He, like you in days gone by, would discuss where his favorite team, the Detroit Red Wings, stood amongst the entire league.

That's how we used to view it. We'd look at the league standings first and see how close we were to the President's Trophy. Then we'd take a look at the conference, inevitably where we'd sit in first, because that's where baby Jesus wanted us. On top of the West.

Oh, there were times we'd glance divisionally. Maybe St. Louis or Nashville was creeping. Usually that was just a fun look, the way a few of you look at porn on your lunch breaks. Just a glance and a smile.

As the years went on and midgets started tinkering, and salary caps became our reality and Ken Holland made decisions that wasted the later years of Pavel Datsyuk, Nick Lidstrom and Hank Zetterberg, we started worriedly looking at the Wild Card standings. Our lives had changed by then. Dramatically.

Now? We're back to looking at the league standings again. In a sick twist, we study them and we see that we are only 2 points out of the 1 spot but that 1 spot is far different than the one we coveted ten years ago.

Now the 1 means the worst and the worst could mean the best and the best pick (Hughes or even Kakko) could mean the acceleration of The Rebuild, made more palatable when engineered by the One and True GM, Steve Yzerman.

And this is your life now. Mike Green returns tonight. The Wings play better with Mike Green, so we should probably trade him tomorrow to make sure the Wings don't play all that well. I know you get what I'm swilling.

It's a Live Blog, bitches. And we are in a state of utter confusion.

LGRW but, you know, don't forget the goal, boys.