from Adam Gretz of CBSSports,

As we head into the second half of the NHL season and get closer to the trade deadline and playoffs, you are going to start hearing an awful lot about the type of game teams need to play to win the Stanley Cup and the type of players they will need to acquire. It usually revolves around blocking shots, or toughness, or the need to play with "grit" and have the right amount of "jam" to get through the postseasonm because that is what winning teams do.

Grit. Jam. Block shots....

Let's take a look at the 20 teams that are either occupying a playoff spot as of Thursday or are within four points of a playoff spot.

Some interesting teams at the top. OK, Chicago and Pittsburgh make sense, and Nashville has one of the best records in the league, so it's not really a huge surprise to see the Predators doing the important things well.

But how about the Detroit Red Wings?

A team that has very quietly retooled and rebuilt in recent years (while still making the playoffs every season) and is still looking like it could cause some problems in the postseason. Nicklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski are no longer on the blue line. Tomas Holmstrom is gone. Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg are getting older. They have a lot of young, new faces on the roster. And through it all, Mike Babcock still has that team humming along like a machine...

The most shocking team near the top? Winnipeg. Easily.

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thanks to a KK member for the pointer