The second installment of my movie posters set-up for Red Wings games.  I hope you guys like what you've seen so far.  Now let's go chicken-hawk hunting!

3/7: Detroit Red Wings @ Chicago Blackhawks

Let's tear a "Donny" strip off 'em!

...Sorry if that title was a little misleading.  But this is the beginning of a new series of posts using movie tag lines and posters to set up the game between the Red Wings and whomever they are playing...

3/5: Nashville Predators @ Detroit Red Wings

Let's teach them there Preds a lesson...make 'em squeal like a pig. 

So we have a new blogger in our midst, and they didn't even bother to come for help....hmph.  Well, I had to find out about the Hockeytown USA blog from Winging it in Motown.  I figure every new addition to the Red Wings Blogroll here at NOHS (on the left side of the page) deserves a shout out once I've checked out the blog for myself.

The site is ran by rwum14, who appears to be a volley player as well as a Red Wings fan.  Well there's two positive notches right here in my book.  The blog is extremely well written with news from around the league when relevant and is updated about every day.

It's an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the Red Wings blogosphere.  Some teams don't have ANY good blogs.  Detroit has too many good ones.

Give Hockeytown USA a look, but as always, you have to promise to come back.

JJ from Kansas, All-Star member of The 19 at A2Y and obvious NOHS posted this on twitter...

Somebody please remind Zetterberg what Erat said about him being overpaid.

Ah yes...remember that?  I actually had exclusive coverage of that story.  It wasn't from Khan(!), it didn't come from Miss St. James, and Chris McCosky certainly didn't break that story to you.  It was me...and my buddy on the inside.  Let's go through it again for the fun of it...

"Insider": Who is a foreign player on Nashville with blonde hair?

Me: Marty Erat?

"Insider": Could be.  He told one of my colleagues that Zetterberg isn't that good and we overpaid (for him)

Me: Ass.

"Insider": Yep

That was posted at 1:30 PM.  An hour later, after I sent my buddy a pic of Marty Erat, he confirmed that it was him who was talking crap about our future captain.

I just wanted to throw this reminder out there for those of you not on twitter.  I don't care if he was joking or not.  I don't care if it was all the way back in January.  It still makes me mad.  It should still make you mad.

I said it on January 29th and it worked, I'll say it again today hoping that it will still work tonight:

Hank, shut him up...hard.

Since the diggers are apparently taking Friday off, let's see what the Miami Herald has to say about tonight's game...why go to Florida for news about the Red Wings?  Because the Detroit Red Wings is apparently where updated news goes to die.

The Nashville Predators will aim for their fourth consecutive victory when they visit the Detroit Red Wings in tonight's Central Division battle at Joe Louis Arena.

Another team coming into the Joe on the second half of back to back nights.  Let's hope that the extra 400 some miles (the distance between Nashville and Columbus) takes more of a toll on the opponent.  Vancouver didn't seem to mind one bit.

Detroit, which is 16-9-5 at the Joe this year, is barely clinging to a playoff spot in the West. The Red Wings, who haven't missed the postseason since 1989-90, are eighth in the conference standings -- five points behind Nashville and just one point ahead of Calgary and St. Louis.

The Red Wings have taken two of three from the Predators this season, but neither team has a big edge in the recent head-to-head series. Detroit has won six of the last 11 overall against the Predators, but Nashville has lost nine of its last 12 road games in this series.

So there you have it.  If the Wings play with heart, there's no way they should lose to this team.  If they play like they did on Tuesday, there's no way that they will win.

Like Micky Redmond said, and many of you will be seeing him for the first time in about a month this evening, we need to win 3 of every 5 games that we played.  Well, we've played 2 out of the first 5 in this set and have only taken 1 point gotten one win.

That means we need to win AT LEAST two of the next three.  It's desperation time, boys.  You said it before and it didn't stick. 

 Make it stick this time.

The ball may be in Nashville's court heading into tonight...

But we want it back.  Tonight is a statement game.

