Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

One Skate Down, One Skate Poised

04/07/2016 at 10:44am EDT

That was big, but tonight's will be tougher. In Boston. Back end of a back-to-back. Angry, emotionally brittle B's, itching and sputtering. Tough.

Sven22 posted his pharmacist's science in a comment this morning. It's important to you and your family:

- 2 points against Bruins, any fashion = Red Wings are in.
- SO loss to Bruins = Red Wings need 1 point against NYR
- OT loss to Bruins = Red Wings need 2 points against NYR (any fashion)
- Regulation loss to Bruins = Red Wings need an ROW against NYR

I believe that refers to scenarios that would result in the Wings earning the 3 spot in the Atlantic. I am not sure how the Wild Card plays out.

If the Wings lose in regulation tonight, they go to NY with 93 points. Assuming Uncle Mike tanks to Philly, we'd be tied--points wise--with both Boston and the Flyers.

And my mind just fogs at that point. When Sven makes us smart in a comment I'll bring it here and update you with the Wild Card scenarios. I think it's not as difficult as I'm making it seem.

Bottom line: Wings win tonight, we get Tampa. If Wings lose tonight, we need to beat the Rangers to earn Tampa. The type of win (thanks Gary, ass) matters if the Wings lose tonight.

Back to last night. Back to "the most important regular season game the Wings have played in 30 years." Back to the most important game the Wings have played against Philadelphia since Darren McCarty put his skate in their throats 19 years ago this June. And back to back to back (then tonight, back again) to Jimmy Howard.

James Tiberius Howard and his dong.

It's been a long time since I tried to figure out what kind of twisted shit is going on inside the head of a Red Wing goalie. Hasek proved that we have no concept of the insanity that resides there and we won't even go into the self-destructive tendencies of one Manuel Legace.

Broken, emotionally wrecked, relegated and vanquished. Howard was done. The only thing we cared about where Jimmy Howard was concerned two months ago was how much we could get for him and how many tires Tick Tock could kick before dealing him, if he even knows how to trade people anymore.

Not anymore. Now he's back in business, hanging his shingle as our collective personal savior. Saving lives and pets. Coming to a caboose near you.

We may never see Petr Mrazek play a game for the Wings again. Howard is, suddenly, steady. Howard is composed and he's got swagger. Jimmy Howard is displaying his dong again in a perfectly legal and attractive fashion.

The best things that ever happened to me are my daughters, my wife, my ass-kicking Destroyer, Darren Garcia and watching Luke Glendening and Darren Helm kill a penalty last night without sticks in their hands. Those little bastards, feet moving in tandem, fearlessly daring the Flyers to shoot. It was horrific and it was incredible.

Athanasiou and this ridiculous playing time thing. I don't profess to understand it. I know it's a source of pain for us and I get it. Blashill played the kid in all situations down in GR and, obviously, likes him on the PK so why not at even strength for many more minutes? He's fast. He's defensively responsible and offensively explosive. I'm going to avoid slinging arrows right now, but if tonight and Saturday go sour and AA's time stays at that mysteriously low level, that will need to be discussed.

I do believe the Wings will win tonight, despite the seven or eight "if they lose" references I've already made in this post. I believe they'll win and I believe they can and will beat Tampa...

...if they play like they did last night, which is the best we've seen from them all year. Someone coached something good, because even I could tell (I'm not an expert, Garth) the pucks were leaving our own zone faster, in safer directions, more consistently. The blue line that I referred to recently as the worst the Wings have iced in 25 years, looked very good last night.

There is no reason, other than fatigue, that they can't do the same tonight against a Boston team that has not played nearly as well as Philly has the last month.

It's critical that you prepare for this game as you did last evening's. I won't even tell you how pathetic I was at my daughter's game, pacing and wretching, scowling and childish, cursing children for not warming up quickly enough, softly hinting to my daughter that swinging at anything, no matter the pitch location, just swing and get this over with, was perfectly acceptable.

Those nerves. That angst. That dread. It all must remain. You feel relaxed today. Not completely, but relaxed. And that shit is a dangerous, wicked drug. Fear the worst, as our boy Doomsberry used to say. Fear the worst today. All day.

One more win, boys. Win tonight. Rest this weekend (unless the 2 seed's a possibility...)

LGRW. 1 (in regulation) to 25.

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About Abel to Yzerman

Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that.

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