But hey, we got a point! (Or: Oh how my standards have fallen!)

File this under: predictions I wish I hadn't made.

Steph (10:06:02 PM): Smid has played about four minutes less than the other top D guys right now and given the Oilers luck lately it worries me.
Elly (10:07:10 PM): Don't tell me that.
Steph (10:08:55 PM): Oh fuck.
Elly (10:09:39 PM): ...don't even say it.
Steph (10:10:06 PM): Puck to the stomach in front of the net had to be helped off the ice.
Elly (10:15:19 PM): I'm sure Laddy is okay.
Elly (10:15:22 PM): I'm SURE.
Steph (10:16:18 PM): 'Midsection' doesn't sound too bad...then again knowing Edmonton he probably broke his spleen or something.

Ladies and gentlemen, as of this morning we are officially up to twelve. Spleen and kidneys are close together, right?

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My lack of cable prevented me from really catching the Wings game last night (I did see it, but on an approximately 3x2ish window on my computer screen) and about the only comment I can make is that it was a very poor mental game for the Wings. HNIC's amusing little Sesame Street style way of counting off how many players were on the ice aside, six guys not just on the ice but actually in the zone attacking means someone, somewhere along the line, is just not paying attention.

At any rate we move one point back of Nashville again, but, thanks to the Thrashers (for the record there are five away messages on my buddy list either thanking or damning them, none of which come from Thrashers fans) are still tied with Buffalo...and a point ahead of the once again closing in Ducks.

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And last but not least, Happy Birthday to Lord Stanley's cup, and my excellent co-blogger Elly! Clearly with a shared birthday like that it's no wonder hockey's in her blood. If anyone knows how best I could snare Ethan Moreau as a present let me know. (Or hey, if I make outlandish predictions about the Pens, maybe they'll come true too?)

Achy Breaky Hockey Hair

Shush, that song makes me laugh.

Anyway, hey everybody, the Wings have a game tomorrow! I know it's only been since Tuesday, but jeez, when I'm on spring break and even Versus is failing me so I have to watch nothing but little tiny 300x200 pixel screens of slow-moving, choppy-sounding miserable feed Chinese internet TV to get my hockey fix, and there are none of those pesky "responsibility" things around to distract me, it gets old fast!

So to keep myself entertained, I will proceed to whine about injuries.

First of all, the Oilers. Have we all seen this? Yes? Does everyone realize they played a full period of hockey with four defensemen (which at some point became three, did it not?) the other day? And that they have just called up their last possible d-man (Brian Young, and what a record he has: No goals, one assist in 8 games this season in the AHL. SWEET!) before having to go digging around in juniors. I think little Laddy (with his second NHL goal ever, everyone say awwww) put it best in this article: " I'm looking around like, what happened. Janny goes down, Stevie goes down. That's a bad situation when you have to play 40 minutes with only four defencemen." (Shh I totally didn't quote that whole thing just because I love his little nicknames for everyone.)

Not to mention Ales was out on a Third Jersey day and let me just tell you how pretty he looks in those, but I'll stop before I encroach on Hot-Oil territory - they're better at it than me anyway.

Everyone on that injury page is either out or doubtful for the next game with the exception of Mathieu Roy who's still questionable, and that certainly doesn't look good. I'm beginning to think it's some sort of Oilers curse, and it doesn't take pains to note the current roster - even Smytty limped off the ice today.

Moving right along, the Red Wings. How many guys out now? When we've got the Young Guns up playing 15 minutes each per game you know it's something ridiculous - and yet everyone's been holding their own and pulling it off. It's nice to see the team picking up some line depth again and still scoring a good number of goals without powerhouses like Zetterberg and Holmstrom up there bailing us out game after game.

So what am I complaining about here? Well folks, it's time for shallow hockey fan time! So despite seeing where there could be benefits, and admitting that it's not like we lost anything on the deal, I still sort of want to growl in Todd Bertuzzi's general direction when the chance comes up, and this being said, the idea of him (okay I know I'm completely overplaying this and it's not only because of Todd Bertuzzi) being what knocks my little rookie out of the regular lineup (as predicted by more than one person including myself, but more notably Ansar Khan and Matt of On the Wings) once everyone comes back from all these injuries!? Bah!

I think this conversation between Skye of MWORO and I sums it up quite nicely:

Me: Well with Bertuzzi on the second line barring any more injuries (this is a projection from when everyone is healthy again) it's Jiri and Langfeld that'll probably get bumped off as reserves.
Skye: ...*twitchy* (at which point I assume her internet knocked out again as it has been doing)
Me: *chews on the internet for you?*
Skye: No, the twitchy was toward Bertuzzi.
Me: *chews on Bertuzzi for you?*
Me: ....ew rabies.

