The Play-Offs!

Well, now. The regular season is over (ending on a sour note for Wings fans) and the long playoff run begins day after tomorrow. The NHL announced the playoff schedule sometime last evening… and I have “concerns.” The Beloved Wings begin play on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. (EDT) and so does Boston in its series against Montreal… on the exact same day at the exact same time. Versus hasn’t posted their TeeVee schedule as of this writing but I’m slightly worried, as there are similar scheduling conflicts throughout the first round. But… it will be what it will be. In the meantime, Detroit’s quarter-final series will be most interesting:

Red Wings to play Blue Jackets in first round? Detroit needs to bring the hate

Posted by George James Malik April 13, 2009 00:26AM

As MLive.com's own Ansar Khan reports, the St. Louis Blues 1-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche earned the Blues the sixth seed in the Western Conference, locking the Detroit Red Wings into a 2-versus-7 match-up against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Those pesky Anaheim Ducks get the San Jose Sharks for their trouble, while the Blues play the Vancouver Canucks, and our dear friends, the Chicago Blackhawks, host the Calgary Flames.

The Red Wings' series will start on Thursday, April 16th, and you can read the entire schedule here (all teams).

This one's going to be interesting for some very simple reasons.

First and foremost, the Blue Jackets won the season series.

The Red Wings mostly played Columbus over the second half of the season, kicking off the season series against a team that had Pascal Leclaire in the net. On November 28th, the Wings defeated the Blue Jackets 5-3; on January 7th, the Wings shut out Steve Mason and Columbus 4-0; Rick Nash scored a hat trick in Columbus's 3-2 win on January 27th--which marked the one-game suspension doled out to Nicklas Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk--and Columbus got another 3-2 win on February 14th before the infamous 8-2 drubbing on March 7th.

Detroit finished their regular-season play against Columbus with a 4-0 win and Chris Osgood shutout on the Ides of March (March 15th), but Columbus sees Detroit as eminently beatable.

It’s that last sentence above that raises fear in Detroit… the fear of that ol’ playoff song: “Hot Goalie Meets Powerhouse Offense.” We’ve seen that movie before… when the Wings made first-round exits in 2001, 2003, and 2006. Which, of course, isn’t saying we’ll see a re-run. A first-round exit is MUCH more likely to happen in San Jose, who will play the streaking Anaheim Ducks… even though ESPN calls it for the Sharks in seven. (ESPN picks Dee-troit in five, by the way)
Wings aside... I’m thinking the most interesting first-round series will be that San Jose/Anaheim match-up, which should be a doozy. And the second most interesting? That would be Philly/Pittsburgh, about which ESPN sez Penguins in six. Forgive me for concentrating on the Western Conference, Gentle Reader, but it’s what I know. I might have watched perhaps six Eastern Conference games all year, given the fact I live in a hockey wasteland. But there will be ALL the hockey I want for the next six or seven weeks.
I can’t wait!

Update, later that same morning... According to NHL.com I have no reason to worry about teevee coverage this Thursday:

Four more begin Thursday, starting with the Wings, who host Columbus at 7 p.m. ET on VERSUS and TSN. Montreal at Boston also starts at 7 p.m. ET on CBC and RDS. Calgary and Chicago open at the United Center (8:30 p.m. ET on TSN2 and VERSUS) and San Jose hosts Anaheim at 10:30 p.m. ET on VERSUS, CBC and RDS.

Cool. A double-header on Thursday!