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.

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.