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Posted at 12:00 PM EST. 

Regulation only. Let us preface this by saying that Detroit and Philadelphia are tied for the final Wild Card spot.  However, Philadelphia has two games in hand on the Red Wings and the Flyers play an afternoon game today against Ottawa. When the puck drops in Toronto tonight, Detroit will know the final of that Philly/Ottawa game and no matter what happens, this one is an absolute must win for the Red Wings. A loss to Toronto and the Red Wings can kiss their season goodbye.

We were all prepared to play the Maple Leafs against Mike Babcock’s old team here figuring that Babcock would do everything in his power to knock Detroit out of the playoffs. We also know how much these Maple Leafs’ players love their new coach and we figured they would go out and play their hearts out in support of Babcock trying to knock out his former team. Imagine our surprise then when we saw that Mike Babcock elected to start Garret Sparks instead of Jonathan Bernier. Bernier is red-hot at the moment. He was the Leafs goaltender in Detroit on March 13 in a game he kicked aside 38 shots and Toronto won, 1-0. Bernier’s save percentages over his last six starts look like this: .941, .938, .920, .933, .963 and 1.000. Meanwhile Sparks was the 4-1 loser against the Sabres on Thursday. Over his last six starts, Sparks has posted save percentages of .917, .833, .868, .765, .889 and .889. The Leafs did not play last night and they do not play tomorrow either so it’s not a back-to-back situation for the Leafs net-minders. It is extremely obvious that if Mike Babcock wanted a win badly, he would turn to a very hot Bernier here instead of Sparks.

Mike Babcock left Detroit on very good terms. He loved coaching that team and the fans and players loved him back. He won Cups with Detroit with guys that shed blood, sweat and tears for him. Guys like Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Niklas Kronwall and Jimmy Howard to name a few. Babcock loves those guys, as they have formed lifelong friendships and a mutual respect that goes far beyond the locker room. They are like family. Do you see what we’re getting at here? By starting Sparks instead of Bernier, Babcock is giving the Red Wings their best chance to win this game and that is the most telling fact about this game. We’re not saying the Maple Leafs are tanking but it’s obvious that Babcock is doing the Red Wings a solid. That promps us to step in because Garret Sparks is not NHL material. 

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