Round two

Photo by Stuart Cahill

THE GAME

Boston Bruins (31-17-7) @ Detroit Red Wings (33-16-6)

I'm headed into work early today to cut the highlight of this game for our nightly 10p ET show.  It's going to be a nice long 10-12 hours day (Overtime! And I don't mean the Versus show).  What is there to say about this rematch?  The Red Wings absolutely destroyed the Bruins (...and their fanbase) on Friday night.  Nothing like watching the fair weather B's fans  collectively jump off the bandwagon as quick as they jumped on after the brawl-filled Montreal game last week.  The die-hards are still there though and Friday was just one game.  I fully expect Boston to want some revenge and they'll play much better than they showed last game.  Babcock calling out the Wings means absolutely nothing if the team only shows up for one game and then reverts back their old habits.  Let's hope it's just like February of 2008 when the Wings went on a 1-8-2 stretch from February 7-29.  After that they finished the year 12-3-1 and went on to win Lord Stanley's Cup.

THE EXPECTED LINE-UP

Johan Franzen - Henrik Zetterberg - Todd Bertuzzi
Jiri Hudler - Pavel Datsyuk - Danny Cleary
Kris Draper - Darren Helm - Patrick Eaves
Drew Miller - Justin Abdelkader - Tomas Holmstrom

Nicklas Lidstrom - Niklas Kronwall
Johnathon Ericsson - Brian Rafalski
Jakub Kindl - Ruslan Salei

Jimmy Howard (starting)
Joey MacDonald

Injured: Valtteri Filppula (knee), Chris Osgood (groin), Brad Stuart (jaw), Mike Modano (wrist)

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

• Tim Thomas gets the start in net in his home state.  My guess is that it will take the Wings more than two shots to score two goals...or maybe not?
• According to NOHS, we might be seeing some Winter Classic sweater action tonight.  I'm a fan of the Wings' classic sweaters and the B's yellow classic sweaters.  I love the fact that Detroit doesn't have a third jersey, but I welcome this once a season. 
• It's the second game of the H2H2 pledge drive.  I've already pledged $26 thanks to Hudler's first goal of the season and $11 for Friday's game.  Today I'm pledging a $1 for every Red Wings goal, $5 for a win, an additional $5 for a shutout, and $15 if Rig fights Chara. 
• Speaking of H2H2, we're Darren McCarty days from the big event.
• And finally, living in a city full of homer Bawhston fans, it was great to watch them shut up and have absolutely no comeback for anything.  It's always, Pats are the best this, or KG is the man that, or Red Sox will win the World Series, well, it was good to see them humbled after a pure ass kicking in their own building.  My Lions might never win, the Pistons are in ownership turmoil, and the Tigers could be good or flounder again this season, but at the end of the day, the Red Wings are the model organ-i-zation in hockey and all of sports.  That's one thing I've always had over Boston fans...and I'd like to keep it that way. 

BRENDAN SMITH

The Griffins lost 2-1 in a shootout to the Lake Erie Monsters.  Smith had two shots on the night and that was it on the score sheet.  He's got 8 goals, 14 assists, and a +5 rating in 41 games played so far this season.

Let's Go Red Wings.

Welcome back, Red Wings hockey

What a night.

Such an awesome feeling watching my team come into the city I live in and absolutely dominate the hell out of the Boston Bruins.

The night started at local bar near the Garden.  The Red Wings hosted a pre-game party on the road and it was without a doubt a success.  At least 90 people showed up throughout the evening and the top floor of the bar was filled with nothing but Red Wings' fans.  Hopefully, the Wings will do this again on more road trips.

I had the chance to go to the game with work.  At 6:30p ET, I knocked on the door of the Red Wings' broadcast booth and had to get Larry Murphy so we could head down to the suite where we broadcast the Bruins' pre/int/post game shows.  He was doing a guest segment for us.  Our producer spent some time producing the Wings' pre/post game shows in the early 2000s when the were based out of Seattle with Mickey York and Angie Arlotti.  He had worked with Murph when he first started out and also worked with John Keating too.

When I got Murph, Ken Daniels was not in the room.  So I unfortunately did not get a chance to meet him.  There were also no hot dogs in the booth.  Murphy was a lot bigger than I expected.  He was extremely nice.  We had to go from the 9th floor to the 5th floor.  He had a huge pile of notes that his eyes were buried in.  There was some small talk, yada yada yada, and all that, but ultimately, I didn't want to bother him too much while he prepared for the game.  He crushed his segment for NESN and I took him back to the elevator and back up to the 9th floor.  Thanks him again and that was that. 

I should mention that I road in the elevator twice with Khan and once with Cam Neely.

