From the Slam! Sports blog...

We've been talking about Howard as a candidate for the Calder Trophy as the season's top rookie ever since he caught fire earlier this year.  Well, the whispers have been starting to turn into serious discussions.  And the talks have reached Jimmy's ears...

"I'm not going to lie -- I hear those things, but I try to let it go in one ear and out the other.  not worried about it. First and foremost, we've got to make the playoffs."--Jimmy Howard

Jimmy has been property of the Detroit Red Wings ever since they drafted him in the second round of the draft back in the summer of 2003.  Almost seven years later, the soon-to-be 26 year old is finally getting his chance.  Patience on both sides (Jimmy and the organ-i-zation) have paid off big time.

"It was a long-time coming.  But I'm very thankful for that. I was able to iron out a lot of wrinkles in my game and learn a lot by playing every single night.  I'm thankful they were patient with me. It allowed me to mature, not only as a person but also as a professional. It was a good situation for me.  Being a young, dumb college kid from the University of Maine, I had a lot to learn.  Every situation is different for every player. I would have loved to crack the lineup earlier in my career, but it's not the way it worked out for me.  My path was to stay down there and learn."

And learn he did.  Hopefully, he has learned a little more about longevity than fellow goaltender Steve Mason, who won the Calder Trophy last year and has had a disastrous season after getting schooled in the first round of the play-offs last year by Detroit.

Oh and if you watched Wingspan yesterday on FSD, you saw that Jimmy only let in one out of ten in his segment of "Trev Takes On".  Just another accolade to add to his resume...or maybe you'd want to leave that one off.

From the Free Press...

"We have to look upon these games as though they're the playoffs.  You've got a number of teams fighting for any points they can get, and you have to match their level of intensity. Just because we're not used to playing these kind of important games in March doesn't mean that we shouldn't know how to respond. These are basically playoff games for us."--Nick Lidstrom

Guys that played like it was a play-off game last night...

• Pavel Datsyuk
• Tomas Holmstrom
• Johan Franzen
• Darren Helm
• Patrick Eaves
• Kris Draper
• Brian Rafalski
• Nick Lidstrom
• Valterri Filppula

Guys who noticably did not play like it was a play-off game last night...

• Henrik Zetterberg
• Todd Bertuzzi
• Dan Cleary
• Nik Kronwall
• Brad Stuart

I hate calling out Zetterberg.  He's been my favorite Detroit Red Wing since he came into this league.  But that "breakaway" in the first period?  Not going to cut it.  Cleary was basically invisible out there and Bertuzzi didn't make an impact until late into the third when he got his bell rung and finally got pissed off.  Kronwall and Stuart were out there for both of the even strength (non-empty netter) goals that Calgary scored.

Maybe Babcock needs to re-unite Zetterberg and Datsyuk again to get Z shooting the puck again.  With the way that Filppula was scrambling around out there, maybe you move him to second line center between Franzen and Cleary.  Just a thought.

It's going to take more than nine guys playing with urgency to make the play-offs this year.  You can say that you're going to treat every game like a play-off game until you're blue in the face, but now it's time to start freaking acting like it.

We've been talking the talk, now it's time to walk the walk.

So we're all probably feeling a little depressed after last night's game.  We could have put a little distance between us and the Flames last night, but now we find ourselves looking up at them in the standings.  It's deflating, it really is.  Especially the way that they ripped that game away from us.

Two periods of up and down hockey, hardly a whistle to be found...it did feel like a play-off game.  It was fast, it was dirty, it was some decent hockey for 40 minutes.  Early into the third, Datsyuk and friends missed an opportunity to put the Wings up 3-1 and failed to convert.  About 5 minutes later, we somehow left Jerome Iginla all by himself in front of our net, and he's not the kind of guy to miss a rebound right on the doorstep.  Less than two minutes later, Iggy popped in another one off his teammate's leg.  And that was the end of the game for Detroit.

