Like a Fish Out of Water (Wings 5, Sharks 1)

Since the playoffs this past season the Sharks and the Wings have had this interesting brand of rivalry brewing, making for some really fun to watch, interesting, and generally close games. Tonight's mostly fit the bill on those first two points but missed the third by quite a bit.

The game started on a high note, as this afternoon Kris Draper signed a three-year contract extension that will wind up him up presumably retiring as a Red Wing. Considering his fourteen years of efforts and the start he's had to this season, I'm thrilled to see it.

Dominik Hasek was out with an "irritated hip", so Chris Osgood was in net, though he was slated to get the start tonight regardless. Jimmy Howard has been called up to back him up through the western Canada road trip, but Hasek will be traveling with the team as well, so hopefully it's only a minor setback. Osgood continued to look great tonight and had the crowd chanting his name.

Valtteri Filppula finally broke out, scoring not only the Wings' first goal of the game (a backhanded flip similar to his first NHL goal ever) but also added an assist to Andreas Lilja's goal, the second of the game. It was great not only to see him rack up some points, but also to listen to the announcers gush over him. At one point he lost his helmet and they went on about the fans getting a kick out of "watching that Finnish blonde hair in the wind". Later they referred to him as "Fine Finnish Filppula" - and on a more serious note, Mickey Redmond declared him the young Red Wing he thought was most likely remain with the team for a long time.

The Wings not only came out strong tonight, but also looked disciplined, taking far less penalties than they have been as of late. Aaron Downey was impressive again, in a similar vein, goading Rob Davison into instigating a fight - the Wings game recap proclaims that the two "threw more shots during their fight than San Jose managed to sent at the net through 40 minutes." Probably true, as the Sharks really started to deflate as the game progressed. At the beginning of the third, the Henrik Zetterberg/Pavel Datsyuk/Tomas Holmstrom line had more shots on net (9) than the entire Sharks roster (6).

Speaking of, Holmstrom scored the third game of the night, and Zetterberg continued his point streak, now at 11 games, by notching the fourth goal of the night. He would have had two, but the second was waived off, as Holmstrom who is currently the most penalized player in the league with 12 minors and 4 goals called off at his expense (enough to provoke the announcers to suggest the Holmstrom Hat Trick - a goal, an assist, and a goal called off). By that point in the game the Wings were clearly dominating and had so much momentum that it looked like most of the players on the ice were just laughing about the call-off. Datsyuk wasn't left out of the fun - the flashy Russian has apparently earned himself the moniker "Houdini", which he certainly proved tonight. His pass that set up Zetterberg's goal involved drawing three men to him and deking the puck around of them, and later on he slipped between Mike Grier and another Shark so quickly that the two actually bowled each other over while Datsyuk skated harmlessly away. Only the young Marc-Eduoard Vlasic, known as "Pickles", had any real luck holding him back, stopping what could have been a nice breakway for Datsyuk early on.

After the first four goals, the Sharks pulled goalie Evgeni Nabokov, whose evening did nothing to improve his already suffering stats against the Red Wings, and put in backup Dimitri Patzold who is, weirdly enough, from the exact same city as Nabokov. I only wish I were from a place named Kamenogorskorsk. The move did did little for the Sharks though, as Kirk Maltby scored on the Wings first shot against him.

The Sharks did manage to ruin the shut out when Alexei Semenov's shot from the point made it past Osgood, but it was the only success story for the Sharks all night. The Wings outshot them 39-11 and their goal differential is now an astonishing 138 - the highest in the league and the only in triple digits.

Other news...

• The Oilers took a win over the Stars last night with help from Ales Hemsky, who tallied two goals. I was at the bar catching the Sox game, but I received no less than five text messages about it - thanks you guys and everyone else! He also picked up the win for the team in the shootout despite actually losing control of the puck at the last second. When asked about it later, he swears he didn't do it on purpose and that while it was ugly, "I'll take it!" The game also marked Ladislav Smid's return to the NHL.

