For me, this announcement feels like an end of an era in my life. Sadly, I will no longer blog about the Wings as a fan -- not just here at WIM but anywhere else. I graduated from college two weeks ago and with the hopes of finding a job in sports PR, I needed to stop blogging about sports. It's probably what gave me my start early in college and provided me with a ton of valuable experience, but sadly it has to come to an end.

I'm sure you've noticed that I've been posting less and less this season. I had slowly been phasing myself out, while Casey took over more and more responsibility. Casey is now the top dog at WIM and Joe, Michael, Kyle, and Drew will continue to blog as they have. Casey has some great ideas on how to develop WIM and I can't wait to see how it'll improve by this time next year.

During my years of blogging, I have witnessed some incredible things -- the Wings winning a Stanley Cup, the Winter Classic, the Steve Yzerman retirement ceremony, and much more. It's been a joy to blog about the Wings and the many amazing things us Wings' fans have witnessed over the last five years.

Thank You

I started blogging about the Red Wings on my own in 2004 during the NHL lockout at Behind the Jersey. In the summer of 2007, Tyler asked me to join SBN and Winging It In Motown was established by August as just the third SBN hockey blog at the time. During my five years talking Wings' hockey, I have met so many amazing people online (and some even in person) -- fellow bloggers, readers, and fans. I can't thank everyone personally in this post, but I do want to list a few.

• Tyler -- He gave me my start at SBN and what an amazing journey this has been. I never thought I'd see my work linked from SI.com, NHL.com, and Yahoo! Sports and I have to thank him and James Mirtle for building the SBN hockey group into what it is today.
• Matt Saler -- Before I started Behind the Jersey, I spent some time blogging for On the Wings with Matt and Brian. I have to credit Matt for giving me my start to blogging.
• The rest of the Wings' bloggers, particularly Paul at Kukla's Korner and Bill at Abel to Yzerman, for their support over the years. It's been fun talking Wings' hockey with you all and I look forward to continue reading your work!
  

This will be my last post at Winging It In Motown, but that doesn't mean I'll be a stranger. Thank you to the many, many readers that BTJ and WIM has had over the years. It's been a pleasure blogging and interacting with such a great group of fans. Go Wings!

A Sports Illustrated PR staffer gave me a heads up that SI.com just released its Best of 2000s lists and the Red Wings made it into a few categories as you can see below.

• The Detroit Red Wings are the sixth-ranked franchise in all of sports this decade (by comparison, the Pistons come in at No. 19). The teams that finished ahead of them (in order) are the LA Lakers, New England Patriots, UConn women's basketball, San Antonio Spurs, and the NY Yankees.
  
• Wings' GM Ken Holland sits second on the list of the top ten best GM/executives (the Pistons' Joe Dumars sits at No. 9). Only Scott Pioli of the New England Patriots finished above Holland.
  
• SI.com also ranked captain Nicklas Lidstrom at No. 19 in the top 20 male athletes of the decade category.

This is what SI.com had to say about Lidstrom:

The NHL's most accomplished player, his excellence as a passer, power-play quarterback and defender (he averaged less than 40 penalty minutes per season while logging major ice time against top lines) precedes and survives the 2004-05 lockout that led to rules promoting offense. Lidstrom's six Norris Trophies (three pre-lockout; three after) place him behind only iconic Hall of Famers Doug Harvey (seven) and Bobby Orr (eight). His silverware haul this decade also includes two Stanley Cups -- the last, in 2008, made him the first European captain of an NHL champion -- and an Olympic gold medal with Sweden in 2006.

What do you think of their selections? Did they leave the Wings out of a category that they should have been in? You can view all the categories here at SI.com.

After escaping Montreal with a narrow 3-2 shootout victory on Saturday, the Wings headed to Nashville with the hopes of earning their first win streak on the road. Unfortunately, it was not to be as the Wings dropped the game in a 3-1 loss to the Predators.

Chris Osgood got the start in goal, making allowing three goals on 25 shots while the Wings got off 31 shots in their losing effort.

The Wings' penalty kill woes continued, allowing two goals on four penalty kills. Jason Arnott got Nashville on the board first with a power-play tally at the 10:24 mark in the opening period.

The Predators grabbed a two-goal lead just 1:21 into the middle frame with another power-play marker, but this time from Martin Erat. He scored Nashville's insurance goal with 2:20 remaining in the contest.

Once again, the Wings stumbled out of the gate before firing on all cylinders in the third period just a little too late. Detroit's lone tally came at the 6:38 point in the second stanza when former Spartan Drew Miller registered his first goal as a Wing. According to MLive.com, "it was his first goal in 20 games this season, his first in 27 games dating to last season when he played for Anaheim."

The Wings now have lost the last three of four games. Detroit returns to play on Wednesday against Atlanta at Joe Louis Arena at 7:30 p.m. EDT.

The Detroit Red Wings continue their road trip in Nashville as they take on the Predators tonight at 7 p.m. EDT on Versus. The Wings hope to extend their winning streak to two on the road, while the Preds would like to make it six straight wins.

With top-four defenseman Niklas Kronwall out for at least four weeks due to a hit that GM Ken Holland called dirty, the Wings will mix and match their defensive pairings tonight. Derek Meech will enter the lineup tonight thanks to the void left by the Kronwall injury.

Chris Osgood will start in goal tonight with Jimmy Howard slated to start on Wednesday.

