GROwl

I had a hard time finding them on EBAY at first for that reason. Once I dropped the first name in my search, no problem! Why did he shorten his name to "Val" when he went to Detroit? We always called him Valt here.

According to the number on the figurines, there were 2520 of them produced. I'd guess based on looking around, there were probably 7500 people at the game. So not likely to be any extras. I heard several people at the game last night say they were thinking about putting it on EBAY - a few of them are already there. My two kids have their figurines up and displayed in their bedrooms. Their rooms are starting to look like mini sports bars. I'm not real interested in getting rid of our other two figurines.

I was at the game, and I don't remember either Helm or Tardiff getting hurt. Although, now you mention it, there were some strange lines in the 3rd period. McGrath wasn't playing with Pare and Lemieux. Which I felt was odd considering how much offense that line generated the last several weeks. When McGrath came out during his first shift of the 3rd, he grabbed the wrong stick. Unfortunately, he didn't realize it was curved the wrong way until deep in the Phantom end. He turned around, skated back to the bench and handed it to Downey. Oops. Jonathan came off the ice during the 2nd period injured - looked to be a knee or ankle. He had to stay on the ice for awhile after it occurred since the play was very deep in the Griffins end and he couldn't leave Larsson and his defense partner hanging, but he was clearly skating with a lot of pain. He did return later and seemed to be fine.

Well, Howard didn't look good again last night. Three out of the four were fairly soft goals. One he tried to do a Hasek and came out of the crease to the top of the left face off circle to poke check it away. It didn't work out that way. The Philadelphia Phantom ended up skating right around him to an empty net. I can't wait to see Larsson back in net tonight! It will be against Philadelphia again, so hopefully a good test to see if he fares better than Jimmy did.

For that price, I hope he can fight better than his brother Marc!

Make sure to check out the recent Darren Haydar video: DarrenHaydar It helps you better understand how much he's accomplished this year given what he's been going through. That strength is part of the answer as to why he is wearing the "C".

Too bad you're not local. I have a pair of tickets I can't use tonight.

Don't know what's up with Jonathan. He plays a ton of minutes and he plays them well. Just not as well as the last two years. It may be a case of expectations being so high (both on him and for him) that he couldn't possibly measure up to them. Darren Haydar is having a rough year off ice. He admits that he has a difficult time focusing. The fact that he's leading the team in goals is pretty amazing. I don't understand the -13 nor do I understand why someone not doing well defensively is sent out on the penalty kill every time. But I guess that's Curt Fraser's decision - not Haydar's. And it seems to be working. I believe GR's penalty kill is at the top of the league right now. I enjoy watching Leino - his skills are that good! I didn't know what to expect coming into the season, but have been very pleased. With any other franchise, he would be regularly up with the NHL Club.

What's even funnier is that the announcers couldn't remember which Staal brother was fighting. Half the time they called him Marc and the other Eric. If I was Eric, the next time I saw Marc, I'd beat the living tar out of Marc for embarrassing him and the family with that fight.

The discussion between Downey and #33 occurred during warm ups. They first skated by each other and tapped sticks at center ice - like former teammates. A few minutes later they stretched out next to each other and gabbed like two old women in the grocery store.

Expected that Pare will become a Red Wings prospect soon. He's done very well in his first few months with the Griffins. Especially in December. He's young and plays with al ot of enthusiasm - the line of Pare, Lemieux and McGrath have been having a ball and generating a ton of excitement lately. You can see it on their faces each time they are on the ice. Doubtful that Galvin or Lemieux will become Red Wing prospects. Lemieux possibly if he and Pare continue to sync the rest of the season. Garret Stafford belongs to Dallas for the rest of this season and next. Solid defensemen and very personable. Respected by his teammates and fans.

And Jimmy went through the U.S. college ranks (University of Maine, I believe); so we didn't hear/see too much of him ahead of time.

I'll give it a try since you got the other picture from Ebay anyway... .

Helm's injured. Sat out last night with sore hip or knee from Friday night's collision with the goal. Expected only to be out for a short time at this point.