• Speaking of Oilers, or ex-Oilers, Ryan Smyth scored 23 seconds into overtime to win the game in Calgary for the Avalanche. The colors still look terribly wrong, but it's nice to see him back in Alberta.

• Ex-Wing Danny Markov finally signed a contract - with Dynamo Russia. It's believed to be a two year, $4 million contract with an out-clause for next summer, which is less than he might have been able to receive here in the states.

"Andreas Lilja's had a strong game, I think..." (Wings 4, Sharks 2)

Wings 4, Sharks 2

Edit 7:22AM Sat.: I'm not sure how I forgot this the other day, but I think the most important thing to be gleaned from this game is that I never need to hear "Joe Thornton's going to feed him a juicy one from back there" ever ever again.

Sorry this is late - I was iffy on staying up for the game at all since I had a monster Japanese test this morning, and even after I decided I would I was stymied by my computer overheating midway through the second and wrecking all my game notes to that point. And because of that, sorry if this is a little choppy - if I miss anything, Chisty (here at Winging it in Motown) and Matt (here at On the Wings) have my back, I'm sure.

We were told at the beginning of the game that despite the buzz about injuries to Nick Lidstrom (ribs) and Henrik Zetterberg (hip flexor), both would be playing - good news for us, especially since Zetterberg went on to continue his point streak at 8 games - a career best for him.

The first period was frustrating, and looked a bit bleak, with a penalty right off the bat leading to Mike Grier scoring the first goal and giving the Sharks their only lead of the night. The penalties continued and the wings spent 6 minutes on the PK in the first period, but the worst penalty-related issue of the game was the non-call on Kyle McLaren and his dumb yellow visor, who rode Dallas Drake into the boards before he even touched the puck. Drake immediately left the ice and was taken to the dressing room at the end of the game. He didn't return, and will be tested today to see just what the extent of he injury is. McLaren made his presence known again later in a fight with Aaron Downey, who's quickly becoming popular in Detroit. The announcers commented that it was nice to see him take his helmet off to make it a fair fight - something we've been seeing a bit too little of lately. Downey ends up shirtless in the penalty box (hmm, I don't think "Aaron Downey shirtless" is going to garner too may google hits yet...but I'll restate it just the same), and we're treated to an example of just how easily the new RBK jerseys do indeed tear. We're informed that "The Wings do carry an extra set of jerseys on the road...we think." Well they did - apparently they learned from Ottawa's mistake.

It was a good night for Red Wings defense, with Nik Kronwall notching his first goal of the season to tie the game at one, Brian Rafalski picking up three assists on the evening, and Andreas Lilja even playing well - maybe he's heard the buzz about his actions as of late, because he certainly showed up, making two great shot-blocking plays and later on taking a really good penalty. Related to defense, Chris Osgood continues to look phenomenal - he looked extremely confident, coming far out of the net to play the puck a number of times, and stopped 23 of 25 shots including a few stand-out saves yet again, and has looked better thus far than Dominik Hasek, who is a notoriously slow starter and will hopefully pick his form back up soon.

The top line of Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, and Tomas Holmstrom continued its dominance, being responsible for two goals, the second and fourth. Their combined numbers this season? 13G, 19A and a +/- of 17. The third line also looked strong last night, despite Draper's goal streak coming to an end, but the second line - the Money Line, though I haven't heard them called that lately, of Valtteri Filppula, Jiri Hudler, and Tomas Kopecky needs to step it up. Filppula was projected to have a great season this year, but so far hasn't put any points up - as mentioned by the announcers (complete with a nice little squiggly line graph of just where his shooting lanes were), he needs to stop looking for the pass and shoot the puck more. Maybe he needs to have a chat with Ales Hemsky? He did get a really nice chance, but the goalpost denied him. "What does this kid have to do," the announcers asked, "to pick up a goal?" You and me both. The other goal came from the unlikely source of Matt Ellis, who captained the Grand Rapids Griffins this year (Kopy gave a nice interview on how Ellis used to yell at him and Hudler for playing ping-pong in the locker room before games). It was his first NHL goal, and Hudler scooped the puck out of the net for him to keep - no hard ping-pong feelings, I suppose.

