Here's another installment of "find an obscure Red Wings fan", a favorite of NOHS reader, Eats, who is on vacation down in the sunny south right now.

From mLive.com...

It happened almost in a flash for Allison Busch.

The Swartz Creek native had just arrived in Brooklyn in 2003, drum set in tow. In less than a year her band Awesome Color went from playing parties and weekly  shows to a record deal and national tours with alternative rock legends Sonic Youth.

Okay, cool, but what does that have to do with the Red Wings?

Allison (center) and her band, Awesome Color

Q: The band got its start in Brooklyn, but you just moved back to Detroit. Why?

A: Money for one thing. Rents there are three times what they are in Michigan and we've been touring so much that it didn't make a lot of sense to keep paying all that money if we were never there. Plus, I'm a Red Wings fan and it's nice to be able to actually watch some games again.

Hey, thatta girl.  Rent money is important, but we all know the REAL reason Allison came back to Detroit.  Welcome back, lady.  Let's hope that we're still watching Red Wings hockey along with you all the way into June.

For today's rub-it-in-your-nose segment, of course we're going to Hockey Wilderness every Detroit Red Wing fan's least favorite Minnesota Wild site to grab some comments...wait...there's only 6.  Hell, let's grab them all, then.

HS hockey might be the better bet... At least those kids can put pucks on net.

by SpaethCo on Mar 11, 2010 7:08 PM EST

Notice the time of this comment...this was posted before the game was even started.  Clearly the fans were feeling pretty confident heading into the Joe after putting up 11 shots on the Florida Panthers over 65 minutes of playing.

This is painful to watch.

by shleske on Mar 11, 2010 8:01 PM EST

Only a half hour into the broadcast...I'm guessing this fell somewhere between Detroit's 3rd goal and Minnesota's first.  Then the line went dead for two hours...

Understatement...It’s like October all over again.

by SpaethCo on Mar 11, 2010 10:01 PM EST

A little late response to shleske's from eight o'clock.  But they were probably too busy banging their heads against the wall watching this game.

My guess...Desire to write game recap = 0.

by SpaethCo on Mar 11, 2010 10:31 PM EST

You HAD to know what Pinky wasn't going to be the one writing this re-cap.

 Almost as embarrassing as the loss against the Panthers. The guys played with no heart and seem like they have given up on the season. Honestly the only thing i can look forward to now is the draft.

by taralynn09 on Mar 11, 2010 11:07 PM EST

Not a bad strategy, Tara...just look what it did for Blackhawks and the Penguins.

Ugh

Not fun to come home to this.

by nathaneide on Mar 12, 2010 12:05 AM EST

Poor Nathan.

Oh and let's go back a few posts just for fun and take one more quote from Pinky who was responding to Casey from WIM, who called him out on belittling his 'Pinky and the Brain' post yesterday...

The part I remember was 25 or so people acting like children, calling names, and attacking me and my family on a personal level, all because I did what I have a right to do, express my opinion. Then, after being pushed and pushed for hours and I snapped back, those same 25 or so people coming at me even harder, as though it were a fun little game to have emails from family members wanting to know if they were really in danger or not.

But hey, I won’t put those emails out in public, so they must not really exist, right?

But thanks for bringing that up again for me. I can feel the support washing over me. When this all blows up again, make sure you remind your fellow Wings fans who fired the first salvo in this round, OK?

Yup, still bitter.

That was Red Wings hockey last night, folks.

Sure it got a little boring towards the middle, but if you remember, that's what Red Wings hockey used to be all about.  Detroit would get the lead and then lock it down...completely.  It's why teams used to absolutely hate playing against the Red Wings.  They would never get the puck.

Don't worry about what other teams are doing as long as we keep winning.

Well, alright let's see what the other Western Conference teams did last night...

Not a good night in terms of help from...thanks Ottawa, Florida, and Long Island.  But look at the snowman that the Sushi put up on Bubba...damn.  No big shake-ups in the standings...

