Red Wings vs. Sharks GP...

1. Are the Wings going to show up tomorrow, or is Jimmy going to be standing alone again?
2. What kind of impact will Homer’s return have on the offense?
3. Much has been made of the Wings’ lack of killer instinct this season. Blown chances, sitting back on leads, lack of intensity, you name it… Can the Wings for once look like a team that knows what it’s doing?
4. Two games ago, the problem was the defense. On Sunday, it was the offense. What part of their game is going to give us fits against San Jose?
5. The powerplay has been looking more functional lately, but it’s still not converting as regularly as we would like. While they boys are able to establish control and cycle in the zone, but the pucks just aren’t going in. Getting Homer back should help in that regard theoretically. Can they start to get that sorted out tonight?

LA just went on a 5-0 roadtrip and managed to pull away from the Wings. The Wings are on their own five-game trip right now. They’ve already dropped one point, but there’s absolutely no (logical) reason that they can’t win the rest of the games on the trip. If they’re serious about making the playoffs this year, now would be a really good time to show it.

On a non-hockey related note, because this is the most public forum to which I have easy access, I need to thank UofM Health Services. When I hurt my ankle last weekend, I was more worried about being able to pay for treatment than the actual injury. I somewhat grudgingly headed over to UHS (our free clinic for students), making the usual wisecracks about it being...well, UHS. They took x-rays there, but still couldn't tell if it was broken or not. The only way to know for sure was to do a CT scan, which I flat out told them I wouldn't/couldn't pay for. The next day, I got a call from their Managed Care department saying that they had found University funding to pay for me to have the scan done at the hospital here. The Rackham school here apparently runs an emergency medical fund for grad students, and while I hardly think my bum ankle qualifies as an emergency, I'm extremely grateful. Now that we know for sure that it's not broken, I can continue "cheating" by not using my crutches and not worry about making it worse. Anyway, the point of this story is that several people went out of their way last week to make sure that I got the best possible medical care, and they were really under no obligation to do so. Since I'll probably never meet any of them, thanking them here is the best that I can do. I've said it a million times before, but it really is great to be a Michigan Wolverine.

And now back to your regularly scheduled Red Wings nonsense...