Time for the Wings to get on track and show us that they want to win. Josh brings us a simple yet amazing movie poster that we all home may light a fire.

Click the jump to see its glory

As everyone's favorite Oompa Loompa, we'd like to welcome back home Happy Hudler.  We missed the little guy over here at NOHS.  If they actually sold it, I'd have a Hudler jersey and I'd wear it proud.  

He returns to Detroit tonight in a different jersey and it's going to be painful. He's having a great start with Calgary (even if Calgary isn't, being in last place and all), as noted by TSN.  

In Calgary, there is an opportunity for Hudler to play a more substantial role and he's certainly doing his part in his first three games, putting up two goals and five points, playing 21:19 against Chicago Saturday, his most in a game since March 3, 2009 vs. St. Louis.

Tyler over at Winging it in Motown put up a great article giving Happy his due yesterday.  Check it out, this part is great: 

So why do I like him so much? He's fun. He's fun as hell, man. You may like the idea of a team full of Darren Helms, but I'm just not that way. I need a Jiri or two mixed in there. I like the unexpected entertainment that it provides. Did it looked like Jiri worked his tail off every minute of every game? Of course not. But who am I to criticize him for that? I'm writing this while I'm supposed to be working for Christ's sake.

And don't forget we chronicaled Happy's travels in his KHL days extensively.  Here's a few highlights: 

Hit the jump for more Happy moments: 

You wanted change?  All you had to do was ask.

Though this is a good news/bad news kind of shake up.  Two is the number of the day.  Brendan Smith (#2) is placed onto Injury Reserve after suffering an "upper body injury" in that Columbus Blue Jacket debacle on Saturday night.  Tomas McCollum is sent back down to the Grand Rapids Griffins (that's two players out of the lineup).

Smith's injury is obviously the bad news.  McCollum sat on the bench for his entire short stint with the big club... guess that's also kind of bad news as the First Round Draft Pick seems to have hit a rut in his progression and they didn't even feel confident enough to give him a sniff of NHL play (so far) this season.

The good news is after the jump.

STANDINGS WATCH!

I'm here on site (in Sioux Falls, SD) and it's time to look at where we stand so far this season.  I tried to get in to get an interview with Jordan but they said 'nope, you can't do it - he's a angry as a hell fan...he will literally RIP YOUR FACE OFF'.

How did we go from such a high after the Blues win to "Babcock lost the room" and "trade guys right f***ing now"?  Oh yeah - because we're Red Wings fans and we get a little wrapped up emotionally and live in the moment.

But let's take a breath and a step back.  The Washington Capitals have won two games in nine.  I know that doesn't really mean anything to us except - things could be worse...a lot worse.

Make the jump for more.

I don't know about you, but I've had enough. This team (not all of it) is a half effort, play hard sometimes, stagnant mess, and I'm not just talking about tonight or this season. We've seen this trend happening since the 2009-10 season. Yes, there are key players missing due to free agency, retirement and injury, but that's not an excuse. This team has the talent, it just isn't working consistently on the ice like we all expect it to.

More rage.

20 minutes of effort wasn’t enough for the Red Wings tonight. This game reminded me of opening night when the Wings showed no interest in being there. This wasn’t a case of being out of gas. The legs were there, but the smart plays and hustle were not.

More after the jump:

Guest post by Franklin Steele: 

I'm not a super-picky fan of the Detroit Red Wings. A victory is a victory, and points are points. That doesn't mean there aren't a few things I'd really like to see happen tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Ready to have your mind blown?  

Today is Jordin Tootoo's birthday.  What's today?  2/2...

Happy birthday to the underutilized Wing.

Also mind blowing?  How the NHL scoring leaders are apparently powered by ugly these days: 

On another mind blowing note, more than 10% of the Wings games are against Columbus this year.  In fact, 18 of the 48 games are against Central division opponents, 38% of the total.  Four teams out of 29.   Wow Gary.  Thanks.

So we have Gary and Don to thank for the fact that we're playing our littlest brother again despite only playing 8 games thus far.  And in honor of that, our resident Photoshop Master, Josh Howard, whipped out this little ditty for tonight's game. 

Hit the jump for the poster and more on the lineups for the night:

So - as promised, I sifted through our least favorite St. Louis blog today to see what little gems I could find from the MENSA candidates over at St. Louis Game Time.  They never disappoint.

I knew what the feelings would be like in St. Louis after last night's game.  It was a bad call on Backes...a terrible call.  Interference?  Maybe...depending on how the ref was feeling last night apparently.  But there was no contact to Huskins' head.  I know it, you know it...and now the whole world knows it.

So after the usual "f*** Detroit" over and over and over and over again - they settled into their usual routine of gifs and tough talk.  They REALLY don't like listening to Ken/Mick/Larry.  The first two periods (aside from getting off-track on a conversation about Chapelle's Show) was dominated by complaining about our broadcast team...they still haven't figured out that the the play-by-play and color commentators are EMPLOYED by the team they call.

Make the jump to get the fun started.

Great effort early and late resulted in a 5-3 victory for the Red Wings. If Detroit had lost this game, especially if they lost bad, the narrative would be that they are officially finished and St. Louis/Chicago were the new kings of the division. Like Franklin said in his outstanding gust post last night, Hank would have none of it.

I'll never forget that empty netter by Hank. I know it's just a regular season game, but how many guys in the NHL put in that kind of effort to score there? Most would have been interfered with by Oshie, looked at the ref, tossed up his hands and demanded justice. Zetterberg claims his own justice.

Outside of a bad penalty by Emmerton, the fourth line had another great night. Seems that none of those guys can finish, but they sure can finish checks. I don't remember if Emmerton hit people last year like he does this year. I think a lot of that has to do with Tootoo inspiring his linemates. They see him knock someone down, they hear the crowd go nuts and they want a piece of that action.

More after the jump: