Crossing The NHL’s Atlantic Division: Week 20
By Tim Bayer
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Detroit Red Wings
By John Evans of Octopus Thrower
Detroit has itself in a precarious position, but it is a playoff position! The Red Wings beat those pesky Florida Panthers 3-1 last Wednesday, only to fall to the Tampa Bay lightning 4-2 on Saturday before the Olympic break. Hopefully the rest does the Wings some good because they’ll have a great opportunity to put some distance between themselves and the rest of the division as they take on the Canadiens and the Senators in back-to-back games right after the break.
Most of the Red Wings’ focus on the Olympics has come as a result of Pavel Datsyuk. He looks as though he’ll be ready to go Thursday but that hasn’t been the case all week. Some of us have even started to wonder if he maybe has focused more on the Olympics than he has on the Red Wings. This is to say nothing, of course, of the nine other Red Wings taking part in the Olympics, including six for Team Sweden. Let’s hope it doesn’t end up burning them out when the NHL kicks back up.