Well that West Coast trip is finally over, even though the Wings aren't really home yet. 

3-1-0 to start the New Year isn't too bad.  The Wings despite all of their injuries are still creeping up on the Western Conference and doing it by decimating a lot of the "feel good stories" of 2009.

• December 31st, a beat down of the darling Avalanche
• January 2nd, the quick start, NHL-owned Puppy dogs get a newspaper across the nose
• January 7th, regicide at the Staples Center of the surprise LA Kings (by Jimmy Howard and Darren Helm)
• January 9th, a statement game against perennial (regular season) powerhouse, San Jose

And looky here...

With at least a game in hand on every team ahead of them in the Conference, things are warming up in the D.

So the Red Wings only have 50 points and are currently 3 points out of a play-off spot.  Ninth in the West.  I wonder where they would be in the Eastern Conference...

Right now in the East, 50 points is good enough for 6th place.  Jeez Louise Carolina has twenty-nine freakin' points.  Only one team from the South East Division is in the play-offs right now (Washington).

Well maybe the East is just as strong as the West, they just beat each other up...right?  Wrong:

So the Blackhawks completely own the Eastern Conference right now.  San Jose, Calgary, Vancouver, and even Colorado have extremely strong records against teams from the East.

Detroit has 12 out of a possible 20 points.  Even Columbus and Dallas took half of the possible points up for grabs against the East.  Only Anaheim, St. Louis, and Edmonton  have straight-up losing records (based on points available) against the Eastern Conference.

So basically, the Eastern Conference (the one that geographically, Detroit should be playing in) is much, much weaker than the Western Conference.

Hence: Eastern Conference = Leastern Confernce.  Western Conference = Bestern Conference.

Here's a screen shot from NHL.com...

How could I notpost that?  Surprisingly witty from the folk at Gary's Homepage.

Now stats have nothing to do with wit.  Sometimes it takes wit to cherry pick them and twist them to your advantage, but quite frankly; none of that is needed with our boy, Jimmah right now...

Stat #1: Save Percentage

Chew on that for a second or two.  Aside from the two back-ups (Halak and Rask), Jimmy is top three for starters playing in more than 20 games.  The only two goalies that have a better save percentage than him is the mad Irishman (he's actually Finnish), Miika Kiprusoff and Ryan (I scored on him in practice) Miller.  Pretty outstanding, I'd say.

Stat #2: Wins

Aside from Pekka Rinne (who was up for Rookie of the Year last season) and Dwayne Roloson, Jimmy is still within five wins of some guys who have played in ten or more games than he has.  Everyone on that list has more wins, but has played in more games. 

Coincidence?  Maybe.  But I wonder how many wins Jimmy would have had he played in 35+ games this season.  His winning percentage in games played is 55.55% so if he had played in 40 games like his opponent last night,  Jimmy would arguably have 22 or 23 wins right now, putting him right up there with the "elite".

Stat #3: Goals Against Average

More solid numbers for Mr. Howard.  Especially for someone who has lost 11 out of 27 games played.  Now that doesn't look good for the Red Wings as a whole.  But what it does mean is that Jimmy may be losing a few games, but they're low-scoring affairs, which is a good reflection on Jimmy.

So if you're looking to jump on the Calder Trophy ship, it looks like Jimmy may indeed be "at the helm".

Three point games are things we are trying to avoid.  Especially with teams that we are trying to catch in the standings.  Well Jimmy Howard's play guaranteed that we were going to get at least one point last night.

Darren Helm made sure that we got two, and LA got nothing.

From the Free Press...

“I just took it to the net and there was a big hole there.  He went to poke it and I think we hit the puck at the same time and it just sneaked in there somehow and I saw it in the back of the net and was excited.” --Darren Helm

Luckily, his head was still on his shoulders after Jack Johnson tried to take it off on the charge to the net.  People are going to start noticing this kid.  He seems to be playing more and more like the little Tasmanian devil that we saw in the past two play-off runs.

And how about Jimmy Howard?  What can be said that hasn't been said already?  Probably nothing, so let's see what he had to say when The Namesake scored the GWG with less than 20 seconds to play in regulation...

“It was relief more than anything because I don’t know if I could have lasted another five minutes out there. Helmer made a great play. He got the puck in the corner and took it to the net hard and he was able to slide it five-hole. It’s a good thing to see from a guy that works really, really hard.”

Me thinks these two could be teammates for a long, long time.

Outshot 52-24.  42-11in the second period on.  FOURTY TWO TO ELEVEN.  Dominated worse than I've ever seen in my life.  Datsyuk worthless.  Zetterberg invisible.  Draper shooting slapshots backwards.  Our pet's heads falling off, literally mid-play.

But then there was Jimmy.  Unbelievable.

Best game I've seen from a Wings goaltender since I've been Wings fan, period (since roughly 1990ish).  I actually feel dirty right now.

The Triple Nightmare Deke on Helm Street Red Wings Three Stars of the Night

1. Jimmy - He had 51 saves, 45 of those were amazing.
   
2. Jimmah - Did I mention 51 saves?
   
3. Jimmy Howard/Darren Helm (tie) - Helm scored without shooting.  And Howard had 51 saves.  FIFTY ONE.
   

Just sayin'.

