10/25 Quick Hits

Quick hits is a feature that I have brought over from Behind the Jersey and is essentially a place where I put a bunch of random notes and interesting articles I have found of late concerning the Wings and the NHL.

• Please welcome Lighthouse Hockey, SBN's newest hockey blog. Dominik will be talking NY Islanders hockey for you all this season. 
• This Thursday night, FSN Detroit will go "Under the Lights" and follow four Red Wings (Thomas McCollum, Justin Abdelkader, Cory Emmerton and Mattias Ritola) prospects at Training Camp highlighting their different stories. You can catch it at 8 and 9:30pm and see a video preview here. While I'm certainly interested in seeing this unique look at training camp, I am looking forward to a behind the scenes look at how GM Ken Holland, Assistant GM Jim Nill, and head coach Mike Babcock evaluate players during this time.
• As I speculated earlier this week, Wings defenseman Andreas Lilja was not ready for Friday night's game as Babcock had originally predicted. It has been three days since his appendectomy and while he didn't play in the game against Atlanta, he is aiming to return on Monday's road game in LA.
• During Saturday night's game in Chicago, the two teams will release during the first intermission (on FSN Detroit) the jerseys that will be worn for the Winter Classic game at Wrigley Field on January 1st. These jerseys will only be worn during the classic, which should help open fans' wallets to get their hands on a unique jersey.
• Friday night was the Wings second annual Breast Cancer Awareness Night at Joe Louis Arena. They hosted a puck draw as well as a silent auction with proceeds benefitting local women fighting breast cancer. Defenseman Chris Chelios' sister Gigi lost the fight against breast cancer so it really hit close to him for the veteran.