You will also want to keep an eye out for Darren McCarty, who will be a guest studio analyst for Versus tonight. Will he be a homer like Kris Draper is wishing for? Will he offer some great insight into how the Wings operate?

Tonight in Toronto, former Red Wings' captain Steve Yzerman will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame alongside two of his 2001-02 teammates Luc Robitaille and Brett Hull. The ceremony will be broadcast live on TSN and NHL Network (Canada and U.S.) at 7 p.m. EDT.

As a blogger, I can't provide anything unique about The Captain that you have never heard. Between the articles published after he won the Cup, retired, and around his jersey retirement ceremony, reporters and bloggers have covered seemingly every angle of his illustrious career. I know I've personally written thousands of words about No. 19 over the last four years as we remember his career and what he has done. He's already been inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, received the Lester Patrick award, and had his jersey retired at Joe Louis Arena.

I wanted to point you to three great pieces that have come out in the past week about Yzerman. First, Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com wrote an absolutely fantastic piece about The Captain and it certainly was my favorite article that I've read this month. Greg Kuppa at The Detroit News takes a look at his childhood and hockey growing up, which we don't usually hear about in the media. Finally, Helene St. James has an exclusive interview with Yzerman that was published in the Detroit Free Press.

The best way I feel that I can honor his induction tonight is by posting an excerpt of a post I wrote at the start of the 2007 playoffs that was well-received by my readers (then at Behind the Jersey).

Continue reading this post »

The Detroit Red Wings finally wrap up their five-game, 11-day road trip tonight in Calgary against the Flames.

The biggest development for the Wings this week was the loss of forward Valtteri Filppula, who broke his wrist on Thursday evening in a game against Edmonton. He will be out 6-8 weeks.

"Obviously, I feel terrible," said Filppula, who recently was moved up to the second line. "But there's nothing I can do about it now."

The injury occurred on a hard, clean check by Gilbert Brule.

"It's a big blow, obviously," Babcock said. "We're going to have to buckle down as a team. It doesn't matter who's not here. It's about who is here. We are going to miss Fil. You don't replace good players like that. But we have to find a way to win games."

In other news, Ville Leino has been scratched from the lineup today which I find surprising since they lost Filppula to injury, but head coach Mike Babcock has made it clear he has not been pleased with Leino's play so far this season.

"Ville’s not working on any line. That’s clear. He’s having a day to watch,'' Babcock said. "He hasn’t played hard enough, so he’s going to watch the game and the other guys are going to play.’’

Chris Osgood will get the start in net tonight and here's what he told The Detroit News about it:

"I feel good," he said. "I have to play better than I did in Vancouver, but it was only (seven) minutes. I would have hoped to stay in but I didn't get that opportunity. I have to let that go and move on."

The Calgary Herald spoke with Todd Bertuzzi, who played for the Flames last year, about his return to the Wings this season.

You can catch tonight's game on CBC and FSDetroit Plus when the puck drops at 10 p.m. EDT. Don't know which channel FSDetroit Plus is on? Visit this page at FoxSports.com for that info. Go Wings!

The Edmonton Oilers snapped a three-game losing streak, partially due to the H1N1 infestation of their team, with a 6-5 shootout win in Edmonton on Thursday evening. The Detroit Red Wings found a way to earn a point on the road, storming back from a 4-0 and later 5-2 deficit at the end of the second period with three markers in the third frame to send the game into overtime. Only one player scored in the shootout for either team, Patrick O'Sullivan, which handed the 'W' and the two points to Edmonton.

The Wings got some bad news when Valtteri Filppula fell awkwardly after a hit along the boards at some point in the second. Coach Mike Babcock told FSDetroit after the game that he broke his wrist and will unfortunately be out 6-8 weeks.

We're just going to skip the first-period recap as the Wings allowed three tallies on 12 shots. Heading into the second period, Ales Hemsky scored his second goal of the evening just 58 seconds into the period when he beat netminder Jimmy Howard five-hole on a breakaway.

The Wings would finally get on the board at the 6:15 mark into the middle frame with forward Darren Helm scoring his first regular-season goal ever on a blast from the top of the right faceoff circle. Coach Mike Babcock had him as a healthy scratch for Tuesday's game against Vancouver, hoping that it would spark his play. Helmer told FSDetroit during the second intermission that while Babcock's decision was frustrating, "I thought it was good for me."

Less than three minutes later, the Oilers responded in a mad scramble in front of the net on a power play. Forward Shawn Horcoff ultimately got the puck past Howard for his third point of the night (he posted two assists earlier in the game).

Forward Henrik Zetterberg brought the Wings within three 12:50 into the second stanza after throwing the puck at the cage, which surprisingly went in from the weird angle he was at below the left faceoff circle. Teammates Niklas Kronwall and Pavel Datsyuk registered assists on the play.

Detroit kept the pressure on Edmonton in the second, hitting the post twice in a short span of time. Edmonton took a narrow lead over the Wings in the shot and scoring chances categories (23-22 and 10-9 respectively) as the two squads heading to their respective locker rooms. 

The Wings made it a game in the first half of the third period, scoring twice in a span of 1:12. Defenseman Jonathan Ericsson earned his third goal of the season at the 6:32 mark. Kris Draper backhanded a pass to drop the puck back to Ericsson, who was stationed atop the left faceoff circle, for a quick release that beat Khabibulin.

