Red Wings to get $650 million arena

If you're a Detroit Red Wings fan, you've got to be pretty happy today. They're getting a shiny new arena. They will begin constructing it this September, with the ground breaking.

$650 million Detroit Red Wings arena and district plan is out and I found out @yingyangtwins are coming to Hamtramck in September! #bonus!
— Eric Lacy (@EricLacy) July 21, 2014

Detroit Red Wings arena plan could save two historic, blighted Cass Corridor 1920s-style hotels http://t.co/trJXufmMKc via @mlive
— Eric Lacy (@EricLacy) July 20, 2014

Updated Uneventful Free Agency

Pretty light free agent action during the holiday weekend. In my opinion, this has been an uneventful free agency signing so far. Looking at the list, there's not a lot of attractive options out there. 

The Swedish 2014 Olympic Hockey Team

English: Oliver Ekman-Larsson accepts his player of the game award after a game against Austria during the 2010 World Junior Championships. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Forwards

Daniel Alfredsson (Detroit)
Nicklas Backstrom (Washington)
Patrik Berglund (St. Louis)
Jimmie Ericsson (Skelleftea AIK)
Loui Eriksson (Boston)
Johan Franzen (Detroit)
Carl Hagelin (NYR)
Marcus Kruger (Chicago)
Gabriel Landeskog (Colorado)
Daniel Sedin (Vancouver)
Henrik Sedin (Vancouver)
Jakob Silfverberg (Anaheim)
Alexander Steen (St. Louis)
Henrik Zetterberg (Detroit)

Defense

Alexander Edler (Vancouver)
Oliver Ekman-Larsson (Phoenix)
Jonathan Ericsson (Detroit)
Niklas Hjalmarsson (Chicago)
Erik Karlsson (Ottawa)
Niklas Kronwall (Detroit)
Johnny Oduya (Chicago)
Nenrik Tallinder (Buffalo)

Goltenders

Jhonas Enroth (Buffalo)
Jonas Gustavsson (Detroit)
Henrik Lundqvist (NYR)

NCHC Hockey: Total of the Early Departures

With the hockey season approaching, I would think that the NCHC is done with its early departures.

Colorado College (0)

None

Denver (3)

Scott Mayfield So. D NY Islanders (NHL), April 5
Juho Olkinoura So. G Winnipeg (NHL), April 7 (FA)
Nick Shore Jr. F Los Angeles (NHL), April 12

Miami (0)

None

Minnesota Duluth (1)

Chris Casto So. D Boston (NHL), March 26 (FA)

Nebraska-Omaha (2)

Andrej Sustr Jr. D Tampa Bay (NHL), March 21 (FA)
Tony Turgeon Jr. D San Antonio (AHL), July 18 (FA)

North Dakota (1)

Derek Forbort Jr. D Los Angeles (NHL), April 5

St. Cloud State (1)

Nick Jensen Jr. D Detroit (NHL), May 2

Western Michigan (1)

Danny DeKeyser Jr. D Detroit (NHL), March 29 (FA)

Related articles

• NCHC Hockey: Top Stories Surrounding New League (thehockeywriters.com)
• Nchc Championship Tickets on Sale Now to General Public (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• NCHC UNVEILS NEW WEBSITE - NCHCHockey.com (ndgoon.blogspot.com)

So the NHL wants us back... (RW77)

English: NHL Commisioner Gary Bettman in 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So the NHL is back with pretty much a joke of a season...but wait!

They have to get all those players back...  Will they succeed?  I'm not sure everyone will return.  There has to be concern that injuries may take control and there is no room to develop talent and anything that makes a team a team.  It's basically the ultimate scramble tournament format.  Who can get started fastest and play the best the quickest.  That's the test.

What does the NHL need to do to get the fans back?

Barry Melrose talks about how the fans always come back after a work stoppage, but I am hoping that they do come back... next season.  I think the fans should sit back and watch what the teams and the league does to try to earn our support back.  Here's a list of things that should be done:

1.  You know NHL Center Ice?  Yup.  Free for the season, playoffs, and ALL of preseason next year.  If they do anything for the offseason, that's free too.

2.  NHL Network - Free view for the same period of time NHL Center Ice is free (if possible... this might be more on the cable providers than NHL Network itself).

