By now I’m certain everyone’s heard the news that Zetterberg will be out a minimum of two weeks with a “slight shoulder separation” after getting decked by Mattias Ohlund Thursday.  I personally can’t imagine how any shoulder separation is slight, but at least he’s not out for extremely long term.

In good news though, looks like Darren Helm will be back in the lineup tomorrow in Dallas.  There had been comments made last night that Filppula was the closest to return, which caused brief panic that Helm was more injured than thought, having gone from basically DTD to possibly after Christmas.  But he says he’s “good enough to go.”

Lastly, Howard’s getting the start in Dallas and Osgood will be up in Chicago.  I said the other day that I didn’t have the faintest idea of how Babcock went about choosing his starters, but this announcement makes it a little clearer.  Unlike some others, I don’t believe that Jimmy’s taking over the number one spot, and the starter choices make that clear.  Osgood’s playing against Chicago, our biggest challenge and rival in the division, maybe the conference.  He’s still the go-to guy, the number one in Detroit.  It’s not uncommon for Red Wing netminders to split the load more evenly than say, in Calgary where Miikka Kiprusoff plays like 72 games a year.  In the past two years Osgood shared time with Hasek and Conklin, starting 40 and 44 games, respectively.  I recall Holland saying during the summer that they expected Howard (17 starts, 19 GP so far) to play about 30-35 games.  So it doesn’t surprise me anymore that Howard’s getting the bulk of the starts right now–if you want to call him the starter now, fine, but I wouldn’t label him as #1.  The kid’s never played a full NHL season before, and no one really knows how he’ll be doing further along in the year.  Osgood (17 starts, 17 GP) will get more calls towards the second half of the season to get himself on track for the playoffs.  And if we’re in, he’s the guy.  Unless Osgood positively implodes this season (and to do so more than last season would really be a feat) and Young James plays absolutely lights out, I cannot fathom any way possible in which Osgood is not the starter for the post-season.  And that’s how you define the number one goaltender.

I lied–that wasn’t the last thing.  This is a very cool 360 degree photo of Nick Lidstrom’s living room, all decorated for the holidays.  Of course the Perfect Human has a gorgeous house that looks like it should be in a interior design magazine.  Make sure to zoom out to see the whole thing.

Tweet