On the Eighth Day of Christmas, the Red Wings Gave to Me...

As kids (and maybe some adults, I'm not trying to crush any dreams here) eagerly await the gifts provided by a jolly fat guy in a red-and-white suit, I thought of another group of guys in red and white who could make my Christmas especially joyous.

From Dec. 14 to Dec. 25, I will mimic the pattern of the "12 Days of Christmas" song by asking for one thing on the first day, two things on the next day, and so on until Christmas.

But, as this is the season of giving, I'd love for all of you to give me your thoughts on what you'd like from the Red Wings for Christmas, so please, post away!

OK, so even though it has eight tentacles, and this is the eighth day of Christmas, I'm not hoping for Eight Legs on the Ice. I just couldn't think of a better picture to use.

Although, I can't remember the last time a cephalopod was tossed onto the JLA ice, so, please, somebody do it Wednesday. We might not get our chance in the play-offs.

Sometimes, the gifts you want most are the exact things you had before. Something you lost, something that broke, something you gave a way and regretted it later.

Yeah, today's gift is all of those things.

Eighth Seed Position in the West

With last night's loss to Chicago, the Wings' tenuous grasp on the eighth seed in the West was broken.

As the mid-way point of the season is rapidly approaching, it looks as if hoping for anything more than an eighth-place finish come April would be foolhardy.

Though Detroit's record to date can be largely attributed to their unprecedented pile of injured players, the hodgepodge lineup that will take the ice over the next few weeks has proved that they are capable of digging deep to get wins.

They'll need to prove it again and again if they and we have any hope of a shot at the play-offs.

Looking ahead to the return of injured players will not get you wins; in fact, it will almost guarantee losses.

The 20 guys who take the ice on any given night are the Detroit Red Wings.

These are the guys I'm asking to gift us all something we just had but lost. We had eighth seed in the West, but broke our grip, and gave it away.

...seven points for Ville Leino, six straight games without an injury, five players clicking on the power play, four wins in a row, three solid periods of hockey every game, two defensemen scoring, and a dominating performance by Pavel Datsyuk!