was making things happen and was always around the action. He could have laid the body on a few more times, but if he keeps this up, he'll be a huge asset to our playoff success.

Amen to that.

From this game (courtesy of TSN):

The one player that REALLY worried me this game was Rafalski. He was just flat out AWFUL.

[Majsheppard 203]

Fun game to be at! Got my phone sling box to watch Montreal smoke Boston and got to see my two boys whom I bought Jerseys for the first nights of their career score.

That's right I knew they both would be great players and they had three goals between them.

Johan and Zetter is grand. Boys going to get paid!

[rick zombo 3,739]

I thought Nashville got away with alot this game. Tackling Z and Pavs all the time. Zidlicky losing his stick and pumching Franzen in the face, knocking him down. A hit on Lilja when the puck was nowhere to be found. That trip on Datsyuk in the 2nd period. Draper was punched in the face after he gave a clean hit.

Basically it was nice to see Kronwall drop the bomb. And it was hilarious to see Trotz and co. get all worked up on Zetterberg's goal because they felt Z tripped up the Nashville player to help create the odd man rush. Give me a break.

Good hard fought win for Detroit.

[Rivalred 630]

It seemed to be that the game was slow at times and the Wings had so many chances, but could not get a rebound. If they were able to do so, the game would of been over early.

[EuroTwinLove40 0]

Amen to that.

From this game (courtesy of TSN):

The one player that REALLY worried me this game was Rafalski. He was just flat out AWFUL.

OMG, that pic this amazing!

I agree, Rafi did not have a very good game. When he and Lids were switching positions and they ran into each other... I mean, really...with those two, when does that ever happen!? lol

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

Really glad to hear bout the sellout...i didn't think it'd happen.

[HockeyCrazy3033 168]

JSKDGKSJ!!!!!!

BACK FROM THE GAME!

First off, the crowd was freaking AMAZING tonight! SOOOO FREAKING LOUD! The Wings chants were non stop. When Hank scored the first time the place went crazy! It was so great to be there. Please tell me they showed the GO WINGS GO chant during the game? Half the arena was saying Go and the other half was saying Wings. It was fantabulous and so much fun. LOL

Secondly, I thought at times the Wings looked great, and at others they looked sluggish. The fact that we won this game and weren't at our best says something. Hank was freaking amazing. Mule was a beast as usual. Kronner's hit was fantastic and I still don't know why or how it was a penalty?!

Dom was really good when he had to make the big saves.

All in all it was LOTS of fun

Got to see OsGod, Wingnut22, and PenaltyShot96 before the game, which was awesome. Also met up with Rabs during intermission and I gotta tell you that she called a 3-1 victory with Hank winning it for us.

Soo much fun tonight! GO WINGS!!!!

[seeinred 1,488]

JSKDGKSJ!!!!!!

BACK FROM THE GAME!

First off, the crowd was freaking AMAZING tonight! SOOOO FREAKING LOUD! The Wings chants were non stop. When Hank scored the first time the place went crazy! It was so great to be there. Please tell me they showed the GO WINGS GO chant during the game? Half the arena was saying Go and the other half was saying Wings. It was fantabulous and so much fun. LOL

Secondly, I thought at times the Wings looked great, and at others they looked sluggish. The fact that we won this game and weren't at our best says something. Hank was freaking amazing. Mule was a beast as usual. Kronner's hit was fantastic and I still don't know why or how it was a penalty?!

Dom was really good when he had to make the big saves.

All in all it was LOTS of fun

Got to see OsGod, Wingnut22, and PenaltyShot96 before the game, which was awesome. Also met up with Rabs during intermission and I gotta tell you that she called a 3-1 victory with Hank winning it for us.

Soo much fun tonight! GO WINGS!!!!

When you see a good replay of it, you'll see that Kronner did leave his feet a little bit and make contact with his elbow/forearm. Far from malicious, and his elbow was tucked in and all, but it was for sure worth 2 minutes.

[Matt 1,049]

Any whining by the Predators is really unfounded. They "got away" with more than their fair share tonight (Zidlicky punching Draper in the back of the head? Smithson leaving his feet?). Either they call it all both ways or they don't call it at all -- and tonight they didn't.

[tazzer82 0]

Any video of the Kronner hit? I'm sure nhl.com won't have it up, and I'd love to see it.

[kylee 727]

im very pleased with the Red Wings effort tonight.

remember about Raffi folks: that was his 1st game as a Wing and he did make a few mistakes, but the defense collapsed and covered for him, to me, thats a GOOD sign that if a player makes a bit of a screw up someone is there to push the player to the outside.

Dom was totally on tonight. i was so absolutely thrilled to see that, knowing that we need him to be like this all playoffs for a Cup run. he made it happen tonight. make confident and key saves when we needed him the most.

i would not be discouraged about the defense at all; after all that is one of this teams true strongpoints. id give them about a "B" grade tonight and they STILL gave up one goal to nashville.

i think the series will be like this, but im really starting to think it might be like this, and a short series at that. it just doesn't seem like nashville has the offensive firepower. and Ellis stood on his head and they still lost.

one last thing:

the crowd was intense tonight. and i was so happy to hear it on my TV. you guys were very reactive and very fired up especially when the Wings needed you most, it got me very excited.

lets do this again saturday and put a strangle hold on the series!

[Third Man In 2,091]

Predators 14, Red Wings 1

Despite winning a blowout on the road in a tough building, Predators winger Martin Erat sat dejected in the dressing room and wasn't in the mood for postgame discussion. Asked why he was so down, he replied, "My name is Erat. What kind of a f**king name is Erat? I hate my parents."

Predators captain Jason Arnott looked distressed as he searched for his missing lucky towel, something he's kept in his locker since he won a Stanley Cup with the Devils. The lucky charm was located by teammate David Legwand, prompting a a relieved Arnott to ask where he found it. Legwand responded, "It was buried under a pile of dirty sweaters, next to Tootoo's class and Trotz's neck."

Wow BlueMonk, except for the Erat bit your prediction was way off. Better try again Saturday!