Nick Lidstrom looked like a young fawn meeting a slippery environment for the first time. He couldn’t rise to his feet, looked dazed and confused as if he hadn’t been in this situation before.

Come to think of it, he hasn’t been in that situation before. For the amount of ice time Lidstrom sees, you would think he takes his fair amount of big hits. But that is what makes Nick different. He avoids direct hits, that is just the way it has been.

Monday night, Ian Laperriere of the Colorado Avalanche deliverd a hard hit on Nick, and hockey fans witnessed Lidstrom in a very unfamiliar position.

Nick doesn’t get hit hard. Nick is smart, always a step ahead of the play. This time, Nick was not the Lidstrom we know. He didn’t bounce back up, skate to the bench and was not on the ice for his next shift. He wasn’t even on the bench. Time to chase down the status of Nick.

Versus tells us he has a knee injury, the Wings’ radio network informs us he has a slight knee injury. More Internet reports from the Wings’ beat writers filter in. No concussion, watching the game from the dressing room, wanted to come back and play but being held out as a precaution.

The post-game reports start. Mike Babcock tells us; “He’s got something mild in the inside of his knee.” We are looking at 7-10 days before Lidstrom returns to the ice. Are we?

With the trade deadline fast approaching, the Wings are not going to tip their hand, especially when it comes to the best defenseman in the world. So we must wait and wait, we will all feel much better when No. 5 is on the ice, upright, thinking one step ahead of everyone else. Until then, all we want to do is remove the picture from our minds of Nick trying to get up off the ice.

Same names, different day

Sundin, Hossa, Boyle, Blake, the names go on and on. We read and hear the same names every day, traded, not traded, NTC, waiving NTC, waving good-bye. Won’t leave, could leave, will be forced to leave.

As Phil Coffey of NHL.com recently wrote, there is a difference between trade talk and trade rumors. I want the talk, not the rumors.

Somebody start supplying the real trade talk, I will welcome you with open arms. The trade rumors guys, well, go back to your fantasy league, because that is where it belongs.

Here is the difference — Ovechkin close to being traded to Nashville = rumor! Stillman and Commodore from Carolina about to be traded for Corvo and Eaves = talk, which by the way, was never mentioned in the trade rumor world, that is of course, until it happened.

More trade talk = welcomed, more trade rumors = go away!

Start remembering that lost point!

A team will miss the playoffs this season by a single point. Not a prediction, but there is a very good chance it will happen. The fans of that team will reflect back on the regular season, trying to find that lost point. Was it in October, was it in early January, whenever it was, every team has lost a point somewhere during the season, but that one point will soon be magnified, and just may cost your team a playoff spot.

The coaches know it, the players know it, most fans even know it, but until your team misses the playoffs by one point, well, it really hasn’t happened — yet.

But there is a way to get back that point, maybe even two. At this time of the year, a team that is almost assured of making the playoffs, seems to be in cruise mode (see Detroit and Ottawa as examples). Now is the time to gain that point back, come hard, come strong and the object of the game from now until the regular season ends, is to grab as many points as you can. Time is fading, but you can recoup the lost point from earlier in the year.

“Get the points now” should be the battle cry for all teams fighting for a playoff spot. Believe me, it sure beats going through the schedule and trying to find that lost point while sitting at home, watching the other teams in the playoffs.