First, a confession. We in the media asked Keith Tkachuk about the officiating and he was just responding honestly. That said, he's taking on the rule-makers once again.

	CHIRPIN'
	"We'd better learn the hard lesson now or we're going to pay a high price later on. We're (wasting) away points, just (wasting) away points. No ifs ands or buts about it. It's unacceptable. It has to come to a halt." -- Vancouver winger Todd Bertuzzi after the Canucks blew a 4-1 lead and tied the Blue Jackets, 4-4.
	THE NUMBER
	10 Empty-net goals by the Stars this season -- tops in the NHL. They had seven all of last season.
	WHO'S HOT
	Colorado goalie Patrick Roy is on a stunning roll. He has a 0.96 GAA and .959 save percentage in his last four games and has all three of his shutouts this season in the past month.
	WHO'S NOT
	The two-time defending Norris Trophy winner Nicklas Lidstrom is in a rare slump. In the Red Wings' five-game winless streak (0-3-2), Lidstrom has no points and is minus-3.
	THIS WEEK'S SIGN ...
	... the goaltending wars are back on: Manny Fernandez is healthy and ready to play for the Wild and Sean Burke could be back any day in goal for the Coyotes.

The St. Louis forward was particularly ruffled after a game in Dallas on Wednesday during which the Blues blew a 2-0 lead, in part, because of some odd calls.

By the end of a 2-2 tie, the two teams were exhausted by a game played mostly on special teams (16 power plays and plenty of 4-on-4).

"It's frustrating with all the calls, killing penalties and everything. We just want to play," Tkachuk said. "I don't blame the refs, I blame the people who don't play hockey in New York who are telling these guys what to do."

Tkachuk and the Blues were frustrated by two calls in particular. One was on goalie Brent Johnson for delay of game when he froze the puck behind the net. The Blues contended he was pushed behind the net after a save and had no choice but to freeze the puck. The other came a few minutes later when Dallas Drake was coming in on a short-handed rush, lost the puck and then was called for goaltender interference in a collision with Marty Turco.

The Drake penalty created a 5-on-3 and the Stars scored on the power play to draw the score to 2-1.

But as much as that was a concern, the Blues said they didn't like the flow in the first game back from the All-Star break where much discussion was given to continuing the crackdown on obstruction.

"At one point in the game it was just so ridiculous because we were killing all the time," said winger Martin Rucinsky. "I know it's hockey and things happen, but you just didn't know what they were going to call."

If you read between the lines of Tkachuk's assessment, the parade to the penalty box should have been expected. The league talked about staying vigilant concerning the crackdown on obstruction and that's a message that the players were hearing. But at least he didn't go after an individual referee this time. A few weeks back, Tkachuk said referee Craig Spada "should think about resigning," after a tough game against the Islanders.

Then again, we asked.

Time to talk is over

The Red Wings are in what has to qualify as one of their worst slumps in the past 10 years. After losing to Colorado, 1-0, Thursday, Detroit is 5-8-2-1 in 2003. What's more, the Red Wings are 0-3-2 in their last five games.

"It does no good talking about it, because we've been talking about it for a long time," said winger Brendan Shanahan. "I think people are going to lose their patience, and I think it's about time people lost their patience."

Part of the problem is injury-related (Steve Yzerman is still a few weeks off, Chris Chelios has missed six games with an undisclosed "leg" injury and the loss of Jiri Fisher is starting to show). Part of it is road related (Red Wings are 12-10-4-1 overall on the road and 2-4-0-1 in their last seven road games). Part of it is performance related.

"We were on the road for something like 10 games and we've had a lot of injuries," said defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom. "It's something that happens to every team and it's something we've dealt with in the past, we had our ups and down last year. We had a good break (for All-Star weekend) and now we have to go out and play. It's a real race out there, so there isn't time to have another bad stretch. It's tough to get points in the West."

Wake up time

The Sharks were supposed to position themselves in January for a solid chase at a playoff spot, but didn't distinguish themselves over a run of 15-of-18 games at home, going 6-6-3-2 in that span. Now, the team embarks on a seven-game road trip and 12-of-16 away from home -- and the demand is for much more than .500 hockey. In fact, coach Ron Wilson said the team has to be better than if it was playing in the playoffs.

"In the playoffs, you think about winning four of seven, you can go 4 and 3. We don't have that luxury," Wilson said. "We've got to win four out of five, basically. That's what way I'm looking at it."