Helm and Abdelkader = Dumb and Dumber?

The Red Wing's Darren Helm and Justin Abdelkader have been nicknamed Dumb&Dumber by their teammates. Read on for the full story. 

LOS ANGELES -- There's little question Darren Helm is fast -- but to teammates, he is also, hilariously, dumb. Or Dumber, actually.

Helm and Justin Abdelkader joined the Red Wings full-time in September, and as with hockey players, they immediately became known by monikers based on their last names -- Helmer and Abs.

A few months later, they're now known within the team as Lloyd Christmas (Helm) and Harry Dunne, the delightfully bumbling best friends of the movie "Dumb and Dumber."

The nicknames were bestowed by Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby, who sounded like a comedy routine as they laughed and explained their reasoning.

"Well, sit beside them and you'll find out," Draper said.

"Do a piece on them where you have to spend a lot of time with them, you'll see," Maltby said.

"But you know, we actually changed the movie to 'Dumb and Dumbest,' " Draper said. "They're Harry and Lloyd, and you know what, the more of these road trips we're on, they live up to the billing."

But Helm and Abdelkader, who room together on the road, take the ribbing in stride.

"I think they're jealous in a way," Abdelkader said. "I think they're a little jealous because they wish they were educated like I was. But we're young and can't really say anything about it."

Helm agreed, saying, "I think they're just trying to pawn their own image on somebody else, because I clearly think that story was written about those two."

---Helene St. James
Detroit Free Press
http://www.freep.com/article/20100109/SPORTS05/1090362/?imw=Y