Mar. 5 :: And so Isildur cursed them…

On By mpetrella
On two occasions before turning 13, I was asked for Elijah Wood's autograph.

Never to rest until they had fulfilled their pledge.
So, it’s come to this… the final pledge game in our twelve-game fundraising marathon. You’ve done well, Hockeytown, already pledging more than $7,000 to Children’s Hospital for H2H2 — but two lackluster performances in a row from our heroes on the ice have only yielded a few hundred bucks. We’re all hoping for an offensive onslaught tonight… particularly the children who will benefit from your generosity.

If ever there was a time for an outrageous pledge, or a proposition that could raise an extra couple dollars, send it our way. Leave it in the comments, send us an e-mail, tweet us @TPLhockey or @H2Hockeytown2. We’ll get it, and we’ll add it to the total.

After tonight’s game, I’ll be up late tabulating totals and e-mailing all of our generous pledgers with details about completing their donations. Once again, a sincere thank you on behalf of The Production Line and from the H2H2 planning committee.

WHAT’S ALL THIS THEN?
Red Wings and Coyotes. 8pm, Saturday night in Glendale.

NOW WHERE WERE WE?
This is the fourth and final matchup between the Wings and Dogs. Two of the three prior games went to overtime, with Detroit winning both. The Coyotes won the only regulation decision. The most recent game was November 8th, a 3-2 victory for Jimmy Howard and the Winged Wheelers.

BEST NAME NOMINEE
Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

THEIR LAST GAMES
:: Detroit didn’t give much of an effort on Thursday night, losing 3-1 to San Jose.
:: Phoenix dropped a 1-0 loss to the Kings on Thursday.

EXPECTED LINEUP
By special request, the TPL Glossary is ready to jailsex your eyes.
Datsyuk — Zetterberg — Holmstrom
Scuttles — Filppula — Franzen
Cleary — Modano — Thunderchief
Abdelkader — Helm — Miller

Lidstrom — Stuart
Kronwall — Ericsson
Cirque — Kindl

Howard
MacDonald

Holy Shit, There’s a Scratch?!
Kris Draper

Injuries
Brian Rafalski [back/day-to-day]
Patrick Eaves [leg/day-to-day]
Chris Osgood [groin/March]

The TPL Name Game “Three Stars”
Disch: Jiri “What Service Could a Hobbit Offer Such a Great Lord of Men” Hudler / Doug “A Fool…But an Honest Fool, He Remains” Janik
Petrella: Jiri “Master Must Go Inside the Tunnel” Hudler
Hollis: Mickey “That Blade Was Broken!” Redmond
*Now it’s up to you! Think up your best names and throw them in the comments — the best one will be shared for all to enjoy on the TPL Facebook Page. The best of the best will be pitted against one another at season’s end, and the winner takes home a TPL Shirt of their choice.*

TIDBITS
:: Joey MacDonald played admirably, aside from his Chris Osgood-against-the-Sharks-like gaffe, but he’s no Jimmy Howard, and I’m certain even he’d admit that. It’ll be nice to get the starter back in the net, hopefully refreshed, and hopefully looking forward to his new two year, $4.5M deal that kicks in next year.
:: New look forward lines. And by that, I mean old look. Zetterberg/Datsyuk/Holmstrom on the ones, Hudler on the twos, with Bertuzzi on the threes. Let’s see where this goes.
:: Henrik Zetterberg has very quietly climbed to fifth in the league in scoring with 69 points. He’s ten points behind the leader (the pretty Sedin). Interestingly, Pavel Datsyuk is sixth in the league in points-per-game, having played 19 fewer games than most of the leaders, but still securing 52 points.
:: PREDICTION — Wings 5, Coyotes 1. A big one for the kids. And also… Hollis took our obligatory “once every three games, we must predict a loss” grenade for us. Thanks, boss!

WHAT WE LEARNED AGAINST THE SHARKS
Goddammit, Dany Heatley.