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Howard: Jimmy’s in net again. Utterly unsurprising. While some folks might claim he had a weak game Saturday, I don’t see it. That was an honest mistake, one anyone in prime mental condition could make. And it’s not like the Wings wouldn’t found still found a way to tank the game had that wily inanimate piece of vulcanize rubber so mischievously outwitted our hero.

Seriously, though. This is completely unsurprising. Babcock’s giving Howard a chance at a rebound, a chance he wouldn’t give Osgood. Whatever. Howard’s earned the privilege of the benefit of the doubt and Osgood hasn’t this year. I get it. But do you still totally buy the line that this thing between Osgood and Babcock hasn’t become personal and unprofessional? When your backup’s not starting games backups start, something’s going on. Especially, as John W. pointed out, when Howard’s already shown he can rebound.

… I guess that’s what Babs is going for here: a goalie who’s shown he can rebound. Still, though, would it kill you to start Osgood, Mike?

Finally Healthy, Right? No Kronwall due to slow shipping or something (you couldn’t overnight the brace, really?), likely no Eaves, possibly no Holmstrom…the hockey gods aren’t done with the Wings yet. Miller’s expected to play though, so he must have done something right.

Playoffs: A win tonight won’t put you back in 8th due to pesky tie-breakers, but don’t let that (and the “national” audience) be an excuse to not show up down there, okay Wings?

Also, Holmstrom is a game-time decision and Eaves is doubtful. But Miller’s supposed to play, so it’s not all bad.

Three more injuries, to forwards, no less, on the day the Wings trade a forward to clear up cap space. Defensemen passing pucks to the opposition like they’re Benedict Arnold in hockey pants. Pesky slow-moving pucks beguiling the honest efforts of sainted goalies to corral them with nobody around. Herds of white jerseys forming a hilariously ineffectual shield around one solitary part of the net, leaving the other open for easy exploitation.  Speedy young forwards with their backs turned to a threat busily victimizing his goalie. New levels of fail reached in blowing three goal leads.

I still believe they’ll somehow manage to stumble drunkenly into the playoffs and at that point, anything’s possible. But whatever happens, this is going to be a regular season Wings fans are going to wincingly remember into their nursing home days. A season that will cause your arthritis to flair and your eyes to glass over. A season you’ll laugh incessantly about as they close the door on your padded room.

The Olympic Break cannot come soon enough. I only wish the team’s leaders weren’t going to Vancouver. Much like that guy who has to regain respect from everyone on an annual basis like no one else in the League apparently did last year, they seem to need a sabbatical. Maybe some kind of seminar on How To Do Their Jobs And Not Let Everybody Down. The guys that are working hard, the guys that aren’t disappointing on a nightly basis, are the guys who don’t need the break. The Lidstroms, Datsyuks, Zetterbergs, Rafalskis, Kronwalls, Stuarts, do. Fortunately, Stuart is getting a break, but the others aren’t. Maybe being around players who want to win desperately will inspire them and shame them into stepping it up into that extra level down the stretch for the Wings. Because they need it. This team needs it.

This comedy needs to stop. Can we switch from the low-budget indie dark comedy to a big-budget blow-em-up blockbuster? I want to see explosions, not be made to painfully laugh-cry.

Meanwhile, where’s the rest of the Detroit print media? So far, Bruce MacLeod’s the only other writer to chime in.  - Matt

Update (11:41 PM): Not sure if St. James is going off old news here, but if not, Franzen won’t be back today. - Matt

CBC’s Jeff Marek just tweeted that the Wings have traded Ville Leino to Philly for a fifth round pick in 2011 and defenseman Ole-Kristian Tollefsen ($600,000). No word from the Detroit media just yet (of course).

Whoa. Not exactly a high price. Ville may have better luck in Philly, with Laviolette something of a player’s coach, if I’m not mistaken.

This could mean Franzen’s back today, but more likely, he’s still scheduled for Tuesday. It’ll be interesting to see the answer on that question, though.

As for Tollefsen, I’m surprised the Wings took anything other than picks in return for Leino. He’s only played in 18 games for the Flyers. He has to be headed to Grand Rapids.

Yeah, the Kings have 74 points, a whopping nine more than the Wings have. That’s thanks to their 8 game winning streak, which has put them in 5th place. See what winning can do, Red Wings?

Get it? That’s a hint. Win this and keep on winning.

That is all.

… Kronwall’s out tomorrow, as you probably know by now. I don’t know if there’s an injury prognosis less encouraging than “day to day.” At least with Franzen’s 4-6 months, you have a goal. With Kronwall’s nebulous status, I find it really hard not to think “week to week.” I hope that feeling’s wrong because the Franzen return isn’t going to mean as much if Kronwall’s out and the defense can’t move the puck as well as it would with him active.

For the record, his saying he hopes to play Tuesday means nothing to me. Players rarely get it right.

… Kudos to Helene St. James for missing a pretty important bit of news like Franzen working in on the Zetterber/Datsyuk line. Yeah, that’s not important. Doesn’t mean he’s coming back tomorrow, but it does mean he’s on track.