Just a short time later, Datsyuk deked an Oiler to find room to slide a pass to to Todd Bertuzzi, who popped it in from just above the inside hash of the left faceoff circle, to make it a one-goal difference.

Patrick Eaves evened the game up at 5-5 on his first goal of the year. He got a shot off through an Oiler's legs to beat Khabibulin gloveside. Helmer and Ericsson notched the assists. He spoke with FSDetroit after the game:

"We would have liked to get off to a better start...We just came together as a group and everyone did their job, pulled their weight...I'm just trying to make the best out of the time I got."

It was mainly Detroit in the third as they outshot Edmonton 20-6 in the period, but the game went into overtime with a 5-5 tie at the end of regulation. Despite numerous solid chances for both teams, the teams went scoreless in extra time resulting in a shootout.

Howard stays with his man, stuffing the first Oiler of the shootout. Jason Williams went first for the Wings, but Khabibulin got his pad on the shot. Hemsky tries to deke a couple times, but sent the shot wide of the net. Datsyuk goes next and opts for head-on shot instead of trying to deke, but no luck. O'Sullivan hits the back bar on his shot and gives Edmonton the lead in the shootout. Zetterberg cannot find a way to beat the Oilers' goalie, giving the 'W' to Edmonton.

Coach Babcock spoke with FSDetroit following the game:

"It was a heck of a comeback. It was good character and good grit...Obviously we weren't ready to go and it cost us a point...Filppula broke his wrist and will be out 6-8 weeks. It'll give someone an opportunity."

Christy's Red Wing of the Game: Darren Helm

Darren Helm

#43 / Center / Detroit Red Wings

Height: 5-11

Weight: 195

Born: Jan 21, 1987

We saw an offensive effort from some unusual suspects today. Eaves, Ericsson, and Helm recorded a goal and an assist. Helmer and Eaves earned their first goal of the regular season this year in the game. Datsyuk posted two helpers.

The Wings finish up their five-game road trip in Calgary on Saturday night at 10 p.m. EDT.

The Detroit Red Wings look to end their three-game losing skid tonight in Vancouver as they face off against the Canucks and former teammate Mikael Samuelsson. Sammy currently leads his new team in goals (5) and is second in points (10).

Head coach Mike Babcock broke up the line featuring Williams and the two Finns during Monday's practice, but he has not ruled out keeping the previous game lineup for today's contest. According to MLive.com, here were the lines the team was practicing with on Monday.

Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom
Cleary-Filppula-Bertuzzi (Eaves working in)
Leino-Draper-Williams
May-Helm-Maltby (Abdelkader working in)

The defense remained the same:
Lidstrom-Kronwall
Stuart-Rafalski
Ericsson-Lebda (Meech working in)

Osgood (starting)
Howard

The Detroit News reported this afternoon that Darren Helm will be a healthy scratch. Babcock says that it's not like Helmer has been playing bad, but he did miss most of training camp and the entire preseason. He hopes that scratching him will be just the motivation Helm needs to bounce back to his old self.

The game will start at 10 p.m. EDT and will be shown on FSDetroit. Go Wings!

Shockingly, the Wings have only won three of nine games so far this season. A win tonight will give Detroit its first road game of the season, which is something that is definitely needed. The Wings currently sit one point above Nashville, who is at the bottom of the Central Division standings.

A questionable call caused the Wings to head into overtime after leading the Coyotes for most of the game. A soft goal in OT gave Phoenix the two points, while handing Detroit a loss to start their road trip and one point in the standings.

By the end of the first period, the game was even at one goal apiece. In his first game back from injury, star forward Pavel Datsyuk assisted on the equalizer with 20 seconds remaining in the period. Tomas Holmstrom was credited with the goal, a tip-in. Matthew Lombardi posted the power-play goal for the Coyotes in the first frame.

Defenseman Brett Lebda scored 7:45 into the second period, which was set up on a slick pass by Datsyuk. Henrik Zetterberg also earned his second helper of the evening.

Phoenix was held off the scoreboard in the third until the 17:20 mark when it appeared that goalie Chris Osgood had made the stop with the puck under his pads. The referee seemingly should have blown the whistle, but hadn't when a Coyote pushed Ozzie further back, causing the puck to ultimately go over the goal line. Petr Prucha was given the goal.

Mike Babcock had this to say to FSDetroit after the game:

"I thought we were in the control of the game...I thought they pushed Ozzie into the net, but it doesn't matter what I think obviously...The bottom line is that's what they decided, but I thought there was some bumping...If you give away points, it's going to come back and haunt you."

Wings' fans will probably agree that the game should not have gone into overtime, but it did and Adrian Aucion scored the game-winning marker 1:40 into overtime.

All in all, the Coyotes outshot Detroit 33-27 for the win.

"It's tough to lose this way. I thought we played a good game...[Pavel] looked good and he skated well...It was two funky plays that led to the last two goals."

-- Henrik Zetterberg said on FSDetroit after the game

The Wings have four more games remaining on this road trip so hopefully they can put this behind him and get a few wings out of this trip. Detroit's next game is this Saturday in Denver against the Colorado Avalanche.

The Red Wings kick off their five-game, 11-day road trip tonight in Phoenix against the Coyotes, who are off to a surprisingly hot 5-2-0 start. On the other hand, Detroit is having a rough go initially with a 3-3-1 record. A win tonight would extend the Coyotes to a four-game winning streak, while a win would snap a one-game losing skid for Detroit.

