-- Something is obviously still wrong with Valtteri Filppula's right thumb. He took a faceoff early in the game, but wound up with only three draws total despite playing center on his line. Linemate Dan Cleary had nine faceoffs. Filppula is obviously good enough to play, but his full game isn't back yet. Shooting is a problem with a banged-up thumb and Filppula directed just one shot at net, missing the net. Other than Filppula, only Darren McCarty, Cory Emmerton and Mattias Ritola had only one shot attempt among Red Wing forwards.

-- It's fun to see the difference between a veteran and a newcomer. Zach Bogosian, the 18-year-old defenseman who was the third overall draft pick this summer, tried to lug the puck through the neutral zone against the Red Wings. Bogosian's move was to dump the puck one way around a defender and skate the other way. The defender was Jiri Hudler, however, and he didn't bite. Hudler scooped up the puck and headed the other way with Bogosian caught out of position.

-- Babcock on the roster decisions to be made on defense ... "We've got some huge decisions on the back end. ... Lils (Lilja) for me is a real solid 5-6 guy. Big body. Good penalty killer. Real important part of our team. When you go through it, the math doesn't work out." The interesting thing about that quote is that the question asked was about Jonathan Ericsson, not Lilja.

-- Babcock post-game quotes on Ville Leino ... "He's an NHL player in waiting. So it's up to him how soon he wants to skate, how soon he wants to go to the net, how soon he wants to play." ... and Darren Helm ... "I think Helmer's an NHL player. Every time he's on the ice, something happens. He's an elite skater. He's got good hockey sense. When he came here, we didn't know if he'd ever make plays. He makes plays consistently. He's good in the faceoff circle. He's good on the penalty-kill. We're going to have a hard time not having him here."
Sounds like Helm has the edge at the moment in the fight for a roster spot.