Overall the game was good, despite the sketchy first period - both teams looked good, there was a substantial amount of scoring, some nice plays, and a fair share of scrums and pileups, and it ws great to see the Wings dominance of the Sharks continue past last season's playoffs.

The next game is against Phoenix Saturday evening at 10:00 PM. It's Homecoming weekend at Western and I have to work hockey tonight, football tomorrow afternoon, and volleyball in the evening, so I might not get a chance to see most of it. As always, BtJ, On the Wings, and Gorilla Crouch will have any news I can't get to. Tracy of True Coyote Love will be covering the game from the other side of the pond - hey Tracy, we're coming for you!

Around the League...

• The nhl.tv feature has been an interesting new addition to all the teams' websites, even if it's very hit or miss. (CapsChick has a great preview of highlights and lowlights). Of course I checked out the Wings' and more specifically the video highlights of practice the day of Henrik Zetterberg's (who does, all you google searchers, appear shirtless along with Nick Lidstrom - come on guys I'm just trying to get you to try for things that aren't "Rod Brind'Amour's girlfriend") birthday. Kris Draper nailing him with shaving cream is great, but the best part of the video in my opinion comes from the follow exchange between Chris Osgood and Kirk Maltby:
• Osgood: It's Hank's birthday? Pav and Hank? Pav's going to dance for Hank 'cause they're in love.
  
• Maltby: Well if one celebrates, the other's gonna - they're the Eurotwins!
• Osgood: Pav and Hank are going to dance to Total Eclipse of the Heart.

Does your backup reference Bonnie Tyler in casual conversation?

• So I know there was a big (and rightfully so) hullabaloo about just how amazing it was that Kevin Weekes felt the need to include porno music on his website (why does his guy have a website?) when it was first discovered, but now I'd like to invite you all to check out the man's new pads. Um. What? Seriously?
  

• And speaking of players with their own website, Zetterberg's store is now open, full of lots of expensive black clothes, red T-shirts and sweatshirts, and free posters bearing intense photos of the guy. But someone tell me, where's my I (heart) Hank shirt?

• Elly's going to be away for the weekend yet again. She told me to mention "a different" Penguin. I'm working on it.
  

If hockey won't come to me, I'll go to hockey.

This past weekend I made the second of my usual twice a year trips to Toronto, where, after a fun evening with my good friend Chapel (wherein he bought me dinner as a prize for winning his playoff pool this past season), I met up with fellow HLOGger Sherry for second time. Last time we were able to take in a Bulldogs playoff game; this time the two of us made our way to the Hockey Hall of Fame. I'd been there once before, but not since it moved to the new building, so I was excited to see exactly what it was comprised of now.

First, I was unsurprised to see that the Wings were the team whose jersey was featured in the Central Division display, but I was more surprised when I walked around to the back of it and saw this:

What, didn't have any extra Stevie Y.'s or something? I wonder if he knows.

Sherry and I also decided to try the goalkeeping and shooting games they had - I managed to beat her in both, though not by much (I did do better at the trivia game, but it was pretty much sheer luck). I was only able to score three goals on seven attempts against Eddie Belfour (for shame), and only stopped two out of five (though it would have been three if I hadn't kicked one in with my own foot). To her credit, Sherry was playing in a skirt - but then again, I was playing in very hockey-inappropriate sandals, and both of us were using a stick about a foot too long.

When I stepped into that net, I must have started thinking to myself, "what would Conklin do?" There wasn't enough room to run behind the net and commit a grievous error, so I apparently had to think more like Cam Ward and flail at a shot I actually stopped until the puck went in the net.

