From John Keating's entry on foxsportsdetroit.com...

Everybody knows hockey is a business in the same way we know that Charlie Sheen is not exactly happy-ending marriage material. But like the next Mrs. Charlie Sheen, we still hold out hope that somehow things will change.

It's not happening.

Oh John, even on the Internet, you can't help with the bad puns, can you?  Pop-culture humor aside, the media in Detroit all seem to be pointing to three guys that are probably on their way out once Franzen and now maybe even Lilja make their return.

Someone has to go.  We can only have a 23 man roster and with #93 and #3 returning (maybe), we'll have to trim about two million of Gary's Salary Cap space.  Three guys are probably not feeling to comfortable with their job situation.  Here's what Keating had to say about them...

Bubble Boy #1: Ville Leino ($800,000)

Leino had all this upside after having been signed as a somewhat coveted free agent and began to show flashes of great skill last year in the playoff push. This year has been a head-scratcher. He just hasn't been able to find any degree of consistency in winning battles and scoring goals that would make him an absolute keeper. He'll be moved, and the Wings realize there's a good chance that he'll flourish somewhere else. But it just wasn't happening here.

Well, for $800,000 against Gary's Cap, I think the only reason we'd hang on to him is the fear of him going somewhere else and lighting it up...hello, Eastern Conference?  I wish we had more time to let the kid grow into the system, but it just doesn't look like we can.

Bubble Boy #2: Brad May ($482,000)

May has been a great fit on the Wings, a consummate teammate whose role has been very clear and embraced. But his tough-guy presence is a luxury that a team on a Tupperware-tight budget just can't afford.

Also, his fights have really been no-value-added.  He'll have a good shift every once in a while, but most of the time he doesn't do anything but fill holes.  I'd hate to see our one, true enforcer go, but again, we may not have much of a choice.

Bubble Boy: #3 (483,000)

Meech was the "winner" when the Red Wings last had a roster decision this painful. They moved Kyle Quincey, who flourished in Los Angeles almost immediately. Meech, meanwhile, has shown only flashes of flourish but will likely be the odd man out, if they need his cap room.

We let Quincey walk and kept Meech.  Ouch.  For all the reasons for letting Meech go or moving him if we can get ANYTHING for him, simply read Chris's last few posts...remember Chris?

It's still quarter to 9 out in sunny So Cal, thus not expecting much out of the diggers until after the usual lunch-time period.  So I thought I would do yet another pre-emptive strike against Lauren H's complaints about how nobody ever tells her what's going on with the injuries...

And technically, there should be an update coming on the subject on Andreas Lilja...

Via detroitredwings.com:

The Red Wings have assigned defenseman Andreas Lilja to the Grand Rapids Griffins for conditioning.

Lilja will participate in the Griffins’ practice Tuesday at Van Andel Arena and make his Grand Rapids debut on Wednesday, when the Griffins visit the Rockford IceHogs at 8:05 p.m. EST. He is also expected to play in the Griffins’ two home games this weekend: Friday against Toronto and Saturday against Houston. 

Good for you, Andreas...so long as the next blow to the head doesn't kill you.  It's almost been a year for the big defenseman.  He was a big reason that Anaheim ousted us in 2007 and had become somewhat of a heel amongst the fans.  Last year, he was winning back our hearts with strong defensive play (especially on the PK) and took more of the enforcer role.  Until Shea Weber bruised his brain, that is.

Good luck, #3.

Big Bert turns 35 today.

"Every year you have lulls, you have stretches where emotionally you just aren't there.  But we have to understand, we can't afford a lull. We have six games left before the Olympic break, and they are huge for us. We need points."--Mike Babcock

That's what he told the Detroit News after a hard-skating practice right now.  Apparently, now that most of the physical woes are starting to subside, it's the mental side of things that need to heal for the Wings.

The bench boss went on...

"We have to skate better.  That's not a physical thing, that's a mental thing. Our engagement and our execution have to be better if we are going to play at a high level.  It's great that all this skill is back, don't get me wrong.  But we've got to get them skating. It's great to come back but you've got to play at an NHL pace. That takes time and the way this schedule is, the inability to practice doesn't help them.  We're not only giving up a lot of shots, but we have no rhythm to our game.  By that I mean, when you are turning the puck over, you never get skating and you look slow. It's execution. When all of a sudden we don't know how to pass a puck or be in the right spots -- that's mental."

So they skated yesterday.  They'll take a nice long break once the Olympics start...some of them anyway.  A good, crisp, practice does wonders for those who are trying to get back into the rhythm.  Don't get me wrong, Babcock didn't bag-skate them for an hour plus.  Short, hard working practices could be just what the doctor ordered.  Especially for trips all the way across the country.  Trips that guys like Rosby and Ryan Miller make but about once a year.

Holmstrom returns tonight.  And as such, we're getting ready to start icing two legitimate scoring threats out there on the PP...which is nice.

On the menu tonight: sushi.

Sorry to burst everyone's bubble, but there's been some chatter going around about The Namesake's facebook page...or what we thought was his facebook page.  Some of you have already seen this e-mail sent out by a true personal friend of Helm's (not me, never met the guy).  Here's the real story...

As a friend of Darren Helm I want to clarify that any "Darren Helm" that has added you on Facebook IS NOT the Detroit Red Wings Player.