Star forward Pavel Datsyuk hopes to play tonight, but the decision has yet to be made definitively.

The Wings have struggled with maintaining a lead this season, allowing 3+ goals in a single period four times already this year. Not only will the offense have to play big against the stingy Phoenix defense, but the Wings' defense needs to be on guard as they hope to get off to a good start on this tough western road trip.

The puck is slated to drop at 10 p.m. EDT and will be televised on FSDetroit. Go Wings!

After winning two games at home, the Detroit Red Wings dropped a 6-2 loss in Buffalo against the Sabres as the mistakes piled up. Netminder Chris Osgood was pulled during the middle frame after allowing five markers on 22 shots. Jimmy Howard was inserted into goal and stopped all but one shot with about 27 minutes of ice time. Buffalo outshot Detroit 37-25 in the loss.

According to the Detroit Free Press:

After the teams traded power-play goals in the first period, the Sabres scored four times on seven shots in a span of 6:43 to chase Chris Osgood, who allowed five goals on 22 shots. The four goals matched the number Buffalo had scored in its first three games this season.

Forwards Valtteri Filppula and Tomas Holmstrom scored Detroit's only two goals in the game. Filppula scored at the 4:30 remaining in the opening period to tie the game at one goal apiece. He tipped in a pass from defenseman Niklas Kronwall that came thanks to Detroit's power-play opportunity. Homer made it a four-goal difference with a tally about halfway through the final stanza.

Once again, the Wings struggled in the second period allowing four goals. Thomas Vanek recorded two of those markers, but left with an upper body injury after his second goal. ESPN.com reports that he will be out for weeks with the injury. When you include Detroit's three road games -- two of which were in Sweden -- the Wings have allowed 10 combined goals in the second period alone.

Forwards Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby were tabbed as healthy scratches to make room for the fourth line, which consisted of Brad May, Darren Helm, and Patrick Eaves.

What are your thoughts on the game? Chime in by responding to the poll and/or leaving your thoughts in the comment section.

The Detroit Red Wings dropped their season opener in Stockholm, Sweden, in a 4-3 loss against the St. Louis Blues. Despite the Blues taking the first lead of the game, it was the Red Wings who dominated the first period of action outshooting St. Louis 16-7. After a high-scoring 40 minutes, the offense cooled down considerably. And what I really mean by considerably is that no one actually scored in the final stanza of play.

Jay McClement opened the scoring for St. Louis with a tally 7:54 into the first period. Detroit would end the first period up 2-1 thanks to markers from Jonathan Ericsson and Kirk Maltby. The Big E tipped the puck in with assists given to Maltby and Kris Draper. Maltby scored his first goal of the season while the team was shorthanded less than four minutes later.

Forward Ville Leino padded the Wings' lead in the waning seconds of Detroit's power play, but the Wings struggled for most of the second period. Paul Kariya would bring the Blues to within one to spark an offensive surge from St. Louis as they scored two more times in the middle frame with goals from Brandon Crombeen and another one from Kariya.

Unfortunately Ericsson left the ice near the end of the second period and would not return due to an ankle injury. His status is unknown for tomorrow's contest. The final period went without a goal with shots remaining at 8-8.

The Wings play one more game in Sweden tomorrow afternoon (3 p.m.), once again taking on the Blues, before returning back to Detroit.

What were people's thoughts about the game?

The Detroit Red Wings open their 2009-10 regular season in Sweden this afternoon as part of the 2009 Compuware Premiere series against St. Louis. The puck is slated to drop at 3 p.m. EDT (9 p.m. in Sweden) and will be televised by Versus.

Goaltender Jimmy Howard had to fill in for Chris Osgood on Wednesday in their last preseason game due to Ozzie feeling under the weather. Assuming he is feeling better, Osgood will start in goal later today.

The one question with regards to today's lineup is whether Kirk Maltby or Patrick Eaves will earn a spot on the fourth line. Head coach Mike Babcock said that decision wouldn't come until Friday.

Feel free to leave your comments on the game or the upcoming season in the comment section below. We'd love to hear from you!

The Red Wings finish up their preseason competition this afternoon with their game against Farjestads BK at 1 p.m. EDT. The game will be the first of three contests this week in Sweden. The next two will be on Friday and Saturday against St. Louis in Stockholm. While you won't be able to catch today's game on TV, you can watch the game by checking out NHL.com as they will be streaming the game live online.

Henrik Zetterberg missed all eight exhibition games due to a groin injury, but expects to play today in Sweden. MLive.com has the anticipated lineup:

Forwards (13)
Johan Franzen-Pavel Datsyuk-Tomas Holmstrom
Todd Bertuzzi-Henrik Zetterberg-Dan Cleary
Ville Leino-Valtteri Filppula-Jason Williams
Kris Draper-Justin Abdelkader-Patrick Eaves-Kirk Maltby

 

Defensemen (7)
Nicklas Lidstrom-Brian Rafalski
Niklas Kronwall-Brad Stuart
Jonathan Ericsson-Brett Lebda
Derek Meech

 

Goalies (2)
Chris Osgood
Jimmy Howard

Andreas Lilja and Darren Helm went to Sweden with the team, but will not play due to their respective injuries. Daniel Larsson also came on the trip as the team's emergency goaltender (third on the depth chart).

