Khan(!) with the lines for tonight...

Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Cleary
Bertuzzi-Filppula-Miller
Draper-Helm-Eaves
May-Abdelkader-Maltby

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Meech-Stuart
Kronwall-Ericsson

Osgood (starting)
Howard

Back to back games means it's Ozzie's time to shine.  Dust off the cob-webs, Chris...you're going in.

But the big news comes from the stable where The Mule is being kept...

"I'm good to go when I feel ready.  Maybe a couple more weeks. (The knee) doesn't hurt.''--Johan Franzen

Franzen met with doctors yesterday who have cleared him to play.  Now he just needs to get back in shape.  All of you out there who have actually played hockey know that being in good stationary bike, treadmill, or even regular biking and running shape is NOT the same as being in good skating shape.  The legs can get pretty heavy out there, and Franzen knows this all too well...

"I haven't used them in 3 1/2 months.  One practice I skated hard, then I was sore the rest of the week.  It's going to take its time.  The way I feel now after one hard practice, I need two rest days to get back. I got to improve that.''

Jason Williams is said to be good to go for Friday, so long as he gets the green light.

And why are we playing Derek Meech instead of Bret Lebda?  Two NOHS readers are about to see their debate come to a head.

Now that we've all had time to calm down (and in my case, put other issues ahead of the Wings' problems) for a while, let's look at what few good things we can take away from last night...

1. Kronwall looked g-r-r-r-eat for his first game back -a welcome addition.
2. Patrick Eaves IS the new Dan Cleary.  Message to Kenny Holland - lock this guy up for at least 5 years BEFORE the season is over.
3. Best game for the Euro Twins in a long time.
4. We did get one point, it's not what we wanted, but better than nothing (I guess).
5. We're still in the top eight in the Western Conference
6. As of right now, the injury report looks like this...

Let's let calmer heads prevail.  So we've blown leads against Washington, Minnesota, Los Angeles, and Phoenix in consecutive games (man, that looks bad)...there's still tonight.  How about two full points and zero for the opponents?  It's do-able.  Let's pull within one of Nashville. 

 If both we and Dallas take care of business tonight, we'll still be in good shape and primed to climb the standings as more of our guys get healthy.

So since we're playing the Wild again, and because the diggers are probably still in a bottle (like the rest of us would prefer to be), let's see what every one's favorite Minnesota Blogger/Home Depot employee is up too...

This.

Apparently, he's decided that walking up and spitting into the eye of the crocodile while it sleeps, probably wasn't the best idea.  So why not turn your attention to the ECHL's Florida Everblades and the blog dedicated to them?

My take on what happened last time...

Pinky's new tactic...

The moral of the story?  Pick a smaller opponent with a "degree" of safety.  (See what I did there, with the quotation marks?)

I didn't bother to read much of the article, and I wouldn't recommend that you do either.  The point is that Pinky is still out there bashing bloggers that he deems inferior.  Only this time...he left The Chief out of it.  I'm pretty sure the Everblades' followers are going to be a little less rabid on the rebuttal, eh, Wings Fan in KC?

I don't if anybody saw this press release before, but Hank Zetterberg is helping out with the 8th annual smoke detector collection this year...

From redwings.com:

Henrik Zetterberg and the Red Wings are asking fans to help combat household fires by bringing smoke detectors to the upcoming Red Wings home games on Saturday, Jan. 23, and Friday, Jan. 29, in coordination with the Wings’ 8th Annual Smoke Detector Collection.  Detectors will be collected when the Wings take on the Nashville Predators (Jan. 29, 7:30 p.m. EST) at Joe Louis Arena. 

This issue hit close to home yesterday evening.  My fiance's best friend lost her 19 year old younger brother, Matthew last night in a fire in Mt. Morris, MI.  Details are still being investigated, but the fire may have been caused by a faulty furnace.

