Heroes of Hockeytown

haha, Bert.

Nice try, Drew.

What a turnover, geez.

That's every game this season. When they just need one goal to put the game away they can never get it, every game is a nail-biter. Oh well, here we go.

Ugh, rebounds.

I guess they're done scoring today.

A third goal would really put this one away. Typically, goalpost.

Textbook penalty shot...

Nice job rotating and getting in front of shooters.

Wow, was that a shift or what from Eaves.

Look at what happens when you shoot, Nick! Look!

That was weird.

He wasn't great, but he wasn't bad either. It was just one of those things; he came from C-bus where he was getting more ice time and PP time and was their go-to guy, and then he came to Detroit and got buried underneath the Wings' depth.

It's more (or entirely) Holland's call than Babcock's, I think, but even if wasn't I'm sure Mike understands the value of depth. Even though Lebda and Meech suck, they don't suck more than some of the AHL scrubs the Wings would be forced to use if they had more injuries on the back end. The impact that Janik would bring by keeping him here isn't enough of a net gain that they would risk losing one of the other two just to keep Janik around for half the season. Should they make the playoffs (which I still feel is likely), Babcock will be able to rotate any of those three in the 6th Dman spot at his leisure, and have competent enough reserves in case one should go down. This is the smart move, and really the only move, that management was going to make.

Here's one of little Jiri being afraid to go to net in traffic, and the Wings suffering dearly for his cowardice.

He did give up some bad goals against Anaheim, it proved to be the difference because no one could score really. If Luc hadn't hit the crossbar in Game 1, who knows what crazy alternate reality we might be living in now. But for '04, he was unbelievable. His sliding, pad stacking save on Iginla in Game 4 is one of my enduring memories of him.

This Band Is Lazy And It Sucks

Because of Datsyuk's absence he was centering the fourth line with Maltby and Leino for most of it, as I recall. And in any event, goal scoring is not something he regularly brings to the table no matter where he's playing. If they ever can get fully healthy I think Abdelkader is still eligible to be sent down to Grand Rapids without being exposed to waivers, and a full roster could force their hand in that way. I'm sure you'll be overjoyed to know he could be pushed out in favor of keeping someone like Leino on board.

Draper-Helm-Eaves seems to be working just fine. With Datsyuk playing inconsistently and the second scoring line constantly in flux or even nonexistent thanks to injuries, they have probably been the Wings' best line night in and night out, in terms of effort anyways.

I doubt they would've gone anyways. Nick and Pavel are men, they probably had plans with their families to do something with the time off. Crosby is just a kid, the only thing he was going to do was play Xbox.

Poorly worded, maybe, but this is still just semantics. The intent of the rule, via its repeated use, is very clear. They can and Malkin did. I don't think the rule is great, but it was applied normally in that instance.

I guess I did kind of side-step the point of the thread. If the issue were getting him in this season then that's what they'd have to do. If it's just some point down the line, letting Howard observe Ozzie for another year (and maybe get spot duty like Conklin) might be the way to go.

And in any event, waiting for a goalie to drop a couple games so you can make a switch is not an ideal way to stay alive in the playoffs.

Injury report is only taking up two lines of text these days, we're really movin' on up.

Janik's an injury call-up, he's not subject to waivers.