January Notes...

1. Tomas Holmstrom broke his foot. In practice. Doing something he’s done after every practice since dinosaurs walked the earth. Just when we thought the Wings were getting healthy.
2. Zetterberg and Cleary returned to the lineup on the same glorious day.
3. Jimmy Howard played the best game we’ve seen from a Red Wings goalie in years against the Kings.
4. The Wings went 6-5-4, which is pretty pathetic.
5. On the other hand, we got to enjoy a couple of mornings when we woke up to find the Wings in a playoff spot. A couple.
6. The Wings went to a shootout approximately 700 times. They won once. Again, pathetic. With shooters like the Eurotwins and Bertuzzi, there’s no excuse for not having a better record in the skills competition.
7. The Wings played their best game of the season against Chicago. It actually looked like they were a real hockey team for a while there.
8. In the Chicago shootout, Datsyuk and Bertuzzi did this. This is why I don’t understand why their record isn’t better in the shootout.
9. We had to endure NBC broadcasts twice. They were awful, not that that surprised anyone.
10. Herm to Hockeytown continued to evolve into the most epic gathering of Wings fans ever. Plans include a live TOV podcast, euchre tournament, and mandatory use of the phrase “Man Pocky.” Oh, and we’re going to watch the game too.
11. Niklas Kronwall returned from his Georges Laraque-induced knee injury.
12. Nick Lidstrom roared back to life offensively and gave hope to all of us Wings fans.
13. We started to debate who would stay in the lineup now that injured guys are returning. This was a new and exciting activity for those of us who had grown tired of debating the goalie controversy.
14. The Wings got screwed in the shootout against Dallas. Again, this is becoming predictable, particularly in games against the Stars.
15. Andreas Lilja finally got rid of his headaches and has a shot at returning to hockey. You can’t help but feel happy for the guy, even if you weren’t a fan of his before he broke his brain.
16. Jason Williams (Who?) came back from breaking his leg ages ago. The video of his injury still makes me cringe.
17. The team continued to baffle everyone with their inability or unwillingness to show up for games or make any meaningful push toward a playoff spot.
18. We’ve been teased with the idea of Johan Franzen returning in early February after a miraculously speedy recovery from his knee surgery.
19. I resorted to anxiously watching scoreboards from other games in hopes that other teams would do the Wings’ dirty work for them. It rarely worked out well.
20. Brad Stuart kept pulling pucks off of the goal line and saving goals. He seems to have a knack for that.
21. The Wings held Alex Ovechkin to zero shots and still managed to find a way to lose the game.
22. Patrick Eaves got into a fight. It was awesome. Brad May should take note.
23. Speaking of May, he and Leino continued to battle it out for a seat in the press box.
24. Ozzie ran his mouth about not getting enough playing time and annoyed everyone.
25. The powerplay continued to be pathetic. There’s no excuse for that now that guys have returned to the lineup. None at all.
26. The team continued to suffer from the same confidence issues that you would expect to encounter on a Girls U10 soccer team.
27. Abdelkader got sent back down to Grand Rapids to make room for the returning Jason Williams (Who?).
28. The TwitforTuzzi campaign was launched to achieve dual goals of raising more money for Children’s Hospital and embarrassing Petrella.
29. Patrick Eaves continued to endear himself to Wings fans everywhere. I don’t think there are many of us out there who aren’t hoping that he gets another deal during the offseason.
30. The Wings managed to get shut out for the seventh time this season.
31. Datsyuk started to awaken from his season-long slumber. He was playing classic Datsyukian hockey during the second half of the month.