I'm sorry, I really lost my cool there... uncalled for.

For starters, Jimmy Howard was really flipping good tonight. The rebound on the goal.. meh. Brett Lebda totally eased up on Fredrik Modin, like he does most of the time that he's one-on-one with somebody. Howard didn't even need Darren Helm to save him tonight, he seemed determined to outshine Steve Mason. I support the guy, but I think I speak for everyone when I say at times he really makes you clench up inside. That feeling is really starting to go away, and I don't recall too many instances where I had "the fear." This was his best game of the season, it's a shame that such a potent offense couldn't manage ONE goal in SIXTY minutes to get him the W he deserved.

Bottom line: the offense has to get going. I understand that the team doesn't have the firepower that it should. This team is still lighting up goalies with shots more often than not. 34 on Mason, a goalie that they put eight up on earlier in the season. And those eight weren't all from injured players. I think it comes down to guys not paying the price. Not staking out the front of the net for rebounds, not making smart shot/pass decisions. All those little things -- the things that have made the team so good over the past few years. For a team full of so many grinders, there isn't a whole lot of mayhem in front of the net.

On the subject of paying the price, Ville Leino was benched because Babcock thinks that's exactly what he hasn't been doing. Mattias Ritola was up again, and honestly, I think he just won himself a short-term spot in the lineup. He looked really good. Ritola's always been so hit and miss with me. I see his talent, and his value as a prospect. On a personal level I've just never felt that he was going to be a consistent NHL player, when he was one of the most inconsistent to me in the AHL. In the pre-season, I thought he looked like a Wing. He just plays that style. His talent isn't quite to the level where he'll be a huge scorer, and his two-way game isn't really anything more special than the other young grinders we have. I just wasn't sure where he'd fit in. I thought he looked great tonight, on kind of a 2nd/4th line role with some powerplay time. Created some chances, wasn't afraid to pay the price, drew a penalty, and actually looked composed on the powerplay. Way better than Leino. Until Dan Cleary and whoever come back in the next two weeks, give me Ritola.

I'm sorry, but I didn't realize until I read the boxscore that Pavel Datsyuk got a penalty for cross-checking during that run-in with Jared Boll. I probably use this phrase a lot, but when you think about what Datsyuk actually did, and what cross-checking actually is, not to mention, what types of things that could be considered cross-checking that don't get called... that might be the worst call of all time.

When's the last time Detroit had two fights in the same game? Prize to anyone who can tell me. Not talking about last year when Aaron Downey fought somebody (Cam Janssen maybe?) and the linesmen broke it up, then they fought again later, but actually two fights involving four players. Brad May actually fought for a reason -- standing up for Datsyuk getting shoved around and then another hit in the corner. No smiling, no laughing, just punching. Actually landed a few good ones, good on him. Doug Janik too, who rarely gets mentioned here despite the fact that he plays for the Red Wings. Sort of -- only eight minutes tonight. Those are the fights I like -- when someone's mad they just got laid out and they want to say something about it. Totally fine with both fights tonight.

Lastly, a dilemma. After unabashed support for the first part of the season, I'm sick of Todd Bertuzzi. What? Read on. I'm sick of him getting the most scoring chances every night. I'm sick of him looking the most dangerous in the offensive zone. I'll say it: I'm sick of him being our best player. Right now. Sure, if you gave me a choice of Datsyuk or Bertuzzi it's obvious. A lot of guys are playing well. A lot of guys are making fewer mistakes than Bertuzzi. But Versus actually had a decent stat tonight, one I wouldn't have thought to look up. Brace yourself, because it's going to be written in big letters for impact:

Over the past eight games, TODD BERTUZZI has scored half of Detroit's goals.

Boom. There it is. Is the font big enough for that to register? I'm a bit of a lush, I went for 18 point font over 14. That's the biggest font ever used on this blog. Trivia. Anyway, that is awful. Where is Pavel Datsyuk? He's very easy to see in the defensive zone, and it's true he is setting up most of Bertuzzi's goals. He's easy to see in 120 feet of the ice. But he's not the team's highest paid forward because he's going to win another Selke. Like I said in the podcast, he was nominated for the Hart Trophy.

Maybe I'm being unfair on the guy, but to me that raises the bar for what acceptable play is. Where's the silly undressing of three hapless defenders and then a goalie? Where's the curl into the slot and pick the far side corner on the powerplay? Where are any shots on the powerplay? He just doesn't look like he wants to shoot right now. That needs to change. With due respect to Bert, I want Datsyuk to look for Bert less and to be selfish more. Even if that means Bert's production goes down and the bashing resumes -- fine. We need Pavel right now.

