The Fifth Liners

Today the Olympic Ice Hockey rosters for the upcoming Sochi 2014 games have been officially confirmed, after much speculation surrounding them there has been some interesting selections made and no doubt this will spark furious debate among hockey fans, let's take a look at the main contenders. Canada  The 25 man Canadian squad certainly isn't lacking in depth, and this year they will be the team to beat and 11 of 2010 Gold Medal team will make a return journey! The defensive selection is one I highly commend as they have mixed youth of players like PK Subban along with defensive quality like Jay Bouwmeester. The St Louis pairing of JB along with Pietrangelo could well be a wise selection! Offensively the star count is ridiculously high with Crosby, Toews, Perry, Stamkos and Kunitz among others being featured and Canada will rely on this goal power to see them through! There are few surprise selections with Marc-Andre Fleury missing out in favour of Roberto Luongo and the ...

The Colorado Avalanche have been on fire recently. So far this season Patrick Roy's men have won all six of their games. Mostly down to Semyon Varlamov's heroics between the posts. The Detroit Red Wings are also in a good place. Having got over their slightly shaky start, the team is settling in to life with Daniel Alfredsson and life without Valtteri Filppula. Expectations for the Red Wings' visit to the Pepsi Center were high for both teams. Mike Babcock's men are desperate not to repeat last season's chase for a playoff spot while the Avs need to prove that they're serious contenders. The Avalanche got off to a bad start when Cody McLeod was assessed a game misconduct and a boarding major penalty after his push on Niklas Kronwall left the big Swede with concussion and cuts. Kronwall was stretchered off the ice but not taken to hospital. The resulting powerplay allowed Henrik Zetterberg to set up Johan Franzen who then put the first goal on th...

Last night the Detroit Red Wings evened the score against the Anaheim Ducks to tie the series. It's tough being a Detroit fan, no doubt there was lots of shouting at the TV coming from Michigan. The Wings took an early lead in the first period, netting twice to no reply. After Johan Franzen scored a third, it looked like the Wings had this one in the bag. Then something happened, either Anaheim turned up or Detroit switched off; cos the game was turned on its head. Saku Koivu put the ducks on the board in the second and at the start of the third, the Wings found themselves 4-1 up. Goals by Ryan Getzlaf , Kyle Palmieri and Bobby Ryan brought parity to the proceedings and it was down to Detroit's Gustav Nyquist  to score the winner in overtime. Justin Abdelkader and Damien Brunner also scored for the Wings. The next two games are at the Joe Louis. Anaheim did well to come back from a three goal deficit and will be disappointing to have not taken any...

The Detroit Red Wings welcomed the Phoenix Coyotes to the Joe Louis last night, desperate for two points to keep them in the race for a placeoff place.  Super Swiss Damien Brunner tipped the puck to Johan Franzen to score in the third minute before then scoring himself just before the end of the first period.  Valtteri Filppula added a third goal late in the second period and Franzen stole another in the fourth period.  Jimmy Howard made 34 saves in his fourth shutout of the season. The win puts the Wings one point outside the playoff places with three games left.  Full report  here.

Detroit Red Wings #1 goalie Jimmy Howard hasn't had his best season, the team has lost 6 of its last 10 games, with 2 of those being shootouts. The added pressure of the team dropping out of the playoff places made winning last night's game vital. According to  NHL.com , Howard sought advice from former Wings Goalie Chris Osgood, Coach Jim Bedard and Jedi Master Yoda  in his attempt to end the slump. Whatever that advice was, it worked. Howard made 22 saves including breakaways and a mis-hit penalty shot after Bobby Butler was tripped by Jakub Kindl . Helping the Wings to beat the Nashville Predators 3-0. Howard, braced for action.  Howard's performance was so good last night that he earned the 1st star of the game. The two points earned see the Wings jump back into that last playoff place although things are still very tight with a few teams still in contention. Henrik Zetterberg , Johan Franzen and Justin Abdelkader scored for the Wings and new boy Dann...