Last month, we mentioned that one of our bloggers Chris Hollis was leaving WIM to run his own Red Wings' blog. We started looking for a replacement as well as other ways we could improve this blog.

Today, Casey and I are proud to announce three new additions to the WIM crew just in time for the regular season. All three will continue to blog at their original sites, but will also post unique content here on WIM.

• Michael from The Production Line -- He is Hollis' replacement and will chime in on some game threads/recaps as well as a weekly feature that will tentatively be called By the Numbers for all you stat geeks.
• Kyle from Babcock's Death Stare -- When you visit BDS, you quickly realize that he is a book of knowledge when it comes to Red Wings' prospects. Kyle will be bringing over his thoughts on that very subject with a weekly prospect update here at WIM.
  
• Drew from Nightmare on Helm Street -- Drew is known for his ability to collect a large assortment of Red Wings-related news and find the humor in it. Once he returns from his trip to Sweden to see the Wings take on the Blues (lucky guy, we know), Drew will be posting a daily quick hits entry Monday through Friday with the latest news and relevant articles/blog posts about your Wings.

Casey and I hope that you will welcome these three new bloggers and be patient with them as they get used to their new surroundings. As before, there will be a game thread and recap posted for every single regular season contest and we hope these additions to the crew will make for more content yet keep the same level of quality that we've had in the past. If you have any suggestions for things you'd like to see us talk about or a feature you'd like, feel free to leave a comment or shoot us an e-mail at wingingitinmotown[@]gmail[dot]com.

After going without hockey for what seems like forever over the summer, you may be on Red Wings overload by October 10 thanks to the great lineup of content FOX Sports Detroit has planned. FSD will host Premiere Week, ten days of Red Wings shows and games starting October 1. You can view the complete TV lineup at FoxSports.com, but here is some of the programming I'm especially looking forward to:

Saturday, Oct. 3
2:00 pm - Red Wings Season Preview
2:30 pm - Red Wings Live pregame (HD)
3:00 pm - Red Wings vs. St. Louis Blues, in Stockholm, Sweden (HD)
5:30 pm - Red Wings Live postgame (HD)

Sunday, Oct. 4
5:00-6:30 pm -- Red Wings "Spotlight" episodes (Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, and Nicklas Lidstrom)

Tuesday, Oct. 6
10:00 pm - Under the Lights: Red Wings Prospect Camp

Wednesday, Oct. 7
8:30 pm - Steve Yzerman Banner Raising Ceremony (from Jan. 2, 2007)
10:00 pm - Spotlight: Steve Yzerman

Thursday, Oct. 8
6:30 pm - Wingspan (premiere)
7:00 pm - Red Wings Live pregame (HD)
7:30 pm - Red Wings vs. Chicago Blackhawks (HD)
10:00 pm - Red Wings Live postgame (HD)

Saturday, Oct. 10
6:30 pm - Red Wings Live pregame (HD)
7:00 pm - Red Wings vs. Washington Capitals (HD)
9:30 pm - Red Wings Live postgame (HD)

You may also want to note that there is no longer a Red Wings Weekly program, but fear not it is now being called WINGSPAN. I'm not sure why there was a name change for the program, but it looks like it will have the same content and features that we saw in Red Wings Weekly.

Red Wings Premiere Week also includes the debut of WINGSPAN (replacing the long-running Red Wings Weekly). WINGSPAN will encompass all things Red Wings related from player profiles to behind the scenes access, to community and grass roots hockey involvement, Red Wings history and tradition, and still include the popular 'Lessons with Larry' segments with Hall of Famer Larry Murphy and the Emmy award winning "Trev Takes On" segments with Trev Thompson squaring off against Red Wings players in various skills situations.

The preseason is always a bit rough for Wings fans. We're so excited to have the Wings back playing hockey, but it's the only time of the year (fortunately) that we can't watch every game on TV. Tonight's game will be on the MSG network and the NHL Network in Canada, but most of us will have to turn to 97.1 The Ticket or find an online stream of the game.

Ansar Khan at MLive.com has the game's lineup:

Franzen-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Leino-Filppula-Ritola
Ryno-Emmerton-Maltby
Newbury-Abdelkader-Tatar

Kronwall-Stuart
Meech-Ericsson
Kindl-Delmore

Larsson
Cloutier

Did you catch it? Dan Cloutier will play in tonight's contest, making his debut in the Winged Wheel probably midway through the game to replace netminder Daniel Larsson. He is trying to make a comeback in the NHL and if his bid to do so is not successful, he will likely head to Europe to play.

I'm excited to see Tatar in the lineup once again. I know GM Ken Holland wanted to play him over the weekend so I'm encouraged to see that he made it into a weekday game.

A few of the guys are, unfortunately, already dealing with groin injuries, including the entire Cleary-Zetterberg-Bertuzzi line, and will not be available tonight.

Henrik Zetterberg, Dan Cleary, Todd Bertuzzi and Jason Williams are dealing with nagging groin injuries, nothing serious. Zetterberg and Cleary stayed off the ice and hope to skate and play later this week. Bertuzzi and Williams practiced Monday but aren't ready to play.

"Maybe it’s 2-3 percent better today than Friday, so it’s going the right way,'' Zetterberg said. "Going to have a new evaluation tomorrow and we’ll see what that will bring.’’

