Heroes of Hockeytown

Uwe Krupp: Here lies one whose name was writ in water.

Sure looked like Draper was hooked on that scoring chance.

Helm on the ice, nothing but good things could ever happen.

Helm on the ice, good things happen.

Well of course Helm is going to be better at skating circles around people; he's the best skater on the team and one of the best in the NHL. I'm sure Helm works very hard but when he wins a race to a loose puck and we all congratulate him for his grittiness and work ethic, we can't very well turn around and throw our hands into the air and dismiss those heartless, soft Euros that don't get there in time because they don't have the wheels. Anyways, this doesn't really seem to imply that Hudler is working harder than Helm or anything. I think most (although not all) of these guys are giving their best effort on most nights. So maybe it's more like a "most improved" award, which, you know, whatever. Give the little guy a pat on the back, he's done a great job lately.

The original Detroit News article has been obliterated, but you can see the relevant portion referenced by Malik here, amidst a sea of text.

Maybe somewhat off-topic, but there's a story to that goal. When Rafalski had the puck behind the net Lidstrom called to him. What he said was "hard," as in "hard around the boards," which would have likely cleared the puck. What the thought Nick said was "here," so he reversed it off the wall, where Nick would be if he had said that. Of course that wasn't what he said, so instead it went right to Joe Thornton, who made the easy play to Marleau. More of an unfortunate miscommunication than a poor decision.

You're a daisy, Doc.

At least they'll have three days off to sit in timeout and think about what they did.

Presently, it only needs to take them six points higher. However, I doubt that they're about to rattle off an eleven game win streak while the Wings continue to lose. We're about due for the reverse, actually. And with so few games left it will be difficult (but certainly not impossible) for the Hawks to win a war of attrition with the Wings in the standings.

And the Worst Loss of the Year Award goes to...

I've seen this script before.

Never got it sorted out after Helm turned it over.

Hank man, it's not worth it!

Hank looked like Fedorov on that last rush.

After all the nice things we said about you, Jakub.

What an effort, beautiful goal.

Fantastic wheels on Flipper.

Abby very nearly set up a great scoring chance when he was lining up a big hit and the Phoenix puck carrier bailed out. More of that!

Wow, I thought for sure that was in the net. Luckily he didn't get it to the far side of the cage.

By the rules that ought to be a goal, but it could've easily been waived off judging by prior calls in similar situations. Oh well, whatever. That was a terrible shift by the Modano line (lest we forget all the minuses he and Cleary racked up last time they were together) but was otherwise a good period for the Wings.

Well, they threw that point away.

It's raining power plays! Run, run, flee for your lives!

Well, here's their chance. Time to be clutch, fellas.

Selanne Datsyuk'd Pav right there.