Dabura

I see my light come shining From the West unto the East

Oh hellz yeah.

Kronwall - Murphy Smith - Girardi Kindl - Quincey

From what (little) I've seen of the game (highlights + first period)...Howard was ungodly good. Mad props.

Encore presentation on the NHLN. Sweet. Wow, they were all over us in the opening minutes.

Just finished watching the highlights. Loved our first goal. Fasth seemed surprised/confused. Not often does a Red Wing cut to the crease with purpose like that.

Ah, crap.

Holy effing ess. Tell me this wasn't a national broadcast. Cuz if it was, I'm gonna feel really, really lousy about missing it. How great would it be if Abdelkader and Franzen suddenly became premier power-forwards?

We'll be buyers long before we'll be sellers. And we're not going to be buyers. So we're absolutely, positively not going to be sellers. (Unless we're on one unholy mother of a losing streak.)

1. My gut says this isn't a genuine setback, Holland just had him on an unrealistic time table, which has now been adjusted to reflect reality. (Am I the only one who felt Helm's "comeback" seemed to come almost out of nowhere? Like, after having been "We just don't know" for 90 years, suddenly it was "Roundabout 10 days.") 2. Back pain is hell. 3. Even if he has done something to aggravate his condition, I can't say I really blame him. I mean, look at how frustrated we get with this team. Now, imagine being Helm, the team's spark plug, arguably the heart and soul of this team, a guy who can make (and, alas, arguably is making) a huge difference - our *big trade deadline acquisition* (as stupid as that is).

This game would have been completely different had the Wings actually Shown Up to Play.

They also have one of the very best goalies in the league. Spotlight: Tortorellla. Then again, this is what the Rangers do. Underachieve, disappoint, [shot of Sather eating a cigar], underachieve, disappoint...

Dan Girardi.

This all day.

He's not scoring. Oh wah-wah-wah.

"...big comeback win..."

Yeah, you really just gotta marvel at how he's, like, not talking to his team. And just, really just getting prepared for the next game and OH MY GOD CANADA.

Depth is the new Opportunity.

CANADIAN NIIIIIIIIGHTS LIKE CANADIAN DAAAAAAYS (That's all I got at the moment, eh.)

I love this. Eh, I'm in Pennsylvania; I'll take whatever I can get.

There should be a division just for the Lightning.and Panthers. All of their games would be against each other.

We've talked about this before, I think, but I don't remember what came of it, so, again: What are you talking about?! Look at the past fifteen years. Think of all the free agents we've inked. Think of all the trades we've been involved in. Sure, Holland's on this big "We gotta build from within!" kick - but he himself has painted this change as, well, a change! How many times has he said something along the lines of "You know, in the pre-cap world, most of our team might be a mix of free agent signings and players we had acquired through trades. But in a salary cap world, we can't do that. It's just not feasible. So we have to put the focus where it counts now, which is on drafting and building from within. If you want to succeed and thrive as an organization in today's NHL, you've gotta draft well and build from within"? EDIT: OK, to be fair, you've got a point, sort of. The draft has (almost) always been pretty important - maybe even kinda key - for us. But couldn't the same be argued for virtually any and every other organization? I guess my thinking is, even with a lot of great Wings (past and present) having come to us by way of the draft, we've done a s***-ton of trading and FA-ing. And so, I have to wonder: If we're The Model re: building through the draft (as opposed to relying heavily on "outside help")...which teams are supposed to be the misguided ones, i.e. the traders-&-FA-ers?

[insert GIF of Dats singlehandedly shredding the Preds]

Or we could keep on winning!