If you're interested in any of the other pictures from the weekend, and the HHoF, my photo gallery is here. If you're looking for more stupid pictures of me proving that I should definitely stick to watching hockey rather than playing, however, you're out of luck, as those are all on Sherry's camera. We had a lot of fun even if we sucked.

Over the course of the weekend we also watched a chunk of Miracle and considered liveblogging it - but through a combined laziness and lack of internet in the room we were in, ended up sparing you all.

As August wears on there is less and less hockey news available, and more and more anticipation for the new season, but here are some odds and ends to help tide you over:

• The Red Wings are going on with that silly "Fire on Ice" theme heading into the season - and they've created possibly the most hideous splash page ever to go along with it. Does anyone else think it looks like viewing an image on a monitor that can't display quite enough colors to show it properly? Anti-aliasing is good, I promise.

• If you can manage to brave the site design, however, you can purchase preseason tickets starting August 30th. Tickets are also still on sale for training camp in Traverse City (September 13-18).

• The Sharks took a page out of the Wings' book with a splash page of their own. It's almost as ugly, and yet it's a thing of beauty - bet you can figure out why. (In other news re: the Sharks endearing me to them, check out the Cheechoo/Teemu ska song, if you haven't yet.)

• The LA Kings sign former Toronto backup J.S. Aubin (crickets chirp).

And finally, with the offseason being quiet and horrendously boring, you'd think we'd hit a lapse in crazy search terms - but nope. Amidst the armies of people who still want pictures of Lauren Pronger and information about Rod Brind'Amour's girlfriend, my latest favorites have been "js giguere pool party" (I hope he invited The Aquabats), "dominik hasek laptop" (the man just learned text messaging last season, let's not go too far now), "fake teeth in ontario" (....what?) and, the current winner, "let down your hair I want to comb it" (uhhhhh, that's the last time I make those "Mr. Babcock I want to comb your hair" comments).

How Swede It Is!

I'm not nearly as fond of that little slogan as I was of the Tour de Franzen but I'll deal because...

WINGS WIN SERIES 4-2

I didn't say anything after the Saturday's win because I was busy and at home but I rocked the red eyeliner both then and today and here we are with two more wins and advancing to take on the Ducks.

It's 3:45, the game was followed by a rousing five games of euchre (the sport of any true Michigander), and I'm exhausted, but every time I close my eyes that play by Lidstrom (you know what one I mean) is still playing behind my eyelids. Just. Beautiful. Every time.

The Free Press is already running an article with the headline "JUST DUCKY", I might have to take back anything bad I said about the Swede thing. I leave you with the promise of more tomorrow and the upcoming schedule:

Date Time (ET) #1 Detroit vs. #2 Anaheim
Friday, May 11 7:30 p.m. Anaheim at Detroit
Sunday, May 13 7:30 p.m. Anaheim at Detroit
Tuesday, May 15 9:00 p.m. Detroit at Anaheim
Thursday, May 17 9:00 p.m. Detroit at Anaheim
* Sunday, May 20 3:00 p.m. Anaheim at Detroit
* Tuesday, May 22 9:00 p.m. Detroit at Anaheim
* Thursday, May 24 7:30 p.m. Anaheim at Detroit

And me already with a reason to hate Chris Pronger. Go Wings!

Mr. Babcock, I Want to Comb Your Hair!

WINGS/SHARKS SERIES TIED 2-2

I have finally bought into this silly gameday superstition thing. Game six of the Calgary series and Game two of this series, I wore red eyeliner. I don't know why I have it - it makes me look horribly diseased, actually (fitting, as Elly let me know earlier that every time she writes the staph part of staphylococcus [it's apparently for a class, don't look at me, she's the one learning all this veterinary stuff] she mistypes it as my name, which is all kinds of warm and fuzzy) - but I wore it. And we won. So I wore it tonight, and I have to admit I was about thisclose to thinking it was obviously a two time experience but my red eyeliner pulled it off!

