It Begins

I'm sparing you the excuses for my absence (work work work work work) and cutting right to the chase:

Last night during NBC's Monday Night Football the NHL debuted the first big deal commercial for the Winter Classic, and it's glorious:

The commercial itself is gorgeous as a hockey commercial alone, featuring shots of players from both teams gearing up for the event, but the best part is the way the NHL seamlessly inserts Take Me Out to the Ball Game sung by Harry Caray - amazing.

I'm still involved the arduous process of getting tickets, but it's looking likely - hope to see you all there!

Happy Schedule Day!

Today is a beacon of light in the seemingly long, hot, endless summer that is the offseason. My car thermometer informed me we were seeing weather in the mid-90s as I left work this afternoon - muggy enough to literally fog up my glasses. Hockey, despite the fact that I spent several hours this week in an ice rink, seems years and years away on days like this. But with the release of the schedule, basically arbitrary and somewhat useless as it is, comes a breath of cool air and hope. Here are some notables regarding the 2008/2009 Wings schedule:

• The Wings will ring in opening day at home in the Joe, raising their 11th Stanley Cup banner on October 9th. The game will be against the Toronto Maple Leafs, who the Wings play twice (a home and home) in preseason and afterward will not see again until next season. Nice touch setting up an Original Six rivalry game for opening day, NHL.

• The three Eastern conference teams that the Wings will play both home and away this season, as per the new schedule structure, are Pittsburgh (woo!), Buffalo (kay), and Atlanta (...woo). It's a great idea to pit the two past-season Stanley Cup hopefuls at each other twice on the season and give the fans in both cities the opportunity for a rematch, but forgive my lack of enthusiasm about the Atlanta Thrashers. (And at the exact moment I type this I discover that former Oiler and NPI favorite Marty Reasoner has signed with the Thrashers and am suddenly more interested.)
  

• By now it's common knowledge that the Wings will be playing the Chicago Blackhawks at Wrigley Field in this year's Winter Classic. The game will be held in Chicago at 1 pm on January 1st, forcing the Wings to forgo their usual New Year's Eve game, but they will host the Hawks at the Joe on December 30th. I for one am excited about the game and do intend to go - while I, like others, was hoping for a Detroit/Toronto outdoor game somewhere closer to home, the fact that it's an Original Six matchup, and that the Hawks are poised to be a much bigger threat this coming season than in the past, should make it a fun game to see, as will the locale. It will be interesting to see how the NHL adapts a ballpark into a venue for hockey, and hopefully the event can lure in more fans in Chicago. It was a huge shame to see the hockey market there fall into such shambles, but an outdoor game against the Red Wings can only serve to help. I do, however, hope they rename the event - whether it becomes standard operations to have one outdoor game per year, a game hardly seems 'classic' if it's effectively being referred to as the 'Winter Classic II'.

For those interested, although ticket information has not be released yet, Wings GM and mad genius Ken Holland has put in a request to have "a fairly substantial number" of tickets available for Red Wings fans to purchase, and the NHL has assured their compliance. More information as it becomes available!

Another notable mention related to the schedule is that the Wings have adjusted some of their ticket prices for the upcoming season. Of note for poor recent graduates like myself, 1,869 upper bowl tickets have dropped to $33 from last season's $44 after studies indicated that many people, rather than forking out the $44, simply moved back a few rows and purchased $22 tickets, thus contributing to the plague of empty seats. Also affected were the first three rows off the glass, the prices of which have jumped from $85 to $125 per ticket.

Blogroll Updates!

With all these rumbling about the outdoor Wings/Hawks game, it occured to be the other day that we at NPI had absolutely no Blackhawks blogs on our blogroll. Coincidentally, I happened to check our linkbacks that very afternoon to see that we had in fact been linked to by both my fellow HLOGger Amy's My Tribe, and Clare's All Hawks Hockey. Make sure to check them out for some excellent divisional rivalry coverage!

This is more like it! (Wings 3, Blackhawks 1)

The Blackhawks have inexplicably posed problems for the Red Wings all season long, but yesterday the Wings managed to conquer what was, despite the outcome and the not spectacular play of the Hawks, a sort of tense game as the Wings never managed to really get a strong lead.

Before the game started, it was reported that Dan Cleary signed a five year contract extension that will earn him $14 million in total, 2.8 million per year. This is great for the Red Wings, who have begun to really rely on Cleary's gritty, determined play. It isn't all that often that you find a player both offensively talented and as hard working as Cleary, so locking him up long-term is a strong move.

In the wake of this news, it was awesome to see the Wings go on to win their fourth game straight. Kirk Maltby scored early on to put the Wings up 1-0, but Rene Bourque tied it up soon afterward on a bit of a misplay by the Wings defensemen.