The game is slated to start at 7 p.m. EDT. I know since the game isn't available on TV for many Wings fans, the game thread might be a bit slow but we'll keep it updated with scoring updates at least. If you have any comments about the game, preseason, or just want to talk about what you're looking forward to this year, we encourage you to chime in during or even before the game!

The Red Wings preseason kicks off today as they host the Philadelphia Flyers tonight at Joe Louis Arena. Coach Mike Babcock told reporters yesterday that he will play all the veterans for a total of four games (spread around) and then fill in the rest with the prospects.

Courtesy of Ansar Khan at MLive.com, we have the lineup for today's game:

Forwards:
Johan Franzen-Pavel Datsyuk-Tomas Holmstrom
Kris Draper-Justin Abdelkader-Patrick Eaves
Mattias Ritola-Kris Newbury-Jan Mursak
Johan Ryno-Cory Emmerton-Jeremy Williams

Defense
Nicklas Lidstrom-Jakub Kindl
Derek Meech-Brian Rafalski
Jonathan Ericsson-Andy Delmore

Goalies
Jimmy Howard
Daniel Larsson

Unfortunately, tonight's game is not televised so you will either have to listen to the call of the game online at 97.1 The Ticket or keep refreshing NHL.com's scores page. While it'll be nice to have it televised at a later game, it's just exciting to know that hockey season is about to begin once again. Go Wings!

Here are just a few photos from the opening practice at training camp early Sunday morning:

The Ville Leino-Valtteri Filppula-Jason Williams line led the way in the scrimmage between Team Delvecchio and Team Howe, tallying a combined nine points in the hour contest. Leino recorded two goals and two helpers in the scrimmage.

Sorry for the lack of posting. I moved back to Ann Arbor on Wednesday morning and have been without internet, which makes updating WIM kind of challenging. I don't have time to blog much about the articles that have come out since some of the players started skating earlier this week in Detroit.

I did want to point you all to the blogger roundtable questions since my last update:

• The Triple Deke asked us if we think the team will run out of gas this year after three lengthy seasons
• On Day #4 of the roundtable, Bingo Bango rounded up opinion on which player is going to have the most influential season
• Snipe Snipe, Dangle Dangle hosted today's commentary about the goaltender situation with Chris Osgood and Jimmy Howard this year

Hopefully by next Tuesday or so, I'll have functioning internet and ready to go full steam with Red Wings coverage. Until then, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend!

My brother recommended that I read a few sports-related excerpts from the book "The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives" by Leonard Mlodinow. One of the four excerpts included the following paragraph, which I thought was interesting in how you could relate it to the Wings.

A few years after Tversky's paper appeared, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist E. M. Purcell decided to investigate the nature of streaks in the sport of baseball. As I mentioned in chapter 1, he found, in the words of his Harvard colleague Stephen Jay Gould, that except for Joe DiMaggio's fifty-six-game hitting streak, "nothing ever happened in baseball above and beyond the frequency predicted by coin-tossing models." Not even the twenty-one-game losing streak experienced at the start of the 1988 season by Major League Baseball's Baltimore Orioles. Bad players and teams have longer and more frequent streaks of failure than great players and great teams, and great players and great teams have longer and more frequent streaks of success than lesser players and lesser teams. But that is because their average failure or success rate is higher, and the higher the average rate, the longer and more frequent are the streaks that randomness will produce. To understand these events, you need only to understand the tossing of coins."

So maybe that helps to explain why the Wings are so successful? 18 straight playoff appearances = longer and more frequent streaks of success? I'm not a stats person by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought that was interesting.

It's the second day of the 11-day extravaganza known as the Red Wings Blogger Roundtable. Today's question is hosted by George over at Snapshots where he asks us to chime in with our thoughts on the Wings' offseason signings.

If the Red Wings had signed a smallish 20-goal-scorer with an inconsistent work ethic, a power forward on the decline who has bounced around for a few years, if both were familiar to the coaching staff and GM, and their names were not Jason Williams or Todd Bertuzzi, would you feel more comfortable with Ken Holland's work in signing two players who can post 15-20 goals and 40-50 points in "I really wanted to stay with Columbus" Williams, "I have a freight train's worth of baggage and am a divisive force" Bertuzzi, and 10-15 goals and tremendous potential in Patrick Eaves for a sum total of $3.5 million?

While you will have to head over to Snapshots to read my answer along with the many other great DRW bloggers' thoughts, here is an interesting yet true analogy that George makes.

My take, short version: The Red Wings are truly the "Belle Tire of hockey," because they get more mileage out of older and "re-tread" players than any other organization in hockey.

Tomorrow's discussion will take place over at The Triple Deke. We'll be offering up our thoughts on whether the Wings' three straight lengthy postseason runs in combination with the Olympics in 2010 will affect our team this season.

On Another Note

I would like to make sure that WIM's blogroll in the left sidebar is up to date. I know there are a fair amount of Red Wings blogs out there. If I'm missing your's or one of your favorite reads (and that includes general Detroit sports blogs that talk DRW hockey on a consistent basis), please leave a comment or send me an e-mail to wingingitinmotown[@]gmail[dot]com. And if there is a general hockey blog or a team blog that you have to read daily or at least weekly, feel free to send me that too. Thanks!

Years ago, the Red Wings bloggers participated in a roundtable in which each blogger asked a question and every participant responded via e-mail with the Q&A going up on their blog. We decided to bring it back this year and due to the growth in numbers, the posts will be lengthier in nature so that each of the 11 bloggers, including myself, can have their say.

