Ten days into February, the Central Division remains locked in a battle with the East's Atlantic Division for the toughest in hockey. Both divisions currently have four playoff teams (and one bottom-dweller). If the season ended today, The only reason the central would have teams in the 4-5-6 seeding is because of the rule that gives a top-three seed to division winners. This race is getting tighter than yours and my sphincter when we see Sam Gagner skating in on our third-string goalie on a 2-on-0 rush.

I know where I stand as far as this race goes and my confidence in Detroit to end the season at the top of the Central. Detroit is the most-complete team in the division right now. Top-to-bottom depth on offense and defense should be the difference-maker (provided the injury situation doesn't change that). I know that not all Wings fans share my confidence and far be it from me to speak for you. But we all know where we stand with this team by now.

But what about the other fanbases? Where do they stand as far as their confidence to win the Central? Are they as concerned with grabbing a home-seed as we are? Take the jump and I'll try to coalesce the thoughts (or in one fanbase's case, translate the grunts and snorts into language).

Continue reading this post »

Yeah, I said I was putting this one away for a while. Then this showed up in my inbox.

Just in case that's a bit hard to read:

Greetings J.J.,

My name is [redacted], I work with Dr. [redacted] at [redacted] in [redacted]. I am writing in regards to your blog wingingitinmotion which I have enjoyed reading for some time. You publish quality content (blah blah blah, please link to our site, blah blah)

I would like to thank all of you for reading Winging It In Motion for some time now.

The All-Star Game is now a distant memory, and Tuesday marks the second half of the Red Wings' march to their 12th Stanley Cup.

The first half was an interesting one, but the Wings have positioned themselves well to earn a top playoff seed in April. At the break, they sit in first place both in the Central Division and the Western Conference, but the competition for both is very fierce.

The Central Division has been an absolute force to date, dominating competition throughout the league. The top 4 teams in the Central all have at least 64 points, something only 3 other teams have accomplished so far. Should the Wings survive and win the division, they will have to battle with Vancouver and San Jose for the Western Conference title and home ice advantage throughout the playoffs.

The Wings certainly are very capable of earning both the division and conference crowns. How can they do it? What will we be looking for in the second half? Follow the jump for 5 of the most important questions facing the Wings.

Continue reading this post »

Remember folks, there's no such thing as a stupid question...

Ok, actually there is.

In series news, I'm going to be putting this one away until it feels natural to bust it back out. These are more fun when I come across them naturally. I don't really want to spend any more time actively searching the web for people to ridicule.

Taking a break from three straight days of little brother the basement-escaper to remind us all that there are some folks in Denver that still can't keep our names out of their mouths because they wish that they had what's starting to rekindle in the strongest division in hockey.

This one comes from Mile High Hockey, in a game thread where the Avalanche were taking on the fearsome Florida Panthers. This guy's first comment after Ryan O'Reilly fires a shot in overtime that Joe-say Three-or-Four lets squeak through him?

I love it. I love that the first place this fan of DESTROYER's second-favorite team goes is straight to assuming that Kenny Holland is sitting in a dark room somewhere listening to 'O Fortuna' and trying to finish off his brandy through tears of disgust that they took Landon Ferraro one pick ahead of Ryan O'Reilly (Detroit traded down from the 29th overall pick in 2009 to get picks 32 and 75: Ferraro and Andrej Nestrasil).

Let's clear this up. Ryan O'Reilly is having a good season. His 36 points would put him 4th in scoring on Detroit (he leads all Avalanche players). I'd love to have Ryan O'Reilly in my organization. BUT, if Ryan O'Reilly were in my organization, he'd have been in Grand Rapids since he was 18, not playing with a big club that has had no choice but to pluck youngsters and force them to develop by fire (while also burning through their years before they're eligible for UFA status).

I'm sure Kenny Holland absolutely despises himself for building an organization that doesn't have to rely on a 20-year old 2nd-rounder who'll escape to a contender the first chance he gets.

I'm working on something a bit more robust for later on, but for now, I bring you Tyler Atwood from Bluenote Zone and his "Throwdown Lowdown"

Here's the full text of the paragraph:

I really don’t know why I even bother to waste energy on this report for tonight’s opponent, the Detroit Red Wings. Nothing ever changes with these guys . . . they don’t fight, even when they really should, and while you can sugarcoat it with as hard a candy shell as you can find, it reeks of a team that chooses not only to not be physical, but not to stand up for themselves either. This may explain why the Wings tend to have dropped out of the playoffs in embarrassing fashion the last few years, but that’s neither here nor there. Despite seemingly not needing to cover this team, we HAVE covered this team a few times in the past (November 15th, December 6th, December 27th and December 31st). The Wings remain in dead last in the NHL with six fighting majors collected on the season. Their fight record is a bit less than robust, obviously, at 2-4-0.

There's something hilarious about watching a fan of a team that hasn't won a playoff GAME let alone a series since the lockout talk about how to actually succeed at that. Maybe Tyler can give us some pointers on how to solve the energy crisis or finally share the secrets of alchemy?

Short and sweet with this one. This guy absolutely loathes himself some Red Wings.

I know that's not much to get excited about , considering the pure gold of the last couple of days, but I want you to know.

That guy

Equals

This guy

Of course this would be from St. Louis Game Time. I could almost do an entire series just based on them alone. Fortunately, I don't hate myself enough to read all of their comments. This one was too good to pass up though.