Tonight's Game Against Chicago

So tonight we had our first big test against Chicago. They supposedly improved a lot during the off season and are gunning to be among the big dogs in the division this year. Pretty impressive for a team that just started televising their home games last year...

The matchup is also big because these are the two teams that will be playing the outdoor game on New Years Day this year and they took the opportunity of their first meeting to unveil the commemorative jerseys they will be wearing for that game.

You are of course familiar with the commemorative jersey, it seems almost every team has had a third jersey at one time or another over the years since Gary has taken charge of the league. Foppish jerseys that the team will wear for a few games so they can sell them as legit jerseys, yet way more fashionable than the dorky colors they usually wear. Most of the time they are mainly black and look like the sort of thing your new gang could wear as "colors". I'm sure it's an awesome new source of revenue!

So I heard they were going to have the big unveiling during the game tonight and I was really annoyed! I hate the special jerseys and all the other crap Gary is doing to increase revenue that doesn't involve putting the BEST possible hockey product out there.

Let's just try to get through the stupid marketing hype and move on to the game shall we? I've grown bored with this junk and I hate Gary and his marketing gurus for making this important. I'm trying not to rant here. Let's just play hockey shall we?

Getting it out of the way, here it is:

Now we can finally move on to the game.

Some stuff happened and the Wings were down early. I feel like Conklin is a pretty good pickup as a backup, but he's let a few too many in early.

That jersey is sort of cool in a way. For a stupid evil marketing ploy I mean...

Some other stuff is going on and now it's like 4-2 Chicago or something after two periods.

That's the sharpest retro jersey I've ever seen! I like everything about it. It's got history behind it and it's own sense of style. Very nice!

Some more stuff happens and the Wings score early and fast in the third and soon it's tied 4-4 and some time after that the Wings are up 5-4. I think Homer did something but I'd have to look it up. He has a 6 game point streak now.

So just because I hate this marketing idea so much, I started looking for more info before the OT started. I found this: To pre-order your Red Wings retro jersey call 1-800-WINGS-25. Jerseys available for pre-orders are very limited. So don't delay, order today!

I couldn't exactly find a price anywhere though. I'm sure they're like $20 or something. Just go ahead and call and have your credit card handy.

I managed to stop checking this masterpiece out long enough to notice that somebody scored in the shootout to give the Wings the win. Yay Wings!

Fantasy Homer

I think I have a handle on what to do with Homer during a fantasy season.

You definitely want him during the draft and during any early trades. Don't be afraid to overvalue him a bit. He's a monster early in the season! He has 5 goals in 5 games and he's still on track for 82 goals this year.

It's no biggie if you overpay a bit to get him early, since he's going to put up some crazy numbers. You just need to remember to trade him somewhere around mid-January while his numbers are incredible and before his back starts killing him.

The pretty numbers should be decent trade bait, it's all about timing!

Time for the NHL to Head Northwest?

Kuklaskorner links to this article today.

Very well written and he makes a good case. For the life of me, I can't understand how we don't have a team out that way while we do have teams in Atlanta, Tampa Bay, and Dallas.

And So It Begins...

But first it ends....

The banner was raised and the time to do it all over again was at hand. This was the last moment to reflect on those 7 trophies earned by the team and individuals within it, as well as the one big special trophy that has spent the summer with the Wings all around the world.

The banner went up and that is the only trophy we get to keep, the rest have to be earned again. It was the very last time we could look at Hossa and Conklin and give them a, "Neener Neener Neener!". Once the banner was up and the puck was dropped, they became full fledged citizens of Hockeytown for the next 8 months at least. We will be living and dying with them from here on out.

The ceremony was great by the way. Nobody does this sort of thing better than the Wings. Nobody else has as much practice I guess.

For those of you who missed it, there was a nicely edited version of the ceremony released on YouTube:





By the way, one of the finest editing choices used for this video was the choice to use the CBC Hockey Night in Canada broadcast rather than VS. Who in the world decided VS should get to broadcast the opening game with the banner raising ceremony? I am really at a loss here. Mickey and Ken are the ONLY ones who should have been considered to cover this. It's bad enough they don't get to do the last rounds of the playoffs, but this was just too much!

So after the ceremony, there was the game, and yes the Wings lost. It's not really such a huge calamity except for the fact that it destroyed my prediction that they would go 82-0. (I predict that every year, and some day I will be right!)

Homer scored the first goal, and then the second to keep the Wings in it. I was really hoping to see him get the hat trick, especially when they went on the power play with half a minute left and Osgood pulled for a 6 on 4, but it was not to be.

It's great to see Homer exploding out of the gate just like he did last year. He is on pace to score 164 goals. He led the team in goals into early January last year if I remember right and didn't really fall out of contention until his injury in February. He is just incredible when he's reasonably healthy. The problem is it's tough to stay reasonably healthy when you have to score your second goal of the game/season in this type of situation:



That's Homer against the entire Maple Leafs team and yet he still managed to score!
Nice defensive use of the left knee there by the Leaf defender.

Ah well, 81 games to go and the next one is only 2 hours away.
Let's Go Red Wings!!!