Be sure to head to Snapshots tomorrow as George Malik hosts Day #2 of our blogger roundtable with discussions centering around Todd Bertuzzi and Jason Williams.

Now onto my three-part question concerning the Winter Olympics...

This is a big year for the Wings with a chance to return to the Finals for the third straight year while overcoming the loss of 90 goals, but also an opportunity for many players to participate in what may be the last NHL Olympics. This naturally leads me to a few questions:

Which team will you root for in the 2010 Winter Games? You have your own country, but only one Wing on the roster with USA Hockey. Half of Sweden's squad could be Red Wings players. And then Team Canada's management is largely composed of Detroit's staff and there's a chance Cleary could make the team.

Tyler @ The Triple Deke: I think first, I'll be rooting that nobody gets injured.  So in some respects I'll be watching the Olympics like an anxious mother.  Secondly I'll be rooting for USA, as I feel every American should, but I'm not going to go all self-righteous about it.  After that I'll be pulling for Sweden, not just because of all the Wings, but because they've got some other guys I enjoy watching as well.  Same goes for Russia.

Bill @ Abel to Yzerman: I am absolutely conflicted.  I have no idea and I plan to play it by ear.  I've been looking into the logistics of attaining temporary Swedish citizenship just so I won't have to deal with the guilt of rooting against my country, but that's proving to be a difficult task considering my day job.  I'm serious. I have no idea what I'm going to do.  No other fan base has this kind of dilemma.  Screw it.  I want the Swedes to win it and defeat Canada in the Final, but only after Dan Cleary scores the game winner in the semi-final against Russia, short-handed....because leaders play the PK.

I closed my eyes and typed that paragraph above. My opinion may change after my next beer. I have no idea.  Christy, you're a sadistic woman for asking me that.

Chris @ Motown Wings: As much as I want to see the Wings players do well in the Olympics, there's only one team I'm pulling for in Vancouver: USA. National pride trumps my local loyalties and I think it would be absolutely incredible to watch the Red, White and Blue bring home a gold medal in hockey. Will it happen? Doubtful. In that case, I'll go for whichever squad has the most remaining Wings.

George @ Snapshots: I'm a mercenary when it comes to the Olympics and the Red Wings. I tend to root for the team that has the most Red Wings on its roster, and I think that the Swedes have the best combination of superstar talent and honest-to-goodness depth players from the Eliteserien willing to play supporting roles that they can function as a more smoothly-oiled machine than the top-heavy Canadians, brash young Americans, and slick-but-thin Russians. I think that the Canadians will finish very well, but the pressure on that team's going to distract the players.

Continue reading this post »

Winging It In Motown now has a fan page on Facebook, which you can check out by clicking on this link. We'd love to generate some discussion over there, but you'll need to become a WIM fan first!

Looking for New Blogger(s)

In addition to the Facebook announcement, one of our bloggers (motownchollis) is leaving WIM to start his own blog called Motown Wings. While we wish him the best of luck with his new endeavor, that leaves us a blogger short! If you are interested in joining the WIM crew, please feel free to drop me an e-mail at wingingitinmotown[@]gmail[dot]com. We are interested in bringing more than one blogger on board as we'd love to try to do a few new things this season and could use some extra help!

The Red Wings held their version of a fan convention, which they called HockeyFest, this past Friday and Saturday. The event included player appearances (captain Nicklas Lidstrom, Kris Draper, Tomas Holmstrom, Dan Cleary, and Jason Williams), a tour of the locker room, a photo opportunity with the zamboni and Al the Octopus, a special Q&A session with players and management, alumni autograph session, and hockey memorabilia exhibits.

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend due to a serious illness in my family and was in South Carolina. As a result, I'm going to have to forward you along to Kris' detailed account of the player Q&A sessions at Snipe Snipe, Dangle Dangle.

--When someone asked if it was frustrating to have goals called back because of goalie interference, Lidstrom cited an example from the ’08 playoffs against Dallas. Holmstrom said, “You still mad at that?” Lidstrom replied, “Now that you mention it, yes.”
--Fan: “I saw that on NHL.com Sidney Crosby was voted the NHL’s biggest wuss. Do you agree?” Homer: “Yah.” Then everyone laughed. It’s also possible that he was joking. But I like to think he wasn’t. ...

--When all of the injuries were disclosed at the end of the playoffs, I seem to remember reading that Draper had torn cartilage in his neck. Apparently he fractured his thyroid, which is a common injury from strangulation. The injury happened in a game against Buffalo, and he was supposed to be out 6-8 weeks. However, he said that after the Wings lost Game 6 to Anaheim, he pushed to get back in the lineup even though it had only been 5 weeks.

According to The Detroit News, it sounds like Lidstrom's elbow isn't 100% but has improved during the offseason.

"My elbow is doing OK," Lidstrom said. "I've been trying to rest for a few weeks, healing up, then you have to start doing rehab, trying to build all the muscles up around the area that's hurting. It's slowly getting better but I think it's something that it'll be part of the rest of my career, I think."

Update: The Detroit News added a tidbit from the Q&A session with Steve Yzerman at HockeyFest. He addressed a fan, who asked what he would do should he receive an offer to be another team's GM.