On the subject of selfishness, I think I know what's wrong with Nick Lidstrom, and Brian Rafalski by this same token. Be more selfish. I think both of them are relying too much on that patented intentionally wide shot. Playing it safe is great -- and Nick's pretty much made his career on it. But sometimes you just have to wire the puck at the net even if there are defenders in the lane. Nothing like a quadruple deflection goal, right? I'm noticing that Lidstrom has recently started to again go deep with the puck in the offensive zone, but he just appears so out of his element. He used to just throw the puck at the net and get all kinds of crazy bounces. Now when he's doing it he takes it all the way around the net... and then nothing happens.

I blame that stupid floating orb for taking the Wings out of their game in overtime. How lame was that?

That's it. One more game for 2009 and it can't come soon enough.

Yup, another one of these posts again. The Obstructed View podcast is still up and running and this week I was asked to participate along with Tyler from The Triple Deke and Kris from Snipe Snipe, Dangle Dangle alongside our award-winning* host Chris from Motown Wings.

Some Bertuzzi chatter, Howard chatter, and hockey fan New Year's resolutions. Check it out.

* - someday.

Note to self: Get a real mic so people can actually understand everything you're saying.

I meant to do this last night, but I decided that I should live up to my promise on putting together a preview for the World Juniors, which started yesterday. Unfortunately, after I wrote the first two team previews I realized I was spending way too much time on it, and it was late, so sadly I abandoned it. Sorry. Anyone who is watching the tournament and is looking for a few guys to focus on can let me know, and I'll give you some names. But I'm way too geeked for this tournament, so I was getting a little carried away with breaking down each team.

In the meantime, BAM:

The gift that keeps on giving.. nightmares.

This will be a short recap, because I recorded the podcast today for The Obstructed View and discussed a lot of the hot topics, but I figured since I attended the game I'd put up some thoughts here as well.

I'm wondering when Todd Bertuzzi's going to get the credit he deserves. Obviously, no one's saying he's useless anymore, and no one doubts he's not the hottest goal scorer right now. But he's getting a lot of "I hate to say it, but he's playing well." Why? Why do you hate that a Red Wing is playing well? Would you have preferred a third shutout? That's the kind of stuff I don't like reading, because it feeds into my theory (which was denied by everyone) that the people who think he's not playing well are the people that have a personal issue with him. He's finally comfortable in the offensive zone, meaning he's not trying to do too much -- and it's working for him. But plenty more on him coming on the podcast.

The Joe was rocking last night, pretty full house for a game against the almighty Blue Jackets. One thing that deserves mentioning is the Joe did an awful job showing different angles on that disallowed goal. They only showed a side angle, a pretty blurry and zoomed out one at that. Not sure if it was a shadow or what, but I can guarantee you 100% it looked like it was in. I had no idea it hit both posts until I got home and watched highlights. So that could be why everyone was booing so loudly, and not because they're idiots (as I would have probably suggested were I watching that game at home).

I sat in front a row of drunks who were coaching the team from the stands "clear it clear it! pass it around! shoot!" etc. Seriously, this was the conversation on Derek Meech at the beginning of his shift.

Man: Meech -- he's good.
Woman: Yeah, Meech! I like him. He's going to be really good.
Man: Yeah, I like Meech (seriously, these people just repeated themselves all night)
Woman: Yeah... *pause* What number is he?
Man: I don't know, I think that's him, #14.

*30 seconds later, Meech has his moment and Columbus scores*

Me: Meech is great.

They also had a great debate before the game to what the octopus meant. The male said it was because back in the Original Six, they only played eight games in a season. Surprisingly, they got even stupider when they decided it was because the playoffs are a best-of-seven, "and one year, Detroit did it in eight." My brain hurts typing that.

Anywho, more on that game later, and Columbus tomorrow. But for now, I wanted to update on Detroit's three prospects at the WJC:

Tomas Tatar: Didn't hit the scoresheet in a 7-3 loss to the US, but was definitely noticeable. He had a shift where he retained possession of the puck for about 20 seconds, just ragging the puck around the zone. Had probably three good shots. Slovakia definitely isn't as good as last year, so it's all on him to produce offense.