It started off ugly. Jonathan Cheechoo's first goal had us all shaking our heads and me muttering into my beer and Shawarma; the second, Marcel Goc's ridiculous shot off of Lilja's helmet (while, for the record, there were too many Sharks on the ice, but as that's not reviewable it didn't matter) was a little more cause for cursing and a generally foul mood settling over the room. We started turning the game into a drinking game that required us to take a swig and yell assorted ridiculous phrases whenever Cheechoo ("Shut up Cheechoo!"), Babcock ("Mr. Babcock, I want to comb your hair!" - no seriously that man has perfect hair), Pickles ("It's a Vlasic!" in the voice of those terrifying commercials), or Larry Murphy ("I'M A WING GUYS!" accompanied by mock clutching of a stick and rocking while in the fetal position) happened on the screen. We were done watching hockey.

But then wait, we remembered! The Wings, at least in the regular season, were famous for these comebacks! And then just as that little light went off in our brains, we were given a tiny window of 10 seconds of powerplay time at the end of the second period and Tomas Holmstrom saved our faith and knocked in a pp goal with 5 seconds left, and we went into the third optimistic.

The third period was just fun hockey. Sure we were worried, but it was great to watch. When it came down to the end, though, we were ready to give it to San Jose. And then with 33 seconds left on the clock, Valtteri Filppula fed a gorgeous pass to Robert Lang, who remembered that nothing has been said about him lately that wasn't followed up with "needs to show up and play hockey" or "is useless", and buried it behind Nabokov with a nice wrist shot to push the game into OT (I sang. I got told to shut up.).

At this point we whined about sitting through another intermission, I raved to Skye about Lang not being worthless tonight, and we grabbed a few more beers to hold us through OT. It looked poised to end quickly, with both teams getting quite a few shots on goal, but it took a nice Wings penalty kill and 16 minutes before Craig Rivet (sorry Jordi, your boy lost it for you!) took a bad delay of game penalty, Scott Hannan had a bad giveaway, and Matheiu Schneider took a shot that rang off a post and right into the net to end the game 3-2.

Things to note:

• Holmstrom left with what the announcers were speculating was some sort of injury - I haven't heard anything yet.
  

• VERSUS mentioned Hasek's age no less than four times, and Chelios' no less than three.

• Johan Franzen had some really nice moves tonight - that spinorama at the net, and a little play in the Sharks zone not too long after were both impressive.

• Jiri Hudler, as predicted, was a healthy scratch to make room for Holmstrom's return.

• The Wings return to the Joe Saturday afternoon for Game five - I might score tickets, or, since I'll be home on that side of the state, if I don't I might head downtown and catch the game from Hockeytown Cafe. Either way I'll have some sort of report from the city.

Last but not least completely unrelated to the Wings in any way shape or form, Ladislav Smid took on Lee Stempniak the other day in Moscow, and because I love him and cheered when I finally found the video, I am sharing.

Can Sharks Live in Red Waves?

Okay okay I know I'm trying too hard now.

ANYWAY I have no food in my house. I haven't eaten anything but a saltine and a piece of cheese since yesterday and I need to go out and buy groceries painfully badly.

But of course that need was second string to hockey and I went out instead and watched the Wings/Sharks Game 2 with four of my guy friends. We spent the first period cursing every few seconds and almost turned the game off (a substantial portion of it was spent watching the Tigers get stomped and the Pistons sweep Orlando - honestly the guys were playing Pokemon, no I am not even kidding, about as much as watching for the first hour), but we made it through. Cleary was beautiful, the Eurotwins saved us, and Dom looked good...by the end. The Wings are going to need to step it up though, if they want to stay in this series; the Sharks have a ridiculous size advantage and if they're going to stop us getting to the net as well as they were today something needs to be changed to fix this. But you know what, I still believe and I'm still saying Wings in 7. More later, when I have fought off the starvation.