3.  The Players become available more than ever before.  ENDLESS autograph signings, school visits, community outreach programs, volunteer sightings.

4.  Promotion nights fall on EVERY GAME IN THE SEASON.  Teacher in the metro area?  Show us your ID and get $5 tickets!  Military?  FREE tickets to you and $5 tickets for one friend or nonmilitary family member with the display of a Military ID.  Civil Servant Night (see Teacher Night).  Got a hockey team of 12 year olds or younger?  Call ahead for seating and your entire team gets $1 tickets (Coach goes free) when they show up wearing their jerseys!

5.  Radio promotions - Give away ticket packs to the local radio stations

6.  The average ticket prices for NHL games (per Hooked on Hockey Magazine) for the 2011-12 season ranged between just under $30 (Dallas) to just over $123 (Toronto).  Well....  Dallas residents can look forward to $15 tickets.  I can see a Detroit game in Detroit for $25 (regularly $53.28).  Toronto residents still overpay at $61.50 per ticket but still...  Season tickets would be restructured to accommodate for the loss of games either by making this season tickets cost less than 50% of normal cost or discounting next year's season tickets by, say, 40% (I don't know....  either way it should be SIGNIFICANTLY discounted).

You cannot change existing TV contracts so unfortunately there is no free TV showings outside of what's mentioned but if it was possible, I'd do it.

I'd love to say Gary Bettman resigns but the smug so and so survives yet again to pull another work stoppage in 8 years.  You can market Sidney Crosby all you want but Gary Bettman is the face of the NHL and NO ONE outside of the ownership likes him.  What a better image saver than to offer Bettman early retirement?  The owners will never fire him, but surely Bettman could take the golden parachute and have roses pave his way back to obscurity if the League really cared about fan opinion (but they don't).

In any case, we'll see how things pan out but...  It's now or never for Columbus' Stanley Cup hopes.  :D

Edit: WJC and NCAA Hockey television schedule

You have options, when it comes to watchable hockey. As I have mentioned in a couple of posts in the past, there has been a huge void left by the NHL Lockout and hockey fans have been looking for other options to fill that void left by the NHL Lockout. As the lockout motors towards day 100, College hockey has taken center stage for hockey fans in the USA.

This fall, I have been keeping a national television schedule of NCAA Hockey games. With the U20 World Junior Championship going on in Ufa, Russia starting on the 26^th of December, 2012 there will be more hockey viewing options for the holiday season. Here is the updated hockey schedule.

All times are central standard time. *DTV = DirecTV. *Dish = Dish TV.

s/t to one of the readers for bringing up a correction, it was an over sight on my part. The Great Lakes Invitational is the 29-30th of December, 2012.

Originally, the 2012 Great Lakes Invitational was scheduled to take place at Comerica Park in Detroit, MI on December 27-28. The NHL Lockout and the subsequent cancellation of the 2013 NHL Winter Classic meant the GLI would not be played at Comerica Park, therefore the GLI was moved back into Joe Louis Arena where the tourney played on a yearly basis. So the even was also rescheduled.

Thur.	Dec. 27		WJC USA vs. German	NHL Net	8:00 a.m.	215/157
Fri.	Dec. 28		WJC Slovakia vs. Canada	NHL Net	3:30 a.m.	215/157
Fri.	Dec. 28		WJC USA vs. Russia	NHL Net	8:00 a.m.	215/157
Sat.	Dec. 29		WJC Russia vs. Germany	NHL Net	8:00 a.m.	215/157
Sat.	Dec. 29		Air Force at Minnesota	FS North+	7:05 p.m.	657/444
Sat.	Dec. 29		Boston University at Denver	ROOT Sports	8:00 p.m.	683 / 414
Sun.	Dec.30		WJC USA vs. Canada	NHL Net	3:30 a.m.	215/157
Sun.	Dec. 30		WJC Germany vs. Slovakia	NHL Net	8:00 a.m.	215/157
Sat.	Dec. 30		Michigan State vs. WMichigan	FS Detroit	2:30 p.m.	663 / 430
Sat.	Dec. 30		Michigan vs. Michigan Tech	FS Detroit	6:30 p.m.	663 / 430
Sun.	Dec. 30		Boston College at Minnesota	FS North+	7:05 p.m.	657/444
Sun.	Dec. 30		GLI Third-Place Game	FS Detroit	2:30 p.m.	663 / 430
Sun.	Dec. 30		GLI Championship Game	FS Detroit	6:30 p.m.	663 / 430
Mon.	Dec. 31		WJC USA vs. Slovakia	NHL Net	4:00 a.m.	215/157
Mon.	Dec. 31		WJC Canada vs. Russia	NHL Net	8:00 a.m.	215/157

