Preds Squeeze By Thrashers 2-1

Readership,

I'll believe it after this road trip. 

The latest plague of later-season injuries makes me wince just typing this sentence out (possibly due to the fact that anything resulting in testicular surgery is enough to make any man wince when doing...well...anything). 

Our boys beat the Thrashers by one goal.  So...they beat the 10th in the East by one goal...which is like beating the 13th  in the West by one goal...which is good, cos we're playing them (the Ducks) on my birthday and I require a birthday win as a gift despite the fact none of them know me.  I'd rather them beat the Sharks as an early birthday win, and though I could come off as a spoiled no-good-nik, I'd very much like to ask for them to win the whole dang road trip...just for my birthday (and all of yours as well).  The question is...will they?

Suter and Wilson showed up big in tonight's game, as did Erat.  Dan Ellis did the rest to make sure the team kept the lead.  "It's like playoff hockey," stated Wilson, and Ellis knows how to handle this team in these types of games (I admit, he didn't look himself against the Red Wings at all, but the Preds didn't look like themselves against the Red Wings at all). What will they do against tougher foes without key D? Sulzer and Franson must step up and prove that they're Predators. Hamhuis has been looking better as of late, Suter has been using that post-Olympic play to the best of his ability, Bouillon has been making his presence known to the other teams and Klein...got one of only two penalties against...and that's...that's something.

If they can keep tightening the D's chemistry, allowing each player to work their game while staying true to the system (it doesn't have to be an oxymoron) and keep working on making the once dismal PP better and better with each game (and it seems to have been making its way towards that as of late), this road trip will happily show us where the team will be come playoff time and that would be one helluva birthday gift.

I won't open the presents yet though.  Well...perhaps I'll open one Thursday.

Cheers.