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Being the best thing in a crap-fest is a sure-fire recipe for superficial glory; I mean, Megan Mullally was nominated for seven Emmy Awards on "Will & Grace," right? The classic knock on the Detroit Red Wings is that they're annual President's Trophy contenders not because they're one of the best teams in hockey but because they're usually the only Norris Central Division team worth a damn. Those monster regular-season point totals look flimsy when the Wings fail to advance out of the Western Conference, as they have in the three years prior to and the four seasons following their last Stanley Cup.

It's a theory I've espoused myself over the years and an ideology some might be tempted to swallow again this season, as the Wings were 25-6-3 (53 points) entering Thursday night's divisional tilt in St. Louis. It's no secret that the Central's a tougher go this season -- thanks for joining the party, Blackhawks and Blues. A little less publicized is that, evidently, the rest of the NHL has gotten easier for Detroit, based on its out-of-division record:

20-1-1

I had a bit of a WTF moment when "Boomer" Gordon let that stat drop on XM Home Ice tonight, but it's true: Detroit's lone blemishes outside the Central were a 6-3 loss at Anaheim on Oct. 15 and a 4-3 shootout loss against Edmonton on Dec. 13. It's a stunning mark -- Ottawa, for example, was 12-5-3 outside of its division entering tonight's action. As Jamie Samuelsen wrote on his Detroit Free Press blog, the "fool's good" in the Red Wings' regular-season record is gone. Detroit's sterling record is legit.