There was a dicey moment when Robert Lang had a bit of a breakaway and Brad Stuart hauled him down, resulting in a penalty shot. Fortunately, the former Wing shot the puck right into Chris Osgood's leg pad. Osgood continued to look strong for the rest of the night, making 19 saves on 20 shots, despite not having started the past four games.

Pavel Datsyuk scored the game winner, and Johan Franzen, who had a strong game even before his goal, the empty netter to result in the final 3-1 score. Mikael Samuelsson also had a good looking game, ringing one off the post and then spearing James Wisniewski, who retaliated with a crosscheck to Samuelsson's face which has earned him a one game suspension without pay.

The Hawks didn't look awesome but they somehow managed to keep the puck out of the net often enough - I was surprised at how strong goalie call up Corey Crawford looked, for someone I'd never even heard of. And yet, their struggle for a playoff spot continues, as the Wings took this game away from them.

Other notes!

• Toward the end of the game Jiri Hudler and Patrick Kane looked to be trying to start something - one of the commentators remarked that for once Hudler was picking on someone his own size, which made me laugh. Not so often you hear that when "his own size" means "tiny".

• The game was Dallas Drake's 1000th, and the Wings made a mention of this during the game. They showed his family in the crowd on the jumbotron and then switched the Drake, who was smiling on the bench at seeing his family - how cute. Afterward they took a team picture to commemorate the evening - I love Henrik Zetterberg draping himself all over his Eurotwin partner Datsyuk, but where is Nick Lidstrom looking?

• Tonight at the Joe they were handing out these posters of the current 8 Swedish players on the roster (Jon Ericsson was included) - the promotion was dubbed "IKEA Night" and the Swedish mega furniture store even sponsored it. UM. AWESOME.

• I've often said I LOVE the Joe's music guys and their abilities to match songs to the moment, but yesterday night was absolutely spectacular. In quick succession (seriously a time span of about five minutes) they played both Alice Cooper's "Eighteen (And I Like it)" and the Beatles' "Let it Be" after Kirk Maltby's goal, "Hooked on a Feeling" when Niklas Hjalmarsson hooked Zetterberg, and "Ice, Ice Baby" as the officials took care of some problems with the ice surface. Congrats, guys, you are awesome.

The Wings sit now at 98 points on the season, 9 ahead of second place Dallas, whom they'll face on Thursday. Here's to five!

ATTN: (Wings 3, Blackhawks 5)

I dislike Chicago.

And I'm burning that darn free hat.

Unfortunately (or very fortunately, as I was to find out) I spent the evening working not only with Athletic Facilities, but also in the (totally non-proverbial) penalty box as the Time Out Coordinator for Comcast at tonight's WMU/Notre Dame CCHA game so I missed out on another thrashing of the Wings by the Hawks. Seems like it was a busy weekend for everyone - I don't even have a link for you to anything but the dismal scoresheet yet.

In the meantime, in case you're in the west Michigan area and want to catch my sixty minutes of fame, Comcast's local sports channel is reshowing tonight's WMU game on Monday afternoon at 3:30!

Filling Seats and Taking Names

I've missed a few games, I know - but his time my absence has an excuse!

This weekend I made my way down to Chicago a little earlier than the Wings did, forgoing the piles of work I have to do and making it into town for the Blackhawks/Blues game on Friday. A few years back it would have been hard to get that excited about a match up between these two teams, but the game was almost as high-energy and exciting as what I've gotten used to seeing from the Wings. Even with former Wing Manny Legace stoning them more times than I could count in the first period, the Hawks', led by Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews and backstopped by Patrick Lalime, who certainly looks to be recovering from what have not been spectacular seasons, pulled off the win and it looked at points almost effortless.

The most impressive thing about the game, though, was the crowd. I took in a game at the United Center last April, and I saw firsthand how true the rumors were about how dead the place was:

April 1st, 2007 - for an even more depressing view, try this.

I wasn't sure what to expect on Friday - it was a division matchup and far earlier than the season than last year's game, when it was clear neither of the teams playing would be making the postseason, so my expectations were higher than before, but it certainly wasn't what I saw when we got there. The seats weren't packed, but they were full, and impressively so. During play, the formerly dead crowd that only managed to scatter a few lame cheers after a goal or a nice hit got a full-bodied "Let's go Hawks" cheer going a number of times and jumped to their feet for every goal (the stadium, apparently anticipating this, has started serving cups of beer with lids - no joke, I saw a woman drinking hers from a straw).

November 12, 2007

The best part of the whole evening was when they announced that finally, with the passing of Bill Wirtz, this Sunday's Blackhawks/Wings game would be televised locally, the crowd absolutely erupted, stood, and gave the announcement a standing ovation until play resumed. I'm far from a Blackhawks fan (especially right this second), but it was an amazing moment for an Original Six city in which hockey was taking its last gasping breaths not even a season ago.

