Pledges and Motivation

In case you haven't heard, tonight is the final night for TPL's pledge drive for H2H2. This is your last chance to make an outrageous wager in the name of helping out the kids! Plus, for every $5 you donate, you get another entry to win one of the fabulous prizes being offered up, what more inspiration do you need? How about these pictures?

Kindl looks really worried in this one. Not sure why, but he does...

Rig looks very preoccupied. I think he's trying to figure out what to do without Raffy around to direct him.

And if those pictures don't inspire you, how about the prizes you could win? Here's just one of the many:

I'd post pictures of the donated bacon, but alas, I have none.

Jimmy and Jakub

As everyone and their uncles now know, Jimmy's been locked down for another two years and that's about it for news today. In light of that, here's some Jimmy from a few games when I remembered to bring my camera.

Here's to two more (official) years of Jimmy

Finally, I really wanted to make this one into a motivator but just couldn't work it out. So, I'll explain it instead. I'm nearly positive that's Hank in between Kindl and TPH and even more certain that Kindl is checking with Hank to see if he's matching Nick's movements correctly. You can tell he's concentrating on it because he's sticking out his tongue. Enjoy.

Random Pictures

I'm feeling a complete lack of creativity today, but felt like posting pictures anyways. What's that equal? Completely random picture post.

Let's start with one from my cell phone (left my camera at home) from the last home game against the Bruins. I'm up high enough that the players look like ants in that picture, haha.

Here's one from a little closer up against the Preds.

For hbff Natalie of The Scrappy Octopus, here's some Homer...

You can't tell from the picture, but Rusty's tapping his skate to the beat of the music they played during warmups.

Since I don't know when we'll see it again, here's Kindl on D.

And, finally, there's no real reason for this one except that Huds looks like a munchkin and that makes me laugh.

HOMER!!!

The goalies of the NHL begrudgingly extend a hearty "welcome back" to Tomas Holmstrom. This time I didn't have to rely on the internet, Homer himself told me at the signing yesterday that he would be on the ice today. He also told me his butt is not as big as this picture (a slight variation on an earlier motivator) makes it seem:

What's that you hear?

Oh yeah, it's the collective pads of about 58 goalies shaking in fear. Welcome back, Homer.

Pavel Returns to the Joe

Word on the street (and by street, I mean twitter) is that Pav is back. I'll be serving coffee to people who are completely unaware of the importance of what I'm missing, but I'm hoping the rest of you will be treated to some amazingly Datsyukian moves tonight.

And since the nice pictures of Rusty haven't gotten anything started, let's try a not so flattering one:

So take that. You know, as inspiration.

Donuts and Rusty

I'm starting a new feature today and I'm asking for your help. Rusty needs a goal and to inspire him (he reads this, right?) I'm going to post a picture of Mr. Salei in every pregame post until he gets one. This is where you guys come in- I have a decent amount of pictures of Rusty, but I'd be crazy to turn down help. If you have a good picture- particularly if it's one of Rusty making a weird face- and want to contribute it to the cause, send it to aneuieperspective [at] gmail [dot] com. You will absolutely get credit for anything you submit.

With that taken care of, let's get to the game tonight. Everyone knows the big question tonight- will Brodeur get distracted by the smell of Timbits? Will he leave his post to get some of those little bits of heaven? To further distract and tempt him, here's what he's up against tonight:

If they make me want to eat my computer screen, what chance does Brodeur have?

And to kick off the Rusty inspiration, here's one I took during the home opener. Let's hope it doesn't inspire him to break someone's fist with his face again.

Look Rusty, while I've got some nice shots of you, I've got a knack for catching strange faces. Think about it, do you really want those posted? I'll let you mull that over between now and the game.

Pregame: Wings vs Blackhawks

This first one isn't meant as a criticism, it's just what I came up with when I saw the picture. No hating of the guys in red and white allowed here (feel free to hate on anyone who adds black and yellow to that mix).

Now that Kindl has scored, it's time Rusty got one...

I wouldn't mind if Abby got one either.

Finally, I just like this picture, that's all.

Pregame: Wings vs Blues

So it's been a while since I've done a real pregame post and I decided some catch-up work was needed. First off, we have the traditional "I caught you making a face" motivator...

I was wondering if anyone else noticed during his brief time with us that Thomas McCollum has a moose holding a gun on the back of his helmet. Am I the only one who noticed?

And one last motivator, picture by me and caption by Jenn of HockeyBlogette.

