This is me, trying to "bring it"

Back in October, in the burgeoning days of this blog, I fell into the conventional thinking that the Red Wings might struggle in the "new," post-strike NHL. And Susannah (whose musings you can read at Pub of Knowledge) called me out on it, saying I shouldn't just assume that the championship days were over in Hockeytown. As the Wings begin the NHL playoffs tonight, I thought it was worth pointing out Suz's hockey wisdom.

And thankfully, both Detroit newspapers have playoff primers today (well, sort of), so fair-weather hockey fans such as myself can get up to speed after somehow ignoring the regular season. Yes, sir - that Devils-Rangers series should be a good one. Brother against brother in New York, I hear. And you always have to watch out for the Avs in the playoffs. Yep.

... Man, I am going to be clueless.

You know, I hate that I've become this kind of hockey fan. I wasn't always like this. (However, I'm not the only one, judging from how little fanfare the Red Wings received in Detroit through the winter.) Wake me when the playoffs begin. Oh, and wake me when the puck drops for the Wings' inevitable West Coast starting times. ("Yeah, they went into triple overtime with the Ducks last night, and I stayed up for the whole... thing... Actually, the game just ended before I came into work. Hey, did anyone make coffee?")

I used to call in sick to work or skip class (there's a reason it took me so long to finish college) to watch Red Wings playoff games. Friends and family thought I was crazy when I refused to watch the first period on TV with them, opting to listen to the radio in my car or another room because the Wings somehow lost whenever I sat down to watch the game from the very beginning. I don't have any numbers on it, but the record is good. (It works for the Pistons, too. I can't explain it.)

And now, I have to remember where OLN is on my cable system again... man, I just found it the other day - Oh wait! We have CBC here in Michigan; I'll just watch that. Between living in Iowa for two years and the NHL lockout last season, I'd forgotten that was an option. What a luxury.

▪▪ Here are real Wings-Oilers previews from Abel to Yzerman and On the Wings.

▪▪ Behind the Jersey has spanned the internet for expert predictions on the series.

▪▪ EJ Smith, my colleague at Motor City Sports Magazine, has posted his picks for the entire NHL playoffs at Radio Free Detroit (along with his NBA picks). In less comprehensive fashion, so has MLive's Ansar Khan.