The actual game was awesome.  By now you've read recaps over at other blogs, so I won't do a straight up recap.  I spent the game in the suite watching the game with our producer, Barry Pederson, and Mike Milbury.  We picked out specific plays and goals to breakdown during intermission and to use for replays.  It was a really cool experience.  Pederson was a nice guy.  Milbury didn't really talk to anyone but Pederson, Tappen (the show's host), and the producer.  At one point during a Datsyuk shift and yelled over to our producer, "He's amazing!" and had awe inspiring smile on his face. 

It was pretty somber in the suite once the second period hit.  I heard many comments from Bruins' fans like "They're just so good at passing the puck through people and keeping control," and I heard comments like, "They never fight.  This sucks."  There were more comments about how good the Wings were than how much "they sucked" though.  Late in the third a lot of Bruins fans hit the exits and the red took over.  A few "Let's Go Red Wings" chants.  Not sure if it was heard on TV or not.  I received an email from a former producer from where I interned, he said, "If the B's and Wings played in a 7 game series...the Wings would win in 3."  That pretty much summed up the night.  I'm just glad the Wings of old showed up and dismantled the Bruins and put them back in their place.  If the Wings go on a roll here and do end up winning the Cup in June.  I think we can look back on this game as a turning pointing in the season.  I can't wait to go into work today with my Shirtuzzi, '08 Cup hat, and maybe my Yzerman sweater. 

Let's Go Red Wings

Win. This. Game.

Photo credit: The Triple Deke via TPL (Check out the ugly jerseys)

THE GAME

Detroit Red Wings (32-16-6) @ Boston Bruins (31-16-7)

This is a big game (to me at least).  It's MY team against the team that owns 20% of the company I work for and we cover on a nightly basis.  This really is a MUST WIN and it is in no way going to be easy.  The Wings have been flat and awful lately.  You might be able to argue that they haven't been THAT bad, but guess what?  It's the Red Wings and I'm a die hard Red Wings fan.  I have very high expectations for this team and losing 3 out of 4 and turning in performances like they did on Wednesday is...well..."unacceptable."  It doesn't help the Bruins are playing well right now either.  They had their mini brawl against the Stars last week, their all out brawl with the Habs two nights ago, and have won 4 of their last 5.  They're saying all the right things about these two upcoming games, saying that no matter how the Wings are playing that they're still an elite team and one of the best.  There is no doubt in my mind this game is a measuring stick to them.  Let's knock them down a couple notches.

THE EXPECTED LINE-UP

Johan Franzen - Henrik Zetterberg - Todd Bertuzzi
Jiri Hudler - Pavel Datsyuk - Danny Cleary
Kris Draper - Darren Helm - Patrick Eaves
Drew Miller - Justin Abdelkader - Tomas Holmstrom

Nicklas Lidstrom - Niklas Kronwall
Johnathon Ericsson - Brian Rafalski
Jakub Kindl - Ruslan Salei

Jimmy Howard (starting)
Joey MacDonald

Injured: Chris Osgood (groin), Brad Stuart (jaw), Mike Modano (wrist)

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

• Former Plymouth Whaler and current Boston Bruin Tyler Seguin will once again be a healthy scratch tonight.  Seguin has just flat out not played very well this season.  Also, keep an eye out for Brad Marchand.  He's a real, good young player.  Works hard every night. 
• Still no Filppula tonight, but we get Holmstrom back for a second game.  I would really like to see him do some damage on the power play against Timmy Thomas tonight.  
• You think it was tough scoring against Nashville and Columbus with our lackluster effort? Boston leads to league in goals against.  Crash the net and crash it hard.  Solid puck movement.  Forecheck.  Shoot.  Shoot.  Shoot.  It's got to be all about effort tonight in the offensive zone.  Boston's D is good...but it's not unbeatable. 
• Tonight!  It's the first game of the H2H2 pledge drive.  I've already pledged $26 thanks to Hudler's first goal of the season.  For the next two games against the Bruins, I'm pledging a $1 for every Red Wings goal, $5 for a win, an additional $5 for a shutout, and $15 if Rig fights Chara.
• I don't hate the Bruins, but I hate them tonight and Sunday.  I will be in an EXTREMELY foul mood if the Wings do not show up tonight.  Pre-game meet-up with Red Wings fans in Boston from 4-7 tonight.  I'll be making a brief appearance and then heading into the game with work.  I'm "helping out" with pre/post/intermission production tonight and will have to watch the game from the suite where we broadcast from.  I'm not sure exactly how everything will all work out, but stay tuned.  Could be a fun, interesting post coming late tonight or tomorrow.

BRENDAN SMITH

Not to forget the namesake...He's ready to return after missing eight games with an injured shoulder. 

Let's Go Red Wings.