Update (3:53 PM): Bruce MacLeod provides some perspective here. - Matt

Update (12:29 PM): Over at the NHL Fanhouse, the gang has a roundtable on the Western Conference playoffs. - Matt

Update (12:15 PM): Here’s yesterday’s obligatory read, in case you missed it: Scotty Bowman’s Q&A with the fans on Slapshot. Be sure to check out George Malik’s question. - Matt

Update (10:55 AM): Dave of Gorilla Crouch has a look at the Wings’ faceoff trends against Nashville this season here. Direct link to his handy Google Spreadsheet on the topic here. - Matt

Preview coming. For now, some links:

… IwoCPO, who’s been a veritable posting machine the past couple days, has his first round predictions up at Abel to Yzerman.

He also appeared on the New York Times’ Slapshot blog here.

… Bruce Ciskie previewed the Wings/Predators series over at the NHL Fanhouse.

… For those fluent in Portuguese, Humberto Ferndandes has a preview of the series at Red Wings Brasil. Here’s a rough translation.

… One of the few Predator bloggers, PredJoe, has some comments on his team here. His outlook is positive.

… Most media are writing the Wings off, but James Mirtle is one journalist who isn’t. He has them going all the way.

So does the Denver Post’s Terry Frei.

… Ansar Khan “dispels” some myths about the Wings in his latest. It’s pretty basic stuff and what’s surprising is so much of the hockey media just doesn’t get it.

… The Wings have noticed the animosity coming out of the media and, predictably, they are less than appreciative. George Malik has a brief roundup here. Note McCarty’s quote especially.

… Malik also has a roundup of the latest injury updates.

… Did you know that Mike Babcock is on the hot seat? Neither did Ken Holland.

… The News’ Bob Wojnowski has a nice long piece on Henrik Zetterberg in today’s edition. The best part? Hank’s final quote:

“Hopefully, we can come to an agreement and I can stay here for a long time. I’ve noticed the last two years, when I’m in Sweden at the end of August, I really want to come back home. They take care of us here and we have a good team. It’s nice.”

… The Washington Post has a piece on former Red Wing Sergei Fedorov that’s worth reading. (via Abel to Yzerman)

… TSN has a new look, but still doesn’t have sport-specific RSS feeds. What’s that about? On the new look: it’s slick, but will take some getting used to.

… On a related note, the new NHL TV portal has launched. It looks good. The Hockey Show is on at 11:30 AM ET today.