The Season's Getting Closer!

I just realized just how long I've been absent (has it really been since free agency started?). Anyway, a lot has happened - a lot I'm sure you all read about on blogs that are keeping themselves up to date much more than I am. Which I will now resume doing without week-long disappearances that provoke other bloggers to inquire as to if I've been able to leave my house without a bottle of vodka in one hand and a picture of Smytty in the other (short answer: yes, long answer: does beer count?). To start it off, the Wings have released their preseason schedule:

Detroit Red Wings 2007-2008 Preseason Schedule

Sept. 18 -- @ Minnesota
Sept. 21 -- vs. Minnesota
Sept. 22 -- vs. Pittsburgh
Sept. 24 -- @ Pittsburgh
Sept. 25 -- vs. NY Rangers
Sept. 27 -- vs Tampa Bay
Sept. 28 -- @ Toronto
Sept. 29 -- vs. Toronto

I'll probably make the Toronto game (which I'm very happy about seeing as the schedule meanswe won't be hosting Toronto during the regular season), but it's unlikely I'll get home from school to catch anything else. I'd like to see the Rangers (almost as much to see the Joe's reaction to Shanahan as much as for a certain Czech winger), but as it's a Tuesday it probably won't work out. I was sad about missing the Penguins as well but then some more interesting news cropped up:

The Hockey News is reporting a second outdoor game (the first being 2003's Heritage Classic between Edmonton and Montreal) in the works, at which the Penguins have already agreed to be the visiting team. The possible destinations for this game? Buffalo or Detroit.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review suggests the Penguins have agreed to be the visitors in the outdoor game, which will be broadcast on NBC (possibly marketed as “The Ice Bowl") and be held in either Buffalo or Detroit.

...

Should the game be held in Detroit, a likely location would be Spartan Stadium, where the "Cold War" game between U.S. colleges Michigan State and Michigan was played in 2001. That game drew a world-record hockey fan crowd of 74,554.

Should the game happen in Buffalo, it would be at the Ralph Wilson Stadium and, rumor has it, on New Year's Day. Let's all keep our fingers crossed for Detroit! (Can't you just see Hasek with a little toque a la Jose Theodore? Would it even fit on his mask?)