I dig previews.  It shows how little most of the supposed experts really know.  So why wait? Lets take a look.  

Detroit Free Press: 

Helene St. James -  Red Wings in six. The travel will test, but the way the Red Wings have been playing for the past week should carry them through this series. The Wings already showed twice this season that they can win in Anaheim. The key will be scoring first and forcing the Ducks to chase the puck. The other key will be to watch penalties, because Anaheim has a very good power play. The Ducks don't have the relentlessness of the Chicago Blackhawks, so if the Wings can establish themselves early, it'd be huge.

Jeff Seidel - Red Wings in six. The Wings beat the Ducks twice in their building during the regular season. Since then, the Wings are even better and have added Danny DeKeyser.

Drew (I Don't Care What the Fans Think) Sharp - Red Wings in six. Always go with the hot team and the hot goalie in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Wings are probably far from a consensus underdog in this series, considering the recent history of low seeds going far in the playoffs.

George Sipple - Ducks in six. The Red Wings wouldn’t have extended their streak of making the playoffs for 22 consecutive seasons if not for the play of goaltender Jimmy Howard. While the Wings may have the better goaltender, the Ducks prove to be the better team.

Isn't it sad how little the Detroit beat writers actually know about the Wings other than St. James?  Look at how little detail each writer put.  Sipple: "Wings have a better goaltender, but Ducks have the better team."  Really George? Do you know who the Ducks' goaltenders are?  

Drew "I'm smarter than you" Sharp manages to do his usual of saying nothing while saying something.  And Jeff Seidel, whoever he is, states the series record.  Good for you Jeff.    I wonder why the Free Press is struggling...  

Over at the Detroit News with Kuflan, things are a little better, but his analysis doesn't seem to agree with his prediction: 

Storylines: Two teams heading into different directions? Anaheim was the second-best team in the league for the early part of the schedule but ended April with a 7-5-1 record. The Red Wings won four consecutive games to make the playoffs and they're playing their best hockey of the season. The Ducks are deeper than in past seasons but C Ryan Getzlaf and LW Corey Perry are still heavily counted on for offense.

Key player: Anaheim RW Teemu Selanne. At 42, age appears to have finally caught up with Selanne this season; he was dropped to the fourth line at one point. But he can still be dangerous for one series.

Prediction: Anaheim in 7

So Detroit is hot while the Ducks aren't, Selanne is old and really they are a one or two line team.   He takes a deeper look here and says that while both forward squads are better than their defense, Detroit has better goaltending, so the Ducks win?  Makes tons of sense Kuflan.  

Lets take a look from around the hockey world, after the break: 

Playoffs start tonight. Many of us from time to time weren't sure if this day would come for the Wings, but deep down we all knew that Captain Z wouldn't let his first season as commander go down as the year the Wings didn't make it in.

My coverage on this site has been lacking. Some of that is due to work, some to feeling in a rut as a fan. I wrote an article right before the Calgary game that I never ended up posting. If I may be so vain, I will quote myself from that very article after the jump.

Jump!

First and foremost, up front, I want to know what you all think of this regular season. It only ended on Saturday, and with the playoffs beginning Tuesday it seems there is no time to reflect. Playoff mode, where this team tries every year to find their STFU switch in the complete inky darkness and flip it, is here.

But since this team cannot look back on how this season went, allow us to do that for them. What really will we be saying about this season, years from now? I think I will remember the disappointment the off-season free agent signings brought about. And Mikael Samuelsson proving the point of everyone that criticized Ken Holland. I will remember our namesake was injured essentially the entire season. Jim Howard, slow out of the gates, turned it on when we most desperately needed him and finished the regular season with a 0.964 Save Percentage in April.

Then there was the rise of the young guns, guys like Nyquist, Brunner (who fell off the pace once people “caught on to his tricks,” as Mick would say), Andersson, Kindl, Lashoff, and even Abdelkader. A career year in a 48-game season? I guess moving a third line grinder to Datsyuk’s line will do that.

Wow, have we let all of you down.  Probably the biggest weekend of of regular season hockey for the Wings in 22 or so years and what do we bring you?  A couple recaps, and that's it. 

Well in that time, Jim Nill, Wings assistant GM who's consistently been a topic of rumors of his leaving to become the GM of somewhere, has been hired by Dallas to be their GM.  We all knew it was coming eventually, as Holland told CBC: 

“I think Jim Nill was ready to be a GM five, six, seven years ago,” Holland, the Red Wings GM and Nill’s boss the past 15 years, said in a phone interview Sunday. “Most of the teams that have made GM changes [during that time] have called to ask for permission to talk to Jim Nill.

“For a variety of reasons he’s chosen to stay but I know he wants an opportunity to be a manager.”

That he's finally leaving should come to the surprise of noone.  I mean, it has been almost certain that anyone who has a mustache these past few years, you're going to leave Motown.  Look at the evidence:

And of course, Jim's got a killer stache.

New rule - no facial hair for anyone in the coaching staff/management.  

So anyways, how bad will Detroit miss him? 

More after the jump: 

There it is, Hockeytown. 22 straight playoff appearances for the Detroit Red Wings. I never doubted them. Okay, so I doubted them. But only when they appeared to doubt themselves. This team that we’ve seen the last four games? They’re capable of breaking some hearts in the playoffs.

More after the jump:

Red Wings were down early and it looked for a short time that they would play down to their competition, but they found another gear in the second and took over after that.

More after the jump:

He might not be wearing the C, but he's been the team MVP (well, maybe co-MVP) almost every night.  

At the very least, we can rely on excellence out of #35. 

Jimmy's just about taken that next step into the world of elite goaltenders and today Josh Howard's rewarded him with his very own movie poster. 

It's a big one for a big game tonight, after the break: 

What a great effort by this team. If you're counting, that's two straight game 7 wins for the Detroit Red Wings. They're getting it done at both ends of the ice and everyone is chipping in.

More after the jump:

Bertuzzi's not in for the Wings.  Neither is Sammy (thankfully).  Brown is out for the Kings.  

But you know what?  That doesn't matter. 

All that matters is one thing.  Winning. 

And that's Josh's message for tonight, after the break: 

Didn't that feel good?  The Wings not only won, but won by scoring 4 goals.  FOUR!  Remember when that was our average per game?  

Ahh the good ol' days.  

Yesterday was a day when everyone played hard.  The kid line looked stupid fast and furious. Franzen actually moved his feet towards the net!  Abdelkader threw his body around so much I actually thought he deserved to be o nthe first line there for a moment.  

If they play like they did yesterday, they will make the playoffs.   Because if you compare the talent between Detroit and their two competitors for the last spot, Dallas and Columbus, there isn't even a question of who has the most.  Detroit's talent level is still in the top 5-10 in the league.  

What the other two have, Columbus espeically, is a level of hustle and determination that Detroit hasn't seen since Zetterberg shut down Crosby in 2008.  It is honestly inspiring to watch the Jackets these days, because they aren't winning on anything other than heart.  

Hit the jump for more on Detroit's heart: