My Team is Awesome.

I know, it's been a little while. A busy, ridiculous while.

But honestly, what else is there to say? How many times can we praise the Eurotwins' slick moves, rave about Osgood's awesome surprise success, revel in the massive secondary scoring output - and the list goes on? Last week the Red Wings finished out the first half of the season with a 4-1 win against the West's second place Dallas Stars that gave a franchise record 30 wins in 41 games. Since then, they've tacked on another 3-0 victory against the Stars and a (finally!) 3-1 win over the Blackhawks. Like those numbers? Here's some more.

• The Red Wings have a current total of 67 points in 43 games. Second place in the league is Ottawa (58 in 41), in the conference, San Jose (52 in 41), and in the division, St. Louis (45 in 39)

• The team's record against non-division opponents is 25-1-1. Um. Wow. The only losses to teams not in the Central Division are an early loss to Anaheim, and a shootout loss to Edmonton.
  

• Henrik Zetterberg is 7th in the league in points with 54, only 8 behind league leading Vinny Lecavelier - despite missing a few games in December/January. He also has 28 goals, fifth in the league.

• Pavel Datsyuk is 9th with 52 and has 36 assists, tied with Nick Lidstrom for fourth in the league.

• Speaking of Nick, he leads the league in +/- with 34 and is the only defenseman who in the top 30 in points.

• Meanwhile Chris Osgood leads the league in both GAA (1.68) and SV% (.932), and is fourth in wins with 19, which is pretty spectacular for a goalie who is essentially one half of a tandem.

Battle of Alberta noted the following stats about the Wings as well:

• Goals for per game: 1st in WC (2nd in NHL behind Ottawa)
• Goals against per game: 1st in WC (& 1st in NHL)
• PP%: 1st in WC (2nd in NHL behind MTL)
• PK%: 5th in WC at 86.4% (5th in NHL)
• Plus/minus: 1st in the NHL
• Shots for per game: 1st in WC by 4.0 (1st in NHL)
• Shots against per game: 1st in WC by 1.4 (1st in NHL)

The Wings are always expected to be a strong team, but this is over and above what anyone could have expected. Personally I'm absolutely grateful to be able to watch such an amazingly talent group of players and follow the success of an awesome organization like the Wings.

Maybe we will eventually have an off year. But this certainly isn't it. I'm happy to report I've decided to echo the success of my NHL team, and the current success of the namesake of my fantasy team. Maybe their success is rubbing off on my first place finish this week, or maybe I'm just balancing out Elly's run in the basement:


So how about a hand for Ty Conklin; 7-0-0 this season with a 1.99 GAA and a .939 SV% and named the NHL's 3rd star of the week.

And while we're at it, one for my boy Ales Hemsky for taking down Sheldon Souray and winning the Hot Off 2008.