dadair

You do realize that McLellan worked with the offense, don't you?

Agreed about Stock, but at least he's confined to a couple minutes during intermission. Once Coach's Corner is over I'm usually flipping channels until the period starts. I don't watch Hotstove much anymore since Strachan is back on. I'm still waiting for his claims that Lindros to Detroit is a lock and the Lightning are moving to Auburn Hills to come true.

May 3, 1987 - After falling behind 3 games to 1 in the Norris Final, the Wings come back to win the series in 7.

It's too bad they can't (or won't) include US viewers watching CBC. Most knowledgeable hockey fans in the Detroit area watch CBC over any US national broadcast of hockey. I bet if they included CBC viewers the Wings would have easily won the ratings battle.

For those of you going who have never been to Wrigley, DRESS WARM!!! I've been to games at Wrigley in late April with the temp in the 50's outside the stadium. When you get inside the stadium the temp drops easily 20 degrees. At one of the games in April we went to our beers actually formed slush on the surface! If the wind is blowing in off the lake it's going to be brutal.

It's the Atlanta Braves syndrome, winning gets boring. Now, the regular season doesn't mean a thing. There isnt' much for the casual fan to get up for, especially games against Columbus, Nashville and Phoenix in January and February. What competition do they have? About all they have is to see how many points they can get in the regular season. Four Cups in 11 years means regular seasons and the first two rounds of the playoffs are meaningless. The economy has some to do with it, but the Wings crapped on their fans for so long that getting them back is proving tough. The Pistons did it in the mid-90's by lowering all their ticket prices and marketing toward a younger crowd. The Wings kept raising their prices. After the lockout the Wings payroll was cut immensely, but they didnt' lower ticket prices which really ticked off many fans.

Agreed, octopi are only for the playoffs.

The reason they're obstructed view is because once you get past row 24 in the corners the seats aren't on a riser. Row 25, 26 & 27 are all on a platform behind each other. It would be like sitting on the main floor for a concert. As long as you stand you'll be fine.

Johnny Bower Mike Palmateer Jim Rutherford Giles Gilbert

My $0.02 worth. The first criteria for me is HOF. If you're not in the HOF you're not worthy of having your number retired. Yzerman and Lidstrom are LOCKS for the Hall. Fedorov, more than likely won't make the Hall. As much as Shanahan did in the Winged Wheel, the fact that Detroit was one of five teams he played for makes retiring his number mute. In the 82 year history of the Wings only 6 players are in the rafters and I like that. You have to be very special to join the group already up there and, to me, Fedorov isn't that "special."

Yeah, that's it. I was reading the string about the banners and didn't specify that in my reply. Sorry.

They were also selling them at all the souvenir stands last night for $3. They still had a couple boxes left at the one we bought from so they should be selling them at future games.

Just to throw a little gasoline on the fire, Sports Business Daily reported one topic on the Board of Governors meeting is.......EXPANSION. Yep, you read correctly. Expansion into Las Vegas and Kansas City.

You're not living in the real world. In case you haven't noticed, professional sports no longer cater to the individual fan. The order of importance to all of the four major sports are: Corporate sponsors Corporate season ticket holders Premium seat season ticket holders All other season ticket holders If you think it's bad now, just wait for the future. You're going to start seeing all the prime seats be all-inclusive, i.e. your ticket price includes food, drink, souvenirs, etc. Some of the NBA teams have already started and it's spreading to the other majors. The price per game is usually a few hundred dollars. If you really want to see how the sports industry works, and where their focus is, get a free trial subscription to the Sports Business Journal. It's a trade paper for the industry. The days of marketing to individual game purchasers is OVER and the teams don't really care about that type of tickt buyer anymore. It's all about corporate relationships.

That's a moot point as every game is sold out. Even if there are tickets available through Ticketmaster in advance, they're gone before the game starts. If they were only selling 12,000 tickets you could make the argument that the ticket prices are too high. The fact that people have tickets and aren't going is more troubling even with the team near the top of the standings. It's along the lines of the Atlanta Braves. They won the NL East 13 consecutive years and you could get a walk-up ticket to a playoff game. It's about expectations at this point, the Wings will be in the playoffs and the regular season is meaningless.