Zetterberg will personally match the total number of smoke detectors donated by fans as well as provide autographed Red Wings memorabilia for prizes going to lucky fans that participate in the collection.

We're already past the LA game, but if you can, please make a donation this Saturday if you are attending the game against the Predators.

Smoke alarms should be tested at least once a month. All smoke alarms have a test button that you push to check out the entire alarm, including its sensitivity (how much smoke it takes to set it off). If the testing mechanism does not work properly, the alarm should be replaced immediately. Never use open flame devices to test an alarm.

Keep Julie's family in your thoughts and prayers.  Try and keep everything in perspective...there are indeed more important things in life.

Thanks,

-Drew

This quote was plucked from yesterday's post.

written by Twig, January 26, 2010
that really was the saddest loss of the year for me. mainly because i wasn't surprised.

Khan(!) was lazier than usual today and didn't actually post the lines.  He did say that Brad May will replace Ville Leino tonight and Kronwall will be in for...(ready?)...Derek Meech. 

Chris is probably out celebrating right now.  He doesn't much care for Derek Meech, if you haven't quite figured that out yet.

So, as far as I can tell from putting the pieces of yesterday's line in practice coupled with Mr. Khan(!)'s half-hearted attempt to tell us who's playing where tonight, here are the lines/pairings for tonight... 

Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Cleary
Bertuzzi-Filppula-Miller
Draper-Helm-Eaves
May-Abdelkader-Maltby

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Stuart
Lebda-Ericsson

Howard (starting)
Osgood

In other news, Lilja was actually able to take contact in practice...from a 230 lbs Mule.

“I had Mule run me yesterday in practice. He picked up all his 230 pounds and threw it at me.  My body hurt, but my head was really good. It felt real good.’’--Andreas Lilja

Don't think that Mule took it easy on him, either...

“He was seeing stars.  He needs that, needs someone to hit him to get him ready.’’--Johan Franzen

Easy, boys.

If the Miami Herald is trying to jinx Detroit, I think they're doing a good job...

Since the start of the 2006-07 campaign, the Red Wings have gone 13-1-1 against Phoenix and won all seven games held in Detroit over that time period. The Coyotes' last triumph in Joe Louis Arena came on March 7, 2006.

Detroit has been playing slump-breaker all season long.  It seems as if every time we run into a struggling team, they explode for 5 or 6 goals.  We've made back-ups like Scott Clemenson and Alex Auld look spectacular.  We've given hope to the likes of LA and Colorado by laying down in front of them.

Well now is the time to STOP.  As Voox so eliquently put it over at A2Y, the Cup is for closers.

We needed to put the kids from Los Angeles over our knee and give them a good spanking...it even looked like we were going to do so for the first 10 minutes.  Then we let the little brat hop off of the chair, run to our closet, open the lock box and blow our brains out with the gun they practiced using so many times play Halo online.

Well, not tonight.  Not tonight.  It's time to get Les Grossman on these puppy dogs. 

"What you gotta do is pull down their pants and spank their ass, you spank it."

You did it front of many of your fans in the desert.  You NEED to do it again tonight.  A win tonight could possibly pull us back within one point of LA and Nashville.  A win tonight could possibly have us three points out of 5th place.

The Western Conference keeps giving us these opportunities.  These young, upstart teams like LA and Phoenix are practically begging us to step over them in the standings and take our rightful place.  We need to STOP passing up these chances to make waves.

You want that G5?  How about TiVo?  You're going to have to earn it.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.  Thanks to Ty Conklin and those other a-holes that ruined my trip to Sweden, we're back in the top 8 of the Western Conference as St. Louis downed Calgary 2-0 last night.  There are two big reasons that we're sitting where we are right now, I've highlighted them in red below...

 The most obvious reason for us being in 8th place is the complete free-fall that Calgary is in right now.  They've lost six consecutive games and have only 3 points in their last 10 games played...pathetic.