"I really enjoy being involved in the management of the team," Yzerman said. "I enjoy working with Kenny and Jim (Nill, assistant GM) and Ryan Martin (salary cap) in the front office. I really find it interesting. Being involved with Team Canada is something I really enjoy as well. I feel I'm a relatively young guy in this business and I have a lot to learn.

"To answer your question, I'm very content doing what I'm doing right now and if the right opportunity did come along at some point, I'd probably consider it."

Peter Adler, a reporter for the Edmonton Journal, reports via their Cult of Hockey blog that USA Hockey and the NHL are the reasons for the IIHF blocking Jiri Hudler's request for a transfer card. He explains that three groups must sign off their approval for a transfer card to go through -- the new national federation (for Hudler's situation, that's Russia), the outgoing national federation (USA), and the player. Obviously Russia and Hudler have signed off, which leaves USA Hockey to blame. Alder notes that the outgoing national federation typically refers to the "relevant league," which would be the NHL in this case.

As WIM discussed earlier, an unconfirmed report suggests that the KHL may ignore the lack of a card and encourage Hudler to play anyways. Adler's article informs us as to what will happen should Hudler do so and the outcome (in an Olympic year) may discourage such an action.

Without the ITC, Hudler can not play for Dynamo in the KHL and this has nothing to do with an IIHF-sanctioned game. He is free to play with the Czech national team in the upcoming EHT tournament and he could in theory play in the Olympics without any ITC, which refers to club affiliation only.

BUT – if Hudler plays a regular season game in the KHL without an approved ITC, then the player, the national association (RUS) and the club are subject to a catalogue of IIHF suspensions and fines. Dynamo plays its first KHL regular season game on September 11 so there is still time to resolve this issue.

So if that scares off the KHL from allowing Hudler to play, he would only be allowed to return to the Red Wings. Unfortunately, we have no room for his salary under the cap because it appeared to be a done deal that Huds was playing in Russia. This development would put the Wings in an incredibly difficult and sucky situation. Matt at On the Wings succinctly says that "this is crap."

Allan Muir of Sports Illustrated agrees, stating that he bets GM Ken Holland "wishes that these groups weren't working so diligently to make their point with his property."

Fitting Hudler in would require a solution more elegant than burying a couple of veterans in the minors and promoting a couple of minimum wage kids to fill their spots. Holland would have to foist a significant salary on another team and take nothing but picks/prospects in return, and we've all seen how tough those deals have been to make this summer.

Holland's only real option here is to dump Tomas Holmstrom. His $2.25 million hit won't cover Hudler's, but it's close. His contract expires after this season (good for the acquiring side) and he still has a rep as a big-game player, though he's not always as visible from October through April. ...

Holland is widely regarded as one of, if not the best, GMs in the game. Thanks to this latest round of international intrigue, it looks like he's about to get another chance to prove it.

None of us wanted to see Hudler leave to play in Russia, but this isn't how we wanted to keep him in Detroit. (1) You don't want to have a player who wishes he was somewhere else and has stated that. (2) We'll have to move some serious salary, meaning someone that is actually of value to our squad, or we have to trade Hudler for not much in return. I get that the NHL and USA Hockey want to make a point, but at the expense of the Wings? I hope the KHL says bring it on and encourages Hudler to play because I don't want to even think about what will happen to our team if they don't. Things could get messy real quick.

According to the Cult of Hockey (which referenced a Sovetski Sport article), the IIHF denied Jiri Hudler a transfer card. Since the transfer card is what allows players to play in IIHF-sanctioned games, the lack of a card supposedly prevents Hudler from playing in the KHL as it is an IIHF-sanctioned league. If he has to return to the NHL, it would completely screw over the Wings when it comes to the salary cap.

The IIHF's stance is baffling to Alexander Medvedev, chief of the KHL, because both the Detroit Red Wings, Hudler's NHL team, and the Czech federation have given permission to Hudler to play for Dynamo, according to Medvedev.

An unconfirmed report (via The Production Line) suggests that the KHL doesn't care and will allow Hudler to play anyways. I never thought I'd say this, but let's hope that's the case or GM Ken Holland is going to have a tough couple of weeks trying to get under the cap before the deadline. The same person gives the reason why the IIHF denied Hudler a transfer card:

KHL officials: "IIHF did not give transfer card to Hudler. Their explanation was Hudler has a contract with Detroit, which is laughable."

So if Hudler does play for Dynamo Moscow against the wishes of the IIHF, he would likely lose his rights to represent his country in the Olympics. Is Hudler willing to do that for a big paycheck? We know it won't bother the KHL, but what about Happy Huds?

If that isn't the case, there is an appeal process as Babcock's Death Stare notes:

The only thorn I see in that plan is, as the article states, both the Red Wings and the Czech hockey federation gave Hudler the okay to play in the KHL. In fact, he’s already played in several exhibition games. To me, that would make it seem like an appeal might be pretty successful since you have the backing of most of the parties involved. However, the NHL did put up a stink about it and they might be able to flex some muscle on the IIHF. And I’m sure if Detroit had the choice between having Hudler at the contract he was awarded in arbitration and giving those minutes to Jason Williams, well, then sorry Williams, but you’re on the 4th line again. Detroit could complicate the arbitration process, I would think.

As Matt at On the Wings asks, what took the IIHF so long to rule on this?

I am out of town this weekend and my internet access is not consistent to say the least. I'll try to update this post as more news comes out, but if it's a bit delayed that's why.