Saturday Morning from the Flood Zone

This will be a brief update today as we are headed out to my daughter's dance competition in Nashville. It is worth noting that we had seven inches of rain here in Columbia, Tennessee since yesterday morning and another inch before that. That is highly unusual for this area a may rival the all time record for a 24 hour period.

Last night's games turned out about as expected with Boston having their way with Carolina and the Ducks and Wings turning nasty early on.

The Ducks and Wings was a hard fought back and forth affair with the Ducks scoring first and the Wings scoring last with 50 seconds left in the game to avoid overtime. There were plenty of penalties all around with two of the Wings goals and one of the Ducks being scored on the man advantage.

Nicklas Lidstrom proved why he is a perennial Norris Trophy candidate and the best in the game at what he does as he scored the game tying and game winning goal. The Wings played their style of game out shooting the Ducks 37-24.

There was blood on the ice early when the Duck's Mike Brown took out Jiri Hudler on a hit that will be reviewed by Colin Campbell in the league offices. This series looks to be one for the ages but I still feel the Wings will prevail.

I saw very little of the Boston Carolina game due to the NHL's poor scheduling practices. What I did see indicated to me that it will be a short series as Boston clearly outplayed the Canes. Marc Savard, Phil Kessel and Milan Lucic had big opening nights.

Today, we await all the media attention of Pittsburgh traveling to Washington on the NHL on NBC game. I think the Caps will win the opener just to spit Pierre McGuire. Hopefully, it won't go to OT to create another fiasco with the Kentucky Derby. In tonight's game I expect to see a better Vancouver team than we saw in the third period on Thursday. I think the Hawks got their attention and the Nooks will play a full 60 minute game this time.

For the best preview of today's action, go over to the Red Light Disctrict where Ryan has it covered wall to wall.

In the Predators world....

It is now official that Jonathon Blum will join the Admirals in time for their game against the Houston Aeros tonight.

John Gleenon talks about Blum and the reunion between Ryan Suter (and Colin Wilson) and Russian Alexander Radulov at the World Championship this afternoon.

Around the NHL...

The NHL Tweetups continue to get good pub daily as Kevin Allen writes about them in USA Today. There's also a link to the Caps Tweet site.

I just got a Tweet from @goaliegirl that PredsOnTheGlass now has a link on the NHL Tweetup site blog roll. Thanks a million! I'm a big fan of @goaliegirl and dani3boyz and all they have done.

I was unaware of how bad Versus messed up by not carrying the end of the Hurricanes upset of the Devils in game seven. Something has to be done by the league that makes all games available (legally) for fans willing to pay for them.

More later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Additions...

Interesting fact from Greatest Hockey Legends "The Detroit Red Wings have set a new NHL record. Their second round match up against Anaheim marks the 18th consecutive playoff series that the Red Wings had started on their home ice. The previous record was 17 by the Montreal Canadians from 1976 through 1983." It's a cool site with interesting stuff all the time.

Simeon Varlamov's save of the playoffs this afternoon as the Capitals held on to beat the Pens 3-2.