More photos » by Jerry S. Mendoza - AP

Henrik Zetterberg sports a pretty good beard during the regular season, hopefully it will grow well into June. (AP Photo/Jerry S. Mendoza)

Browse more photos »

Alright hockey fans, its time to begin one of the most interesting traditions in sports. The Playoff Beard!

I myself have a huge superstition about the playoff beard. I shaved for work in 2006-2007 and look what happened. I didn't shave last year during the playoffs and things turned out much better.

Anyway, here at WIM, we've decided to start up a little competition between fans for the best playoff beard. The winner of the contest, to be decided upon the completion of the Red Wings playoff run, will receive a prize to be determined later.

The rules are pretty simple:

1. Upload a picture of your clean shaven face as a comment on this post. If you don't want to show your whole face, just submit from nose down.

2. Grow that thing out and cheer on the Wings

3. Upload a picture showing the final result at the conclusion of the Detroit playoff run. We will re-post this entry or keep it along the sidebar as a link.

It's a pretty simple contest and a fun one to show off your beard-growing abilities and your support of the Wings in defense of the Stanley Cup!

EDIT: okay, I just realized you can't upload pictures from your harddrive or anything in the comments. If you have a facebook or myspace though you can open the image by itsself and copy the URL to the image upload form. Or, if you'd prefer, e-mail them to hokiesketcher@gmail.com

It's a late game tonight as the Wings (6-1-1) head to the Staples Center where they will take on the LA Kings (3-4-0) for a 10:30pm start.

Johan Franzen is out with a sprained MCL, which means that head coach Mike Babcock has to do some line juggling. As a result, he's re-uniting the Grind Line with Kirk Maltby, Kris Draper, and Darren McCarty all returning to the fourth line tonight.

Despite a great outing by Ty Conklin on Saturday night against Chicago, expect Chris Osgood to be in net tonight to start off the Wings' five game road trip.

I will be around during tonight's game so be sure to stop by and say hi!

Tonight's game was a nail-biter finish as the game went into overtime and then the shootout. Marian Hossa just teed it off and his hard slap shot won the game for Detroit to start off their road trip on a 6-5 victory. If you include the game-winning shootout goal, Hossa has five goals in the last four games.

Personally, it was my favorite game of the season with tons of offense. The number of Detroit penalties (8) was a bit frustrating, but the Wings were able to fight back and get the two points over a division opponent. With all the offense, it was a great game for numerous players. Niklas Kronwall, Jiri Hudler, and Marian Hossa all had a goal and two assists (not including the GWG, which won't be included in stats because it came in the shootout).

There were just too many goals for me to describe each one, but please visit the Game Thread from tonight's action and you can see my remarks on each goal.

The only bad news of the night: power forward Johan Franzen left the game early in the second period with a knee injury. He did not return. The severity of his injury is unknown.

The Wings will play on Monday evening in LA.

The Wings head to Chicago for their first match-up against the Blackhawks of the season and their first game of a five-game road trip. The game starts at 8:30pm (EST) and will feature an unveiling of both teams' jerseys for the upcoming 2009 Winter Classic. We'll be able to see them during the first intermission on FSN Detroit.

Ty Conklin will get the start in goal for Detroit and it looks like defenseman Andreas Lilja won't return until Monday's game against the Kings.

I will be around during the game so please stop by. I'd love to hear from you!

While the on-ice action may not be the most exciting of the games going on tonight, it does provide some interesting story lines. Mathieu Schneider, Jason Williams, and Slava Kozlov all return to the Joe and Marian Hossa faces his former team.

The game starts at 7:30pm against the Atlanta Thrashers. It is Breast Cancer Awareness Night so there will be a puck draw and silent auction with proceeds going towards the fight against breast cancer.

I will be at the game, but please feel free to leave comments during the game. Go Wings!

The Wings take on the NY Rangers tonight at 7pm. Not only do we get to play the Rangers, but there will be a Ted Lindsay ceremony before the game and an unveiling of the statue on the concourse.

It looks like Henrik Zetterberg will be out again so Darren Helm will play on the fourth line for a second straight game. Brad Stuart may also miss action tonight, but we don't know for sure yet.

I will be at the game, but feel free to leave comments about the game!

Tonight, the puck drops at 7:30pm at Joe Louis Arena in a game between the Detroit Red Wings (2-1-0) and the Vancouver Canucks (2-1-0).

Henrik Zetterberg may be out with a sore groin so the Wings have called up speedy forward Darren Helm from Grand Rapids. Chris Osgood is expected to be in net for Detroit.

This is Vancouver's third game in the middle of their six game road trip.

I will be at the game myself, but feel free to leave comments during the game!

Tonight, the Detroit Red Wings (0-1-0) head to Scotiabank Place to face off against the Ottawa Senators (1-0-1) for their first road game of the regular season. After a 3-2 loss against Toronto on Thursday, the team hopes to bounce back and keep the turnovers to a minimum after giving the puck away 19 times to the Maple Leafs.

The Senators will be without captain forward Daniel Alfredsson, who had to have arthroscopic knee surgery to remove a bone chip on Friday. He's expected to miss two weeks.

Ottawa opened their season in Stockholm, Sweden with a 4-3 OT loss to Pittsburgh and a 3-1 win over the Penguins a day later. This will be their season opener at home.

The game starts at 7pm and will be on FSN Detroit (HD) and CBC. I will be around leaving comments during the game so be sure to stop by!