So on Center Ice tonight, I have the option of the HD feed from LA or the standard feed from FS Detroit.  Which to choose?  I have a plasma that doesn't upscale standard feeds...and I can't decide.

Poll time...

Ok, I can't for the life of me get a poll to show, so here's the link to it.  I actually brought down the whole site trying for about 15 minutes.  I'm real glad that it's back, because Drew would of killed me if I murdered his NOHS.

http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/2485350/

Because, why not?  Good lord. Per Khan(!) who finally decided to do something today:

I don't even know what to say.  Seriously.  This has got to be how it felt to be Tiger Woods' wife Elin when she was finding about girl #12 through whatever number it is at now.  It doesn't even hurt anymore.  It's all just a blur.  What did we do to deserve this?

And great digging Khan(!)...I could have told you this.

Wonderful.  We need to step up the sacrificing the the hockey gods, neighborhood pets aren't doing it anymore...any ideas?

(Apparently this article didn't exist at first, so here it is again.)

It has long been said that the only guarantees in life are death, taxes and Corey Perry being a total douche in every aspect of life. Well, I think it is official, you can add another one to the list.  Anytime there is a close call on a goal, Dennis Larue will f'k it up.  Here's another one from last night from Rob Schremp, who apparently can only score absolutely beautiful goals.

If you remember, Larue was ref who made the worst call in NHL history, was told that he was wrong, ignored that, and then was somehow still allowed to ref in the NHL.

Hell, here's a thread from I think Montreal stating that Larue is the worst ref in hockey.  If you Google Larue sucks, there is more results than you'd believe.

This from Mile High Hockey...

As strange as it may seem, that's the situation we're facing tonight. At least for those who can stomach it. After choking last night, the Avalanche are in danger of dropping from 5th to 8th tonight. Vancouver, Los Angeles and Nashville are all just one point behind the Avs in the standings and all three would hold win the tiebreaker over the Avs if tied. That means if any of those teams gains a point this evening, they will pass the Avalanche in the standings. If all three do that, the Avalanche will have dropped from 3rd to 8th in the span of a few days.

So, root for Carolina to beat Nashville in regulation. Root for Phoenix to do the same to Vancouver. And, if you can, root for Detroit to beat LA. If you're unable to handle this last request, we'll completely understand. Now that I think about it, maybe 8th place is better than cheering for the devil.

Conflicted much?  Those poor confused little Avalanche fans.  How quickly they seem to forget that last season, the 8th seed in the West was a distant ship's smoke on the horizon.

Here's what some of the readership over at MHH had to say...

If the Avs have to depend on the Red Wings for the playoffs, I’d rather they not make them.-- Jibblescribbits

I can not, will not eat green eggs and ham. I’d rather take 8th place right now and worry about climbing back up the ranks in March than root for the Red Wings. Sorry folks. Ain’t gonna happen.-- NurseBeachie

Even in uncertain times, I bathe happily in the hatred from Avs fans.

We're all happy to have Dan Cleary and Henrik Zetterberg back.  The Red Wings are happy.  The fans of the Red Wings are happy.  The bloggers who write about the Red Wings are happy (even though we don't have access thanks to the Chief over at A2Y).

Out of all of the happy people, Kris Draper actually was quoted, and since he's more important to the Red Wings than you and I, the Detroit News published it.  Here's what he had to say about Danny and Hank:

"We are getting two guys back who do it all, on both ends of the rink.  They are tough guys to play against. They play every situation for us. So when you lose guys like that, you miss them a lot. Getting them back is huge."

So left on the injury list for Detroit:

Niklas Kronwall - knee

Jonny Ericsson - leg

Jason Williams - leg

Johan Franzen - knee

Andreas Lilja - bleeding brain

Remember when our problem was having too much talent?  No?  Neither do I.  But the fact of the matter is that once Williams comes back, someone who has been playing decent is going to go down.

Maltby?  Draper?  Miller?  And what about Ville Leino?  Has he already become obsolete on this team after a disastrous first half?  Think about this lineup and see if you don't get a warm fuzzy feeling...

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

Lidstrom-Rafalski
Kronwall-Stuart
Lebda-Ericsson

Not touching the goalie section...it's a sensitive subject for some.

But think back to Sweden when we didn't think that Maltby should have been playing in that first game.  Leino was in, Eaves was out, and Miller hadn't even arrived yet.  What a change 41 games can bring.

If you ask me, Miller deserves to be in this lineup.  Maltby has been playing as well as can be expected, but Miller gets my vote.  I'm not quite ready to give up on Ville Leino.  He's probably not willing to go back to GR, so I'm not sure what we're going to do with him.

Look at the names in red again.  Is that a play-off caliber team?  I'd say so.

What's that you say?  I left a name off of there?  Who...wha...?  Oh that's right.  Johan Franzen.  Well I say that the lineup I provided above is good enough to get us to the post-season.  And if that means resting The Mule longer than he wants to...so be it.  Remember Bobby Orr?  His career was cut short because he passed on missing additional games with knee problems.  Know what he's missing now?  All the cartilage in that problematic knee.  So I say rest Franzen until he's so mad that he rips Paul MacLean's mustache from his face then watch him take down whatever team we play in the first round of the play-offs. 

Unless he's not ready.  Then we may have "wasted" one year of his contract.  But so what?  We have an entire decade more.