Around The NHL in 30 Day: Catching up with Detroit

Today I’m back at it after spending a couple days away on a short vacation, and I’m excited to do so. The NHL season nears and for most teams the calender year is underway. Saturday morning my post for the Fansided “Around The NHL in 30 Days” project was right here on BlackoutDallas and over the last week we have seen some great posts throughout the Fansided team. With each day comes another team preview provided by the corresponding site’s lead writer, so continue to check regularly for a new preview everyday and look on twitter for the links and thoughts for each team.

Yesterday we had to follow the Dallas Stars up with another good preview, and it looks like they picked a special team to follow the Stars. The hated Detroit Red Wings. Let’s just acknowledge it. I hate the Red Wings, a lot of you hate the Red Wings, shoot most of the hockey world dislikes the empire that is known as the Red Wings. I get great joy everytime the Stars or Blackhawks beat the Red Wings, and laugh even more when some crappy team does it. But you can’t deny that they are one the best franchises in hockey and part of their success has been because of how that organization is handled and run. Monica McAlister is a great writer and did the preview for Octopus Thrower yesterday. Here is a little excerpt from it:

"DefenseThe blueline was saved by that of Captain Nick when Nicklas Lidstrom signed another one-year deal putting off the panic in hockey town for another year before he decides to retire.Though Lidstrom is returning the Red Wings lost Brian Rafalski to retirement and Ruslan Salei to Lokomotiv Yaroslval of the KHL. As many of you know by now this past Wednesday Lokomotiv’s plane went down shortly after take off heading to Salei’s native town Minsk, Belarus. The Belarus Olympic captain was laid to rest yesterday in Minsk; and Belarus Hockey has announced there will be a yearly tournament in his memory.Returning for their final season in their contracts Brad Stuart and Niklas Kronwall will be patrolling the blueline with hard hits and hitting them where it really hurts – on the scoreboard. Jakub Kindl is back after his first full NHL season and looking to gain more ice time.Jonathan Ericsson signed a new contract… with Detroit. Oh Kenny Holland – in you we trust.New faces on defense are Mike Commodore and Ian White. Commodore had a falling out with theColumbus Blue Jackets and ended up being bought out of his contract. Which works out great for Detroit because now he is on our blueline rather than going against him. I’ll be honest. I remember hating the guy in the 2009 Playoffs. Though I think him ending up on the Wings bench in that series may have just been some foreshadowing for where he was bound to end up. Ian White comes via the San Jose Sharks after they couldn’t get him locked up before he hit the UFA market. One of the top sought after Free Agents this summer the Red Wings snagged him for the next two years."

To read the full post on the site, follow the link here over to Octopus Thrower. Even if you hate Detroit, it’s a good preview and one should always know who their enemies are. The Edmonton Oilers are up today as the next preview in the series and you should be able to find it on Oil On Whyte later today to see what the guys up north think the Oilers will be able to accomplish this season as they continue to grow.

As always you can follow BlackoutDallas on Twitter (@BlackoutDallas), and you can follow Monica McAlister (@MonicaMcAlister) for Red Wings commentary, news, and overall hockey tweets.