Originally Posted at the Hockey Writers Combine

Related articles

• WJC and NCAA Hockey television schedule (thehockeywriters.com)

It's official – NHL cancels the Winter Festival and the Winter Classic

National Hockey League Players' Association (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This just got real…

Katie Strang and Craig Custance, ESPN.com --- The NHL also canceled all of the Winter Festival events scheduled for Dec. 16-31 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

The league was tasked with a unique challenge this year in building two rinks -- one at "The Big House" and one at Comerica Park -- and has a contract with the former that requires the NHL to pay for any expenses occurred by the university if the event was canceled later than Nov. 2. The NHL also owed $250,000 of the $3 million rental fee on Nov. 2.

This is not believed to be the biggest deal-breaker, however.

The league did not want to host such an event without the usual bells and whistles -- HBO's "24/7"show documenting the event would've been virtually impossible to pull off -- and it did not want the pageantry of the event tainted by the work stoppage.

"That's one of those things that you were really looking forward to this year," said Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall. "Everyone here, not only the players but the fans. Everyone would be bummed out."

Can you imagine being one of the college hockey teams that was going to play outdoors in the winter classic for the Great Lakes Invitational? Actually, it would be a major downer to be one of those teams (Western Michigan, Michigan State, Michigan Tech) that was set to play in Comercia Park on December 28-29, 2012. Now since the NHLPA and the NHL Owners can’t settle their differences this will be all for not. Of course, they moved the tourney indoors but it won’t be the same.

Datsyuk scores a pretty goal off of thievery...

In a day that was filled with thuggery and some good hockey fights, the Detroit Redwings star forward Pavel Datsyuk scored a really nice goal and displayed some thievery. The Detroit Redwings still lost the game to the Nashville Predators 3-2. Datsyuk has a goal and two assists in three playoff games for the Redwings.

Shea Weber Fined for hit on Zetterberg

Nashville Predators forward Cody Franson prior to a National Hockey League game against the Calgary Flames. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Nashville Predators defenseman Shea Weber will not be suspended for his hint on Redwings forward Henrik Zetterberg. There were many that called for Weber to have the book thrown at him for this hit.

NEW YORK -- Nashville Predators defenseman Shea Weber has been fined $2,500, the maximum allowed under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, for delivering a blow to the head of Detroit forward Henrik Zetterberg in Game 1 of the teams' Western Conference Quarterfinal series in Nashville on Wednesday, April 11, the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety announced today.

The incident occurred at 20:00 of the third period. Weber was assessed a minor penalty for roughing.

"This was a reckless and reactionary play on which Weber threw a glancing punch and then shoved Zetterberg's head into the glass," said NHL Senior Vice President of Player Safety and Hockey Operations Brendan Shanahan. "As is customary whenever Supplemental Discipline is being considered, we contacted Detroit following the game and were informed that Zetterberg did not suffer an apparent injury and should be in the lineup for Game 2.

Related articles

• So does Shea Weber get suspended for slaming Zetterberg into the glass? (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• Video: Shea Weber Slams Henrik Zetterberg's Head Into The Glass (chicago.cbslocal.com)

Chris Stewart gets suspended for three games.

You would think that after the first three or four of these suspensions that the players in the NHL would get the message; if the player is facing the boards you can't hit him. Someone is going to get maimed for life by one of these checking from behind plays. 

I guess we are going to keep seeing these videos from the NHL until the players in the NHL get the message. In this case Chris Stewart absolutely destroys Detroit's Niklas Kronwall. 

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• Chris Stewart has a phone date with Brendan Shanahan this morning (prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com)
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