Of course, my excitement for the city and the team crashed and burned spectacularly after yesterday's game (even despite my rookie Jiri Hudler notching his fourth in six games and Tomas Kopecky putting on a nice show in a fight against Pat Sharp) - what is it about the Blackhawks that just kills us? Is it you, Robert Lang? Stop being spiteful! Was it me? Should I never have tried on that free hat? (And can I tell you all how much I'm really starting to hate those two kids?) There goes, once again, the chance to set a franchise record of 10 straight wins (a chance we've had three years in a row now, and never quite made it to), as well as Chris Osgood's 20-game win streak - but at least Henrik Zetterberg continued his own streak, now at 17 games with a point.

Let's hope they come out with a better effort this Tuesday against the Blues - another team who have looked much more formidable, this season, than in the past. I, for one, am happy not to have to see the Hawks again...until this Saturday.

Black Hawk(s) Down

I was down at the Joe tonight for the Wings/Blackhawks game tonight, so I wasn't taking notes, but as usual that doesn't stop me.

Osgood started in net, as Dom was out for supposedly precautionary measures relating to "thigh tenderness". It is about the right time in the season for him to break himself, right? Let's hope not. Cleary was also still out, as were Samuelsson and Zetterberg, and of course new acquisition Bertuzzi as well - and Chelios wasn't playing either but I didn't see anything on that anywhere; anyone know why?

I don't really have a lot to say about the game itself - the 6-2 score should really tell you the majority of what you need to know anyway. The Blackhawks didn't look awful out there though - it wasn't like we just dominated them mercilessly (insert Hasek - or lack of Hasek - pun here). The first period was spent almost entirely in their zone - right, of course, until my friend and I moved up to the glass to watch the rest of it. Two nice goals, and what could have been another, but Filppula botched a really nice opportunity.

He made up for it, though, seven minutes and some into the second, which was followed directly by a really nice Jiri Hudler breakaway goal (I told my friend he couldn't bear to let Val get ahead of him) that I really wish had been on my side of the arena. The Hawks made it on the scoreboard before the end of the period though - thanks to none other than our (former) own Jason Williams - the entire audience applauded and cheered for him, and I remembered why I'm so proud to live in Hockeytown. He never really panned out for us, other than being useful in shootouts, never quite fit the way we'd hoped, but we were still willing to cheer the guy on and wish him well.

Forty seconds in to the third, Nik Lidstrom netted his 200th career goal, and once again the entire crowd stood and cheered right up until the puck dropped for the next faceoff and even then you could hear people chanting his name. A mere two minutes later the Hawks answered back again - another Williams goal. There was less cheering this time, but it was still acknowledged. Two goals against us, both unassisted, I for one was proud of the guy. Before the period ended though, Franzen brought the total up to 6-2 and the Wings finished out the game strong.

So, sure it was a game against the Blackhawks, who aren't really a team known for their strength lately, but it was excellent to see these sorts of results while missing so many key players. I loved getting to see the young guns out there on the ice so often (Hudler and Filppula both racked up nearly 15 minutes of ice time, and even the three Griffins call ups - Ellis, Langfeld, Hussey - pulled 6-7 apiece), and they certainly made use of the time. Even better was the way the points spread across the lines - just as people have started to worry we're turning into a one line team and relying on the Eurotwins far too much, after starting the season talking so much about have a full capable four being the reason we were doing so well at all, a few injuries and everyone steps it up again. Robert Lang had his first multi-point game since January tonight, Datsyuk of course contributed three assists, Filppula and Hudler all figured in, and Calder netted a point for himself as well, making him two for two in the last two games.

This should prove to be an interesting month - tonight leaves us once again tied with Nashville (though down three on games won) with four head to head battles left that will more than likely decide the leader of the Central Division.

Mostly unrelated, I have to take a moment to express my gratitude toward the guys working the sound booth at the Joe, at least tonight. I normally don't pay that much attention to the music, other than cringing at the occasional horror, but they were really on tonight - Three Dog Night's "One is the Loneliest Number" after the first Chicago goal, Trapt's "Headstrong" and Beck's "Loser" in regard to fights, Three Dog Night's "Two Less Lonely People" while Chicago's #10 is being escorted to the box for a Detroit 5 on 3 opportunity, and my very favorite, the Chiffons' "He's So Fine" (do-lang-do-lang-do-lang, anyone?) after Robert's goal - I literally couldn't breathe when I realized just how hilarious it was.

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Last but not least because I do so seem to enjoy throwing extra things on the end of my posts here, and since I was talking about music, after all - but I spent a good hour earlier in the day going through, for about the millionth time, all the little Marty Biron parodies, and in the process stumbled upon what is my new favorite thing Buffalo has ever done (and okay it might spawn from my latent Oilers-love of Jaroslav Spacek): Spacek Oddity. All you actually need to know about this is that David Bowie is involved and the first line would seem to be "This is ground control to Jaroslav".