johnnyoski

I'd like to see Flip on the top line...let Drapes center the 3rd line and either insert Downey there or bump Drake up and put Downey on the 4th line.

Agree... I thought Kopecky played with a little more grit and toughness last year before he got hurt. He hasn't shown any resemblence of that in the first two games this season. That probably explains why he's only getting 6 minutes/game.

Should beat Dallas pretty easily. Boston and Montreal at the #4 and #1 seeds will be tough.

I got the game on FSN Detroit but it was blacked out on Center Ice. Not sure why it was blacked out of both channels for you.

You all have to stop getting so excited. People will be missing games due to injury all season long so I'm sure he'll get some ice at some point.

Yup...a one time fee.

$149....ordered mine yesterday.

From a selfish point of view I hope he doesn't get claimed so we can keep him, but at the same time even though he likes it here I'm sure he'd rather be playing more often if it meant going to another team.

The early part of the schedule definitely isn't an easy one for the Ducks. The Wings will get a nasty trip to the west coast in about a week.

Is the first one with Coxe wearing the home yellow jersey? They had two awesome scraps.

Yeah I'm surprised to see Pittsburgh getting theirs handed to them too.

Funniest part about that one was the homer announcers! After Probert whips on Quintal they say "What a great night for Quintal", like he did anything except act like a punching bag. And what's with Lazarro laying on the ice for 10 minutes? This is one of my favorite Probie fights. Micky R makes it even better.

That's cool... Just make sure he isn't an imposter like the guy going around 10 years ago telling everyone he was Federov's brother.

Here's an interesting Q&A that Drew Sharp had today. Its taken directly from the Freep. Grosse Pointe: Drew, besides ticket prices, do you think the poor turnout for the Wings opener is a reflection of the absence of Yzerman or do you think it may be time for the Wings to build a new arena? Drew Sharp (3:04 p.m.): -- The Wings absolutely need a new arena and they also need the NHL to assist in underwriting some of the construction costs. It's imperative for the NHL's long term survival to make sure that one of its strongest brands -- the Detroit Red Wings -- has facilities that are indicative of its importance. Bettman is worried more about keeping a garbage franchise in Nashville. I also believe the Wings suffer from a lack of dominant North American stars that the locals can more easily relate to. Lidstrom, Datsyuk and Zetterberg are tremendous players and equally tremendous people but Detroit remains inherently a provincial, blue collar town that better relates to those who are more like their neighbors. That's not Kenny Holland's fault. His job is keep a winning team on the ice and he's done that through mining European talent like nobody else. When you're consistently drafting low like he does, he's getting players who slipped lower in the draft than they should have and those guys are usually European players. I usually disagree with the guy but I've gotta admit he's absolutely right about Bettman. He's spending too much time worrying about expansion and relocation that he has other core issues like this he should be addressing.

Yeah, I would think they would be there pretty soon. That's where I got mine last year.

I thought the VS high-def feed actually looked better than the FSN one usually does.

Great to see you doing this again this season. Friday: Pittsburgh @ Carolina Anaheim @ Columbus NY Islanders @ Buffalo Washington @ Atlanta Boston @ Dallas San Jose @ Vancouver Saturday: Montreal @ Toronto NY Rangers @ Ottawa Buffalo @ NY Islanders Carolina @ Washington New Jersey @ Florida Anaheim @ Pittsburgh Atlanta @ Tampa Bay Philadelphia @ Edmonton Dallas @ Nashville Columbus @ Minnesota Detroit @ Chicago Boston @ Phoenix Vancouver @ Calgary St.Louis @ Los Angeles Sunday: San Jose @ Colorado

This would be a better question for Perry. That looked like the most lackluster, could care less, shootout attempt I've ever seen.

Not concerned after 1 game. I thought Franzen had a couple of good chances. Give the chemistry a few more games.

First off I think Drew Sharp is a poor sports journalist. His columns are usually more opinion than fact. He did bring up a couple of obvious theories but calling HockeyTown dead after one game shows his ignorance. I also agree with most of the previous posters that its not just one thing thats keeping fans from the games. The theory about us fans being spoiled is a good one. For an example look what happened to the Atlanta Braves. Their baseball team won the division or made the playoffs some 20 consecutive years and guess what...they weren't close to selling out playoff games towards the tail end of that streak. Its all about the people running the team having the vision to change with the times. They've done a great job putting a great team on the ice post-salary cap and I guess they thought that was enough to keep the people coming in at those prices. Then the top brass thought setting 200 tickets/game at $9 would be the answer. Well I think its time for them to go back to the drawing board.

Bert did get lucky that the puck ended up on his stick. The pass wasn't even intended for him, it bounced off a skate. To his credit though he buried the shot and did a nice job setting up Getzlaf for their 2nd goal.

Rochester Mills, Paint Creek Tavern, Hamlin Pub are all good choices. Just a heads up on the Mills, they only serve their micro-brew, no Bud, Labatt, etc.

I've gotta admit with the Tigers still playing at this time last year it took some of my attention away from the Wings home opender. But dang, opening night against the Ducks! I can't wait to crack a brew and watch the game on the tube tonight. Prediction: Too many top players missing from the Ducks and they've been flying a lot of miles in the past few days. The Wings want to prove they should have won last year's playoff series. Wings 5 Ducks 2

I'm with ya there man! Add up all the change I dropped on playoff tickets, exhibition games and even games early in the season (during the Tigers run) and I should have my own spot in the Party Deck suite. In all seriousness I can't believe a Wings home opener against the defending Cup champs isn't sold out. Lots of things factor into this.

This was one of the most interesting reads about the Wings in a long time. Think their not ansy to get back to the Eastern Conference? It was also good to see Illitch acknowledge the problem with selling seats during last year's playoffs. Now the question is 'Will he act on it?'