vladdy16

And I don't have a big problem with that. Would it be nice if ticket prices were more reasonable? Absolutely. But the Wings were hemorrhaging money when he bought them, and he invested millions of his own $ to get the Wings where they are today. It's time to reap the rewards of his faith, effort and open checkbook as far as I'm concerned. After all, hockey is a business, not just entertainment, as I am so often reminded here. Also, word on the street is he is willing to foot the majority of the bill, if not all, for a new arena, which many here have been begging for for a long time. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm not buying enough Little Caesar's to help him out with that.

I hadn't heard from the Fan's Association in quite a while, but I just got an email from them today that included a fan survey regarding things such as the two-line pass, players' portion of profits and fighting. Here's the link if anyone is interested in participating: Survey says......

Please comment on the topic at hand and not only about the validity or lack thereof of the thread. If you don't have an opinion about someone else being interested in Parise as well, please move along.

I received an email today from the "official" NHL fan tickets partner. As far as I can tell, this is legit. It was sent to me by the NHL since I signed up for WC alerts. I wanted to share this for those out of state with more money than they know what to do with. Here's the body to the email: BE THERE WHEN THE GAME RETURNS OUTDOORS GET NHL WINTER CLASSIC® Fan Ticket Packages NOW Global Event Forum is proud to offer Official NHL 2013 Winter Classic® Fan Ticket Packages. This year’s edition features the Detroit Red Wings hosting their longtime rival the Toronto Maple Leafs – outdoors at The Big House, in Ann Arbor. Global Event Forum has a variety of hotel + ticket or ticket + pre-game party packages available. Make plans now to see your favorite current and former players outdoors and be part of all the exciting hockey action – it’s going to be a classic. MAKE EVERY GAME AN EVENT • Perfect for you and your buddies, a family trip or bachelor(ette) party • Reserve your packages now to guarantee your group’s seats are together • Attend the 2013 NHL All Star Weekend® • Check out Global Event Forum’s ticket packages for the best sports and music worldwide Official NHL® Events Fan Package Partner This is the link to packages.

Just got my first glimpse of The Cup. Chills, I tell ya, chills. GO KINGS GO!!!

I'd rather do the "Molson" Ice Box if it comes down to that.

The Preds have refused in their entire history to spend higher than the cap floor, IIRC. Why would they loosen up the purse strings so much now?

I hate to burst your self-righteous bubble, but there's no personal attack in here. It is, however, oozing sarcasm, which last I checked wasn't against forum guidelines. I do agree that if the Wings sign Suter, that makes the thought of Weber being a Wing even more distasteful to the Preds, if that's at all possible. They will break the bank to keep him, not having learned from Columbus' mistake.

I'm afraid it will end up being Amway Arena or something equally disgusting. I only hope they're very careful, considering Detroit got burned with Comerica Park and then they pulled their corporate offices out of Michigan right after.

I received the same e-mail, and I'd bet the farm that they guarantee you will have the opportunity to purchase tickets. I would suspect the real issue would be what tickets are left by the time you get your chance.

I don't know that the Kings are dominating overall - from what I've seen, they're playing much like the Wings, moments of brillance, moments of sitting back. And that "power play" was all the Devils. Maybe I'm wrong and just expected the Kings to come out and spank NJ all the way to the draft and so am disappointed, but NJ's defense definitely came to play tonight. Their checking is phenominal.

I would absolutely have preferred the Kings to win at home as well, and to get that sweep. However, the more I think about it, it wouldn't break my heart to have them celebrate on NJ home ice, just to satisfy the evil part of me. It would definitely be better for the Kings to take it at home though.

Absolutely. I had planned on 150 per ticket, but it looks like the 190 is where I'd like to be. I have no issue with that whatsoever. Hey, if the car payment is late, who cares? It's the Winter Classic with Detroit and Toronto.

You are a wealth of information and I almost always appreciate your links, but it would be great if you could provide a quick blurb as to what your links relate to when you post them. What these journalists don't explore often if at all are the teams that were involved and possible reasons why ratings are higher or lower than previous years. You could spend a couple pages at least exploring those reasons alone.

WAY off topic here, guys. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.....

Good lord, guy, quit taking the steroids. Good physical hockey is great - gooning it up isn't. If you like that kind of rough stuff so much, just stick to cage fighting.

You're assuming all of us are thrilled Bert's here. Not all of us practice a double standard. And as evidenced by the hiring of Derian Hatcher & Todd Bertuzzi, we don't have a say in who wears the Winged Wheel and who doesn't. The fact that some of us would prefer to not sign goons doesn't make us bad fans; it makes us decent people.

To get our minds on more fun things, we're going to have a contest. From the picture below, guess how many Wings shirts there are in my closet. All shirts in this picture are guaranteed to be Wings shirts*. (What's sad is that this is only a little more than half of what I actually have.) The winner is who comes closest; going over probably won't be an issue. Trust me, you won't believe the actual number, which has been texted to Matt. The winner will receive a mini Wings fan pack, which will include a Red Wings shopping bag (recyclable), a bag of Red Wings peanuts purchased at the Joe April 17 and a car flag given at Nick Lidstrom's last game at JLA, also on the 17th. * One shirt is Konstantinov's Russian jersey; I consider this a Wings shirt.

Not a bad idea. Since I have 2 of the flags and the shopping bags, I'm good there. I can't get 2 of the other little items I was going to put in, so I'm thinking I'll skip the peanuts and other stuff completely. It's off season (), so Wings items are hard to find now. hahahahahahahahha! You're so funny! Do you have any idea how much is invested in my Wings collection? Actually, neither do I come to think of it....

Oh, so close! 59. This leaves me in a quandary. I have no tie breaker; I considered going with first post, but I'm not thrilled with that idea. While I normally am a proponent of "first come, first serve," this wasn't something everyone was aware of at the same time, so it doesn't seem completely fair. If you two will give me a day or two, I'll come up with an equitable solution. You're really bad at guessing games, because it's closer to two closetfulls!

I was completely on the Weber bandwagon until he manhandled Hank. Even if he were a Wing and did that to a Pred, I'd still lose all respect for him. And if Hank's captain, what would Weber do to make things right? Hank can say all is forgiven, but Hank's only human; what would it take to actually work well together?

I don't get the ire here. If he's a 20-cent punk, who cares? He's not our 20-cent punk to worry about. I don't see him as disgracing the game - he's a kid not handling wealth and pressure well. It's not like he drunk-vomited on the President during the Hawks trip to the White House. And for the vast majority who are too young to know the phrase, it's supposed to be a "two-bit punk"; I just personalized it for him.

Tim Who?

It all depends on how long I can hold out. Probably Sunday. I've been trying to come up with a tie breaker in case it's needed, but I haven't thought of anything good yet. If anyone has tiebreaker suggestions, please PM them to me. I will tell you there are one or two people who are very, very close.

I will always remember this game as the one where I almost got alcohol poisoning. I had a group watching at Hockeytown Cafe. My brilliant idea before the game started was to do a shot for every Wings goal. Hilarity ensued, and many, many lemon drops. Had a Roy voodoo doll hanging from the TV cord and red and white push pins. A guy on the street was handing out the "Aure - Roy" papers after the game.