Get your rest

So, with all the injuries right now, some of the team has been asked to step up more than they otherwise would have this season. In light of this, they might need a little more rest in between games... I'm fully in support of this:

...just be ready come game time, ok?

Raffy and BizNasty Return to the Joe

I have been counting down the days until Raffy was slated to come back...ok, not really since I wasn't sure of an exact date, but I have been waiting very impatiently for this day to come ever since it was announced that he was having knee issues. I have annoyed the people sitting around me with comments like "Raffy would have kept that onsides" or "UGH! Brian Rafalski you are not" and the most common one "I miss Raffy..." generally followed by an exaggerated frown thrown at my brother who proceeds to mock me. I know, it's kinda pathetic, but c'mon, that man is the king of keeping the puck in at the blue line and you all know it.

Ok, enough of that, time for pictures... I kinda stole this idea from someone else (don't know who) but in that one it was Raf expressing this opinion about Hank. Anyways, pretty sure that's not what's going on, but when do I ever fact check?

Not the direction I meant to take that picture, but I couldn't help it... anyways, here's a few more.

This one doesn't need explaining, it's pretty obvious when it was taken...

And one last one...

I know I mentioned BizNasty coming back to the Joe too, but I really don't want a picture of him in a Speedo on here, so we're just gonna leave him out, ok? Good.

Instead, how about a view of what happens after Pav decides to get in a fight?

Stuey's fight didn't seem to leave the same path of destruction...

Don't take that as a sign that I'm asking you to fight tonight, Abby, you can wait until I'm there to see it if you want...

Our Twins Can Take Your Twins Any Day

(Bro. Note: This was intended for a few hours ago. Unfortunately, the power went out and Sara had to leave for a previous engagement. I would torture you guys with my wit but Sara has a half decent entry for you guys. Enjoy.)

So the Wings are finishing off their Western Canada road trip tonight in Vancouver... Aside from Ken Daniel's favorite Livonia native (sounds wrong without the name after it, right? Ok, Ryan Kesler...feel better? Good.) Vancouver apparently has a set of twins. I'm told they're actually quite good and I suppose the fact that they are Swedish twins makes them even better. And to that I say: Our Euro Twins can kick your Swedish twin butts anywhere, any day. Since I'm not feeling overly creative just this minute (ie, not in the mood to make motivators) and am a bit rushed, I borrowed pictures from JennHo and Lizzle. Thanks ladies :)

You might notice a theme, these were all taken at training camp at pretty much the same time...

Here we have Hank showing Pav the cool logo on his skates. Pav is impressed.

And I'm pretty sure they're either making dinner plans, or discussing when to have the next meeting in their tree house.

Also, for those of you who haven't noticed, it's everyone's favorite hard-hitting lumberjack from a mining town's birthday today. Hopefully that means plenty of big hits and maybe a goal or two as a gift to himself. Here's a few (again, not mine) of Brad Stuart...

And with Homer...

And, since I do tend to take a few photos now and then, here's one of my own I managed to find.

Finally, if you haven't noticed (and if you haven't, kindly go read another blog) Abby is back in the lineup and certainly not playing like someone who belongs in the former haunt of Lebda and Leino. Consider yourself on notice, Huds.

That's Not What I Designed!

We need a better first period than we had on Thursday. Everyone knows this and if they didn't, I'm sure some other blog informed them of that fact before they got to mine. What those blogs don't have is a visual representation of what Babcock was thinking when he saw the plays on the ice...

Not to bash Helmer, he played hard on Thursday, but pictures like this make me laugh...

And, finally, instead of loss eye candy, here's what could be loosely interpreted as motivational eye candy. Look at the skates if you're not sure I'm right about who it is...

Wings vs Yotes

This is a bit of a rush job (when isn't it here?) so I'll get straight to it...

Mostly for hbff Natalie of The Scrappy Octopus, but partially because I recently read an article about how Aaron Downey made the Griffs do yoga because he believes his 10+ years of practicing it have kept him relatively injury-free, we have the following:

And, because it amuses me greatly, there's this...

Heading out for a physics test and the game :)

Mule's Back...

...get it?

The Wings fanbase breathed a collective sigh of relief when it was announced that Mule will be back today after that lame blow to the head... Seriously, who would want to hurt this guy?

Clearly he's just a big, stubborn softy, right?

Oops, sorry Mule...

...riiiight. Whatever that means...

(I need to start planning these things in advance)