The reason that we're not higher up in the standing is the sheer lack of goal scoring by Detroit.  Check out the goals-for column.  Look at who has scored less goals in the West...no one.

We knew that losing Sammy, Hossa, and Hudler would cost us a few goals.  But not even the chin waggers of the MSM could have predicted Detroit would fall so far.  It will be nice to see the impact of having a full roster.

Yesterday, when I said that we haven't had a full roster all year, I meant it.  Remember that The Namesake was hurt in training camp and wasn't back before the Mule went down.  Therefore, Detroit has STILL not iced its fully loaded roster yet this season.

So with the much celebrated return of the Kronwalled to the ice tomorrow, we finally (oh sweet Jesus, thank the Lord!) have the problem of too many defenseman, rather than the usual, who the f'ck is "Doug Janik" moments.  Coupled with the return of the bleeding brain, Lil-ja (I refuse to correctly pronounce his name since the Selanne incident), the Wings have some decisions to make.

First off all, Lebda or Meech?   To me, it is an simple question, like choosing steak over salad, brunettes over blonds, or Keystone over Bud (it is never bitter, seriously).

However, there have been hints over at KK that some seem to want Meech over Lebda, which made me immediately s#!t all over myself after reading it:

I’d much rather see Meech stay than Lebda for these reasons:
1. He’s played every bit as well as Lebda for the past month or so.
2. He’s an RFA next year, not a UFA.
3. He can play forward in a pinch.

Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 01/25/10 at 02:06 PM ET

I couldn't let that go.  No freaking way.  Not with this sort of hatred of Meech.  So here we go.   A match bigger than Cage/Travolta.  I give you...

Derek Meech

VS.

Brett Lebda

Round One:  1. He’s played every bit as well as Lebda for the past month or so.

Really?  Because I've actually only noticed about one retarded play from Lebda per game.  Sure, he's the least offensive offensive defensemen ever (and that in a way, is sort of offensive...ha!) but he's only about 1/3 as a window licker as Meech.   It's a fact.  Look it up.  Science.

I was just about to show a +/- stat, but turns out that Lebda sucks almost as much as Meech. So here's another point.  According to the Yahoo Hockey God in the Sky, Meech is 5-11, 195.   Have you ever seen a 5'11'' person look smaller than Meech?  Lebda is shorter, but at least he doesn't look like the skinny kid in gym class out on the ice.

Round Two:  2. He’s an RFA next year, not a UFA.

Which is EXACTLY why we have to get rid of Meech, as soon as possible, if not sooner. Because if we don't, we have to suffer for another 365 painful, never-ending nights with Meech on the blueline, doing everything possible to not be a capable NHL'er.   If you trade (or eliminate...hmmmmm) Meech now and then refuse to resign Lebda, we can look forward to a upcoming year of sunshine, with puppies frolicking, children playing, and wonderful advances in science with allow us to reanimate Mitch Hedberg's head so he can continue to tell funny jokes.  Like this one:

My belt holds up my pants and my pants have belt loops that hold up the belt. What the fuch’s really goin on down there? Who is the real hero?

Brilliance.

Round Three: 3. He can play forward in a pinch.

Yeah, and Shaq can rap in a pinch too.  Doesn't mean that he should.

Winner:  I hear Cheli is looking for a job...(not Meech, please, I can't take much more).

Good news coming from Khan(!) today...

Check out these lines for tomorrow's game against Phoenix:

Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Cleary
Bertuzzi-Filppula-Miller (Franzen working in)
Draper-Helm-Eaves (Williams working in)
Leino-Abdelkader-Maltby (May working in)

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

Howard (starting)
Osgood

Holy smokes is it good to see the word "extra" by Derek Meech's name.  I can guarantee you some of those death stare's from Babcock were accompanied by the thought "I can't wait until I can sit some of these guys".

Doctors must have waited until Laraque was out of the league before declaring it safe for Kronwall to return.  Man, it will be good to see #55 out there again.