3/7 GDT: Blue Jackets 8 at Red Wings 2

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

VS

Preview- Blue Jackets at Red Wings

Recap- Blue Jackets 8, Red Wings 2

Columbus: 32-27-6, 12-17-4 Road Record, 70 pts; 4th in Central Division, 7th Overall in Western Conference

Last Game: Lost to NSH 4-2 Recap

Detroit: 43-14-8, 24-4-3 Home Record, 94 pts; 1st in Central Division, 2nd Overall in Western Conference

Last Game: Defeated COL 3-2 Recap

Last CBJ-DET meeting: 2/13, DET 2 at CBJ 3

NHL STANDINGS WATCH

1. Boston 66 GP, 43-14-9, 95 pts

2. New Jersey 65 GP, 42-20-3, 87 pts

3. Washington 66 GP, 40-21-5, 85 pts

4. Philadelphia 63 GP, 34-19-10, 78 pts

5. Montreal 65 GP, 34-24-7, 75 pts

6. Florida 65 GP, 33-24-8, 74 pts

7. NY Rangers 65 GP, 33-24-8, 74 pts

8. Pittsburgh 66 GP, 34-26-6, 74 pts

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9. Buffalo 65 GP, 33-25-7, 73 pts

10. Carolina 64 GP, 34-27-5, 73 pts

11. Toronto 65 GP, 26-26-13, 65 pts

12. Ottawa 63 GP, 24-29-10, 58 pts

13. Tampa Bay 65 GP, 21-31-18, 55 pts

14. Atlanta 65 GP, 24-35-6, 54 pts

15. NY Islanders 65 GP, 21-37-7, 49 pts

1. San Jose 63 GP, 42-11-10, 94 pts

2. DETROIT 65 GP, 43-14-8, 94 pts

3. Calgary 65 GP, 39-20-6, 84 pts

4. Chicago 63 GP, 36-18-9, 81 pts

5. Vancouver 63 GP, 33-22-8, 74 pts

6. Nashville 65 GP, 33-28-4, 70 pts

7. Columbus 65 GP, 32-27-6, 70 pts

8. Dallas 65 GP, 31-26-8, 70 pts

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9. Edmonton 64 GP, 31-27-6, 68 pts

10. Anaheim 66 GP, 31-29-6, 68 pts

11. Minnesota 63 GP, 31-27-5, 67 pts

12. St. Louis 64 GP, 29-27-8, 66 pts

13. Los Angeles 64 GP, 27-28-9, 63 pts

14. Phoenix 65 GP, 28-32-5, 61 pts

15. Colorado 65 GP, 28-36-1, 57 pts

Goals

CBJ Rick Nash: 28

DET Marian Hossa: 34

Assists

CBJ Rick Nash: 33

DET Pavel Datsyuk: 52

Plus/Minus

CBJ Jan Hejda: +16

DET Pavel Datsyuk: +29

----

CBJ R.J. Umberger and Kris Russel: -11

DET Kris Draper: -10

PIM

CBJ Jared Boll: 140

DET Andreas Lilja: 66

Franzen-Datsyuk-Samuelsson

Kopecky-Zetterberg-Cleary

Hudler-Filppula-Maltby

Meech-Draper-Downey

Lidstrom-Rafalski

Ericsson-Kronwall

Lebda-Stuart

Chelios scratched

CBJ Steve Mason

25-16-3, 2.24 GAA, .916 SV %, 8 SO

DET Chris Osgood

20-5-7, 3.16 GAA, .883 SV %, 1 SO

CBJ Fredrik Modin (knee) questionable, Mike Peca (head) questionable, Antoine Vermette (Visa) questionable,

Ole-Kristian Tollefsen (lower body) out, Jason Chimera (lower body) out, Derick Brassard (shoulder) out

DET Marian Hossa (neck, knee) will not play, Andreas Lilja (concussion) out, Tomas Holmstrom (hernia) out

Edited March 8, 2009 by Hockeytown0001

[Shaman 713]

Franzen-Datsyuk-Samuelsson

Kopecky-Zetterberg-Cleary

Hudler-Filppula-Maltby

Meech-Draper-Downey

Do the wings want to lose?

