The Red Wings were the better team on the ice last night in Detroit, period. They defeated the Preds 3-0 and effectively answered the bell in this first matchup of the young 2006-07 season.

Detroit came out flying in the first period while Nashville looked a half-step behind. The Wings carried the play for much of the period, and the Preds took too many penalties. Robert Lang tallied on the power play to give Detroit the only score it would need. Nashville gave up an unnerving 20 shots in the opening frame, too. The Wings also heavily outperformed the Preds in winning faceoffs, which never helps.

Niklas Lidstrom added a score early in the third that gave the Wings an extra cushion. Though the Preds never tallied, they did sustain increased pressure during the period before allowing an empty-net goal late.

Here are a few isolated observations I had during the game, too:

• Martin Erat continues to play extremely well. He is as physical as ever, and his stickhandling is spectacular at times.
• Josef Vasicek had his first ice time in a few weeks returning from injury. I didn’t notice him in the first period, but he was aggressive in the second. It’s good to see him healthy again.
• Henrik Zetterberg is blazing fast. He blazed past Paul Kariya in one stretch, and that’s a tough thing to do.

The Preds finally return home tonight with a chance to bounce back against the Colorado Avalanche. Nashville’s overall and road winning streaks had to end eventually, and here’s hoping that the team can get back on the right track quickly after this setback in Detroit.

What’s in store on Battlestar Galactica tonight? As usual, I’ve done my best to avoid anything more than the teaser description, but I’m looking forward to tonight’s episode. I’m happy to have the Colonials off of New Caprica and back out in space, and I am enjoying seeing the new storyline gradually unveil.

I hesitated before posting the photo (above) from SciFi.com because it makes me uncomfortable. I consider James Callis (Baltar, seated and wailing in the photo) to be an excellent actor, and his performance in the episode preview following last week’s show really wigged me out. He is very evocative, and my imagination ran wild imagining what the Cylons must be doing to him to make him respond that way when being tortured. I never particularly enjoyed (or watched) Xena: Warrior Princess, but I think Lucy Lawless has made a great addition to the cast. She doesn’t physically or emotionally resemble the character of Xena at all. I think that’s a good thing because I can’t see a Xena-type character working very well on Galactica.

I’m especially curious where the writers are ultimately going with the series and with the search for Earth. Normally, I’d think this search and its eventual conclusion would run the high risk of being cliched and overdone, but not on this show. What surprises do they have in store for us?

Several sources on the internet this week have assumed that the foreign device the Cylons found last week originated from Earth. I may need to watch that episode again because I didn’t really see evidence of that other than it being an unknown object (which wouldn’t necessarily point to Earth). I guess we’ll see.

The Preds (9-3-1) and Red Wings (10-4-1) meet up at Joe Louis Arena tonight for what promises to be a great early-season matchup. Both teams are red hot and among the heavyweights in the NHL’s Western Conference, but for maybe the first time, they are truly equals. Statswise, they look awfully balanced, and their rosters are much more comparable than at anytime in the pre-salary cap era. Tonight should be the first in what will likely be eight exhilarating games that will help decide the Central Division.

I’m wondering how the Preds will come out after a long six-day break. They were playing extremely well through Saturday’s road win in Minnesota, and I hope the time off will not change their momentum. The Wings have arguably the two purest scorers who will take the ice tonight in Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, but the Preds are a balanced offensive force these days playing a much more physical game. This is another measuring-stick game for the young Preds, even though the players will likely deny that. Go Preds!!

CNET News is reporting that this may be the newspaper, or e-paper, of the future and that the future may arrive as soon as 2008. The photos above are of a roll-up laptop screen that can stream digital news content.

My first questions are how much will these cost and how long will it take for them to become affordable, but the technology is spectacular at first glance. The 2001 film Minority Report featured a similar, though more advanced type of newspaper, even though it is set decades from now.

For now, I would just settle for having full Tennessean PDFs downloadable to subscribers each morning, but the idea that this innovation may eventually replace the newspaper is pretty intriguing. It might save the newspaper industry at some point, if these devices become ubiquitous.

I can’t actually confirm that, but it looks like the Red Rocker may have taken up residence in one of Davidson County’s most affluent suburbs. Or perhaps someone is filming a Cannonball Run sequel. I took one of these photos at the intersection of Granny White Pike and Tyne Boulevard last night.

Never forget: If you want love, you’ve got to give a little.