No more Red Wings hockey until March...sad.  What's even more sad is the fact that this is how the Western Conference Standings will look for the rest of February:

We took three out of the possible four points in those pivotal two games that I harped about last week.  That was good, but had we solved Nabokov on Thursday, we'd be sitting in 8th place right since Calgary has played an extra game.

Like I said before, it's going to be a wild and crazy March.  But for now, we get to sit back, relax and pray like hell that no one gets hurt in Vancouver.  Oh...did I say relax?  Nevermind.

So apparently all we need to do to get production out of our depth players is threaten them with a possible move...

February 11th...the rumor mill was churning out that Jason Williams was probable trade bait as a swarm of scouts ascended on Joe Louis.  J-Willz scores his prettiest goal all season to tie the game in the 3rd period.

February 13th...the rumor mill said that the Wings planned on putting Kirk Maltby on LTIR to fix his shoulder that was in need of surgical repair.  Maltby scores his 4th goal of the season less than half-way into the first period against the Ottawa Senators.

So who's next to take a tour through the rumor mill?  Wait, let's wait until after the Olympics so we don't waste some good juju on getting some foreign country the gold medal in Vancouver.

11:15 AM Per Bob McKenzie's twitter:

"Det expected to waive Brad May today and put a player on LTI to make room for Lilja."

Umm...who's going on LTI?  Kronwall?  Eaves?  What is going on?

12:15 PM Per Bob McKenzie's twitter:

"Cheechoo (Ott), Lundmark (Cgy) and May (Det) on waivers. Brashear clears. "

1:30 PM Per my insider's text:

"Early word is that May left with all his stuff.  I walked past Kenny eating lunch with the PR guy.  Whatever else it is, he must be done because he isn't working the phones anymore."

2:30 PM Per me:

We're only a half hour away from this song and dance to be over with and the only move has been the waiving of Brad May.  He'll be eligible to clear waivers on Saturday at which point he'll be sent to Grand Rapids.  That still doesn't leave enough room for Lilja.  There has to be another move made.

So we're Pavel Datsyuk's number of days into the contest and with Chris Osgood's number of days to go, we have Justin Abdelkader's number (with the big club) of entries from...uh...the number that EA Sports thought that Brad Stuart wore for like two years on the Wings (ok...it's 6) people.

Confused?  I hope not.

I just wanted to remind you and to let you know that there are people actually doing this.  From Herm in Brazil, to Jilly Bean in Australia.  Someone please beat Jill, the shipping charges to Australia are going to be killer (no offense).

Again, send all entries to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the subject "I See 43".  No limit on entries per person.

Keep 'em coming.

From Khan(!) ...

"..my focus right now has to be coming back to play for the Red Wings.  We have a couple of huge games before the break, we want to do everything we can to win those games.”--Niklas Kronwall

Well, he obviously said that before last night's game when we still had a couple games before the break.  Kronwall didn't play for the 4th straight time and Babcock has absolutely no idea what the hell is going on with Kronner's knee:

“We brought him back from injury (sprained MCL) way longer after we expected. We thought he was out for four weeks and then he was out for forever.  We thought he was as healthy as can be. He kind of got hit from behind in the leg (in San Jose on Feb. 2) and then he was fine, no problem. He practiced the other day, was fine. He got on the plane, he couldn’t move.”

I'm not going to pretend that I know what's going on with that situation.

In other news, since the Franzen/Zetterberg/Datsyuk line played so well last night, our boy, Babbles is splitting them up:

“That line was very dominant.  Now, we’ll split those guys up, Pav and Z, and we’ll get four lines and can really come at teams and make sure each line has a net presence on it. We didn’t do it today because we hadn’t practiced with it. But that’s been our plan here for a while, and we’ll spread that out.”

I say you keep Mule with Pav, since Datsyuk will feed him the puck.  And you put Z with Bert, because Bert will feed him the puck.  That would give us the following lineup (today's move pending)...

Holmstrom-Datsyuk-Franzen
Bertuzzi-Zetterberg-Cleary
Williams-Filppula-Miller
Draper-Helm-Eaves

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Meech-Stuart
Lebda-Ericsson

Howard
Osgood

Throw Lilja in that defensive corps, and you got yourself a peach of a lineup.

Someone who was on the team when they woke up this morning is not going to be on the team when they go to bed tonight.

And now we'll all just have to sit around and wait to see who it is.  Exciting, no?  What are you up to, Kenny?  What is that genius brain pondering?  Who goes where and for what?

Lebda for a prospect/draft pick?

Wave May?

Williams for prospect/draft pick/exclusive video rights to that goal from last night?

