Not much to say as the Red Wings pretty much rolled over today.

The only thing I found more disturbing than the result was the flat out cheerleaders in the announcers booth for the Bettman Penguins.   Makes Jack Edwards of Boston seem non-partisan.   

Perron and Lalonde post game via the Detroit Free Press,

from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

"That was pretty impressive," said Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde, who replayed a conversation with assistant coach Alex Tanguay between periods. "After his (Crosby's) second goal, Alex Tanguay, and Alex has been around a lot, played over 1,000 games, and his exact quote was 'Sidney wants to get in the playoffs'.

"He was pretty darn good."

Perron spent part of two seasons in Pittsburgh and got to know Crosby, and the Penguins' Hall of Fame core including Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. Perron saw these types of games before, with Crosby taking charge in a crucial situation.

"Incredibly impressive performance that he puts up at the right time," Perron said. "Those two goals, the power play shot we had a good look on the bench and he puts it in a good spot in the net where (goaltender Ville) Husso is screened and can't see the puck.

"I've seen it from the other bench. He's just a great guy, and he keeps working at his game. I ran into him at the All-Star break, we were at the same hotel and got to spend some time with him, he just keeps working at it. He wants to keep getting better and that's kind of what drives me when you see those guys do it and why not do the same thing?"

Pius Suter scored for the Wings (35-34-10), who couldn't muster the type of offense they've been able to generate recently (five or more goals three consecutive games). Husso stopped 23 shots.

"It's a lesson learned," Lalonde said. "There were some stretches we played pretty well, we had a real good start. But there were some growth mistakes.

"It's why I like these games. That is a team fighting for their playoff lives and they played a real good game. We had flashes of being good, but just some of our egregious mistakes ended up on the wrong players' sticks."

read on

from Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now,

David Perron believes he was probably the last guy in the room to accept that the Detroit Red Wings were not going to be in the playoffs.

He has 10 different playoff runs and 104 playoff games on his resume.

I think even before the (NHL trade) deadline I kept telling Newsy (Lalonde) if we go 9-2, or if we go 9-3 before the deadline, maybe things are going to be different. And we almost went there, really. We almost did that. But then management made the decision they have to make for this group long term and we understand that certainly but its not something that I wanted to admit personally.

Perron said he has had a difficult time dealing with the idea that he wont be playing this spring.

Ive been battling with that a little bit mentally the last 3-4 weeks, Perron said, adding I really felt like all those years I had a chance to win the Cup. Its a little bit different this year. Its gonna be different.

Lalonde said he appreciates having a veteran with high expectations.

Just for your culture, Lalonde said. Your growth going forward. Obviously its a disappointing loss, were 0-1-1 in our last two, but we ran off a 4-1 stretch at this time of year with not a whole lot to play for. I think he was one of the guys that drove that, he kept going and kept on the gas, obviously with his offense and the points he produced. Very important going forward and again.

continue for more on the Wings...

Sorry you're experiencing even more health issues, Paul. It seems like your year has mirrored the Wings' year one step forward and two steps back at times. I hope you get good news (or at least good advice) on Monday

Hope you check out OK when you see the doctor next week Paul.