The best part of the afternoon, however, had to be this exchange, right after Hasek misplayed the puck that led to that second goal.

Andy: Holy shit what the -
Ryan: Oh no no no you fucking -
Me: OH WTF WHO ARE YOU -
Everyone: TY CONKLIN!?

I do believe I am at fault for this.

Also Pickles is still adorable.

Broncos Ate my Hockey

I was all set tonight. I took my last final of the semester earlier and a good friend promised me that if I came by her going away party tonight she'd even let the TV (except for the dreadful portion of the evening that belonged to Grey's Anatomy) provide me with beautiful, beautiful hockey.

On the way to her apartment, no more than a ten minute drive, the Sharks scored twice. When I got there the crestfallen faces of two occupants informed me that the NHL still hates me, FSN was showing the damn Tigers game (which for the record was rain delayed), and their EDUcable - essentially the college's cable network - doesn't pick up VERSUS. My desperate plea for a radio lasted through the first commercial break and the rest of that hour was spent reaching the conclusion that Justin Chambers looks a little bit like Ty Conklin (it's the facial expressions, I swear).

You bastards, you ruined my night.

Therefore I'm sticking with I didn't see it, so it didn't happen. Looking forward to Game - ahem - one on Saturday.

And since I don't have that to talk about, I guess what I'd be stuck with would be....oh, that. So Capschick is running this playoff pool with an absolutely evil little twist wherein the winners of each round get to pick other participants to write up nice things about their team. The real sort of nice, not the kind where I say I Really Love The Flames for setting up that amazing irony that was game six. And since the winner of round one was none other than Duncan of Flamesblog, I, as not only a Detroit fan but an Edmonton fan as well, would seem to be the prime target for this horror. So here you have it everyone:

A (slightly forced) Tribute To the Flames (in 500 words or less).

So here's the deal. I actually like(d) the Flames. Last year I even bandwaggoned them (as per Elly's request) for the five minutes it took them, after the Wings got stomped by Edmonton, to lose to Anaheim. And even now I like them (this may have been helped by the fact that we just beat them) as much as could be expected. Anyway so what I'm trying to say is TAKE THAT this won't be quite so painful after all!

Jordi, being the little jerk she is (shh I'm allowed, she's cheering against my team this round) already went through all the players...though I'm not sure all her comments get to be considered "well-researched" or sans name-calling, which leaves me at a little bit of a loss...but okay, here we go.

The Flames are a Canadian team, and they aren't the Habs or the Sens. There's some points right there. For that matter, they're a Western conference team and we all know that's where my loyalties lie. At one point in their existance, Dwayne Roloson played for them, that ups their count a little too. When I look at their roster there is only one player I really dislike (Langkow you huge jerk stop running Hemsky over) - oh wait, does that count toward name-calling? - and I actually appreciate Phaneuf (see HG!), even though every time the announcers say his name I have to deal with a friend who makes a noise that is something like that creepy lecherous old man chuckle Marty Brodeur makes when he catches the pizza in that Delissio commercial. They have McCarty and I still cheer for him.

You can't - and I don't - argue that Kiprusoff didn't make the better showing in that series, goalie-wise, either. Hasek's impressed me more than I expected when the season started, but Kipper stood on his head to keep his team in the game, facing four, five times as many shots as Dom some games. Funny how it's the losing goalie we all feel bad for (Turco, anyone?) because they didn't the support they needed. The thing that impresses me the most about him though, is just how absolutely collected, stoic even, he always is. I love a good goalie fight, I love when Dom goes crazy or when Roli tries to get up on someone's business, as much as anyone - but that sort of absolutely concentration no matter what's going on around him is something you don't see all that often. So okay, I give Kipper lots of credit. There's one more nice thing.