Brian Lashoff: In the WJC, you can dress seven defensemen, and Lashoff looks to be the seventh. He didn't play much, but he should be. The US defense is pretty sketchy, most of them are offensive types, Lashoff is the only one who knows to get the puck out of the zone. He had one of the biggest hits in the game when he rocked a Slovak forward with a high hit that probably should have been called (especially in international hockey) for contact to the head.

Andrej Nestrasil: Very impressed. I wasn't sure if he was going to make it because I couldn't even find the Czech Republic's final roster. But apparently they're pretty bad (10-1 loss to Sweden) and Nestrasil was the only Czech that stood out in a good way. Played point on the powerplay, and really dictated the pace of it. He was clearly the go to guy on the breakout as well, as he was allowed to carry the puck up the ice a lot. Not too many quality chances, but he'll score in this tournament. Looks like a much better skater than he was when I sawh im last season.

In other news...Mattias Ritola was called back up after yesterday's game, and nobody knew why because we thought everyone was healthy. Turns out that, for once, that is the case, as nobody is hurt. Ville Leino is going to sit, hopefully for a long time, and Ritola's going to get a shot to make an impression.

A quick prospect note before the Blackhawks game today, as both of these players were mentioned in my recent prospect rankings, but both suffered some disappointment today.

Max Nicastro was the final cut (that's a .doc file) on the blueline for the United States WJC club. Disappointment, but a good run. Nicastro was not on the summer evaluation list of roughtly 20 defensemen, but he played his way on after a strong start with Boston University this season. He made the final eight, but was let go after yesterday's exhibition against the Czech Republic. Brian Lashoff ended up making the team, and like Nicastro he was not originally on the summer roster. Lashoff has an opportunity to have a huge tournament, as he was partnered in the exhibition games with the consensus #1 defenseman for the 2010 draft, Cam Fowler.. soon to be known as Farmington Hills-native Cam Fowler, once Ken Daniels gets a hold of him.

Lashoff gives Detroit two guaranteed prospects at the WJC. Tomas Tatar is going to star for Slovakia, who just lost to the CIS's University of Saskatchewan yesterday (not too uncommon, it's a u-20 team against a team of 20-25 year olds). Andrej Nestrasil is still at the Czech Republic's camp -- unsure of his chances at making the roster. Expect some kind of team-by-team preview as rosters are finalized. The tournament starts on December 26, with the US taking on Slovakia right off the bat.

Also, Belarus was the first country to release an Olympic roster, and the Griffins' Sergei Kolosov was not on the roster as many expected. Belarus named eight defensemen, including two players younger than Kolosov. There are four NHLers on the roster, but most of the team comes from the KHL, so maybe Belarus just overlooked Kolosov because of his level of competition. A shame, because he's performed well for them in past international competition.

Sidenote: Hello old friend? Dave Lewis is Belarus' assistant coach for the Olympics. I was wondering where he'd been lately.

The 2009 mid-season edition of Prospect Rankings is up and available for your viewing. Click Prospect Rankings at the top of the page to see ranking archives, as well as the full list, #1 to #38. To see just the second half of the rankings, click here.

Enjoy. Thoughts are always appreciated.

I don't plan to write about this every week, but I want to make sure as many people as possible are aware of the great effort put forth by the Wings' bloggers each week to put together a dedicated Red Wings podcast, called The Obstructed View. Every week, Chris from Motown Wings sits down with a panel of bloggers who then hash out the week's stories and issues, and I've been pleasently surprised in the first two episodes with the quality of the production (not that I thought it would suck, but seriously, this is good). This week brought together The Chief (who is every bit as entertaining as you'd expect), George (who is every bit as wise and subtly hilarious as you'd expect), and Jess (who is every bit as quick-witted and proudly obscene yet knowledgable as you'd expect) and it sounds great. Check out TOV for the listen, it's long (around 75 minutes) but it's not at all dull and it flows wonderfully.

I'll be on next week with Matt from On the Wings and Tyler from The Triple Deke. Two of the first three Wings' blogs I actually read regularly, so I'm really pumped and honored to be able to sit down with those guys. Keep an eye out for that, I'm sure I'll keep plugging the hell out of it.

On the topic of how great the Red Wings' community is, if you're unaware of the effort going out at Abel to Yzerman right now, I wanted to direct your attention to the new campaign: Herm to Hockeytown. I've been really impressed with the effort of the community over there (which is to say the entire Red Wings online contingent, because the majority of regulars over at A2Y frequent other blogs as well, including this one, and I don't think a Red Wings blogger out there doesn't have A2Y in their RSS feed) in helping a fellow Wings' fan out. I've been so impressed, in fact, that I've neglected to mention it entirely over here, so I want to rectifiy that.