The third period after that was completely horrendous.  Calgary really took it to the Wings after that and I mean in a big way.  Datsyuk, Holmstrom, and Franzen were good, but not nearly as dangerous as they were in the first two periods.  The Little Red Corvette line was chugging away as usual and doing their jobs.  I don't know what is wrong with Zetterberg right now.  But he is not looking the All-Star we know him to be.  And he is not coming up big when we need him to.  Whatever it is, Hank, please fix it.

But...

We did accomplish what I had wanted us to in this first five game set...

That win against Chicago meant that we didn't need to win this one.  Don't get me wrong, it would have been nice.  I certainly would be happier sitting in 8th place like we were at this time yesterday.  But if we can continue to win at least three of every five games for the next 15 games (plus one), I'm still confident that we'll sneak into the post-season.

Do we really think that Calgary is going to be able to match that performance (winning three of every five)?  All signs point to 'no'.  They have one game against a sub .500 team...one.  They have the toughest schedule in the West going forward.  So Detroit just needs to take care of its own business and let the rest of the West do the dirty work on the Flames.  Of course, there could be another four point swing just five days from now when we see them again in their barn.

So the best thing to do right now is to try and move on and concentrate on the next five games...

Two home games left before our last trip to Western Canada.  If we can stick it to Pinky's Wild and Drew's older brother's team, then maybe by Monday we'll be right back in the same position we were heading into last night's game. 

This is the third installment of my movie posters set-up for Red Wings games.  Still haven't received any feedback on these.  So, I'm just going to keep going with it until someone tells me to stop or I run out of ideas...

It's the biggest game of the year so far, so let's play like it, boys!

Todd Bertuzzi and Pavel Datsyuk will both be in the line-up tonight.  Datsyuk has apparently been fighting the flu and Bertuzzi suffered a charlie horse during Sunday's slug fest with hte Chickenhawks.

Bertuzzi talked to the Detroit News today.  When he was told that the Red Wings haven't won three games in a row in two months, he replied with the following:

"Is that right?  That would be a pretty big accomplishment then, eh?"

I would imagine that was accompanied by a toothless grin, but I can't say for sure.  Bertuzzi continued...

"We are starting to figure things out.  We're starting to understand what it takes to  win with this group. I am looking forward to tonight. It's going to be fun."

Well, here's to hoping it's going to be fun for the fans as well.  I think Bertuzzi still has an itch for the Flames and I hope he goes ahead and scratches it tonight.  You may remember the off-season talkings whereby the Flames' faithful treated Bertuzzi's departure like he was a disease.

He's currently 4th on the Red Wings in points.  He's played in all 65 games and has accumulated 15 goals and 22 assists for 37 points.  He may not be producing in goal department as of late, but the guy has been playing pretty damn good hockey.  There's still times I scream at the TV for him to shoot...but overall I'm very happy with what we've gotten out of Bertuzzi this season.

Now don't make me look like a fool tonight, Todd.  Show those Flames what you can do.

It's on days such as these, the third sunny 50+ degree (Fahrenheit) day in Michigan, where I don't mind talking about the city of Miami in the sunny state of Florida.  The Miami Herald provides us with their look at the biggest game of the season (to date) for Detroit...

The Calgary Flames and Detroit Red Wings will both be aiming for a third straight victory when they meet in the Motor City tonight for a battle between playoff hopefuls at Joe Louis Arena.

In addition to winning two straight, the Red Wings have taken three of four since the Olympic break and have won four of five overall. Calgary lost its first game after the break, but has since strung together consecutive wins.

Alright, so both teams have been playing well since the mad dash to finish got underway.

The Flames and Red Wings have split a pair of meetings this year with each team winning on the road. Detroit has won six of the last 10 matchups overall, while Calgary has dropped six of nine in Motown. The teams will complete the season series in Calgary on March 15.

And won't we be happy when the final trip to the left coast is over with.  You have to wonder what the point differential will be when these two meet again a week from today.

The Red Wings are 17-9-5 as the host this year and are kicking off a three- game homestand tonight.

