It has been a weird playoff schedule, today starting at 6:30 p.m. (instead of the usual 7 p.m.) and starting out west at 10 p.m. last week.
In fact, it really through me off last week, because I knew that the Wings were in the bottom half of the playoff teams. At one point, we posted a poll asking if readers thought they could make the playoffs, as the longtime kings of Hockeytown lingered in ninth place and looked to be in danger of making the playoffs.
Sure enough, they pushed through until the end of the season and even got to number 5. But I knew they were lower in the standings.
Yet, come the Wednesday start to the season, I was home and turned on the TV at 7 p.m., assuming the Wings were on. They always start at 7 p.m. for the first game of the playoffs, because they've always been at home.
But not this year.
Now, if they can just survive to the second round, something they haven't always done, even when ranked at the top of the league.