Wings 1-1, Pistons 1-0

The Wings:
No panic yet. As long as they split in Edmonton we're still in good shape, and being that they're the best road team in the history of the National Hockey League, I'm pretty confident they'll at least split out there. It's been slightly alarming to see how poorly Mathieu Schneider has played in this series, and somewhere in the back of Ken Holland's mind he's got to be at least thinking "Crap. Has Lilja signed that deal yet?" Lang was great in game one, and was much less great in game two. Ditto Maltby and his lazy play in his own zone.

Also slightly alarming is that the Wings have only scored one legit goal in this series (Lang's). The rest have been of the garbage variety (or in Williams' case, the downright weird/borderline illegal variety). This series just seems to be going the way of series' past, and hopefully Babcock is able to handle things better than Lewie. The "it's not a trap" trap has been giving the Wings fits so far, and Roloson is trying to do his best Giguere impersonation (minus the back spasms and huge pads).

But still, no panic. I'm pretty sure Detroit can't play a lot worse than they did in game 2, and they are a stronger team on the road than they are at home. They need to be more conscious of the point, and not letting Pronger get shots off like he's been able to thusfar. Either that or they need to bring back Dmitri Mironov to take another slap shot at his chest.

Oh yeah, and that thing with Zetterberg? Penalty shot all the way.

Pistons:
Game One was just like every other game for the past two months it seems. Pistons get down early, wake up, realize that they can smoke this team if they want, Sheed gets T'ed up, make a huge run, coast the rest of the way.

There's no reason they shouldn't sweep this team. Too many matchup problems for the Bucks. Really? Magloire and Bogut against the Wallaces? Redd on Hamilton? Tiny TJ Ford on Hamilton after they decide Redd is getting worn out? As long as Rip's ankle is remotely healthy, this series isn't going more than 4. I guess if Redd shoots the absolute lights out, they could take one game, but I'm not expecting it.

Other quick thoughts on the playoffs thusfar:
-I'm pretty surprised that Colorado beat Dallas that soundly in game one. If they get out to an early lead tonight, there's going to be some doubts creeping into people's minds about Turco, as much as I hate to say it.

-Not sure why there was such a huge contingent of people picking the Rangers to do something in the playoffs. The Devils were the hottest team in the league, the Rangers choked the division away. Even if Lundqvist is great, the Devils still have Brodeur. That's a great, experience team against a team that's just happy to be in the playoffs. Not hard to see this coming. And now they're putting Kevin Weekes in and Jagr's out? They aren't winning a game in this series.

-How impressive was San Antonio with their win over Sacramento? Holy crap. So much for Artest changing that series. He did get himself suspended though.

-Indiana taking down New Jersey is another shocker. I can't decide how I want that series to go. On one hand, it'd be nice to have NJ eliminated in round one, because it just makes Detroit's road that much easier. On the other hand, it gives Miami a much easier second round matchup (assuming they win) and we'd only have to play one of those two teams anyway, so maybe it's best that they just bang on each other in the second round. Plus I hate Indiana.

Trevor Lewis and Aaron Palushaj each had an assist in Des Moines 2-0 win in game one of the USHL Championship best of five series. Louie Caporusso had an assist on the OPJHL Championship winning goal for St. Mike's and they're off to the Hewitt Cup again. It looks like there will be some streaming video for those games. Nice to see some of our guys getting big game experience. Though sadly, it won't help them at Michigan unless they're getting "Losing in Overtime" experience.

And lastly, we're getting Ryan Mallet. That should help with the recruiting eh? Too bad he's not a point guard.