Set in Hockeytown in the early March 2010, the good ol' hockey game explores the rivalry between the Predators and the Red Wings, two Western Conference teams of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The members of the Red Wings are first-generation NHL from mostly Sweden taunted by the Predators, a white trash team who consider themselves a true hockey market. The young antagonist, Marty Erat, one of the Predators, falls in love with the play-offs, the goal of Nick Lidstrom, the leader of the Red Wings. The dark theme, sophisticated music, extended dance scenes, and focus on social problems marked a turning point in the race for the final spots in the Western Conference.

The un-edited version was found here.

...But score watching each and every night/morning will have to be a daily routine from now until April.  It's just the way it is this year.  Here's how last night's Western Conference games went according to me...

Thank you, Los Angeles...bastards.  I'm not really sure about how I feel towards the St. Louis/Dallas game.  Would you rather have one team tied with you in points and one team three points back?  Or would you rather have two teams one point behind you?

Think about this...the Blues have won five in a row.  Detroit's longest winning streak this year: four (Dec. 11-Dec. 17th).  Colorado and Phoenix are both off of our radar unless we can start stringing some wins together.  Here's how we enter tonight's contest...

There are four teams within three points of us.  That's really scary considering how the Wings played on Tuesday.  We could find ourselves in 12th place rather quickly if the boys wearing the Winged Wheel don't wake up right now.

Divisional opponent tonight in a must-win game.  60 full minutes tonight boys...60 full minutes.

George: The Joe was angry last night, my friends... Like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli. I got about fifty feet out, and suddenly...the great mass of angry fans appeared before me. I tell you, twenty thousand strong! As if sensing my presence, they let out a great bellow. I said, "Easy, big fellas!" And then, as I watched them struggling, I realized that something was obstructing its team from making the play-offs. From where I was standing, I could see directly into the eye of the great mass of Canadians.

Jerry: Michiganders.

George: Whatever.

Kramer: Well, what did you do next?

George: Well then, from out of nowhere, a huge tidal wave lifted me, tossed me like a cork, and I found myself right in the locker room! Face to face with the Babcock. I could barely see from the waves crashing down upon me but I knew something was there. So I reached my hand in, felt around, and pulled out the obstruction!

While Khan(!) seems to have laid down for a long winter's nap (in March), Miss St. James picked up the lineup ball and ran with it from this morning's practice.

Franzen-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Cleary-Zetterberg-Williams
Miller-Filppula-Bertuzzi
Draper-Helm-Eaves

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Stuart
Lebda-Lilja

Howard (starting)
Osgood

“I just, I didn’t like any of it.  I liked one line; I didn’t like any of the others. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. … I can’t explain it. It’s unacceptable. I said it last night, and it’s still unacceptable today.” --Mike Babcock

From USA Today:

Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom says he is confident Detroit will be in the playoffs next month.

Seems a little contradictory compared to what was being said in the Free Press earlier today:

"We know we're right on the bubble.  Playing like this, we're not going to be in the playoffs."--Nick Lidstrom

I was excited to click on a link entitled: "Red Wings confident as they push for play-offs" only to read the top excerpt from above with no actual quote from Lidstrom.

So...are they, or aren't they?  You might want to check your sources, USA Today.  I know that the fans sure aren't all that confident.  People far less die-hard than myself were vocal about being relieved to take a break from the stress of following the Red Wings during the Olympic Break.

I'm sure many a TVs were switched off last night at or around the 5th and 6th goals scored by the Vancouver Canucks.  Call me a glutton for punishment, but I like to ride it out.

I watched the entire Pittsburgh celebration on the JLA ice last summer.  I watched the Canadian man-love after the Gold Medal game last Sunday.  I stick with my team to the bitter end.  Am I confident that they will make the play-offs?  Yes.  I have to be.

Sure, I worry about it when they put up stinkers like last night's contest.  But I still have faith.  I have to.

There's just no choice in it for me anymore.