Oh, Alberta

The Wings picked up two more victories over in the northwest this past week - and I slacked marvelously and am only mentioning them now.

I watched them take on the Oilers and wasn't sure if I should cheer or not for Valtteri Filppula's winning goal with 25 seconds left. I didn't take notes on the game because I wanted to watch my two favorite Western Conference teams without analyzing it (sometimes you just have to watch a game for fun, you know?), so I don't remember too many details. What does stick out is hearing that Ales Hemsky was hit three times in his last visit to the Joe (Um, boys, are we going to have to have a Talk?).

On Thursday they beat up the Flames, which I only saw the highlights of, as I was at the Grand Rapids Griffins game watching the Rochester Amerks smoke them. My friend was kind enough to let me turn on Sportsnet at her apartment afterward so I could check the scores, and I was happy to see Jiri Hudler notch another goal. It's too bad he's been demoted to the fourth line now that Johan Franzen's back.

The Griffins, meanwhile, lost their Thursday night game, thus bringing my record of seeing the AHL team I'm cheering for win to 0-5. Newsflash: Don't bring me to games to help cheer on your team. While the outcome wasn't so great, the game itself was a fun one, complete with some goals, some Ty Conklinesque goalie antics, and even a couple fights. The most important bits of knowledge to come from the evening, however, are:

• Kyle Quincey makes spectacular faces. He also thinks I'm a nut job for making it my goal to capture as many of these as I could, but folks, when you literally look right at me with this expression, you're asking for it.
  

• Jonathan Ericsson: the cuter, taller, less annoying, more defensey (do not question my made up words) version of Briere?

Forgive the linking to a Facebook album, but if you're interested in any of the rest of the pictures for the evening, you can check them out here. The game added to the Griffins' extremely puzzling record of 5-5...with every win coming on the road and every loss but one coming at home.

The Wings take on the Predators, and a fellow Central Division team, for the first time Wednesday, starting at 7:30. Meanwhile check out these Wings-related links:

• Matt speaks more on the Hudler/Franzen situation. It seems Jiri can't get a break, despite his new strong work ethic and the fact that he's producing at least as regularly as some others.

• Dave defends Detroit after Yahoo Sports' Ross McKeon takes the liberty of reassigning the banner of "Hockeytown" to...Minnesota. Not to beat a dead horse, but the insinuations that Hockeytown is dead just because every single game isn't selling out are getting a little ridiculous.

• Christy has a thought-provoking take on an appalling opinion piece belittling the contributions of bloggers to the world of sports. Wow, seriously? I'm far from claiming I'm the world's best and most provocative writer, but I promise I've found glaring errors in places that are supposed to be far more "professional" than my little corner of the internet. The most offensive bit?
  

"Journalism employs trained professionals. We actually have to go to school for this stuff. We take our jobs seriously. There are rules and standards that we are beholden to. There are ethics involved. We actually talk to, in person, the people we write about."

I don't even know where to begin.

Okay folks, time to brave the wind and stormy weather - in the meantime, GO WINGS.