Blanked again. Shucks. Fifth time on the year. Fourth time at home. Third time in December. Second time back-to-back. First time I don't care. Merry Christmas?

It's a bummer, but I don't think too many fans were optimistic after Sunday. Some saw San Jose beating them at home last night as a plus, but Chicago still fired 47 shots on goal. Some quality goaltending by Cristobal Huet saw that they still got the loss despite only surrendering 14 shots. But that optimism was quickly wiped away as Brian Rafalski had the flu and couldn't go. Meaning Detroit's defensive corps consisted of a Nicklas Lidstrom who's only goal this season was a pass that hit a skate, Brad Stuart, who isn't a big point producer, and then the elite grouping of Brett Lebda, Derek Meech, Doug Janik, and Jakub Kindl. That's almost as bad as 2007-08 when Garrett Stafford had to suit up for two games. And it's not like the forward group was in better shape.

Let's break it down, then get on with our lives. After a rough week, here's where we stand:

• Neither goalie lost it for us.
• Justin Abdelkader seems to really step up for these types of games. The dozen or so hits he had this weekend and the way he buzzed around the net are good indicators that Abdelkader is one of those "clutch" players we hear so much about. He's probably going to score about a dozen huge, huge goals wearing the Winged Wheel. I like it.
• Neither Huet or Antti Niemi did anything to prove that Chicago's weakness still isn't goaltending. "Uh, Kyle, they each shut Detroit out." No, they each made about three good saves and then about 30 chip shots from impossible angles. Niemi was fighting those shots all night and got caught out of his net on several occasions.
  
• Penalty kill is competent.
• For the first time all season, Kirk Maltby seemed to actually get under Chicago's skin. Dustin Byfuglien, Patrick Sharp, Thuggy Kane, and Jonathan Toews each all had separate altercations with Maltby, culminating in Byfuglien and Toews each taking matching roughing minors with him. Four-on-four was not beneficial to Detroit given the current lack of talent on the club, but I'll take that all day in the playoffs. All four of those guys are considered "leaders," leading me to believe there is a leadership problem if Maltby is leading the list of targets to retaliate on. How many times did I just type lead?
  
• Valtteri Filppula and Brian Rafalski should be good to go for Saturday. Unless they actually aren't, which wouldn't surprise me at this point.
  
• Mattias Ritola was by far the best player on his line.
• Chicago media is proclaiming the Hawks superior and delivering all kinds of awesome bulletin board material.
  
• It's over.
• Nobody was hurt
• We play Columbus next.

BOO:

• Neither goalie won it for us.
• We're now 10th place, two points back of 8th, and six of 6th. Teams are starting to pull away.
• Pavel Datsyuk was not the team's best player in either game against Chicago.
• They didn't deserve to win, but Detroit didn't deserve to be shut out tonight. So many blown chances.
• Wings fans for overwhelmingly booing Hossa after whining about Penguins fans doing the same thing. Thought it would at least be scattered boos, but I haven't seen the Joe that worked up in a while. For that matter, I haven't seen the Joe look that full in a while. Hossa Hate Force must have wanted to be heard. Chalk it up to frustration, but I groaned when I heard the first boos. He left, get used to it, because he's going to be there for 12 years. I don't hate him as a person, I just hate him as a Hawk. Line of the night to Kenny Daniels: "Yeah, boo him, he only scored 40 goals for us."
  
• Nobody booed Tomas Kopecky.
• Mattias Ritola was by far the best player on his line.
• Our defense refuses to score, but they sure do love shooting. They're Samuelsson-esque in the way they infuriate me by passing up open lanes and then shooting when they have a pass.
  

• We're ten points behind Chicago now and they have a game in hand. Central Division: going, going, GONE.
• Nobody on the Wings is getting their flu shots. Either that or Rafalski's immune system sucks, because he always seems to pray to the porcelain god every time someone on the team gets the sniffles.
• Mattias Ritola was by far the best player on his line. Loved the way Maltby mixed it up after whistles, but what exactly were he and Brad May doing in between them?
• Second unit is excused, but the first powerplay unit features players (Meech is debatable) who actually should be on an NHL powerplay, but they spent the majority of their powerplays firing bullet passes across the neutral zone that were knee-high and completely ineffective.
• The second two periods were drastically different than the first. Yeah, we found success actually pressuring their defense (do you see what happens to Brian Campbell when you skate directly at him? Decks of cards sit back and say, "man, look at that guy fold." ... Awful pun) and hitting everything in sight, so it's probably a good idea to just stop doing that in the final 40.
• Pretty much every goal this week besides the Kane slapper was some combination of confusing goaltending and Wings' defenders fumbling all over themselves and running into each other.
  

But.. that's it? I suppose. Couldn't think of anything else truly awful, but I spent most of the past two games just thinking "please score please score please score" with no real concern for how badly Detroit was being outplayed. Just didn't want them to get blanked. But who knows.. If players can come back and stay healthy, those could be the kind of things that will pile up and light a fire under this team in the second half. It starts with Columbus. Good old 1-7-2 in their past ten Columbus, recipient of a 9-1 beatdown in the only other matchup this season. Couldn't think of a better way for this team to get it's act together.. hopefully.