Per Khan(!)...

Detroit Red Wings forwards Todd Bertuzzi and Pavel Datsyuk didn't practice Monday, but coach Mike Babcock said both will be in the lineup for Tuesday's game against Calgary (7 p.m., FSN).

You may have noticed Datsyuk's illness on the ice, because he's been flat out sick!

**cough cough**

Sorry about that.  But I'm glad to hear that Bertuzzi's leg is okay after watching that awkward collision with Ben Eager.  Datsyuk returned to action after taking that shot off of the foot, but then again, Franzen finished the game against Chicago when he injured his knee, so it's good to get some confirmation on his health.

On other adjustment to the line-up...Lebda out, Ericsson back in.  Apparently, this was a planned move:

“We’re going to keep rotating those guys.  I don’t know if it’s game in, game out, or two in, two out."--Mike Babcock

Does that mean that Meech is going to be rotated in?

Hey gang.

Just a friendly reminder that you now only have Ted Lindsay's number of days to submit an entry for the "I See 43" Contest.  We currently have over 20 submissions and are looking for more before the contest ends next Monday.

Who sees 43?

So apparently Ryan Lambert of Puckdaddyhates Cristobal Huet more than the Japanese hate dolphins and whales.

Lambert basically blames Huet for chasing away the fringe hockey fans in the US who were lured to the sport because of last week's Men's Gold Medal Game between the USA and Canada...

 With what was assumed to be a surefire excellent matchup between two Original Six teams that just happen to be division rivals, one of which is among the best teams in the league and the other being the Detroit Red Wings, as the next game televised on NBC, what could possibly go wrong?

Well Cristobal Huet, for one.

Ouch.  Here we go...

He was doing alright until about four minutes into the second period when he turned all ... well, Huet-y. Four goals on seven shots in 6:15 and the game, which Chicago had been leading 2-0, was pretty much over. It was a total gong show of goaltending ineptitude that not only underscored that they'll let just about anyone start an NHL game these days, but also that if you came in expecting Canada/USA-quality play, you might wanna be prepared to settle for Latvia-Norway.

Ouch, ouch, ouch. And here I thought that I was talking some smack against our little bros from the Windy City.  Yahoo Sports just threw a big clump of wet dirt into the face of the Blackhawks.

Lambert also blasts the officiating for the Kane goal being disallowed, but that really doesn't hold water with Wings fans since it happened to Holmstrom not even a week ago.

How could I not post something from the Chicago Daily Herald when it has such an ironic title like "This was a NIGHTMARE for Hawks" (they obviously didn't capitalize the whole word)?

Do you want to know what a couple key Blackhawks had to say about Detroit?  Do you?

"They're still the team to beat in the West.  They play playoff hockey all the time."--Andrew Ladd

You might have thought that with their success (so far) this season, that Chicago would have an absolute mental edge in this match-up.  But let me throw this idea out there for you, because I can almost guarantee that the true Blackhawks fan feel this way 100%: Lose to Detroit in the play-offs, and this season meant absolutely nothing.  That's quite a lot of pressure to be putting on these kids.

You have Chicago, a group of very talented, very young (some stupid) and mostly very inexperienced kids versus the older, more experienced, ice water veined veterans of Detroit...who wins the mental battles? 15+ points clear of us in the standings, and they STILL can't get out of our shadow...their fans won't let them.

Should Chicago be more worried about San Jose beating them out of the #1 spot in the West?  Yes.  Are they?  No.  Because they just lost to Detroit.  Both times that Detroit was running on almost a full roster?  Yeah Detroit took both of those games and it absolutely eating away at Chicago.

"They're always a good team.  They play the same way, the right way."--Jonathan Toews

I think the writer, Mr. Mike Imrem sums up the sentiment that I was hinting at perfectly in one simple and to the point sentence...

Oh, heck, maybe the Hawks just better not play the Wings in the playoffs.

The Chicago faithful will not want to admit it.  But they're fearful of seeing the Winged Wheel in the post-season...especially in the first round.  To have such a great regular season and then risk bowing out in the first round?  The bandwagon would crash and burn so hard and fast we might be able to see the flames all the way across Lake Michigan. 

Let's not forget all that Chicago has riding on this season.  They've got a lot of Gary's Cap issues on the horizon during the off-season.  They went for broke this year.  It's all or nothing for them.  A crushing defeat at the hands of their bitterest rival?  Yeah, it has them worried in the Windy City.

You may think the target is on Chicago's back.  But even from 1st place in the West, they'll be looking over their shoulder, looking towards Detroit.

A first round match-up would be epic.

Well, we can't argue with the results, now can we?

We took 4 out of 4 possible points while scoring 10 goals in the process.  We laid the smack down on Bubba on Friday and took care of the "high and mighty" Blackhawks yesterday.  According to Pierre, we're going to make the play-offs because we won that game yesterday.  Had we lost, the Douche Canoe was thoroughly convinced that Detroit was done like dinner.  No matter.  We won.

But how many of you watched the entire game?  How many of you saw Lebda over-skate that puck, watched Filppula put that perfect pass right on Andrew Ladd's skate and say, "You know what?  If this is how they're going to play, I'm not going to waste my afternoon"?

Admittedly, I did.  But only for a short while.  Something compelled me to turn the game back on.  And do you know why?  Two words: Cristobal Huet.  There's something about Chicago having that guy in net that fills me with a sense of...calm.  Like we always have a chance to crack him wide open for a few goals.  I would imagine that is how most other teams in the NHL feel about Detroit when it's late in a game and Detroit has the lead.  But as long as Huet was in net, I feel like Detroit still had a chance to come back.

He didn't dissapoint.

Now, I did miss the Kandy Kane goal getting called back.  I heard that it was pretty weak.  But remember the Franzen goal that got called back in Colorado?  Same scenario.  Would have made the game 3-0 and probably would have broken the game wide open.  The goal gets disallowed and momentum changes.  Karma's a b*tch when it comes back and you didn't even have anything to do with it.

After the Wings netted the fourth against Huet, it looked like Coach Q was about to rip off his own mustache and smother poor Cristobal with it.  The Filppula goal was hardly his fault, but none the less, Huet got the hook and they threw in Niemi.  Wasn't long before good old "Twenty Cent" gets stripped by Pavel Datsyuk who didn't have anyone within in a country mile of him when he walked in and beat the Chicago back-up.  Enjoy the "L" for that one, Niemi.

Detroit actually excecuted the "bend but don't break" strategy successfully in both third periods on the weekend.  Sure, the Chicago game got a little too close for comfort yesterday, but the point is that they held both teams off and won.  Failing to bend without breaking is something that was the bane of Detroit's existince for most of this season.

And thank 8 lbs, 12 oz baby Jesus that they did hold on to both leads because we didn't get much help with the Flames over the weekend.  The Devils failed to stop them and Minnesota let Iggy score a hatty yesterday.  No help at all.  But the good news is that Bubba lost to the 'Nucks yesterday, tightening up the race even further.  Here's what 7th, 8th, and 9th place looks like right now in the West.

Think that game tomorrow night at the Joe is a big one against the Flames?

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.