Red Wings win three straight
After what seemed like a miserable start to the season, the Detroit Red Wings are trying to make it right with three straight wins to end the weekend. They have defeated the San Jose Sharks, 2-1, on Wednesday, the Dallas Stars (which was their first loss at home) on Friday, and then the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night.
Read the first sentence of this AP article…ouch!
Detroit avoided losing to another St. Louis team, getting two goals from Tomas Holmstrom off setups from Pavel Datsyuk in the Red Wings’ 3-2 victory over the Blues on Saturday night.
St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, fresh from a five-game World Series victory over the Tigers, dropped the ceremonial first puck. It failed to spur the Blues, who have lost eight of nine to the Wings the last two seasons.
The Wings next game is Wednesday, which I will be at, against the Calgary Flames. Updates should definitely pick up after my organic chemistry exam on Tuesday evening. Yes, we have an exam Halloween night. Stupid orgo.
Detroit News articles
10/29 - Red Wings overcome Blues
10/29 - Wings win 2nd straight
10/26 - Wings wake up
Detroit Free Press articles
10/29 - Manny Thanks
10/29 - Team puts emphasis on penalty kill
10/28 - Detroit 4, Dallas 3: Sorry, Marty
10/28 - Coach: Don’t ask, just shoot
10/26 - Detroit 2, San Jose 1: Powered Up
Whalers 0, Rangers 3
Last night the Plymouth Whalers lost to the Kitchener Rangers by a score of 3-0. It was the Rangers fourth straight victory.
The Whalers are now 8-5-0-0 and play today (Sunday) in Saginaw at 2pm. Today’s game will be their third game in three days (Whalers beat Toronto, 3-0, on Friday).
Stubhub is sweet
Yes, another pro-Stubhub post. I should get paid for all of these postive feedbacks. Anyways, I’m going to the Wings game next Wednesday (the night after my two exams and a paper are due) to take a break. The game is against Calgary so I get to see an old fav, Darren McCarty, back in the Joe.
The best part is that it cost me $45 for two mid upper bowl tickets combined AND shipping. Yep. It would typically cost me $44 for one of those tickets, but lately I’ve been finding “deals” on Stubhub. And I have met a fellow U of M gal who likes hockey a ton - she even does stats for the U of M hockey team! So I’m very excited and it’ll make up for this sucky week.
As if being sick and having all these exams and paper to prepare for wasn’t bad enough, my knee is going all painful. I have this knot on my knee and it’s very hard and I think it’s my screw coming out. Eek. So I have to go to Cincinnati next Thursday to have it checked out. Yuck.
And this is such a pathetic hockey blog post…sorry guys! The end of next week will be better, I promise!
On the Wings has moved
If you usually check out On the Wings and have noticed that OtW on blogspot has turned into an effective persuasion ad or whatever it is, well I have news for you. Matt & Brian are hoping to return that back to normal for archive reasons, but they have finally moved to their own domain!
You can check out OtW at their new website address: http://www.onthewingsblog.com/
I’m not hiding…
I promise I have not been in hiding because of the Red Wings subpar performances…below .500. Yikes. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been feeling like crap and have been getting some extra sleep causing me to miss part or all of the games that happened on the west coast. I still stand behind my team, but I’m hoping some home games can get this team headed in the right direction.
Hopefully, I’ll be feeling better soon & I have a physiology and organic chemistry exam next Monday and Tuesday respectively plus an English paper due on Halloween while working the Whalers’ game on Friday and Saturday so yeah, I’m going to be pretty busy this week.
Go Detroit Tigers! 1-1 in the World Series! 
Michigan 20, Iowa 6
What started out as a slow and very frustrating game, ended on a positive note with the University of Michigan Wolverines remaining undefeated, 8-0!! The U of M football team defeated Iowa, 20-6.
It’s been so much more fun to be a Michigan football fan this season compared to last year’s 7-5 disaster.
Unfortunately, the Detroit Tigers aren’t having so much luck. They are down 7-1 to the St. Louis Cardinals at the end of the seventh inning.