… Howard’s starting again tomorrow. I dunno. I get that he gives the team the best chance of stopping the Kings’ win streak and that it’s true even if he’s tired. But the idea of his being tired doesn’t scare anybody? Point to the Break all you want, but if he’s tired now, his risk of injury due to fatigue is higher now. Even if a game or two wouldn’t get Osgood going, I wonder if there isn’t wisdom in resting Jimmy now. Why push it?

And before you start spouting off about how other goalies start even more than he does, stop. He’s a rookie playing more often than he ever has (even in GR, he rotated more than this) and facing more shots on a regular basis than he has before. Saying he’s not tired doesn’t make it so. There’s all kinds of evidence that he’s slipping, even if only slightly, and the most obvious culprit is fatigue.

… On Jimmy, it’s good to see that Ellen and I aren’t the only ones not worshiping at the Babcock Goalie Handling Altar.

… So, Kovalchuk’s a Devil now. Big deal (said simultaneously at face value and dismissively-can we move on now?). I said this on Twitter last night, but I’ll say it again here: my takeaway from that trade is that Patrice Cormier is now a piece of Thrasher property. Yes, that Patrice Cormier. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want that disgusting thug anywhere near any Wings’ prospects. Here’s hoping the Thrashers have a philosophy on his QMJHL suspension similar to that of the Devils: let him serve it, don’t put him in the AHL.

The Griffins play the Chicago Wolves six times a season currently. I don’t Tatar or someone else to have their brains scrambled by that pathetic excuse for a hockey player, a guy who shouldn’t play another game for that desecration of the privilege that is to play the greatest game on earth.

… How crazy is it that there’s a West Coast game and we don’t have to stay up until 1:00AM+ to watch it? What kind of miracle is it that the game starts at 4:00PM ET? I don’t remember that kind of scheduling quirk ever happening for the Wings. Can you tell that I’m more excited about that than I am worried that they’ll put on their usual afternoon showing?

… Lilja’s playing in Grand Rapids, in theory. Megan just tweeted that he dropped out of warm-ups early. If he does play, I’ll get some kind of report from her.

… Lastly, if you’re not checking out the H2H site, be sure do so.

Jimmah again: Another night of Jimmy, as expected. I’ve grown numb on the issue, I’ve found. I feel Osgood should have started one of the two, like any backup in the League would have, but I’m finding it harder to work up emotion about it. Fact is, it won’t matter who’s in net if the Wings can put the puck between the posts and under the crossbar with greater regularity.

League BS: Why do they even bother reviewing these things any more? How can they justify what happened there? I’m not convinced there’s any way to do so.

Ericsson: You can log “message received” under his name. He had a heck of a game, I thought. At least relatively speaking. That’s what they need from him going forward.

Back in 9th: Yeah, the cutoff is 8th. You know that, right, Wings? You don’t have the luxury of losing any more. That goes double for games against teams as close to you in the standings as Anaheim is. Point to the 47 shots all you want. It’s not good enough. That’s all I have to say about this game. Not much, I know, but I was half-zombie during it from staying up for the Sharks game and parts of this one are fuzzy.

I’m very glad Saturday’s game is at 4:00.

Jimmy: I thought he started out fairly shaky. His rebound control sucked on the Sharks’ two goals. You can blame the defense for the plays that led to those all you want, but the fact is Jimmy needs to have better rebound control. He seemed to gain confidence and become more steady as the game went on, though, which became important as the Sharks sought to come back.

Scary moment: How about Joe Thornton absolutely wrecking Jimmy on that drive to the net late in the game? And how about the classless Sharks fans booing the replay as Jimmy got up with Piet Van Zant’s help? Booing the penalty, I guess, but that was like textbook extreme goaltender interference. Classless move by Thornton there. I’m also annoyed that the Wings did absolutely nothing to slow him down coming in from center at a thousand miles per hour, but whatever. He still should have stopped.

Great pass: Rafalski’s fake sh0t pass on the Eaves goal was a thing of beauty. Nabokov was not in his best form all night, but he bit on that so hard his teeth probably hurt. Good to see Eaves’ excited reaction, too.

Great: Another Kronwall injury. How often has something minor turned into something major? Yeah. I won’t be anything but dreading the news until I see him back on the ice.

евтини мебелиSpeed: Also known as Darren Helm. His insane effort to negate that icing late in the game has me convinced he’s the fastest player in the League. We may never know, but I’d love to see him pitted against some of the other contenders.

Jump: Despite the events of the first period, I thought the Wings looked better over the course of the whole game than they have for a while. They had jump, they had drive and they didn’t seem to get down at any point. Ideally, they don’t go down two goals so quickly, but as long as they keep their chins up, I’m mostly happy.

Bum: As in Patrick Marleau is one. Nothing in particular brought that on. I just like trashing him for being pathetically heartless and utterly worthless in any sort of leadership capacity. Harsh? Maybe. But I have zero respect for the guy.

Tonight: The Wings need to follow that up with another strong effort tonight. They’re in much more direct competition with the Ducks for the bottom end of the playoff-bound standings and cannot afford to concede any points to them. They need to pull this out in regulation.

Here’s hoping they didn’t use up all their good game credits last night.