I mean its like Babcock pulled names out of a hat and decided those would be the lines...

Edited March 7, 2009 by Shaman464

[ComradeWasabi 109]

They look wacky with Pav and Hank split up and Hossa and Homer out. Unfortunately, most of our "best" lines put more than one centre on one line.

Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Cleary

Franzen-Filppula-Samuelsson

Hudler-Kopecky-Maltby

Meech-Draper-Downey

Might be how I would arrange them. Make of that what you will.

[Stolsanov 0]

Hopefully another strong performance for the team we love, and hopefully another good performance by Osgood.

[EuroTwin 240]

Kopy's going to get a hattrick. O.O And Ozzie will play excellently.

Also, thanks to you insane people (and the Nashville GDT), I've bought more ice cream in the past week than I have in the past year. Damn you all!

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

Per MLive -

Lilja has persistant headaches

Defenseman Andreas Lilja is experiencing constant headaches because of the concussion he sustained after being punched by Nashville's Shea Weber last Saturday.

"When the headaches are over, then I can probably start playing,'' Lilja said. "I've had concussions before, but never had these symptoms afterward. Usually, you wait 10 days and you're good to go. Never had headaches all the time. It's just weird.''

Babcock lauds Rafalski

With 51 points, Brian Rafalski ranks second in the NHL among defensemen, five less than Washington's Mike Green. Rafalski is four points short of his career high, which he reached in each of the past two seasons.

"Rafi has been one of the best defensemen in the league all year long, probably pushing to be our best one this year. Just been consistent from start to finish,'' Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "And when you're on a team with Nick Lidstrom, and someone can mention that, you must be playing pretty well.''

Odds & ends

• Forward Tomas Holmstrom still is eyeing a Tuesday return, after having surgery for a sports hernia Feb. 11.

[Guest Shoreline]

Wings better be on their A game for this one. Jackets are hunting for a first playoff berth and if the Wings don't show up more hungry than the Jackets it'll be far more difficult than it needs to be.

Edit: And no doubt Raffy will set a new record in points. That was a given with him coming to a more offensive styled team compared to the boring ass Devils brand.

Edited March 7, 2009 by Shoreline

[Heroes of Hockeytown 694]

No problem with Mike giving Brian high praise, and I wouldn't expect him to say something else, but he's got a long way to go to catch Nick.

As for the lines, that works for me. Hank and Pavel might be made for each other, but they haven't been getting results in the last 4-5 games, and if you aren't getting results things are going to change in a hurry.

[Superman54 91]

Hopefully Detroit show's some energy, because Blue Jackets are fighting for everything and will come out hard. Good luck to Ozzie, and hopefully he can have another strong performance.

[BuckeyeWingsfan80 209]

Hopefully Detroit show's some energy, because Blue Jackets are fighting for everything and will come out hard. Good luck to Ozzie, and hopefully he can have another strong performance.

and the jackets always seem to have something extra for Detroit too....

I'll say Wings 4 - 2 but those 2 will both be Rick Nash....

[Yzersyukstromberg 0]

Wings 5 Jackets 2

Scoring for the Wings: Datsyuk, Zetterberg (2), Kopecky, Cleary

Scoring for the Jackets: who cares

[Greatness=PavelDatsyuk 65]

Do the wings want to lose?

I mean its like Babcock pulled names out of a hat and decided those would be the lines...

Kopecky has been playing extremly well over the past five games, he's +6 with 3 goals and 6 points, so why not try to get him going even more?

[shutoutking 0]

Hey guys, do us both a favor and whoop their sorry ass .

You get closer to the Presidents Trophy, we put space between each other (NSH/CBJ)

How's Hossa?.

[cusimano_brothers 1,655]

Current Streaks

Season Streaks

Overall: 2-game winning streak (1 shutout)

Home: 4-game winning streak.

Streaks vs. Columbus

Overall: 2-game losing streak (1 overtime)

Home: 4-game winning streak (1 shutout).

Record on this date

March 7

This is the 34th game played on this date. The Club's record in the previous 33 games:

14W-15L-4T.

LGW.

