November 10, 2006
Preds, Wings say hello
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!!
![Rob Robinson](http://thinktrain.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/Rob.jpg")
newton dominey said,
November 11, 2006 @ 12:24 pm
i saw the first 2 periods and missed the third. it seemed like the boys came out a little flat, and that detroit did a good job of protecting hasek/limiting the preds’ chances.
i can’t believe that hasek’s playing as well as he is & that the wings are only giving up 15-20 shots a game.
tonite’s game will show the bounce-backability of the boys in mustard…
Rob Robinsonhttp://thinktrain.blogspot.com said,
November 12, 2006 @ 11:05 pm
The third was the best period for the Preds, but they still didn’t have anything to show for it by game’s end. I’m hoping most of this is related to a long break after being red hot. We’ll see. It was good to swipe two points from the Avs last night to rebound, too.
Hasek is playing awfully well. I guess we’ll see how long that lasts.