Bashing Ville Leino has become a regular affair these days, and for good reason: 4 goals, 3 assists for 7 points and a minus-9.  That's a disgusting stat line from a guy slated to come in and contribute this season. Ville has been a flat-out disappointment, no two ways about it.

It's worth asking though, if the heart of the Leino Dilemma is more his production or our expectations.   He jumped in last year and,  with limited minutes, looked like a guy who could develop into a night in, night out contributor.  We openly speculated over at The Production Line that while Ville wouldn't singlehandedly erase the memory of Hossa's 40 goals, he might help us get past noted orator Mikael Samuelsson and Jet Setting Scuttles.

This case of inflated expectations vs reality reminds me of about 1,000 blind dates I've been on.  One of your friends...typically a girl...calls you up with a HOT TIP on this chick that you ABSOLUTELY have to take out.  She's hot.  Smart.  Funny.  Speaks English.  You figure with at roster like that you might need to hit up Jared on the way to the first encounter.  Then the girl shows up and the buildup, the mental image...it falls apart.  You realize that "hot" really meant "she has pretty eyes"...but a thick set of legs; and yes, while she IS a cunning linguist, she uses the entire date to call out your lack of compassion for human rights.  She doesn't understand why you write a hockey blog.  I digress. 

The point here is that it's not that the girl is inherently a loser, it's just that she was oversold.  She's a prospect, not a regular.  She needs some time to work on her game...hit the gym a little more...unwind from the work stress.  If she'd been labeled accordingly from the start, this gap between expectations and delivery wouldn't exist, or at least it would have been a LOT smaller.  

Our first instinct is to look at Ville's 7 points, declare him a bust, and continue counting down the days before Homer, Mule and Jason Vanilla (HT: Baroque) return.  The problem is that Wings management sees something here and they keep giving The Villain chances to step up. Our experiences with Jimmy Howard this season demonstrate just how dumb it is to discount the braintrust.  Back in October all we could talk about was what a rebound machine he was.  NHL goaltender?  Maybe down in Florida.  Bring in Larsson!  We all know how that turned out. 

Despite his underwhelming production, Babcock and company are sticking with Ville.  He started against Washington and Minnesota.  He's running with the PP2.  He's getting his chances in the shootout.  Something's going on here.  Trouble...conspiracy...they're afoot.  There are conversations with Jimmy D, Kenny Holland, Stevie and Babcock, where someone is making the case for why he deserves to be on the ice.  Three theories for what's being said in that dark, smoke-filled room after the jump...

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Leveraging our unlimited resources here at WIM, we've procured the tapes to next season's opening episode of the popular FOX program, 24.  Details after the jump. 

(cue the ticking clock music)

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(Editor's note: I'd like to welcome Rob Discher as a new author on WIM, thus completing The Production Line's move for blog domination. Rob's got some great stuff and I'm happy to welcome him on board.)

Does anyone else feel like we've been in 9th place for the past year and a half?  It's been an odd week in Wings'ville.  We came off a scorching hot Western roadie and crashed hard in Long Island, only to redeem ourselves nicely in front of the hometown fans at the Joe last night.  I'm still waiting to wake up one morning and realize that, without me even noticing, we just magically moved up a spot into 8th.  Hasn't happened yet, but a man can hope, no?

It's been widely commented on that this is a team in playoff mode, and given how tight things are in the West, it's hard to refute that claim.  There's wide speculation by the media...and hope from Wings fans...that if we can get into the playoffs, we could be a very dangerous squad.  The collective wisdom says that this isn't going to happen unless we get all our horses back in the lineup.  The Mules, Kronners and Homers. 

Here's the rub - as we cycle those guys in, who gets the boot?  MrNorrisTrophytouched on this already in a great piece about Drew Miller (more in him below), but there are other considerations as well.  You have to assume whichever lacky we pull from the May/Leino basket is done.  And soon.  But what about the Gator?  What about Malts and...dare I even say it...Eaves?  If we do end up getting Williams, Holmstrom and Franzen back, three guys from that crew are done for.  In a sense, while the whole team is fighting for a place in the Western Conference playoff race, we've got a mini-playoff of our own happening within the team as guys look to stake out their turf with the big club. 

With that in mind, here is this week's installment of  The Sobotka Index.  For those unfamiliar, this is our regular stab at trying to figure out which players on the Wings are undervalued, which ones are due for a crash and which guys we need to hold onto for a bit longer because we like what we see...but we need to see a little more to be sure.

This week's breakdown after the jump.

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About a month ago over at The Production Line, we started a segment called the “Sobotka Index.”  It's  our lighthearted jab at trying to predict player trends with some vague nod to the stock market-style ups and downs all players cycle through in a given season. 

Worth noting, about the only thing qualifying us to yap about "stock tips" is that one of us lives in New York and the other secretly hopes that Erin Burnett ends up carrying his child…kind of like that Chapelle episode where he knocks up Oprah.  Anyway, this is our shot at stepping into the unflattering role of Jim Cramer, speculating who’s on their way up, who’s maxed out and who we need to hold onto for a bit longer to determine value.  Buy!  Sell!  Octopus!  It's worth noting that we're not advocating for an actual trade here.  This is just a mental exercise...something foreign to residence of "Smashville," but hopefully a bit more germane to the Wings' fanbase.

With that brief, ill-informed introduction, here’s this week’s installment of The Sobotka Index:

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