Is that an understatement?

Apologies for the general slowness around here recently. Getting busy at school, still nursing a broken clavicle (real original, Brian Campbell), etc. But that's not really an excuse because if anything I've had more time recently. Time I've spent staring at the stuff I'm supposed to study. But I promised myself if I read half the stuff I needed to read tonight, I could take a writing break. You guys are lucky. Because I've come to care about you. A lot. And also not in that way. Well yeah, in that way a little.

Anyone who understands that reference would be very good friends with me.

Without further adieu, here are some bullets over the past two games. Sidenote, I could use some bullet-shaped bullet points.

• When's the last time that Detroit won seven out of their past ten games? And those wins? Ottawa, Smashville, Colorado, Chicago, Minnesota, Calgary, and Buffalo. And the one OTL in that span was to San Jose, who Detroit is 3-0-1 against on the year. Remind me again why Detroit isn't being lumped in with the other contenders?
• That said, perhaps my confidence is bad luck. It does seem like every time I get up on my Detroit pedestal they fall into a trap. And this weekend is the perfect trap scenario. Four days off on a west coast trip, for some strange reason. I can't even begin to tell you if that's good or bad because I've never seen it before. But apparently they're going to Kelowna (hello, Mitchell Callahan) and hopefully doing some team building exercises or something.
• Even worse than that, they've got a game against and Edmonton team with absolutely nothing to play for, and a backup goalie with absolutely no career wins. Wings fans are all too familiar with how Detroit performs in these "easy win" games, and it doesn't make anyone feel good with the prospect of a flat effort in that game leading to a game with Vancouver on Saturday.
• But optimism is the way to go. If the Wings can pull it together, they can really start to give themselves a bit of a cushion. Hopefully the team knows this.
• Mike Babcock's coaching ability has come into question a couple of times (not by anyone with any sense, I'd argue), even in the Olympics because the super-team choked a couple of times. But he got an absolutely depleted lineup to the brink of the playoffs, and now he's pushing a completely unmotivated lineup over the hump. He calls Zetterberg out, Zetterberg shows up. He calls the team out for thinking they're in the playoffs, and they rattle off three straight, huge wins. He shows faith in Howard, and Howard plays lights out when we need him to. If the media hadn't already awarded the Jack Adams to Dave Tippett (because it's not like Phoenix was loading up on good young players since the last time they made the playoffs, or anything), I'd say your candidate is right in Detroit.
• Onto players, one guy I've been hoping to see more out of is Drew Miller. As predicted, he showed up against Buffalo, hoping to get a goal on his brother. I don't know if anyone else caught it, but there was one point in the game where Drew slashed Ryan right on the back of the thigh as he was chasing a puck around the net. Apparently, there's another Miller on Calgary or something, because Miller was the team's best player in the first 40 minutes. Never thought I'd type that.
• Tomas Holmstrom scores goals, Tomas Holmstrom gets a new contract. Sounds fair to me.
• In defense of the recent Todd Bertuzzi hate, while I acknowledge he needs to pick it up again, he's not doing the spinning stuff, he's not throwing blind passes to the middle of the ice, and he's only taken three penalties in the past ten games. He's not doing anything well to make up for any of that, but I find it funny that he's back in the doghouse as if he isn't on a line with Miller (who I just gave respect to, but he doesn't have the Datsyuk-like vision to get Bert his chances) and Jason Williams.
• The team winning games doesn't make up for the fact that any time something bad happened, Brett Lebda and Andreas Lilja were on the ice. Lebda isn't playing nearly well enough to justify keeping Jonathan Ericsson out of the lineup. One's an impending UFA on a team with a couple too many defensemen slated for next season. The other's a youngster with big potential who might be able to prove himself in these big games that we're playing every game. But yeah, he hasn't yet..
• Rafalski, clutch.
• Franzen/Homer, clutch.
• 8th place and loving it.