[Aussie_Wing 354]

Babcock lauds Rafalski

With 51 points, Brian Rafalski ranks second in the NHL among defensemen, five less than Washington's Mike Green. Rafalski is four points short of his career high, which he reached in each of the past two seasons.

"Rafi has been one of the best defensemen in the league all year long, probably pushing to be our best one this year. Just been consistent from start to finish,'' Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "And when you're on a team with Nick Lidstrom, and someone can mention that, you must be playing pretty well.''

Yeah Babs, not to mention that he constantly turned the puck over and was beaten wide in every game for the first half of the season...

He's improved a bit lately but defensively he's still pretty dodgy. He obviously has no troubles racking up the points but I think Babcock is going a bit far with this assessment.

And those lines we used in practice aren't great.

Here's the lines they skated with in practice:

Franzen-Datsyuk-Samuelsson

Kopecky-Zetterberg-Cleary

Hudler-Filppula-Maltby

Meech-Draper-Downey

Splitting up Dats and Hank? I guess they haven't been that hot lately. I like Hudler with Filppula, but Maltby on the 3rd line? Heck no. 4th line looks awful. Hopefully these really are just practice lines and they'll change when the game starts.

[The Mule 0]

I'll be at a show in Toronto night, so I'll have to miss this one, but here's hoping for a win.

Is Ozzie getting the start? He was strong in his last outing, so I have no issues if that's the case. With that said, the Wings will take this one 4-1 on the strength of goals from Flipper, Hudlum, Big Rig, and the Mule.

Do it, boys.

[Electrophile 3,554]

Wings win, Hank with the hat trick.

I'll keep saying it until it happens. The last bit, not the first.

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

Hey guys, do us both a favor and whoop their sorry ass .

You get closer to the Presidents Trophy, we put space between each other (NSH/CBJ)

How's Hossa?.

He's still day to day; his knee is healing fine but his back/neck is still a bit stiff.

[Casey 145]

I'll be there, they'll win. Enough said.

[hockey&beer 16]

Surprised not to see it yet...

But here's looking forward to Downey and Boll. Of course AD will have his hands full, but he is prob one of the best pugilists at using both hammers.

Oh wait, I forgot NHL fans do not enjoy fighting

[Electrophile 3,554]

Surprised not to see it yet...

But here's looking forward to Downey and Boll. Of course AD will have his hands full, but he is prob one of the best pugilists at using both hammers.

Oh wait, I forgot NHL fans do not enjoy fighting

I think you're mistaking that sentiment with the one that is commonly expressed here, which is we don't NEED to fight in order to win. That's it not necessary. If you've read any of the threads from the last couple games where Downey has played, you'd see that quite a few people have expressed how the team is playing with a little more intensity than normal. Can that be attributed to having a more physical presence on the ice? Probably.

No one thinks fighting is inherently a bad thing.

[VM1138 1,921]

I think you're mistaking that sentiment with the one that is commonly expressed here, which is we don't NEED to fight in order to win. That's it not necessary. If you've read any of the threads from the last couple games where Downey has played, you'd see that quite a few people have expressed how the team is playing with a little more intensity than normal. Can that be attributed to having a more physical presence on the ice? Probably.

No one thinks fighting is inherently a bad thing.

Exactly. I personally love the fights, but some people just rant and rave about how the only way to win is to have a team full of enforcers beating the snot out of everyone they play.

[Guest Shoreline]

Let's go Wings! Bring in all the goons, take a slapshot into their faces, and while the puck is stuck in their teeth, push them into the net with the puck for a goal. Or, just play normal hockey and all that boring stuff. I'll probably watch it if I'm not at the movies again or elsewhere.

[esteef 2,679]

Commodore and Torres, PLEASE play your little tough-guy act tonight against the Wings with Downey in the lineup. PLEASE!

esteef

[uk_redwing 495]

Commodore and Torres, PLEASE play your little tough-guy act tonight against the Wings with Downey in the lineup. PLEASE!

esteef

They will cos dont forget enforcers dont prevent anything

Downey v Boll round 2. Downeys first fight at the joe and crowd (and Mickey) goes insane.