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DETROIT -- Darren Helm noticed the sign on the big screen at the Joe Louis Arena.
"I saw my name on it, but they took it off too quickly for me to read it," said the Red Wings forward.
Written for all to see was: "Welcome to the Nightmare on Helm Street."
"Hey, that's not bad. I like it," he replied when told.
Maybe that could mean a better nickname than the moniker he's been given: Helmer.
Nightmare would work.
Actually, the way Helm plays, something that denotes his future could do, too.
Grinder has been taken, but you can't doubt the 22-year-old centre is the next generation of the team's Grind Line.
In fact, you can see a bit of Kris Draper or Kirk Maltby in him.
"Yeah, but I'm a slower version," Maltby said with a laugh. "He's much faster than I am.
"I don't think he's going to be a guy who scores 100 points or 50 goals, but with his speed does make things happen.
"He'll be more a guy you can count on defensively, kill a penalty, play in the last minute of a game, go out for key faceoffs. He has a bright future. Hopefully he has more of a knack for scoring, but I could definitely see him winning a Selke Trophy. He has the opportunity to be up for that award and can play like that."
Curiously, Helm's potential nicknames don't end there, either.
This is the second spring in a row he joined the team for the playoffs after spending the bulk of the season in minors.
Last season, he played 18 games en route to the team's Stanley Cup championship.
His reward was another season in the minors, save for 16 games when called up due to injuries. But once the playoffs began, he was again summoned to Detroit.
"Ozzie (goalie Chris Osgood) has been calling Mr. April," said Helm, a product of St. Andrews, Man., a municipality northeast of Winnipeg. "Obviously, you're disappointed you have to go down. But at the same time, they're putting you there for a reason. They want you to develop more.
"You put that disappointment behind you and focus on what you have to do in your time there to be as focused and as ready as you can for when you get the opportunity to come back up."
He's done that.
Heading into Wednesday night's clash with Chicago, Helm had potted a pair of goals, including the dandy breakaway tally in the seventh-game of the second-round series against Anaheim.
He grabbed a loose puck, split the defence at his own blueline and was off to the races.
"That goal was something to see," Maltby said. "I'm not going to say he blew away from (Scott) Niedermayer -- he had a couple of steps on him -- but Niedermayer wasn't going to catch him. To do that means you're a special skater. In this day and age, a skater like him, you have a long career ahead of you."
The speed, Helm jokes, comes from being a little brother.
"Being a young kid, my older brother would say, 'Go get something, and I'll time you.' " he recalled. "I would always bite on that real hard and be racing up and down the stairs for my brothers."
But Helm's game is more than just speed. The forward, drafted in the fifth round in 2005, is south of 6-feet tall, but more than willing to go to the corners to crash and bang.
Maybe that's why he has fans on his side in the Joe Louis Arena.
"I think fans like players who are pretty aggressive, play with speed and aren't afraid to throw their body around. I'm not the biggest guy, but that's the way I play and I guess a few people like it."
The signs -- at least one sign -- prove it.