Not to say that I find anything wrong with this decision - Hudler is the most likely to end up as a reserve and it makes perfect sense. Still doesn't help me love Bertuzzi any more.

Last but not least on the injury topic how about that hit from Simon tonight? Ugh, brutal. Let's the punishment wheel spin - hey maybe we'll actually get some justice huh?

(Oh and one more thing, how about injury to fans? If that whole Pens escapade doesn't get closed up soon I think it's going to give me - and my wallet for that matter, thank you megabus.com for your $14 tickets to Pittsburgh - some sort of heart condition. I can't even imagine what Elly or the Pensblog guys are going through over it right now. Not to mention the pain of my head connecting fairly harshly with my desk after tonights announcement that it had been decided.....to resume discussion Wednesday.)

Curiouser and Curiouser

Hockey just doesn't make any sense at all to me today.

First, Detroit clinches a victory in New Jersey this afternoon (that game weirded me out, by the way, as only a Saturday afternoon hockey game can do--waking up with the knowledge that in only a half hour, hockey would be happening, while not unwelcome, is unsettling). This in itself would not be particularly weird; Brodeur of the goalie kung-fu does lose a game every once in a while, and Hasek (while I'm still not entirely convinced understands the fact that it's easier to make saves when not on one's back) has been playing as strong as ever, still in line with his best NHL season ever. He's also got to be somewhere near in line with his record of most penalties in a season--this game alone netted (no pun intended) him one for playing the puck over the line, at which he broke his stick on the ice, which just landed him an unsportsmanline conduct. But the overlying fact remains that Detroit hasn't won a game in New Jersey in thirteen years. From the first game of the day, you knew it was going to be weird.

Elly was at the Pens game tonight, and thus I had no one here to spam via instant message about all the other craziness, but it happened all the same. I was happy to see Toronto up 2-1 midway through the first, but when when I checked back at the end of the period and saw 5-1 I was thoroughly confused--and it just kept going! 9-2 by the end with a hat trick for Kyle Wellwood, two Sundin assists...hell nearly the entire team got a point for something tonight. I really wish I'd actually been able to watch that game, as for something to go that right, the Leafs must have remembered how to actually play some hockey for at least a little while, especially against an offensive team like the Rangers. Maybe they realized just how good it felt not to suck. Nine goals in one win is a nice change from nine goals in seven losses.

Equally surprising was the Islanders 6-0 victory over the Thrashers, not that I saw any of that either. A number of the games tonight were oddly high scoring though (Bruins over Panthers 6-3, Habs over Pens 6-3--which I'm sure Elly will have plenty of those on when she gets home--...I'm going to start thinking we're playing NHL2K7 here.)

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In other news, the man we thought would probably never play another NHL game (and to be fair, even this game was only with the Columbus Blue Jackets and thus probably doesn't actually count), Ty Conklin of Cup Finals Game One Loss Fame (seriously, do we have a count of how many times this blog has linked to that clip?) got to play at least one more game on NHL ice tonight. Or at least a period or so of one. He even stopped all but one shot. Congrats, Ty--Edmonton may not have forgiven you, but at least you haven't inspired the hatred of anywhere new, yet. Unless Syracuse follows their AHL team enough to take offense to a 10-2-1 record.

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Prompted by a mention in a post over at Battle Of Alberta, I'd just like to say that this has been a year for amazing line names. We all know how I feel about the Money Line, but Atlanta's Meat and Potatoes line (Bobby Holik, Brad Larsen and J.P. Vigier) about which I swear Vigier is quoted somewhere as saying they're "nothing new or pretty but they always taste good" but I can't find it, came up yesterday or so, and today Phoenix's OMG line (Oleg Sapyrkin, Mike Zigomanis, and Georges Laraque) is my new favorite, if only because of the article surrounding it--the image of Laraque giggling is just too much for me. I don't know if anyone's calling it this officially, but the Czechs-Mex line of Hemmer, Torres, and Sykora also makes me smile. And not just because it puts Sykora and Hemsky together.

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And, injury report!

• Ales Hemsky has returned to Edmonton's lineup, starting against Colorado yesterday night despite rumors that he'd be out until past Christmas, and he played a strong 15:30, too. Now if only we could get Smyth back too--but let's hope the return of those two doesn't mean the players who've stepped up lately (Horc, Torres, Stoli, Pisani, Smith) back off again.
• My goalie Manny Legace's back, as well, and started tonight for St. Louis--who put up a good fight, tying Nashville 2-2 before losing in a shootout. I'd have worn my jersey if I had it here with me.
  
• Valtteri Filppula took a hard hit the other day and broke his collarbone. The end result is 1/3 of the Money Line being out for ten weeks after successful surgery which is especially unfortunate considering how strong he's been playing so far.
  
• Darcy Tucker disappeared after hurting his hand tonight and didn't come back for the rest of the game--let's hope it's nothing.