Hard times for Manitoba’s Helm in Hockeytown; broken Wings mired in NHL cellar

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This article was published 11/12/2019 (1596 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DETROIT — Darren Helm has experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows with the Detroit Red Wings.

The 32-year-old forward from St. Andrews raised the Stanley Cup in 2008, nearly a full season before he earned steady work on the Wings roster. And when he did become a fixture, he helped the venerable organization get close to another NHL championship.

As the Bunkers used to sing, “Those were the days.”

Right now, the joy level is low in Hockeytown, U.S.A., the only NHL home that Helm has ever known. He’s playing in his 13th season in Detroit, one that will surely go down as one of the worst in the team’s long and storied history.

The league’s last-place club had just seven victories in 32 games prior to Thursday’s visit by the Winnipeg Jets and had suffered 10 straight defeats in regulation time.

Helm admitted Thursday afternoon no past life experiences could have prepared him for the abject frustration and disappointment this year.

“We never had down times like this before,” he said after the team’s morning skate at Little Caesars Arena. “It’s not easy, that’s for sure. The way things have gone, it’s hard to keep that positive mentality. It’s like one part of our game goes south on any given night and it’s deflating to the team.

“But the message is to keep pushing forward because things are going to turn for us. I see a lot of good things happening here. I see us playing really well, at times, so I know we’re capable. You keep working hard for that opportunity to break through and see what this team can really do.”

Helm became accustomed to winning at a young age. He helped the Selkirk Fishermen capture a Manitoba Junior B title in 2004, waved the Western Hockey League championship banner with the Medicine Hat Tigers in 2007 and then won Lord Stanley’s mug a year a later. Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins dashed Detroit’s hopes for a repeat in 2009.

Detroit is in the midst of a full-on rebuild, yet there’s Helm amidst the kids, still wearing No. 43 just as he did when he was called up from Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League in ’08, went scoreless in seven games but then collected a pair of goals and two assists in 18 playoffs games as Red Wings captured the Cup.

“Obviously, that’s the biggest thrill winning that Cup. Just walking into the dressing room, seeing guys all getting prepared, seeing the jersey I was pulling on and getting out on the Joe Louis (Arena ice), it was pretty unbelievable,” he said.

Coaches and GMs tend to live in the present, and Helm didn’t do enough the next fall to stick with Detroit and was dispatched to the Griffins. But he returned to the big club late in the year for 16 regular-season games and helped with another thrilling playoff run, scoring four times in 23 games.

Helm has participated in the post-season eight times, but not since the 2015-16 campaign.

He’s consistently been a guy who gets 10 goals and 30 points a season, while staying hard on the forecheck and maintaining sound defensive reads. He’s currently in Year 4 of a five-year, $19.25-million contract that carries a yearly cap hit of $3.85 million.

He had four goals and three assists in 31 games prior to Thursday and is the only plus player (+3) on the team. He remains a key piece for the traits he possesses on the bench and in the dressing room.

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Detroit head coach Jeff Blashill said coming out of training camp Helm was on the bubble as an everyday player but Helm made it near-impossible to sit him.

“He’s a great model of work ethic, a great model of compete,” Blashill said. “He never takes for granted playing in this league and he never takes for granted being in the lineup. He started the year and it was iffy whether he was in or out of the lineup, but by now he’s cemented himself because of his work ethic.

“The fact he’s a plus player on a team that’s very, very negative, that’s impressive.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell

Jason Bell
Sports editor

Jason Bell wanted to be a lawyer when he was a kid. The movie The Paper Chase got him hooked on the idea of law school and, possibly, falling in love with someone exactly like Lindsay Wagner (before she went all bionic).

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