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Abel to Yzerman

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So I Took A Week Off

by IwoCPO on 03/29/07 at 06:39 PM ET
Comments (6)

It’s not like anything important’s been going on.  Back in the nation’s capitol (capital) for the day, then it’s on to the State That Hockey Forgot for the weekend. 

How important is tonite?  Obviously important enough to start your backup goalie.  We’ll get to that decision in a minute.  First, as you all know, we fall behind four points with a loss...which essentially elimimates us from winning that which we are owed...the Central.  I actually laugh at the idea of that scenario a bit, when I consider the celebration they’ll have at The Gay over the weekend if Bubba actually does clinch the division.

We lose the Central...we have no idea who we face.  Minnesota, Dallas, and The Team We Don’t Speak Of are all knotted with 98.  We all know who we would frigging LOVE to face in the first round.  But Turco’s no guarantee, considering Bubba Sr. has us and Nashville coming up on consecutive nights.

Back to our goalies.  So Ozzie’s earned points in all the games with Bubba this year.  Nice. Good for him. I’m sure the puck bunnies are thrilled and feel he “deserves the start.”

Do you?  Do you really believe Chris Osgood was brought back to Detroit to play in THIS game?  Or was Dominik Hasek possibly brought back to Detroit win games like tonite?

Or...is this Mike Babcock’s way of saying, “I really don’t care where we finish because if we play like last year when we got Punched In The Face by an inferior team we’re getting our asses kicked again anyway so we may as well save our goalie from any risk whatsoever of getting hurt in a game that is probably going to be violent?” Yeah, it’s a run-on, but Babcock wakes up spewing run-on sentences so deal with it.

Let’s let the Diggers chime in, shall we?  Kulfan tells us Lebda’s not ready...yet

He’s likely to be a game-time decision Friday against Dallas.

“I feel good; they’re just being cautious,” Lebda said Thursday of the Wings’ coaches and trainers. “I felt a lot better today (after skating). I want to be going, but they’re holding me out.

Khan(!) brings us the status quo from Hank.

After skating with the team Thursday morning in Nashville, Henrik Zetterberg still appears to be several days away from returning.

“I’m skating a little bit more and more every day, still no battles,’’ Zetterberg said. “Hopefully one or two games (before the playoffs) would be good, but if not, I just have to deal with that.

“I’m still just at 35-40 minutes each time out there, got to get a little longer. Then the last step will be battling in the corners. Still got a few steps left before I’m back.’’

And finally, yesterday Drew Sharp graced us with his presence again. I would have thought that the abuse he takes every time he even writes “read wigs” on the ladies bathroom stall at Freep HQ would be enough to deter him.  Nope.  He’s a rebel.

No sport alters its regular season and postseason personality as drastically as hockey. In the NBA, No. 8 seeds have little to no chance in a first-round series against a No. 1 seed. But flip a coin when you have a No. 1 vs. No. 8 in the NHL.

Some fluke bounces of the puck, some unexplainable hot goaltending and—voila!—you have Stanley Cup chaos.

Some players forgetting what wins in the postseason, some goalies choking then laying on the ice in martyrdom then threatening suicide, some coaches not adapting to the trap...you know, some of those things right Drew?

Back to tonite.  Who wants this game more?  Who does it mean more to?  Well, Babcock already answered that question for us and I’m not altogether disappointed.  Lose and potentially get Dallas. Win and face Calgary?  Turco or Kipper? 

It means more to Bubba.  It just does and that’s that.  Start Osgood.  Let them have their Central banner and a first round loss to Calgary, actually a first round loss to anybody.  That team goes no further than the third week of April; regardless of who they play.

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Comments

Don’t feel bad about taking the week off, Iwo.  The team did too.

Posted by HockeyinHD on 03/30/07 at 06:34 AM ET

HD - Well played, sir.

Posted by Nathan on 03/30/07 at 07:52 AM ET

I guess the Wings and Osgood wanted it more, though the bent over Predators at the end of regulation was pretty pathetic.

My confidence in our goaltending grows with every game Osgood plays like that.

As for the decision to start him over Osgood, I’d rather the team continue to safeguard Hasek’s health for when the games really do matter than throw it away now, especially when they have an extremely capable goalie backing him up. Osgood played like an All Star last night.

Posted by Matt Saler from Grand Rapids, MI on 03/30/07 at 08:42 AM ET

a coin flip? An 8 over 1 seed is more common in the NHL than NBA, but it’s not exactly common. 8 seeds are 7-17 in first round playoff series since the implemment of the current system, or worse than 1/3.

Posted by Colin from San Jose, CA on 03/30/07 at 02:33 PM ET

did we just get punched in the face

Posted by oh_no from detroit on 03/30/07 at 11:01 PM ET

7/17 is going back 12 yrs. the Wings had a lot to do with the 7 upsets.  Not sure if they were ever seeded 8, but they were seeded 1 many times, and hit the links before the freeways dried up. How about a little help on those numbers Matt.

Posted by Gramps (hockeytowntodd) from HockeyTown on 03/31/07 at 04:27 PM ET

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