Datsyuk for Luongo?  Oh wait, we had that opportunity before.  We'll pass, thank you.

After yet another shoot out loss last night, we now sit precariously in 10th place after Dallas beat Calgary last night (in regulation, thank Jeebus).  The good news is we're only one away from 8th place Calgary.  The bad news is we're only one point clear of 11th place Anaheim.

Oh baby, no matter what happens, it's going to be a March to remember.

But anyway, back to the original theme...who is headed out of hockey town?  Two things that I've been thinking about and my fellow internet buddies aka "fake friends" have been talking about...

1. With Janik and Kindl in Grand Rapids, why would we still hold on to Meech and Lebda, especially with Lilja coming back aboard.  If Lils is back to playing like he was last season (we try and forget all seasons prior when he sucked), then we'd have an awesome top 6 with two decent "Black Aces" in case someone goes down.  Lebda, seeing as he's 3 years older than Meech and a UFA at the end of the season, should hit the bricks.  We'll take what we can for him.
2. If Lebda goes, waive Brad May and we got ourselves Andreas Lilja back with no problem.
3. Trading Jason Williams for a draft pick and a prospect is also a quick fix, a one transaction deal as opposed to the Lebda-May route which is two.  But I don't think this move would be made to save busy work, that's what Kenny and his staff get paid for.  We could probably get more for Williams than for Lebda, but neither are all that attractive as a rental.

So we'll just sit back and wait to see what transpires today.  The best part about it?  The fact that the league will be involved so we won't have to wait for the diggers to provide us the news when it happens.

From the Detroit News...

Everybody knows the Wings are going to have to clear some salary cap space to fit Andreas Lilja back on the roster. Lilja will play his final game at Grand Rapids on Friday and if all goes well, he will be back Saturday. That means Ken Holland is going to have to shed roughly $1.2 million off the books before the trade freeze goes into effect Friday afternoon (though the waiver wire is open beyond that).

Apparently the following teams are going to have scouts up in the press box:

Florida, Dallas, Vancouver, Washington, Edmonton, Tampa Bay, Montreal, New York Islanders, Ottawa and Chicago.

Dear Jeebus, that's a lot of teams.  McCosky seems to think Jason Williams is the guy in the cross-hairs.  It makes sense at $1.5 in Gary's Cap-hit and the fact that it's a one year deal that isn't likely to be re-upped.

But did we really give J-Willz a fair chance?  He's played in less games than Ville "Boogerman" Leino and has more points.  I can think of a couple other people we could move out..say Lebda, Meech, and/or May (or some combination).

Will the value of the draft pick that we get back be worth sending our only right-handed option on the 2nd PP unit?  Not to mention, he was the only one to score on Tuesday's shootout.  I suppose that it all depends on the offer Kenny Holland gets.  But the fact that so many teams are sending scouts to JLA tonight makes me think this is for real.

But I have to ask you; is Jason Williams really the guy to trade?

Why not?  We're playing the Seafood tonight.  And drastic times call for drastic measures.  I present to you, one of the many masterminds behind the Winged Wheel...

Mike Babcock as Count Dooku...

I know at least one of you suggested Dr. Manhattan and I was thinking along the lines of some overlord too, but remember, he's not the master, just another piece in this chess game.  Mixed emotions swirl around him, but he's a major part of the master plan.

"Join me, Obi-Wan.  And together, we can destroy the Sushi!"

Remember this little number after the Wings beat the Seafood the last time?

It was a little before I honed my paint skills, but the selection behind the glass remains the same.

It's the same San Jose team it's always been.  Sure they have Dan Boyle back, but it's the same old Heartless Joe Thornton.  It's still the same old whiny pot-head Dany Heatley.  Still old as dirt and large-bottomed Rob Blake.  It's still just the Seafood.

I want that sushi roll

Hotter than wasabi

We're racing for the play-offs

Shake 'n bake

Ricky Bobby

Thanks Young Money. 

Alright, so I'm little loopy today, but the facts remain the same.  Two home games before the big break.  Two must-win games. Four must-have points.  No excuses, just win.

I swear that Ansar Khan(!) checks this site.  No sooner was I in the middle of writing a complaint for lack of news, that he posts this.

Tomas Holmstrom (bone bruise in left knee) will play tonight against San Jose.

He even provides us with the lines and D pairings:

Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Bertuzzi
Franzen-Filppula-Cleary
Draper-Helm-Maltby
Holmstrom-Miller-Williams

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Meech-Stuart
Lebda-Ericsson

Howard (starting)
Osgood

Those are "projected" lines, mind you.  But thanks for answering the call, Khan(!)  It's always feast or famine around here with news.