Take note of this by questioning the legitimacy of “Darren Helm” on their wall---your comments will swiftly be deleted by the impostor(s).
The person(s) responsible for the account are being asked to close the page permanently; Facebook moderators have also been notified.
Darren genuinely appreciates any support of the Detroit Red Wings organization and thoroughly enjoys interacting with fans. While he prefers to keep his personal life separate from his professional one, Darren looks forward to meeting all of you at Red Wings fan events and games.
Thanks for your time.

The friend also said that he's seen NOHS, though he doesn't follow it, and he's pleased that I didn't include the famous "that's the sound of me being awesome" pic with him and his now ex-girlfriend.

I think I speak for everyone here when I say to that girl, you're cute, but you're stupid for not staying with the guy.

Hey gang.

So I've decided to start my own little contest here at NOHS.  Since Darren Helm is awesome enough for me to name the blog after him, and his number is so unusual, I thought it would be fun to see if any of you can find it on places other than The Namesake's back.  The person who does, will get a free prize from me at Herm to Hockeytown (or I'll mail it if you are unable to attend).

Here's an example of where I see 43:

That's part of a purchase order number from one of my customers.

See if you can't find the #43 in strange places.  If you can, snap a pic and send it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. under the subject: "I see 43".

The contest will end 43 days from now.  Happy hunting.

We'll get by with a little help from our friends.

Not that the Flyers are our "friends" per say, but they do hate Pittsburgh and they are playing Calgary tonight.  A regulation win for Philadelphia this evening and we're back in the top eight, still tied in points with the Flames, but having a game in-hand.

Back to things that we can control.  The Mule will be back a week from tomorrow against the Bitter Brittle Blues.  Getting him back will be a relief, but all of you watching Kronwall's knee twist in the collision with Staal yesterday might just be re-thinking your need to rush him back into the lineup.

And how about Jimmy Howard? He's currently 4th in the league with a .928 save percentage and seventh (just ahead of Roberto Luongo) with a 2.25 GAA.  Here's what Babcock told the Free Press...

"It's great, isn't it? It's called goaltending.  There's lots of guys who weren't $7-million goaltenders, but what they do is they do like that, and they get used to it and the team gets used to them playing like that and they don't even blink. Then one day they earn that kind of money. So let's not say $7 million because of the cap world, but let's hope he keeps playing good and he makes a little more than the league minimum than what he's getting now."

Um...yeah, thanks anyway, Babbles.

Three out of four points on the weekend.

Not too bad, I guess.  Again I say, "would it have been different if we were completely healthy?"  Not sure about today's game...Jimmy saved our bacon plenty of times.  Filppula missed a wide open net...wide-freaking-open.  That's twice now in about a week that we've had golden opportunities to change games and haven't been able to do capitalize.

Eaves has a wide open net while trailing 3-2 to Minnesota...post.

Filppula has a wide open net trialling 1-0 to Pittsburgh...nothing but air.

Bad puck luck?  Wrong players getting the opportunities?  Whatever it is, it sucks.  And it's costing us points.  Patience, I say...patience.

Well as I write this, NJ is doing it's job against LA (score watching sucks).  And hopefully, Philadelphia will give us some help tomorrow against Calgary.  Because the road ahead is tough before the Olympic break...

Sharks, Ducks, Kings, Blues, Sharks.

Five games in nine days.  Ten points up for grabs.  We play the Seafood and the Poultry on back to back nights on the Left Coast...that's usually good for frustratingly long nights.

Along this recent slide that we've been on (3-3-4 in our last ten), we've managed to let Los Angeles and Phoenix slip away to four and five points ahead of us in the standings.  We're setting ourselves up for a very stressful end of the season.

Remember, now, that Pittsburgh was 10th in the East at this point last year.  We're only one better than that right now.  So by Valentine's Day, we're either headed for Vancouver with a good feeling about the run we have going, or we're all going to be investing in Pepto for the big play-off push.

Miss St. James from the Free Press provides a little insight, and a little mystery about who is playing tonight.

Coach Mike Babcock said Jimmy Howard is starting in goal, but he hadn’t decided who was out among the forwards (either Brad May or Ville Leino) and defensemen (either Derek Meech or Brett Lebda).

The top two lines will be Pavel Datsyuk with Henrik Zetterberg and Dan Cleary, and Valtteri Filppula with Williams and Todd Bertuzzi.

Alright, well here's the combos that I think will see the puck drop tonight...

Datsyuk-"Overpaid"-Cleary
Bertuzzi-Filppula-Williams
Draper-Helm-Eaves
May-Miller-Maltby

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Stuart
Ericsson-Lebda

Howard
Osgood

I'm putting May in there just for the hope that he has a chance to introduce his fist to Marty Erat's big, fat yapper.  And here's hoping that the 4th line doesn't ice the puck.  Other than that...they should NEVER be on the ice to take a face-off.  And just because I feel like throwing this in here again...

"B-B-B-B-Bring it on, Bubba!"

Just received a text from my buddy on the inside:

"Insider": Who is a foreign player on Nashville with blonde hair?

Me: Marty Erat?

"Insider": Could be.  He told one of my colleagues that Zetterberg isn't that good and we overpaid (for him)

Me: Ass.

"Insider": Yep

Ahem...overpaid for Zetterberg?  How dare he talk about our next captain that way.  We'll have to have a picture lineup later with my buddy so we can find out the true identity of the verbal assailant.

Z, if you're out there...shut 'em up...hard.

***UPDATED 2:00 PM EST***

The culprit has been positively identified as Marty Erat.

***UPDATED AGAIN 2:30 PM EST***

I found a more fitting pic of Mr. Erat.