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.

From the Free Press:

"We were poor.  We were poor in goal, we were poor on the back end, we were poor up front, we were poor in the work ethic department. The bottom line is we didn't look like a team that's dying to be in the playoffs."--Mike Babcock

Sounds like a pretty poor effort, doesn't it?  Sure we got some help from other teams last night, but if the play-offs started today and Detroit faced Chicago in the first round, how comfortable would you be right now?

"It's unacceptable.  We have to come back tomorrow and regroup and ask ourselves if we want to do this, and if we do, it's got to start tomorrow."--Brad Stuart

And if you don't?  Another effort like that on Friday could have us looking up at the top 8 again.  Like I said earlier, it's too late in the season to be playing like we did last night.

I could even buy a little bit of thise so-called "bad puck luck", but the effort just wasn't there.  We won't be able to pass Nashville in the standings on Friday, even if they lose in regulation (oh please, oh please, oh please) to the Kings tonight.  But we can send them and the fans one hell of a message by playing a complete 60 minute game of Red Wing hockey.

Come on, boys.

Oh boy.  Have you seen this yet?

The general manager of the Anaheim Ducks whacked a TV producer with a chair and knocked her down, permanently disabling her in a fit of rage after the Ducks lost to the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup playoffs, the woman claims in Detroit Federal Court.

I don't know how credible courthousenews.com is, but it looks legit.  And it goes on...

Rachel Paris, who was stage manager for the TV broadcast of the game, says Anaheim Ducks executive vice president and general manager Bob Murray "in a fit of rage, picked up a high back chair and struck" her with it, "knocking [her] to the ground."

Wait a minute...the dude actually pulled a Stone Cold Steve Austin and whacked her with it?  That seems a little far-fetched.  But apparently it did some damage...

Paris says she was severely injured in the May 14, 2009 attacks, for which she needed "multiple surgeries" and suffered "permanent disability."  She demands punitive damages from Murray and the Ducks, for assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence.

The re-match will be held as a Hell in the Cell PPV event.  Vince McMahon is negotiating exclusive marketing rights as we speak.

This is always a painful segment for me.  Sifting through another team's blog to find comments to try and ease the pain.  But like Owen Wilson in Marley and Me (that was on HBO last night), sometimes when you hose through crap, you find a jewel or two.

These coming from SBN's Nucks Misconduct...

Uh...yeah, whatever She meant by that.

That was apoor decision by wellwood

had sammy on the RW open, but chose a pass to the LW through traffic.

by Temujin on Mar 3, 2010 7:54 PM EST

Wellwood doesn’t make poor decisions! haha

by Sean Zandberg on Mar 3, 2010 7:55 PM EST

Not at MCDonalds, anyways

by Temujin on Mar 3, 2010 7:55 PM EST

I personally will never get tired of the Kyle Wellwood fat jokes.

by cyxj on Mar 3, 2010 8:33 PM EST

Not sure if that's a Wings fan visiting a Canucks site.  But a little praise is always welcome.

Whew boy...that was ugly.

We lost, but luckily - so did the teams below us within striking distance in the standings last night.  Here's how the score watching session went...

And here's what the standings look like...

The game guaranteed to go in OT tonight?  St. Louis vs Dallas.  A Dallas would pull them dead even with Detroit.  A St. Louis win would put them only one point behind us.  Score watching sucks.

Get used to this kind of stress people, it's looking like we're going to be in a dog fight from now until the last day of the regular season.  Especially if Jimmy has more games like he did last night.  That Kyle Wellwood goal reminded me a little too much of Max Talbot in game 7.

I think Micky Redmond's logic is sound...we need to win 3 of every 5 games.  So, we burned one of our losses in this session last night.  We need to take 2 of the next 3.  HUGE game on Friday against Bubba.

It's getting late in the season to be playing like they did last night...especially in the position we are in the standings.

Well that's all folks.  The deadline has passed (again).  And the only move Detroit made was sending Kris Newbury to the New York Rangers for some guy I've never heard of.

Still...I thought it would be nice to commemorate Newbury's departure and honor his short tenure with the Detroit Red Wings in a fun and creative way.  Thus, I wrote the following poem in honor of Kris Newbury's passing (as a Red Wings):

Newbury...oh Newbury…

With eyes so sad and dead.

You left as quickly as you came.

You looked so good in red.

Newbury…oh Newbury…

Your PIMS out-weighed your play

A goal in 4 games won’t suffice

New York is where you’ll stay.

Newbury oh…Newbury…

You were our only move.

The Red Wings are healthy again

And Kenny’s in the groove.

I think all poetry should be italicized.

From the Free Press...

The lineup tonight will be the same as the Colorado game, meaning defensemen Brett Lebda and Derek Meech are out.

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

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Stuart
Ericsson-Lilja

Howard (starting)
Osgood

But wait, there's more...

Up front, there could be a change on the second power play unit, the one led by Zetterberg, as Dan Cleary, Todd Bertuzzi and Valtteri Filppula are all in the running to be among the two wingers on the ice. Each was part of a shift and each missed a shift during the morning skate.

“It’s up to them.  Hunger is a wonderful thing. If you’re not going, you don’t have to go out on it (the power play). That’s a real positive thing for us. Right now on that unit with Z, we’ve got three guys battling for two jobs up front, which is really good. We want our power play to get going.”--Mike Babcock

Per cbcsports.ca...

Luongo will likely make his first appearance since winning gold for Canada as the Canucks continue their record string of road games when they face the strengthening Red Wings.

I hope you took some notes on how to beat this guy, Babcock.  Here's what Uncle Mike had to say about the "strengthening Red Wings":

"We've got enough bodies now that we should be a good hockey club.  We've got to decide to be a good hockey club."

Vancouver is coming off a game last night in Columbus that went into overtime.  Let's hope that the Canucks, who are amidst a lengthy road trip, are still a little tired from last night's contest.

Tonight is the return of Kenny and Mick on FSD.  Awesome.