Editor's Note: Bumping this to the front page. Just a great FanPost by DBD regular Pat4OT.

I was watching the highlights of the Wild game tonight, and something struck me. 

It was during that Harding-Otter fight. They were going at it, and Schultz joins in on Ott as well. Then Brad Richards came sweeping around the net, grabs Harding with one arm, and pulls him away from Ott to the boards. It was a subtle thing, and I missed it when I was watching the game live.

But it speaks volumes about what Richards means to this team right now. 

I'm not talking about his stats, although those certainly speak for themselves. What I'm talking about is the leadership he's brought to this team this year. 

After the Rangers game, what were we all whining about? Turco gets run over, nobody stands up to fight for him. Morrow gets beat up, pushed around in front of the net after the whistle, and he just skates off with his tail tucked between his legs. We saw no fight, no willingness to stick up for each other. 

Now this. Now we see Richards breaking up a fight, Benn jawing with an opponent and nearly coming to blows, both in Otter's defense. We saw grit from this team over the last two games. (Coincidentally without Morrow, but that's an argument for another time). 

You can point to a number of catalysts for this sudden change in attitude, namely more consistent goaltending, playing at home, an energized four lines.

But at the heart of it is leadership, and I don't think there has been a bigger leader on this team this season than Brad Richards. 

Now, I don't know what goes on in the locker room other than from what Mike Heika tells me. But from what I've noticed from Brad on-ice, I think he's been instrumental this season as a leader. 

The thing that stands out for me is from the Red Wings game last Saturday. I had seats right on the glass, and if you've sat down there, you know how up close you are to the players. In the second period, on the powerplay, Richards hit Niskanen with a one-timer, and Howard stopped Nisky with a great glove save. Immediately after the whistle, I watched Richards skate right over to a dejected looking Niskanen and give him what looked to be a pep talk. I don't know what was said, but Richards was looking straight into his eyes talking pretty pointedly for the entire time the play was stopped. I kept an eye on Richards the rest of the game, and he would do that to pretty much every young player during the game, especially Brunnstrom and Niskanen. 

Now is this commonplace? It may be, and I may be just over analyzing things. But I have this feeling that beyond the stats, Richards has been so incredibly important for the psyche of this team. And that one moment seemed to sum that up for me. 

Anyways, that's my two cents.