Red Wings clinch a playoff spot with overtime win

FINAL SCORE
Red Wings 4-3 in overtime.

TIDBITS
:: With the win, the Red Wings have clinched a playoff berth for the twentieth straight season. Pretty awesome.

:: Niklas Kronwall was a late scratch this afternoon, suffering from a sore shoulder. As a result, both Jakub Kindl and Ruslan Salei were in the lineup so they were both able to prove — again — that each of them is vastly superior to Jonathan Ericsson in every single way.

:: Somebody pissed in Todd Bertuzzi’s Wheaties this morning, as he dropped the gloves twice — both times with Shane “That’s a Girl’s Name” O’Brien. He hadn’t fought since kicking the shit out of Brooks Orpik in the pre-season, and these were his first regular season fights since March 26, 2009 against Rusty Klesla.

:: I’ve never seen a team enter scrums with their sticks up above their shoulders as often as the Predators do. It’s like a team full of Tim McCrackens.

:: The Red Wings would score first, but since Tomas Holmstrom was within twenty feet of Pekka Rinne, it was called off. In related news, the sun rose over the Atlantic this morning, the sky was blue, a dog chased a mailman, water felt wet, the New York subway smelled like garbage, and hot water burn baby. On the ensuing power play, the Predators strapped a saddle on Jimmy Howard and went for a ride. There would be no penalty for that, just so we’re clear.

:: The Predators capitalized on their 38th power play of the day, making it 1-0. On the replay, the clowns that do play-by-play for Nashville were tripping all over themselves to praise Patric Hornqvist for waving his stick around Jimmy Howard’s face like Sean Avery. In short order, Martin Erat would make it 2-0 and Sergei Kostitsyn 3-0 before the rest of the Red Wings started to get pissed off.

:: Jakub “I’m Not Jonathan Ericsson, and Here’s Some Proof” Kindl scored on a smart play from way up in the slot to make it 3-1. A few minutes later, Justin Abdelkader tipped a Brad Stuart shot to close the gap to one. He’d do it again, about four minutes into the third, to tie the game at three. Gator was all over the ice for all sixty minutes and — along with Jimmy Howard, courtesy of his circus saves in the third — should be considered the Red Wing of the Game.

:: In overtime, Dan Cleary played hero as he refused to let this battle go to a shootout. Winner winner, chicken BOOYAH.

Photo Credit: Frederick Breedon, Getty