Quick Hits: The Wings Play a Real Game Tonight

• The Tigers.  They are the only place to start today, I think.  Consecutive home runs from Kelly and Young led them to a 3-2 win over the Yankees last night to advance to the ALCS against the Rangers.  It was a nail-biter, but they pulled it off. [Bless You Boys]
• Helene St. James believes that Ian White will fit in perfectly due to his right handed shot. As I am sure you all have noticed, pretty much everyone on the team (and in the league, actually) is a left handed shot. [Detroit Free Press]
• The Puck Father believes that Fabian Brunnstrom is the most heartwarming story of the preseason. [Puck Daddy]
• Babcock is hopeful some of the fairy dust that has pushed the Tigers into the ALCS and the Lions to 4-0 will rub off on the Wings. [MLive]
• Martin Krantz is not a fan of the Avalanche honoring Wade Belak, Ruslan Salei, and Karlis Skrastins the same night as they retire Petr Forsberg's jersey and would rather the jersey retirement be moved or each person given their own night.  I don't think they can move the jersey retirement, though, as they have advertised it as part of the entertainment for the night for months now and a change like that could result in a lawsuit, I think. [The Burgundy Letter]
  
• SIXSIX8 Productions has some awesome minimalist NHL posters.  You can see the Red Wings variant in the header. [SIXSIX8]
• The Bruins raised their championship banner before a 2-1 loss to the Flyers last night (and Jaromir Jagr got his 1600th point in a hurry).  They are receiving a ton of criticism, however, for skating around with the Cup again as if they had just won the damn thing again.  I hope they know hockey is a very superstitious sport and touching the Cup before you actually win it for the season is considered very bad luck. [Stanley Cup of Chowder]
• Don Cherry, who I think would rather watch hockey played the way it was in the 50's, said some highly critical things about Brendan Shanahan's work so far as disciplinary.  I can only assume he did so while doing the mating call of a flamingo. [CBC]
• Martin Hanzal signed a 5 year, $15.5 million extension with the Coyotes yesterday.  Wyshynski stole my opportunity to make a reference to the legendary Zoolander, however. [Puck Daddy]
• In a surprise move, the Sabres named Jason Pominville their captain yesterday.  I think pretty much everyone assumed it would either be Thomas Vanek or Tyler Myers. [Die By The Blade]
• The Boogaard family can rest easier now knowing that one son is safe(r) as the felony charge against Aaron for possibly causing his brother's, Derek Boogaard, overdose death this summer has been dropped. [Star Tribune]

Discussion of the Day: How much have you missed hockey and how psyched are you for games to start back up?  Craziest answer, true or not, wins the points for the day.  And, yes, like Whose Line is it Anyway, the points don't matter.