And last but not least (I'm really running out of nice things to say here and it's 2:44 am and I've had a lot of beer over the course of the night), I wanted to link to it again for everyone's amusement but it seems to be gone (give me a day, it'll find its way to yousendit or something) ...but I have to say for all the fun I made of it, that Stanleyback playoff song, in all its Justin Timberlake-inspired trainwreck sort of glory, was in some twisted way a thing of beauty. Really. Go Flames. I hope you're happy.

Let's Get it On...

The eve of a Battle of Alberta and what am I doing? The answer is not something like, oh, actually previewing the game. Instead I come bearing what can only be considered useless information after having followed a link from Battle of Alberta that led me to Andrew Ference's iTunes playlist. iTunes Canada is a wonderful thing. Basically in following it back through eight pages of celebrity playlists, I have discovered the following:

• Edmonton's Shawn Horcoff is hilarious. I can't think of a single other hockey player who could have something like Big & Rich's Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy on their playlist, and who I could still look in the eye (ignoring the fact that I'd probably have to be standing on a couple milk crates before this would be possible) without bursting into laughter. I really don't know why that is, but I'm willing to bet it's that ridiculous goofy expression he's got in his roster photo. The one that also makes the rest of his playlist, full of Green Day, Blink 182, and Good Charlotte, a little easier to swallow.
  

• Ryan Miller of the Buffalo Sabres' was less exciting until I got to almost the very end where he includes Fall Out Boy's 7 Minutes in Heaven (Atavan Halen)--wait, Fall Out Boy?? The funniest thing about this, though, is that in his little blurb about the song, he jumps immediately to defending it by insisting he heard them before Cork Tree happened. Hil.ar.i.ty.

• Last but not least, my second least favorite Carolina Hurricane (edged out only by the monstrosity that is Rod Brind'Amour, who takes that category based on wins alone), Cam Ward. I think all I need to say here is that he quotes Nickleback as one of his favorite bands.

Don't believe me? Go look for yourself. You can check out Post-St. Louis Doug Weight, Philly's Robert Esche, and Anaheim's Dustin Penner, while you're at it.

---

In slightly more Pertinent To The Actual Sport Of Hockey news, Oilers resign Staios for another 4 years. Now if only the Ryan Smyth problem would be solved this easily. Either way, the Oilers face the Flames again tonight at Rexall Place. I know I mentioned that I should maybe preview a game, but I don't have a good prediction about the game tonight--these two teams are one loss, one win both ways when it comes to each other, so tonight's victory will be huge. The Oilers are 8-2 at home and the Flames are 3-4-2 on the road--personally I'm rooting for the Oilers, so I'm going to pretend those stats say a lot more than they do. What I do know, though, is that the Oilers PK is 3rd in the league (90.3%), and Calgary's coming in at a weak 24th (80.4%)--maybe someone should tell the boys to take advantage of that?

San Jose plays tonight too, in a huge Battle of California game--I'm sure you can guess who I'd like to win that one. I might forgive Chris Pronger someday, but that doesn't mean I'm ever going to be a Ducks fan. Anaheim's got the hometown advantage though, and the better record overall, if just barely, so this game should be close. Jonathan Cheechoo still DTD might make a substantial difference for the Sharks.

As for the last game of the evening, Jaromir Jagr and his Rangers, who my one-time favorite Brendan Shanahan also now belongs to, take on the Canes tonight. At the start of the season this would have been an easy pick, what with Carolina coming off their cup victory with a string of terrible playing and lost games, but they've picked it up lately--enough to he point where they're top-contenders to storm (...oh pun definitly not intended) the playoffs again. I'm still predicting a Rangers victory for this one--they've definitely got the offense to get past Cam Ward, and Jagr's just coming off scoring his 600th career goal, which has to be a boost. Either way, I just have to stand by my man Jagr--it's not ever hockey player whose Sports Bar you've been to in Prague.

....I am so not doing this for every game from now on.