But we are only one point out of seventh AND eighth place right now.  So all Detroit has to do is keep winning.  No way that both Nashville and Calgary stays hot for the entire stretch.  We just have to win one more game than either of these teams from here on out.

Well since the feedback (when asked for) has been so positive, here is the 4th installment of my pre-game movie poster.

3/11: Minnesota Wild @ Detroit Red Wings

Wild Wild West, Franzen, desperado, rough rider
No you don't want nada
None of this, gun in this, Swedish runnin this, 
Zetterberg soldier, look it's like I told ya
Any play-off run that's in distress
Be out of of that mess when the Wings run the West
Rough neck so go check Tick Tock and abide
Watch your step with flex and get an Eaves in your side
Swallow your pride, don't let your lip react
You don't wanna see Bert's hand where your neck be at
With all of this, from the start of this
Runnin the game, the league's best tamin the west so remember the name
Now who ya gonna call?

We going straight through the Wild Wild West
We going straight through the Wild Wild West

Now, now, now, now once upon a time in the west
Mad men burned up all their equipment in the west
The Wild, got 70 points, nothin' less
Now we must put their behinds to the test (can you feel me)
Then through the shadows, in the saddle, ready for battle
Bring all your boys in, here come the poison
Behind my back, all the bloggin' ya did,
Front and center, now where your lip at kid?
Who dat is? A Charlie Buckets, bad for your health
Lookin damn good though, if I could say it myself
Told me Pinky is a mad man, but I don't fear that
Got MGD too, ain't tryin to hear that
Tryin to bring down the D, the champion
When y'all Wild gon' see that it can't be done
Understand me son, Dats is the slickest they is, 
Helm the quickest they is, did I say Dats is the slickest they is?
So if you barking up the wrong tree we comin, don't be startin nothin
Me and my Red Wings gonna test your chest, Latendresse
Can't stand the heat then get out the Wild Wild West

From the Detroit News...

"I wouldn't mind feeling a bit more tension and anxiety in this room. These guys think they are in. You talk to them and they just believe they're getting in, and I think that's great. But you and I both know the only way we're getting in is if we start playing better.  And I'm not just talking about playing better for a period or for a few minutes. I'm talking for 60 minutes. We need to put a run together. Are we capable? Yes. But the intensity level and how hard we play has to pick up."--Mike Babcock

Oh and Mike doesn't agree with Mickey Redmond in terms of how many games you have to win out of every five:

"I said we have to win four out of every five the rest of the way.  Since we lost, now we have to run the table and win the next four."

That's a tall order, coach.  I'm fairly certain that winning 13 out of the final 16 games would get us into the post-season...but is that an attainable goal? 

Aim high, I guess.

The rain falls on the just and the un-just alike.  Well the sun shines on Florida and Michigan alike lately...though it's a little cloudy where I'm at today, I was just tickled pink when I got in the car this morning and the outside temperature was already above 40.

Anyway, since I like getting neutral third party opinions from southern states on Red Wings games, let check in and see what the Miami Herald had to say about tonight's contest...

"I thought we got good goaltending [Tuesday] to give us a chance.  We didn't respond with a good enough effort."--Mike Babcock

Well here's hoping that you respond to that with a good enough effort.  I would think that most of the guys in the locker room are pretty disappointed in the way they played on Tuesday and are looking for a little retribution.

The Wild are coming off a 3-2 shootout loss to visiting Florida on Tuesday in which the team failed to hold onto an early two-goal lead. The Panthers scored twice in the third period to force overtime, then prevailed on Cory Stillman's goal in the fourth round of the deciding phase.

Any other season and I probably would have laughed at another team dropping one to the Florida Panthers...but oh wait, so did we...before my very eyes.  Here's hoping that our drive for retribution is bigger and badder than theirs.

The Wild has also historically struggled in Joe Louis Arena, having gone 2-8 with a tie in their last 11 trips there with losses in five of their last six games as the guest in this series. Detroit has taken five of the past seven overall meetings between the teams as well.