The Flames are 16-9-6 as the guest this year, but have lost six of their last eight road games.

Nearly identical records heading into this match up.  The Wings need to be better at home.

And in the "oh goody" category...

Calgary's workhorse goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff is expected to resume his starting role tonight.

Chris, myself, and The Future Mrs. Nightmare on Helm Street all attended the last game that was played between these two at the Joe.  And what a crap-tastic game that turned out to be.  Don't bother looking it up, just take my word for it.

Both teams need this win bad, but who wants it more?

Everybody has been talking about the most recent head shot that Pittsburgh Penguin Matt Cooke laid on Boston Bruin Marc Savard.  Well, some of your Wings chimed in on it too.

From the Slam! Sports Blog...

"I thought it was dirty. If he throws his shoulder into his body, it's a hit.  But he's in a vulnerable position, and (Cooke) goes at him. I don't think he elbowed him, but he went towards his head area when he easily could have gone to the body and taken him out of the play."--Jason Williams

You remember, J-Willz got clobbered by Raffi Torres back during his first stint as a Red Wing.  Many say that Williams was never the same after getting his eggs scrambled.

Here's what your head coach had to say:

"Crosby said it best.  So I'm just going to quote him. 'We've been talking about it and talking about it -- it's time we made a decision about it instead of just talking about it. Is that a legal hit or an illegal hit?  These players all have got families and wives at home, and all want to be safe on the ice. I think it's important we look after one another, and the way to look after one another is simply have the fine and suspension long enough that they don't do it."--Mike Babcock

Ah...using the NHL's own golden boy to try and force their hand...crafty, Mike.  Very crafty.

If Cooke is suspended for his most recent head shot, it will be the third time in a little over a year.

As per Khan(!) yesterday, the only lineup change from Sunday's victory over Chicago will be Johnny "Big Rig" Ericsson being inserted in place of Brett "Little Rig" Lebda.  Thus, here is your lineup...

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

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Stuart
Ericsson-Lilja

Howard (starting)
Osgood

Lebda overskating the puck in the first period resulted in Filppula passing the puck right to Andrew Ladd which resulted in a goal.  So he's out.  I would imagine that the rotation should be "screw up, and you're out."  But we'll see about that.

From stltoday.com...

The Red Wings are off to the races.

Any article from St. Louis that starts off that way should already have alarm bells ringing.  But of course, there's more...

They have blown past Calgary into the No. 8 slot in the Western Conference playoffs.

They won’t stop there. Detroit has won four of its last five games, pushing its point total to 74 -– five more than the 11th-place Blues

The writer, Jeff Gordon (not the one that NASCAR fans throw beer cans at), then goes even further about the Red Wings "run" and even dives into the pool of prognostication...

They will fly past Nashville next, then take aim at Colorado and Los Angeles on the conference pecking order. Before the season ends, that team will secure a decent playoff seed and the opportunity to take another run at the Stanley Cup.

Whoa.  17 games left in the season and apparently Detroit is going to not only get by Nashville in the standings, but catch the kids from Denver and Los Angeles as well.  Are you serious, bro?  Either this guy is a transplant from Michigan and has the utmost confidence in the Detroit Red Wings (secretly his favorite team, even though he covers the St. Louis Blues)...

 OR

...this is a simple jinx attempt to run the "karma train" see Bingo Bango today off of its tracks.  It's like talking about a shut out late in the game when the opposing goalie is pitching a goose egg.

Nice try, Jeff.

Well luckily, we haven't had to do any more of these lately, except for Kirk...poor Kirk.  But I know that NOHS reader, Lauren H gets all hot and bothered when she doesn't know what's going on with her Red Wings every second of every day, so I do my part to try and keep her under control...

Look at that...even CBS Sports doesn't recognize Kirk Maltby as an injured Red Wing.  I think this officially absolves me from when I forgot to include him back before the Colorado game.  Take that, Petrella!

...poor Kirk.