The big new is that Leino has been traded to Philadelphia for a 5th round pick (yikes) and defenseman Ole-Kristian Tollefsen.  And apparently OKT has already been waived and will be headed to GR if no one claims him.  Interesting that Holland picked up another defenseman, which is not exactly what they need right now.  I mean, they don’t need anything with Franzen and hopefully Lilja coming back, but McLeod wonders if he could challenge Meech and/or Lebda for a spot on the team.  He’s only played 18 games this season, due to an injured MCL.

Back to Leino, my opinion is good riddance.  We’ve discussed Leino to death on TOV, and I’m perfectly happy to have him gone, and even more thrilled that we didn’t dump him for free.  Philadelphia can deal with him.  Maybe he’ll blossom into the player we all thought he had the potential to be in Philly–sometimes it just takes a different environment or coach, or maybe he’ll be as spectacular of a failure with the Flyers as he was in Detroit.  Here’s what Leino had to say about the trade via the Flyers’ website:

“Sometimes things don’t go as you plan it with your team,” said Leino. “The trade happened, and I am happy to be going to a good team like Philadelphia. I have heard a lot of good things about Philly and I am looking forward to playing and proving myself to Philadelphia. I am pretty happy about this trade.

“I consider myself a skilled player. My talent is more on the offensive side of the rink, but I would like to consider myself as a contributor in the defensive zone, too. I am hoping to produce some offense and help the team get some points and win games.”

So the Wings are ready to get Johan Franzen back, which is the single greatest sentence I’ve typed all season to this point.  Andreas Lilja also says he feels great after playing 2 games in Grand Rapids, and while he’ll likely play a few more, Holland will have to do some shuffling with the roster again in order to make room for him.

Onto the Kings.

They’re on an 8 game winning streak, having ripped it up on their road trip, and continue to be hot.  I’m tired of saying how important these games are for the Wings, but they are.  Calgary is 2 points ahead of Detroit and LA is 9 ahead so a regulation win would be huge.  The Wings need to channel the play they had in San Jose (with the exception of the first period) and just bring it.  Unfortunately Niklas Kronwall is still out with his tweaked knee.

Jimmy Howard is in net again, I believe.  I don’t have much to say other than Get. It. Done.

I’ll be watching some, and be intermittently on Twitter, but I’m having company over so probably not much from me in terms of a game wrap up.

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