Oh good, another streak being setup to be broken.  Jerome Iginla is still thanking the media for over-hyping his goal-less streak against the Winged Wheel.

As Wings Fan in Bean Land said over on A2Y..."Just win".

I can't put it any better than that.

From Pinky over at  Hockey Wilderness...

Winging It In Motown - Staying classy as always, they prefer to go back and dredge up old arguments that they weren't even part of. I guess that's easier than focusing on the fact that for the first time in forever, the Wings are on the outside looking in for a playoff spot, got killed by the team that is in front of them, and have struggled with the Wild all season. Since the post over there aims to belittle rather than form a coherent argument, the readers are, of course, eating it up.

He is of course, referring to Casey's post at WIM entitled "Morning Skate: Pinky and the Brain" ...who would have thought that Pinky would notice?

You have to laugh at the irony dripping from the words "Since the post over there aims to belittle rather than form a coherent argument...", because it was an unprovoked attempt at belittling the Chief at A2Y that started this whole mess in the first place.

Drink up, Pinky...we still love you.

I was checking Hockey Wilderness all morning just waiting for him to slip up.  I knew that he just couldn't resist.

I jumped right on board with Mickey Redmond's theory of winning three of every five games from here on out in order to give Detroit a chance to make the play-offs.  We've won three out of our last five games and as I mentioned yesterday, we have to start the "next five".

Well, thanks to Fox Sports Detroit, I now know how we did the last time we played these five next opponents...

Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?

It pains us to criticize Zetterberg, it really does.  He's our future captain, a great hockey player, and he has a smokin' hot fiance.  But sometimes you have to be held accountable.  I didn't want to do it.  VooX over at Abel to Yzerman didn't want to do it, but we're just calling it like we see it.  And Zetterberg sees it too.

Here's what he told the Detroit News when asked about his season so far...

"It hasn't been fantastic, that's for sure. It's something I am not happy about, but you can't look back. I just have to keep going, work hard and do things right."

Zetterberg's streak of 30+ goal seasons will in all likelihood end at four as he has only 16 games left to net the 12 goals needed.

"After getting back from the shoulder injury, it's been better.  After the Olympic break I felt good. I just have to get more points on the board to help the team win. I don't really count chances, but I've had enough to where I should be able to score some goals."

Well Babcock is moving Valterri Filppula to second line winger with Zetterberg and Dan Cleary.  This, according to Babcock, will increase playing time for Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Filppula who may rotate in as the center for the third line composed of Todd Bertuzzi, Jason Williams, and Drew Miller.

"What we often do there is overplay the other centers, rotate them in on that third line once in a while.  All three of those guys played 18 minutes (against Calgary), which is good. But they can probably play another minute or minute and a half. I can put them on the other line and spread it out more."--Mike Babcock

We'll see how this little experiment goes this evening against Pinky's Wild.

Via Khan(!)...

So apparently I wasn't the only one who noticed Filppula out there mucking and grinding like a champ last night.  Well, he's been rewarded.  Here are the lines they skated with earlier today...

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

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Stuart
Lebda-Lilja
Ericsson-Meech (scratches)

Howard (starting)
Osgood

If you ask me, the way that the Little Red Corvette line was playing, and the way that Bertuzzi and Williams looked last night, I think I would swap those lines in terms of who's 3rd and who's 4th.

Big Rig must not have impressed well enough to earn consecutive games.  That's going to be a day-to-day thing me thinks.  Regardless, I think we've seen the last of Meech this season.  Unless he has an outstanding practice or something.

You know how I always assumed that Ansar actually reads this blog...well check this out:

written by DetCapC19, March 10, 2010
What if we put Fil in between Z and Clears? Fil will dish all night to Hank and he can shoot the lights out. Clears will be in front of the net.

A 3rd line of Miller-Willy-Bert has its flaws but could also be good.

You could also flip Clears and Bert if you wanted.

I'm on to you DetCapC19...or would you prefer Mr. Khan(!)?