Guilherme from Red Wings Brasil,who's commented over here a handful of times, has never seen a Wings game or even met a Red Wings' fan. As a native Michigander who hasn't even left the state in.. I don't even want to think about how long, that's an absurd thought to me. Every person I meet up here I usually just assume is a Red Wings' fan and I'm always impressed with the number that watch the Wings regularly. I can't imagine what life would be like without the Red Wings (I don't even remember what I did the lockout year, I think I blocked it out), so I think it's imperative that Guilherme see a Wings' game.

So the citizens of A2Y have pooled money and resources (including housing from Osrt, also someone who's commented here before) to fly Guilherme from Brazil to Detroit to catch a Wings game. The goal was $1,000 for airfare and tickets, and they reached that in just 30 hours. After realizing it was going to take more than that for a plane ticket and all that, they decided to uncap the limit and donate any excess money to the Children's Hospital of Michigan. So not only is it a worthy cause in helping a Wings' fan out, it's a great cause in general for helping kids in need.

Head over to A2Y if you want to chip in, I really think it's a great idea. It looks like they've targeted the March 26 game (a fine date in Red Wings' history) but for now they're just rallying funds to make this all happen.

Great job, everyone, and keep it up.

About time, right?

BDS has moved and changed and completely revamped and shuffled, so I figure there are some new readers out there who might not understand this. A brief introduction -- something I love to do, and part of the reason I started this blog (felt prospect info was too scattered) is track the Wings' prospects. It's a whole element of hockey that makes the game that much more fascinating to me. I love the Wings and the NHL, sure, but just knowing there's this whole other world out there -- the world of the AHL, ECHL, OHL, WHL, QMJHL, NCAA, and an infinite combination of *HL out there, is just the best thing ever for me. When there's no NHL for me, I like to read up (and watch, when I can) players that Detroit has drafted -- because I want a head start on knowing these players if and when they eventually make the Red Wings. Most of you are probably aware that I write a weekly update on prospects for Winging it in Motown, and I hope that has helped you to take an interest in prospects as well, because I'm aware it's not everyone's favorite thing.

Something I like to do here is take a few hours and rank all of Detroit's prospects in order of how I value them. It's nothing concrete, and I guarantee the list would be different every week if I ranked them weekly, but I like doing it for a couple reasons. First, I think it's a great way to pump out the most valuable information about a prospect in a paragraph or so -- for those out there who'd like to follow, but don't need a week-to-week update on how many points this guy and that guy had. Secondly, I like to make these lists and review them years later to see just how good of a judge the wannabe-scout in me is at assessing talent. Trust me, before I had a blog I had lists saved on my hard drive of me just doing this for my own amusement. Sad, right?

The last edition of Prospect Rankings was the pre-season edition I did in August. You can click that fine-lookin' red text to get to those, where you'll find the archive of rankings I did on the old page. If you're into this, I'd at least recommend looking at the pre-season ones to get a good sense of who's really going above and beyond and who isn't.

Generally I like to break this up as it's a lot of reading and it probably isn't too fun to go through in one sitting. As it happens, Detroit has 38 prospects currently, so what better way to break it up than in sections of 19. The perfect number. And to make it even more of a journey, we're starting at #19 and working our way up to the best prospect. Think you know who it is? Here's a hint. It was Justin Abdelkader last time around, but I've officially graduated him as he is a full-time NHL player currently, so it's a player who hasn't been at #1 before. On that note, Abdelkader is removed, and Nils Backstrom (the 39th and last ranked player last time around) was outright released, so those are the two missing from last time. New is Willie Coetzee, who signed just weeks after I put out that last edition.

To preface these rankings, I have to say: this is the best system Detroit has had since I've started following prospects (early '00s). Detroit didn't always have an AHL team, and when they did they didn't make this kind of use of it. Right now, Grand Rapids is the only road to Detroit, so many top prospects are there currently. It's never had more prospects than it does right now, so there's no precedence for what's going to happen to guys if they turn 23, 24, 25, and Detroit just has no room for them. They might let some go, might lose a few to waivers (Kyle Quincey), might move some in trades. But many of the top guys have been in the system since 2004, 2005ish, and most have been consistently getting better. However, Detroit just keeps pumping in more and more talent. You'd think a team with five rookies would be hurting depth-wise, but things have never looked better. You'll see what I mean when you see where certain players are ranked.

Enough intro, here we go.