Thanks. I took a picture of DMac (standing in front of my McCain and Obama bobbleheads - because I love seeing them wearing Griffins sweaters!), but am having issues in uploading the picture into a message. Instructions? Its a JPEG file; I wouldn't think it was difficult. But it won't copy/paste into a reply.

Got two of them. Its the pose where DMac is holding his stick above his head and looking like he is thanking God for the hat trick. I'll try to scan in the box or take a picture.

Coyote seems a little harsh on a few players...but for the most part, I'd agree. Jonathan Ericsson: Has not been as much as a force this year as last year, but certainly better than a "D". With the exception of December (he just started playing again last night following the injury which kept him out of game for 3+ weeks), he played solidly for a heck of alot of minutes each game. Ville Leino: One of the best stick/puck handlers I've seen at the AHL level. He had a stretch where he went goaless following an injury. While he only missed two games, I'm not convinced that his injury had healed when he came back. He has since gotten back into the groove and leads all Griffins in points. Needs to experience a game or two with the Wings soon. Daniel Larsson: Huge improvement from the beginning of the season. Plays far more consistently than Jimmy Howard. Adapting very well to the rink dimensions in North American. Jimmy Howard: Inconsistent. Seems very distracted in most of the games I've seen. Darren Helm: Playing well at both ends of the rink. Loves penalty kills and the opportunity to break away and try to score short-handed. Like Ville Leino, ready to join NHL fulltime. Ryan Oulahen: Very hard worker no matter the situation. Is not great a scorer, but plays his heart out each time he's on the ice.

Even though we're not even halfway through the season, Larsson seems a lot more consistent than Jimmy Howard. If he keeps it up (and works on shootouts a little more), he'll surpass Jimmy on the goalie scene.

GR Press reported tonight that both Ericsson's and Abdelkader's injury were shoulder-related.

Bob Kaser, the Griffins radio broadcaster, announced soon after the injury occurred that Jon was expected to be out at least 3 weeks. That should be up (if not slightly more) after the Christmas break. I listened to the game last night, but didn't hear any update on Jon. No update on Garrett Stafford either. PJ Atherton was added to the injured "D" list during Saturday's game. Possibly 2-3 weeks for him. The Griffins played with 5 defensemen last night - though Oulahen also helped out on the blue line. Abdelkader seemed fine to me Saturday during warm-ups, although he was out both Saturday and last night. It certainly wasn't visible Saturday what his injury is.

Kindl played a real solid game last night. He's really stepped up with Ericsson and Stafford out. Played a ton of minutes. He was right in front of us a few weeks ago when he was paired with Chelios and the opposing team scored on them. The look on his face showed the level of frustration and dismay he was feeling. I felt really bad for him. Its good to see that he (and the rest of Griffins) have been able to get over the hump and get back on track.

It was Kindl. Nice picture of him actually on the Griffins website. http://griffinshockey.com/multimedia/photo...id=1919&t=0

Was it Pyett? I was thinking it was Kindl who wore the other A (along with Oulahen). Maybe I'm mis-remembering. Having the Griffins wear the colors of the Minnesota Wild really threw me off. Did anyone stay for the jersey auction?

What was the deal with Abdelkader? He had on the "A" during the warmup. I thought he looked fine. 5 minutes later, it was announced that he was a scratch.

We went to a game last year for the first time in about 10 years. We parked at the Fox Theatre ramp and walked over to Cheli's. Arrived there about 5 pm before the game and was able to get a table for 4 right away. Food was okay. Typical pub grub. We then walked back to Hockeytown Cafe and took their shuttle to the game (Cheli's offered a free one too, but since Hockeytown Cafe was closer to our car for the return one, we decided to take the Hockeytown Cafe free shuttle instead. The kids actually wanted to do the People Mover thing. That would have been fine too since its so close. After the game, we got on the first or second shuttle back to Hockeytown Cafe and our car. We got out of Detroit at least an hour sooner than if we had parked in the ramp at the Joe and had to deal with the traffic there. The shuttle was waiting curbside and headed in the right direction for Hockeytown Cafe. If you go that route, make sure you ask the shuttle driver where he'll be after the game - because there were at least 20 different shuttles all headed to different places. Have fun. We had such a good time last year, that we're going again for the March 7 game.