Blogs > Red Wings Corner

Up-to-the minute updates and insights from the Red Wings locker room at home and on the road. By Chuck Pleiness of The Macomb Daily.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Pre-season tickets on sale

From the Red Wings' PR office ...

Individual game tickets for the Detroit Red Wings’ 2008-09 pre-season home games will go on sale Saturday, August 23 at 10:00 am.

Reserved seats start at just $9 for the preseason schedule that includes three Original Six rivals – Montreal, Boston and Toronto – as well as a pair of Sunday afternoon battles with Eastern Conference foes Atlanta and Buffalo. Fans can purchase tickets beginning at 10:00 am on Saturday at the Joe Louis Arena Box Office, all TicketMaster locations including The Hockeytown Café, Hockeytown Authentics in Troy, or charge by phone at 248-645-6666. Fans also can purchase tickets by logging on to DetroitRedWings.com. There is no limit to the number of available tickets an individual may purchase.

The Joe Louis Arena Box Office is open 10:00 am to 6:00 pm Mon.-Sat. Hockeytown Café is open 10:00 am to 6:00 pm Mon.-Sat.. Hockeytown Authentics is open from 10:00 am to 9:00 pm Mon.-Sat. and Noon to 5:00 pm on Sunday. Hockeytown Authentics is located near the corner of Big Beaver and John R in Troy in front of the Troy Sports Center.



2008-09 PRE-SEASON HOME SCHEDULE
DATE DAY SITE TIME (ET)

September 24 Wed. MONTREAL Joe Louis Arena 7:30

26 Fri. BOSTON Joe Louis Arena 7:30

28 Sun. ATLANTA Joe Louis Arena 5:00

October 3 Fri. TORONTO Joe Louis Arena 7:30

5 Sun. BUFFALO Joe Louis Arena 5:00

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Downey to sign two-way deal

UPDATE: As of late Wednesday night, Downey has officially signed a one-year, two-way contract.

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Forward Aaron Downey will be back in the Red Wings organization this season, agreeing to terms on a two-way contract that will pay him $575,000 when he's with the Red Wings and $100,000 when he's with Grand Rapids.

Vice president and assistant general manager Jim Nill confirmed today that the two sides have agreed to terms. The contract has to be formally signed after which the deal will be announced.

Nill said that the same two-way contract has been offered to Darren McCarty.
"The two-way (contracts) are not a reflection on the players," said Nill. "It's because of the CBA. We need the flexibility."

By signing free agent forward Marian Hossa to a $7.4 million contract, the Red Wings are approximately $478,000 under the league salary cap of $57.6 million. With that money, the Wings still have to sign defenseman Chris Chelios, who has been in communication with vice president/general manager Ken Holland from his home in California.

Downey and McCarty (if he agrees to terms) will fight for the last forward spot on the roster with Darren Helm during the preseason. Helm's cap hit is $598,000.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Coaching staff in place

As has been widely speculated for some time, Brad McCrimmon was hired today as assistant coach for the Red Wings, replacing Todd McLellan, who is the new head coach in San Jose.

Hockey is a big sport for being regionally connected. Head coach Mike Babcock grew up in Saskatchewan. McLellan is a Saskatchewan native. So to replace one prairie coach, the Wings bring in another Saskatchewan native, McCrimmon.

(McCrimmon also keeps the Mc/Mac thing going among Red Wings assistants. Paul MacLean signed a three-year deal today to remain with the organization. McLellan out, McCrimmon in. If they were more about corporal punishment, we could call the lot of them the Mc/Mac paddy whack crew. I hope Ken Holland takes note that I'm a MacLeod and other than having no credentials whatsoever for the job, would be a perfect fit on the Mc/Mac coaching staff should a Mc or Mac depart.)

All of which is neither here nor there if McCrimmon does a good job and I suspect that he will. He's got a nice blend of NHL experience as a player (1,222 career regular-season games) and as a coach (assistant for both Calgary and Atlanta). This is also a nice fit with MacLean being a former high scoring forward and McCrimmon being a defenseman in the day. I'm guessing that MacLean's duties will be shifted from the blue line to the forwards and perhaps from the penalty-kill to the power play.

Regional bias can hurt a franchise -- again, I think that McCrimmon is a nice fit regardless of native province. Doug MacLean was from Prince Edward Island and always liked to hire people from his home province -- from Gerard Gallant as head coach in Columbus to Grant Sonier as an assistant coach with the Fraser-based Detroit Falcons -- and the results weren't always good.

In a ships-passing-in-the-night note, McCrimmon was brought in as an assistant in Atlanta by Bob Hartley after the Thrashers fired Curt Fraser. Fraser was recently hired as the new head coach of the Wings' top affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins.

The Wings also hired a video coach to replace Jay Woodcroft, who is now an assistant coach under McLellan in San Jose. Keith McKittrick (good Lord another Mc, how are we going to keep this all straight) has been with the Michigan State program for the past three seasons.