George calls out Wings’ PR
George Malik of Snapshots wrote a piece about the Red Wings’ PR, which you can read at Kukla’s Korner.
I thought it was an excellent opinion piece and it certainly rang true in my mind. I’ve been one of the fortunate few to get access to the team in 2003-2004 season. I attended a private practice and interviewed Kris Draper and Jason Williams. I was able to attend because my best friend’s family was friends with Denise Ilitch, the owner’s daughter who has since been removed from the organization. I was able to interview Denise Ilitch at her lovely home. I was invited to attend High School Journalist Day at Joe Louis Arena in March 2004. I was able to interview Assistant GM Jim Nill, who was the parent of my brother’s best friend at that time. That was a wonderful year. I got to actually meet some players outside of the autograph signings. And it didn’t cost me anything.
Unfortunately, I do not have those luxuries anymore and it’s tough to be a Red Wings fan. I’m not saying it is tough to be a fan in the sense of our team’s performances, but we aren’t treated very well as a fan base in my opinion.
Teams complain when fans use venues like StubHub to purchase tickets to games. I have no problem with StubHub and have bought many tickets through that website. Why? Because if I go to buy tickets on Ticketmaster, the best seats I could get would be mid upper bowl in the corner for $55. I remember looking to buy pre-season tickets and I was able to get better seats at half the price on StubHub. The arena may look a lot emptier than it was before and that’s because it is emptier. But I don’t think it’s due to the lack of interest or fans, the Detroit economy sucks and people can’t afford to pay almost $100/game for a ticket, parking, and food to sit in the mid upper bowl or higher.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the Detroit Red Wings. I love the players, the tradition, and I have a soft spot for the Joe even though it’s old and outdated. However, I think there are a lot of improvements that the organization could make to regain the favor of its fans. As George suggested, offer more open skates, update the music and video shown during games, create better advertisements (print and TV), etc. I remember seeing a video of the Dallas Stars players walking around the concorse signing autographs following a pre-season game this year. You would never ever see the Red Wings do that and that’s slightly disheartening.
I must say that while I don’t enjoy the players and skill level as much, the Plymouth Whalers games (OHL) are more fun and a lot cheaper. The most expensive ticket costs you $14 for center ice. $14. My parking for a Red Wings pre-season game this year cost me $15. It cost more for parking (and yes, I have to park in the lot across from JLA because of my knee) for a pre-season game then it does to sit center ice within 15 rows of the rink at a Whalers game.
Ducks 4, Wings 1
The Red Wings lost to the Anaheim Ducks last night, 4-1. Here are some links to recaps of the game:
Detroit News - Penalties kill Red Wings
Detroit Free Press - Penalties kill Wings
Interesting - almost identical headlines…
OCRegister.com - Youth is served
Battle of California - Referees beat Red Wings in Anaheim
Apology
Sorry (again) that BtB didn’t get posted and I haven’t posted with as much frequency as I would like. While I did just get off fall break, I was busy working or studying for my sociology mid-term the entire time so it really wasn’t much of a break. Additionally, I’m sick and feel pretty crappy so updates should resume when I’m feeling a little better. Don’t forget the Wings play the Anaheim Ducks tonight at 10pm (pregame on FSN starts at 9:30). Go Wings!
Wings & Tigers ticket package
According to the Detroit Red Wings website, you can still buy Tigers tickets but you must act fast!
The two best teams in town are partnering up to offer an exclusive for diehard fans! Purchase a minimum of 10 single, individual* game tickets in any variation (10 to 1 game, 2 to 5 games, 5 to 2 games, etc.) for the Red Wings this season and receive priority to purchase two side-by-side seats** to the 2007 Detroit Tigers Home Opener!
This offer is extremely limited, so the only way to take advantage is to call the Detroit Red Wings Season Ticket office at 313-396-7575. See Wings 2006-07 schedule*All 10 or more singles must be purchased in one order to qualify for the Tigers’ Opening Day tickets. Singles will be located in the $44, $54 or $76 price range.
**Seat locations will be based on availability in the $25 and $20 price ranges (Outfield and Upper Box) and will be assigned at a later date.