Game Preview: Preds @ Wings

How do you follow a loss to the NHL's worst team? Hopefully its with a win over one of the better post All-Star break teams this season and a division rival.

Nashville Outlook: Nashville has won two in a row and are 4-2-4 in their last 10. That third column in that line is very important. They had the chance to win 4 games but were unable to win them in overtime/shootout. Thats a four point turnaround no matter which way you turn it, all losses or all wins in regulation. All losses in regulation could have very well put them out of playoff contention but the fact that they were able to get a point out of all four of those games, is one of the reasons they're still in the playoff race.

Detroit Outlook: Like I said, how do you follow a loss to the worst team in the league? You know that that type of loss is demoralizing. I didn't see the entire game but from what I did see, we were completely outplayed by the Islanders. It looked like a classic case of role reversal. They looked like the team in 1st place in the league while we looked like the last place team. Hopefully it was just "one of those nights" but I think it may be part of a bigger problem. Our defense and goaltending has been suspect all year and it could be showing more weakness as the postseason draws near. Good news? We didn't have to win. Bad news? We should have won.

What to Look for: A high energy, refocused, and reenergized Red Wings as Babcock tries to get us back in playoff shape. From Nashville, watch for playmaking by Jason Arnott, J.P. Dumont,Shea Weber, and the underrated Pekka Rinne. From Detroit, watch for Jiri Hudler, Marian Hossa, Mikael Samuelsson, and Nick Kronwall. Kronner made a name for himself in the playoffs last year for laying out Predators players.

Hopefully Shea Weber doesn't bash any of our players heads in again in our pitiful attempts to fight.

Puck drops at 5 PM ET. I won't be able to watch it due to prior plans but as always, GO WINGS!

...what happened?

8-0.
What the you know what?!

How do you outshoot the opposition 30-23 and have 0 goals to show for your own effort and 8 to show for theirs? I'm not exactly ready to completely pin this one on Osgood/Conklin (both played last night) but some of it was their fault. Conklin had trouble controlling rebounds and that lead to a few of the Nashville goals. Osgood replaced Conklin in the first period and didn't do all that much better. The Predators also benefited from some odd bounces and just good luck on some bad turnovers by the Wings.

The thing that's so bad about this loss is that it was completely dominated by the Predators. They out hustled the Wings all night long and seemingly did everything at will. My pregame prediction came true, no not that we'd win. That if we controlled the puck we'd win, and we didn't control it and clearly lost. Hopefully this was just "one of those nights" for the Wings where they were just off and not any type of indication of things on the way down.

To make things even worse, Andreas Lilja got his ass beat by Shea Weber. It was just not the Wings night. Next game is on Tuesday against the Blues

Kings Wings Recap and Preds Preview

Kirk Maltby got a win in his 1000th game in the NHL. Both goalies played pretty well. Quick had some impressive saves. At times Ozzie looked out of position but that's kind of expected after any time out of action. He did make some good saves though. Derek Meech scored the first goal of the game on a rebound/flurry of rebounds in front of the net. Leino got an assist which made me happy since he's becoming one of my favorite players to watch. Meech is looking like he's going to be a big part of the future of the Wings too. Another guy that will be pretty big in the future plans also scored, Tomas Kopecky. He's a bigger guy than most of the other Wings but has a lot of raw talent that could make him one of the better players in the league in a few years.

Tonight's game is a big one...not that any game is insignificant...its just that this comes against a division rival. The Predators come into tonight's game with 3 straight wins. I think if we can control the puck we can win. Nashville has a tendency to get a little aggressive (in a bad way) when they are not controlling the puck. They take bad penalties which leads to powerplays for the Wings...which can be devastating. Earlier in the year the Preds surrendered 5 powerplay goals against us. However, they are a good PK team despite that last number so a Wings powerplay won't necessarily bury them.
I think the key to today's game is the goalies. I know thats pretty easy to say for any game but if Osgood/Conklin has a bad game, the Preds can win. Rinne has the better record of the two Nashville goalies and I think its not by chance but rather his skill. He's a quick mover and has a good glovehand. I say Wings 3 Preds 2