Yes I moved it up two days. The Red Wings don’t play in that span so it doesn’t really matter. I needed to carve out some time for Lions talk ahead of Thanksgiving. Now, onto some vintage Probert from today’s game:

He added another assist in one of Detroit’s two games this week as well. It’s amazing, the man is taking over the city. Steve Yzerman is obviously the star, but Probert is the fan favorite. Sign him long term.

Speaking of long term options, defenseman Doug Houda, the Red Wings’ second-round pick from three years ago, got his first two games of the season in as Gilbert Delorme continues to sit out for an undisclosed reason. I’m not going to lie, Houda is an enormous liability. He went -2 today. I hope I’m wrong but he seems destined to be a a career journeyman, making as many rounds in Kalamazoo and Adirondack as he does in Los Angeles and Buffalo.

He’ll be one of those guys you look up on the internet 25 years from now and wonder, how the heck did he reach 561 NHL games? But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, he’s not helping the Red Wings now. Not many people on the back end are, especially the goaltending.

Glen Hanlon is trying to get back in the regular conversation, recording a shutout over Washington on Saturday. It wasn’t one of those he-only-faced-14-shots shutouts, either. Hanlon stopped 32-of-32 in a game the Red Wings needed him to be good. They beat a likely playoff team (to be fair, pretty much everybody is likely to make the playoffs), 1-0.

His counterpart, Greg Stefan, lost another game, dropping his record to an average 6-4-2. He gave three goals on just 19 shots. (Vancouver also scored an empty netter.)

As the goaltending world turns, the Red Wings follow. They’re just .500 (8-8-2) and in probably the tightest division in the league, Detroit is just four points ahead of the last-place Blues, who had looked terrible up until this point.

Eighteen games. Less than 25 percent of the season. A footprint in the snow that will be flurried over by the many continuous seasons that will come after this one.  But that’s how long it took for us to go from ‘Jimmy Who?’ to wishing Jimmy Howard wasn’t back to being four years old.

The Rangers look like they won’t make the playoffs. Maybe Houda, the aging Gerard Gallant, and that Adam Graves guy can yield the young goaltender over there, John Vanbiesbrouck. Something needs to be done if the Red Wings are going to contend for the title this season.

RED WINGS POINT LEADERS

Steve Yzerman, C: 23

Bob Prober, LW: 18

Gerard Gallant, LW: 14

Petr Klima, RW/LW: 10

Shawn Burr, LW/C: 9

Darren Veitch, D: 9

RED WINGS GOAL LEADERS

Steve Yzerman, C: 14

Petr Klima, RW/LW: 9

Bob Probert, LW: 7

Brent Ashton, LW: 6

Shawn Burr, LW/C: 5

RED WINGS ASSIST LEADERS

Bob Probert, LW: 11

Gerard Gallant, LW: 10

Steve Yzerman, C: 9

Darren Veitch, D: 9

Doug Halward, D: 8

GOALTENDING STATS

STANDINGS

FULL RED WINGS STATS