Correct me if I'm wrong but I believed I heard on the broadcast that Darren Helm's nickname is Danger. I know his line was on the ice, but I was talking so I didn't hear if it was Helm or Patrick Eaves. Makes much more sense to be Helm, and with that, the name Darren will never again be uttered on this blog.

I'm going bullet points on tonight's recap:

• There's just so much I can say about so many players, and I will for some of them, but I'd like to mention that the following players had their best games in a month or so, some of them for the season: Pavel Datsyuk, Valtteri Filppula, Danger Helm, Kris Draper, Patrick Eaves, Dan Cleary, Justin Abdelkader, Drew Miller, Doug Janik, Brad Stuart, and Mebdeech.
• I'm not sure if everyone picked up on this, but did anyone else notice they were unusually comfortable throughout the 3rd period? I think I know why that is... and I think it's called Jimmy Howard. I don't think with the Sharks' offense as lethal as it is I would have had the same feelings with Chris Osgood in net. For as much as the "luck" term was thrown around about his last game, I thought he looked super-composed tonight, hardly a terrifying moment. He's just has a few games this season where Detroit's gotten out to a lead and I've known that Howard wouldn't be giving it up, and it's been a while since I've had that feeling with a Detroit goaltender. Even Ken Daniels was talking the entire 3rd period as if Detroit was just going to coast their way to an easy win.
• I'm not sure why Abdelkader didn't play more after the first period he had, but I have two theories and their names are Brad May and Kirk Maltby. He was on the second line for a few shifts, but there just wasn't anyone playing poorly enough to get Abdelkader moved up.
  
• I know not everyone is with me that Datsyuk needs to be bringing it a little more. For the record, that's what I'm looking for from Pavel Datsyuk. Every. Night. Can you honestly say he has been?
• Henrik Zetterberg isn't on my list up there, but was definitely better in his second game back, which wasn't bad to begin with.
• Cleary shouldn't have gotten a five for that fight, he dropped one glove and just held on... Devin Setoguchi wouldn't have done that if the score wasn't 4-1, and Cleary knew it. He just let Setoguchi get his shots and and made sure that he came out on top, so he didn't get slammed on his shoulder I'd figure.
• Everyone's an optimist, everyone knows this team is going to turn it around.. so I've noticed a lot of people trying to pick games and say "this could be a turning point." Well, it's my turn this time, but I'm going to be more assertive: this game is a turning point. The best sixty-minute effort of the season. Against a red hot San Jose team. On their ice. After trailing in the first, a situation in which the Sharks had only lost once in regulation. This is going to be a huge shot of confidence for the team as injuries start to become less and less of an excuse. You could feel it on the bench, you could feel it in Dan Cleary's words after the game -- they are proud of this one.
  
• That said, there's two huge games coming up. Without actually looking up numbers, I can say pretty confidently that Detroit has a better record against teams ahead of them in the standings over teams behind them. We've got NY Islanders and Carolina this week, and things will go right back to depressing if Detroit doesn't take this effort into Long Island on Tuesday.
• Second best moment of the game (after Danger Helm) was Keating's interview with Jonathan Ericsson, which I'll describe since I know not everyone watches the Detroit broadcast, and those who do don't always watch Keating. Keating asks Ericsson about the progress of his knee, and Babcock is heard off camera saying "he's ready" as he walks past. Then a few questions later, the Wings are apparently gathered and ready to come out on the ice, someone (if I had to guess, Draper) says "woo, what a good lookin' kid" among other things I'm sure. Ericsson didn't look amused. Just thought that kind of light-heartedness on a struggling team is good to see, hope this helps the team to come together when it counts.
• On a strange note, I have to mention that for all the prospects I read about, San Jose snuck one by me with the John McCarthy that debuted for them today. I had no idea who that guy was, even though he played for Boston University. last year and I watched them at least a half-dozen times. San Jose is good at that -- finding players I've never heard of. It doesn't happen often, maybe a handful of times a year. Philadelphia and Los Angeles do it too.

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